Today's Revenue Management thought:-

The balancing act…..

Boosting revenue through direct bookings is the ultimate goal for all hotels.

However, it's important to bear in mind the associated costs of acquisition, and this matters greatly.

If you can't beat the OTA commission, steer clear.

Acquiring reservations through your own website will come with hidden costs, so weigh your options carefully.

Have a profitable week !

✌🏼

Today's Revenue Management thought:-

Walking the tight rope…..

The Right Balance Between OTA and Direct Bookings can be found.

Even though there’s an OTA vs direct booking conflict (still), you can still nurture and grow your hotel business if you reasses your distribution strategies. One of the best ways to go about this is by leveraging prices, special offers, policies, providing guests with an incentive etc.

OTA’s are here to stay and we will see continued grow in the coming years. Despite hotels not wanting to pay commissions, hoteliers often feel “enslaved” to partner with OTA’s considering the benefits they bring.

Let OTA’s still be a way for you, but also extensively focus on driving direct bookings. 

Despite the OTA vs direct booking clash, with all the right strategies in place, you can always strike the perfect balance and grow your hotel business.

Have a profitable week !

✌🏼

Today's Revenue Management thought:-

Pushing the right price !

The incentive to book can be increased two ways: lowering price, or increasing perceived value.

Unfortunately, if your rooms aren’t selling and if you are focused only on the price, you might reach right away for the price lever to lower it. Perversely, you can accidentally make the situation worse if the lack of demand is really driven by low perceived value.

Have a profitable week !

✌🏼

Today's Revenue Management thought:-

Finding that unique niche in the market……….

The real meaning of 'hangover.'

The lowest form of accommodation in Victorian England was a place where you could, for the price of a penny, dangle on a rope overnight.

Have a profitable week !

✌🏼

Today's Revenue Management thought:-

Staying in control (4)…..

We make decisions to drive simplicity and consciously compromise when it comes to reducing complexity.

Are we eliminating customisation within our software tools, and standardised processes ?

Pricing is a complicated role – with demands from Sales, Finance, Operations, Marketing, HR, IT, Legal, and other functions - making the task of pleasing all, rather challenging.

Any thoughts ?

Have a profitable week !

✌🏼

Today's Revenue Management thought:-

Staying in control (3)…..

Every decision a revenue manager makes affects a hotel’s profitability.

With automated revenue management systems in place, revenue managers can reduce their workload in terms of ‘number-crunching’ and spend more time on analyzing data and making better and more strategic decisions for their hotel(s).

Any thoughts ?

Have a profitable week !

✌🏼

Today's Revenue Management thought:-

Staying in control (2)…..

Many properties have opted to use automated rate updating tools - which is absolutely fantastic.

There are still many PMS’s that do not support connectivity to RMS (believe it or not), and hence updates have to be performed via a Channel Manager. That said, there are also issues with 2 way connectivity between Channel Managers & PMS’s.

It becomes quite cumbersome, and time consuming to monitor, and adjust all these links - when your tech stack presents these challenges. Additionally there can be issue with data validity.

How do you go about being efficient in your revenue management practices when facing these challenges ?

Any thoughts ?

Have a profitable week !

✌🏼

Today's Revenue Management thought:-

Staying in control…..

Throughout the years we have all built elaborate pricing matrix’s, with rates being linked to a “master” / Rack rate, together with a multitude of rate levels and codes.

In this day and age where we are seeing a shift to automated pricing tools, dynamic pricing models replacing static pricing, wholesalers working with indirect contracting through the likes of HyperGuest - is there still the need for these elaborate pricing matrix’s ?

I would argue yes - as this entails that you have an overview of your rate structure. That said, they probably do not need to be as elaborate as previously.

Any thoughts ?

Have a profitable week !

✌🏼

Today's Revenue Management thought:-

Just that little extra……….

We all know that our guests want something extra, but do we create the right add-ons, and price them correctly.

Have a profitable week !

✌🏼

Today's Revenue Management thought:-

Broadening your horizons…..…..

Have you made the leap to access non traditional data sources when looking for demand clues? 

It’s very possible there’s more to discover than you think - and the wealth of information available is staggering.

Have a profitable week !

✌🏼