4 key tools for the Revenue Management department

4 key tools for the Revenue Management department

4 key tools for the Revenue Management department

Revenue managers may draw on a wide range of technological tools to help them do a good job. Each tool automates tasks which would otherwise be impossible or take too long. These revenue tools make the work of revenue managers more efficient, allowing them to dedicate their time to developing and implementing strategies.

The 4 essential tools for a revenue manager are:

PMS

The Property Management System (PMS) is a key tool for the success of a hotel establishment. Having a tool which makes the workflow easier in Reception will help to create the perfect guest experience. With the abundance of new technologies, it is important to take the time to select the PMS which is most suited to our needs and which offers the best connections to other systems.

Booking engine

Another of the most important technological tools for a hotel is the booking engine, which manages the direct point of sale. As you know, booking engines facilitate international reservations, not only because they process payments online without human intervention, but also because they allow international currency conversions and translation.

It is essential that you have a booking engine which can be integrated with the PMS and the channel manager, so that availability is automatically updated and unavailable rooms are not sold. Your booking engine can also be connected to the pricing tool so that prices on OTAs as well as on the hotel website itself can be monitored.

Channel manager

The channel manager is necessary to efficiently manage your inventory on all reservation channels from a single monitoring point. Instead of signing into various reservation portals to manage your online prices and inventory, you can do everything from a single system which updates in real time.

Some channel managers use the grouped inventory model, where you can allow all your online inventory to be sold at once without the risk of overbooking, as they will ensure that all reservation sites are updated as soon as a room is reserved. It is crucial to have a channel manager which can be integrated with the PMS, as it will also incorporate your direct channel, meaning that when a guest reserves by telephone and the reservation is created in the PMS, the inventory will automatically be updated on all online reservation channels.

The Yieldplanet Channel Manager allows online distribution to be streamlined with a balanced combination of channels. With over 400 OTA, GDS and CRS already connected, you can adjust the settings to create the perfect distribution portfolio. At the same time, it allows you to preset up to 20 charts with room prices and individual price plans and assign them to the levels of the grid. The allotment function monitors reservations and cancellations to adjust the inventory and transmit the updated availability to all channels.

Rate shopper

One of the key functions of a revenue manager is to pay attention to the prices of competitors. The rate shopper does precisely this: it compares prices in real time, through your different reservation channels and by room type.

Using the Yieldplanet Price Shopper, you can obtain the prices of your competitors in real time, as well as their most recent available prices from all sources simultaneously. Click on the selected day and obtain instant results for that specific date.

A good selection of technological tools for revenue management will not only increase the revenues of your establishment, but will also enhance the efficacy of your sales and marketing efforts. At the present time, when competition in the sector is rising steadily and customers are far more demanding, more intelligent revenue management strategies must be implemented in order to guarantee success.

8 revenue management tips to boost your hotel

8 revenue management tips to boost your hotel

8 revenue management tips to boost your hotel

Revenue management in the hospitality industry involves predicting customer demand with the aim of streamlining the sales process, allowing companies to sell at the correct price, to the correct customer, at the correct time. When conducted correctly, revenue management can be an extremely effective strategy, helping hotels to significantly enhance their profit margins.

Follow the 8 revenue management tips below to boost your hotel’s performance.

1. Create a revenue management culture

Our first revenue management tip is to create a revenue management culture within your organisation, but what do we mean by this exactly? Basically, this means that revenue management is not something which should be left entirely to the main decision-makers or to the management team; it’s something which everyone should be aware of.

By raising awareness of what revenue management is and why it is important for the hotel, positive behaviour can be encouraged among all employees. If employees understand why it is necessary, they will tend to be more careful when recording data and more likely to use this data to make good decisions based on knowledge.

2. Keep consistent, relevant records

Data collection is the essence of the revenue management process, and the data compiled by the hotel will form the basis of almost all of the decisions made. However, some hotels record too much data, which only serves to confuse matters. Therefore, it is vital for records to be relevant and consistent.
You must identify exactly what information must be collected and how it must be recorded. Then, to make life easier for the people who will use the data, a set of standard practices must be introduced, ensuring that all those involved in data collection employ consistent methods.

3.Offer incentives for direct reservations

Although OTAs may be of great assistance, generally speaking, it is preferable to attract direct reservations. This is the best way to build customer loyalty. As most direct reservations are made online, the hotel website must be well-maintained and updated.
At a time when prices can be compared on third-party websites in just a few seconds, the trick for attracting direct reservations is to offer worthwhile incentives. For example, loyalty programmes offer the possibility of obtaining lower prices in exchange for frequent visits, while other ideas include offering discounts in restaurants or free Wi-Fi for guests making direct reservations.

4. Pay attention to changes in guest habits

A significant part of revenue management involves the use of historical data to make decisions in the present in relation to the future. However, historical data is not always entirely reliable.
Over the years, it is likely that you will see changes in your customer database. These changes may include aspects such as average age, but they may also be more subtle. For example, you may notice a change in the way in which the average client reserves a room.

5.Focus on providing added value

One of the best revenue management tips is to think in terms of offering as much value as possible. Part of price optimization is understanding when prices shouldn’t necessarily be compromised.
By offering extra value, such as discounts for additional nights or even a free extra night when demand is sufficiently low, you can be braver with your prices, which could generate higher revenues.

6.Predict and map demand

Of course, anticipating demand is one of the most important elements of any revenue management strategy, and this requires forecasting. It’s also important to predict aspects such as availability of rooms and market share. However, you must also take measures to attempt to identify the origin of the demand.

Hotels are usually able to access excellent information on their guests, especially in terms of their origin. By comparing this information with historical data, it should be possible to identify the areas in which demand is growing and other associated trends, which could lead to a growth in business from these regions in the future.

7.Only use automation when appropriate

Many hotels largely depend on automation, and it can seem like a gift from heaven. However, automation can sometimes be an enemy of revenue management, which requires complex decisions based on factors such as supply, demand, the cost of making a sale, etc.

To be clear, automation can still play a role within a revenue management strategy. After all, modern software is capable of handling fairly complex decisions and relieves employees from time-consuming data entry tasks. However, good revenue management also requires human decisions, thinking outside the box and taking occasional risks.

8.Prioritise mobile optimisation

Our final revenue management tip relates to mobile optimisation of hotel websites. If you haven’t done this yet, it’s absolutely essential that you make the necessary changes to your hotel website so that the user experience on a mobile device is just as simple as on a desktop or laptop computer.

Mobile devices are now one of the most significant sources of revenues. In fact, Google recently revealed that mobile searches now exceed desktop searches.

By following the 8 tips listed above, you’ll be able to implement an effective revenue management strategy, allowing you to match supply to demand and maximise your property’s revenues.

Reach us to learn how Channel Manager can help you streamline your distribution and increase your revenue.

How to choose the best Channel Manager?

How to choose the best Channel Manager?

How to choose the best Channel Manager?

Implementation of an omni-channel strategy by a hotel facility is still difficult although, undoubtedly, necessary. Accordingly, a professional Channel Manager system is a must as a tool supporting the daily work of a hotel manager. However, to effectively manage bookings and revenues, the hotel needs to find a Channel Manager capable of supporting the hotel’s pursuit of its strategy to the largest extent. How to choose the best solution offered by the market?

The market offers a number of solutions that facilitate multi-channel sales of hotel services, automate work and, in addition, perform advanced analytics to provide decision-makers with information important from the business point of view. So, the question is: how to choose a solution ideal for your hotel from among the broad range of such advanced tools? The first thing to consider while thinking of a solution that is supposed to be optimal is whether it can respond to the current and future requirements of the facility and support plans for expansion on new markets, client groups and market segments. Obviously, that is not all that should be addressed. What else should be remembered?

#1: Very wide range of online distribution channels

To ensure that its pursuit of the omni-channel strategy will be effective, the hotel needs tools that will provide them with access to a wide range of various online distribution channels. These are Online Travel Agents (OTA), including so-called “sharing economy” OTAs, Global Distribution Systems (GDS) and leading tour operators. The longer list of accessible distribution channels compatible with the Channel Manager under review, the larger freedom in designing a custom omni-channel strategy.

While choosing a tool that is supposed to be optimal for the hotel, it is worth to check thoroughly the list of integrated channels to see whether it contains the channels that are already in use and also such ones that could become attractive add-ons to the current distribution strategy. The best off-shelf Channel Manager systems offer access to as many as a few hundred integrated channels that can serve as a vehicle to reach clients from throughout the world. These include both internationally recognisable and niche, or the local ones that must not be ignored. In many cases they can turn out much more effective than booking systems leading in terms of international recognition. What distinguishes the best multi-channel sales management systems from the rest is the possibility of connecting them to dedicated channels on demand.

The wide choice of online distribution channels and flexibility in terms of adding new ones as needed is one thing. The other thing is the intuitive management of the channels. A good Channel Manager should be as simple and intuitive as possible. Only such tools make it possible to pursue the selected distribution strategy without unnecessary wasting time for setting complicated configurations or for solving more or less complex technical problems. While choosing a Channel Manager, it is also worth to pay attention to this aspect.

#2: Integration with PMS

Investment in a Channel Manager system involves also the necessity of integrating the system with the hotel’s Central Reservation System (CRS) and Property Management System (PMS).
The Channel Manager should be compatible with these two for avoidance of extra costs, such as those related to modification of the existing solutions. What is the purpose of this combination? It enables automatic exchange of information on new bookings between the reservation system of the hotel and the online sales channels. Operating efficiency in this area is critical because it has a huge effect on both the revenues and the image of the hotel by preventing the overbooking. The choice of a Channel Manager in the context of integration with the hotel’s PMS should be made in analogy to the online distribution channels. The list of PMSs integrated with the tool should contain, first of all, the one that is currently used by the hotel and, optimally, at least a few other ones, which can turn out beneficial in the event of future replacement of the system. Fortunately, most top-rated Channel Manager systems have a lot to offer in this respect.

#3: Much room for automation of work

Automation of work is the primary goal of investing in advanced tools for management of the hotel’s sales channels. The manual updating of prices on all partners’ Web sites is a very labour-intensive task consuming at least a few hours of work. The more online distribution channels, the longer time required for the manual update. Also the issue of the image, as noted above, is not without importance. A manual modification of room prices in many channels involves a risk of human error and delayed update of the offer in all the channels. A coherent pricing strategy gives clients a feeling of certainty that they will book rooms on the best possible terms regardless of the sales channel they use (planned promotions involving one or a few sales channels are an exception). The Channel Manager makes it possible to eliminate this problem and manage room availability and pricing policy in real time through all the channels from a single manager console. Automatic price management is another way of automating operations, offered by some Channel Manager tools. The possibility of setting up multiple predefined tariff scenarios provides another opportunity to save time. Another thing worth noting is the possibility of following a flexible pricing policy and synchronising promotional offers, which translates into effective and efficient management of the hotel’s revenues. As any capital expenditure, the hotel’s investment in their Channel Manager should yield as high return as possible. If the selected tool enables achievement of a high level of automation, the odds for materialisation of such scenario will be really good.

#4: Advanced analytics

The undoubtedly wide, and still expanded, integration capability of the tool, its intuitive operation and high level of attainable automation of work are not all. Sales statistics and reports are also very important from the point of view of a Revenue Manager or a Director managing the hotel. Access to details of clients and their decisions as well as thorough analysis of this information make it possible to draw a number of business conclusions, which, consequently, can lead to improvement in effectiveness of the sales and marketing strategy. While choosing a tool for managing the multi-channelity of sales, it is worth to pay attention to its capabilities in terms of advanced reporting. The best Channel Manager systems enable analysis of sales and room occupancy both in historical perspective and in real time.
Such amenities allow for flexible modification of the pricing policy in response to dynamically changing market conditions.

#5: Price offer

It could seem that the price for a Channel Manager tool should be a major consideration for the choice. Far from the truth. Focusing on the price rarely leads to a good decision. It is not always the case that the most expensive system is best and the cheapest one is worst. Undoubtedly, the price is one of factors affecting the final decision but it should not have the casting vote. A system for managing multi-channel sales is an investment. This is a long-term investment, so savings, if any, gained by choosing a cheaper solution should be compared to potentially lost benefits which could be provided by a somewhat more expensive tool offering extra functionality. Costs involved in implementation and subsequent operation of a Channel Manager-type system are generally widely varied as a result of differences between transaction settlement models adopted by system vendors (fixed subscription fee, commission, etc.), so it is not always possible to compare them directly. While analysing the issue of cost, it is worth to consider not only implementation and maintenance but also costs related to the use of extra tools and support systems. These can include systems designed to optimise earnings of the hotel, provide personal assistance to the Revenue Manager, recommend prices, analyse feedback from guests or follow pricing policies of competitors. Why is it worth to think of extending the basic product by adding complementary products? The possibility of tracking pricing polities of the major competitors enables at least alleviation of the risk of following a wrong pricing policy and the risk of related detriment to the image. Furthermore, they contribute to optimisation of the pricing strategy and, consequently, growth of the hotel’s revenues. Extra tools for support of the hotel’s revenue management are offered by many vendors of Channel Manager systems. While thinking of the choice of a specific solution, it would be reasonable to verify the complete portfolio and make the final decision on this basis. Benefits resulting from a combination of a number of seamlessly integrated tools can come as a nice surprise.

The future of revenue management in the hotel industry

The future of revenue management in the hotel industry

The future of revenue management in the hotel industry

Revenue management in the hotel industry is still relatively young and has grown exponentially in the last decade, particularly in the last few years.
This article explores the changing role of revenue management in the hotel industry and the developments which we can expect to see in the near future.

1. Revenue management is moving up a notch

A growing trend of elevating the role of revenue management can be observed in the hotel industry. Many hotels are now seeking the analytical overview and strategic knowledge which only this area can provide. This information and knowledge is used to make key decisions. Revenue managers are increasingly participating in executive committees, with the same status and stature as directors of marketing and sales departments. Equally, many hotels no longer have a revenue manager but rather a director of revenue management, lending far greater weight to the role.

2. The role of revenue management will continue to expand

Revenue management is undergoing constant change, to a far greater extent than other departments. This is due to its close links with technological capability. As technology evolves, analytical methods will be far more powerful.
At the current time, a revenue manager must be able to tackle marketing and sales challenges.

3. Revenue management will expand to other sectors

Revenue management is forecast to expand to other revenue-generating areas in hotels such as hotel restaurants, venue hire, room service and leisure facilities.
You may also be interested in: 3 key aspects of a successful revenue management strategy

4. Profit management will play a central role for hotels and revenue managers

The increase in importance of revenue managers in hotels is down to one key factor: they are in a unique position to help generate profits. For this reason, the role will increasingly be perceived as profit generation rather than revenue management. As a result, revenue managers are focusing more and more on increasing profit margins instead of increasing revenues.
This focus on profit will intensify this year, as revenue management uses new methods to better understand customers and improve margins.

5. Revenue managers will focus on guest analysis

The hotel sector is more competitive today than ever. Hotels are not only competing with their rivals in the same city, but also with competitors in other cities and even their international counterparts. Online travel agencies, the increase in Airbnb apartments and high demand from guests are making the industry more and more competitive. As a result, hotels are resorting to customer analysis in order to offer better products adapted to each segment.

A step-by-step guide to achieving success with revenue management I

A step-by-step guide to achieving success with revenue management I

A step-by-step guide to achieving success with revenue management I

The revenue management concept was devised thirty years ago and is effectively employed today by most hotels and airlines. However, even though hotel managers often talk about revenue management, the definition of the concept differs depending on the individual… One thing is for certain – revenue managers are faced with the most important challenge in running a hotel, namely selling the right rooms to the right customers at the right time and rate through the right sales channel.

What is Revenue Management?

The revenue management concept was devised thirty years ago and is effectively employed today by most hotels and airlines. However, even though hotel managers often talk about revenue management, the definition of the concept differs depending on the individual… One thing is for certain – revenue managers are faced with the most important challenge in running a hotel, namely selling the right rooms to the right customers at the right time and rate through the right sales channel.

This article is aimed at broadening your understanding of hotel revenue management. Using my experience, I will try to familiarize you with the concept of revenue management and to present you with a ten-point list of the best practices of its implementation.

Let us start with some history.

A short history of revenue management

Revenue management emerged when the US federal government made the move to deregulate airlines at the beginning of the eighties. A few years on, sales performance strategy planning became a commonplace practice among the biggest carriers. Revenue management even has its unofficial birthday – 17 January 1985 – the day on which American Airlines launched its “Ultimate Super Saver” special offer aimed at weakening their competitor, the low-cost PEOPLExpress airline.

The hotel industry was quick to notice the benefits that airlines gained from embracing revenue management. However, it was initially slow to spread across hotel chains as they lacked adequate data processing technology and often had little guest data to process. What is more, the main obstacle that had to be overcome was managing the length of stay – a variable that was not present in airline revenue management.

The economic roots of revenue management

Understanding the close ties between economics and revenue management is essential if one wishes to understand the philosophy behind the latter. The process of devising hotel rate strategies is directly tied to economic concepts: both revenue management and economics emphasize the meaning of supply and demand as well as the price elasticity of demand. These concepts, combined with methods of determining the associated indicators, are crucial for successful revenue management.

Integrating revenue management into hotel operations

Revenue management is not an independent process in hotel operations. Its full potential becomes apparent only when it is integrated into the remaining hotel management processes. Employees should be familiarized with it and it should become an inherent part of hotel operations. The revenue management culture should be introduced with strong support from the management and be based on a strong conviction in the positive outcomes that the associated practices will bring. Hotel management should set sales goals for each department and for the hotel as a whole. Introducing additional salary bonuses, especially at the departmental level, is also a good solution. When team members are motivated, they focus on doing that which is best for the hotel and not for themselves personally.

Revenue management should not be perceived solely as a manner of conducting business as a hotel, but encompass all of the hotel’s activities with a common commitment from all individuals involved.

Research your market

Below are several questions that will test your knowledge of the market:

  • What is your market penetration?
  • What is the market share of the individual segments of your business?
  • What is your hotel’s position in the market?

Business intelligence reports covering the hotel industry may prove very helpful in obtaining the above information. A good revenue manager is well aware of the influence that external and internal factors have on the local market and on the hotel’s position within it. As a revenue manager, you may carry out a SWOT analysis of the above factors. Do not forget to also carry out a thorough comparative analysis.

Ask yourself the following simple questions to determine your position in the market:

    • Does your hotel set or follow price trends?
    • If your hotel sets price trends, then have you compiled an accurate

list of your competitors? Do you know what factors should be taken into account when doing so? Is your list of competitors based on the number of bookings or only the room rates?

    • How is your hotel positioned with regard to its business mix?
    • What is your RGI (Revenue Generation Index)?

The next article in this series elaborates on the subjects of market segmentation, revenue strategy, forecasting and setting rates. Read PART 2: The basic ingredients of the revenue management recipe.

 

About the Author 

Zak Ali, the Global Revenue Development Director at YieldPlanet, has over 12 years of experience in Revenue Management and hotel distribution. Zak has managed hotels of various sizes in many of the world’s key markets, including London, Dubai and Singapore. He has also taken part in creating a global rate application which has been implemented in 3000 hotels. Zak is a Certified Revenue Management Executive (CRME), a title awarded by the Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International (HSMAI).

Big data and the modern hotel industry

Big data and the modern hotel industry

Big data and the modern hotel industry

Running a 21st century hotel requires processing a staggering amount of data, including rates, types of rooms, booking details and the competition’s activity on booking portals. The growing importance of the Internet forces hotel operators to search for tools that will help them manage the massive flow of data and analyze it with the aim of making key business decisions.

Due to a rapid development of the Internet the hotel industry, just like any other industry in the world – has been undergoing some big changes. The World Wide Web holds a gigantic amount of data with terabytes of information flowing among servers. The development of Internet shopping, social media, tourist websites, etc. requires data to be arranged in ways that will allow the businesses to grow further. This is where big data comes in.

Big data – what exactly is it and how can it apply to your business?

It is a concept used to define enormous collections of data that are hard to process and analyze, but further information leading to new business opportunities may be extracted from them. Using user data makes it possible to carry out successful advertising on the Internet. Tracking the behavior of users visiting hotel websites provides information on what exactly they are interested in. This allows hoteliers to carry out personalized advertising campaigns, both through email, as well as through displaying banners, for example using Google’s advertising network. Big data informs hoteliers on the number of prospective guests who visit the website through smartphones and traditional computers. It is big data that makes it possible to form target groups used in Google Adwords and Facebook campaigns. There are currently several thousand websites through which hotels sell their services. Some of them are large and well-known, such as Booking.com and Expedia, but there are also numerous small local OTAs and those that offer only a selection of hotel services, e.g. wedding receptions. Hotels currently rent their rooms through an average of 5-10 OTAs, whereas big hotel chains sometimes use as many as 25 OTAs at once. Effectively managing such a big number of channels, including full sales analyses and competition monitoring, is extremely time-consuming and, at a certain point, becomes a huge burden for hoteliers. This is where professional multichannel selling tools come to your rescue. They centralize all sales in a single account and, thus, hotel operators are not required to log into all of the websites one by one.

Channel Manager: a tool to process big data

YieldPlanet’s Channel Manager is one such tool. It uses SaaS technology (which means that you are not required to install it on your computer) and because it is connected to more than 500 most popular OTAs, GDS, wholesalers, etc. it provides you with a wide range of distribution channels to choose from. Channel Manager is also integrated with most popular PMS systems and, therefore, provides a trouble-free and quick transfer of data from partner websites to the hotel’s website.

Central processing of large amounts of data, and in the case of tools meant to manage room reservations this includes mainly rates, restrictions, bookings, types of rooms, etc., become easier thanks to the principles of automatic sales. You only need to define the basic room type and rate plan after which the system will recalculate all of the plans for all types of rooms within a specified time period. This allows you to plan sales months in advance without worrying that your employees will forget to take care of it while they are preoccupied with their other duties. Another example is the central allotment function that allows you to manage all bookings and cancellations through an automatic system that updates room availability across all channels.

Use big data to monitor your competitors

Big data also makes it possible to follow what the competition is doing. A single OTA website hosts offer from thousands of hotels. Each of them has a number of room types and various special offers. Such large amounts of data may only be processed in a short time by using an algorithm. Sales channel management tools are able to monitor the rates of selected hotels in a given time period. Users are provided with a report that will prove helpful in planning short-term sales strategies and making key decisions regarding rates. A revenue manager who is keeping up with the times will use management tools to not only supervise sales channels but also manage rates. The available tools identify and recommend rate strategies that correspond with the hotel’s general strategy based on an in-depth analysis of customer habits. Revenue management systems use big data to analyze historical data, but also forecast rates up to a year in advance. YieldPlanet has recently teamed up with academics from across the world to work on a new rate management tool. This will be a new generation tool using algorithms that mimic the artificial intelligence of a virtual revenue manager.

Many would probably wonder why you should invest in such solutions. However, the annual growth of the world hotel market in essence forces you to use increasingly modern tools, which will do complex data analyses for you and streamlinedecision-makingg processes. Are you ready for the new dimension of hotel operations?

Rate parity or differentiated pricing, the choice is yours

Rate parity or differentiated pricing, the choice is yours

Rate parity or differentiated pricing, the choice is yours

New rules in online distribution might be well underway, but rate parity it is still very often a contractual requirement for the hotel to do business with large OTAs. For many properties, the practice of rate parity goes beyond any binding agreement. It is part of the hotel’s strategy as it ensures a consistent price and supports the brand by adding to its rate integrity.

YieldPlanet helps hoteliers willing to maintain consistent prices for all partners, for all the various room types, dates and restrictions. By automating the entire process, YieldPlanet’s Channel Manager takes risk, cost, and effort out of online channel management – so that the hotelier can sell online in full confidence and focus on other important hotel management tasks. In addition, YieldPlanet’s Price Shopper allows verification of the hotel’s pricing over the last 30 days across up to three different OTAs. A red highlighting will alert the user to prices which may not respect rate parity.

For hotels wishing to differentiate their pricing strategy, YieldPlanet’s Channel Manager can help in ways. The mapping tables allow you to introduce formulas (plus or minus an amount or percentage of the price) which enable different prices per channel. It is also possible to display price and availability separately for each OTA, where values can be input manually.

Regardless of your price strategy, it is worth to remember that room rate is just one of the tools at your disposal to attract and satisfy guests. With this in mind, YieldPlanet designed products ready to serve different pricing structures and strategies, depending on your hotel, room products, and services.

France prohibits Rate Parity clauses by law

France prohibits Rate Parity clauses by law

France prohibits Rate Parity clauses by law

As expected, on July 9th, the French National Assembly voted in favor of suppressing rate parity clauses in contracts between hotels and online travel agencies (OTA) and qualifying the term of contracts as a “contrat de mandat”. The law applies regardless of where the online booking platform is based and sets a fine up to 150 thousand euros for its violation.

This is the first decision at the legislative level, in Europe, that explicitly prohibits such anti-competitive clauses in these agreements, forcing hotels to not to sell their rooms at lower prices than offered in the OTAs. Unless hotel reservation platforms challenge the decision via the Constitutional Council, hoteliers in France will soon be able to offer their customers the rates they want in their own online and offline channels.

France thus follows the example of Germany who, as first, through the competition authority had banned this practice.

Start growing your mobile bookings today

Start growing your mobile bookings today

Start growing your mobile bookings today

With 335 million devices sold around the world during Q1 2015, smartphones are ubiquitous and their usage keeps growing. Travellers are no exception – today more than half of them book their hotel stays and flights with their smartphones. In the US alone, last year 40% of travellers switched from traditional desktop/laptop computers to mobile devices for travel-related tasks.

How can you take advantage of this trend?

First and foremost, if your hotel has its own website make sure it displays nicely on the smaller screens of smartphones and tablets. In fact, after the recent adjustment of Google’s algorithm mobile device compatibility has become a must: your site might have been on the first page of Google’s search results, if it’s not mobile friendly it will no longer be visible. Google’s decision may be controversial but it reflects the key role of mobile Internet usage.

Contact details

A website content you see on a large computer screen will most likely appear differently on a mobile device. In particular, information might be shown in a different order, so it is important to keep the most important elements „above the fold” – i.e. in the area immediately visible after the user has loaded the page. The phone number and the email address of your hotel, as well as the contact form, should be in this area. A mobile webpage can be very long so don’t make your visitors search for your contact details endlessly!

Next, if you already have w responsive, mobile-friendly website, keep in mind a few rules which might help you grow your bookings.

Booking engine

If you are using a booking engine make sure it is usable on a mobile screen. In particular, navigation elements should be large enough (make it easy for your visitor to hit the „book it” button with his/her finger). Luckily a growing number of booking engines are mobile friendly. And if you choose YieldPlanet’s Booking Engine, you will also benefit from seamless integration with your website – the booking page is just another page within your web domain, rather than a pop-up window hosted on a third-party booking domain.

How to get there…

Some of your potential guests are searching for accommodation whilst already on the road. Make it easy for them to reach your hotel, wherever they are. It is as simple as adding a Google map to your website with your hotel’s position marked – visitors of the mobile version will be able to use your coordinates to navigate and find your hotel easily.

Minimize the weight of your pages

Despite broadband access offered by most cellular networks, in many places around the world mobile Internet can still be painfully slow. This means that your web pages, when accessed via a mobile device, should be lighter than your standard pages. For example, your mobile page can use smaller and fewer pictures – you can keep just a couple of images that illustrate your property the best.

Mobile ads

If you advertise via Google Adwords remember to optimize your ads for mobile devices. This will increase the number of visits to your website. If you send email newsletters do you know that most email marketing service providers make it possible to send responsive emails, adapted to mobile devices? Simply provide an alternative design, adapted to smaller screens, to improve the results of your email campaigns.

Become a “mobile-friendly” hotelier to stay ahead of your competitors and grow your bookings today.
Sources: idc.com

Generating direct bookings with metasearch engines

Generating direct bookings with metasearch engines

Generating direct bookings with metasearch engines

Nowadays, metasearch engines are a fast-growing advertising model in the travel industry. They can be an alternative channel for generating traffic and therefore represent an opportunity for hotels helping them to increase direct bookings.

Metasearch engines present a consolidated offer while providing travelers with a wide choice of properties and price transparency. The mechanism is simple with benefits for both hotels and consumers. Hotels pay advertising fees which ultimately lead to direct bookings. The traveler clicks on their chosen property and completes the transaction directly on the hotel website.

Metasearch engines search for the user’s request in other search engines and databases, aggregating then the result in a singles list. For travelers, this means easy access to real-time availability and pricing. For hotels, metasearch engines represent a key driver of traffic and direct bookings.

Metasearch engines can be an important tool to reduce their dependency from OTAs as they redirect the users to the property’s website, to complete the booking process. Generally, metasearch investment produces a very good return-on-ad-spend.

Metasearch engines, include the giants Google Hotel Finder, Trivago by Expedia, and TripAdvisor. The hotel’s goal should be to see themselves in the Google Hotel Finder metasearch pricing menus or among the top three features advertisers in the TripAdvisor meta-search menu. These metasearch functionalities, although not reaching very significant results at the moment, are constantly growing and increasing their functionalities, and could raise their role in hotel online distribution in the next few years.

Google Instant booking

Google Instant booking

Google Instant booking

The fast grow of metasearch engines has attracted Google to the sector. The search giant is now rising in importance in the hotel online distribution. First, Google has launched a metasearch engine for hotels, the Google Hotel Finder. Now they are testing Instant Booking, their own hotel room reservation system.

The fast growth of metasearch engines has attracted Google to the sector. The search giant is now rising in importance in the hotel online distribution. First, Google has launched a metasearch engine for hotels, the Google Hotel Finder. Now they are testing Instant Booking, their own hotel room reservation system.

Currently, travelers searching for a property with Google Hotel Finder are presented with a range of booking options. This mechanism works via price adds in which both hotels and OTAs can participate. When choosing a property, the user is being redirected respectively to the hotel website or to the OTA. In other words, the user leaves the Google interface and is taken to the bidder’s website.

With its new strategy, Google Instant Booking, thanks to metasearch engines and Google user experience, would keep the user within Google, disabling hotels and online travel agencies to complete the transactions.

The fact is that no launch has been officially announced. It is no wonder such secrecy around the topic. Being true, the launch of Google instant booking tool would represent a game changer in the online distribution.

South Americans change travel patterns

South Americans change travel patterns

South Americans change travel patterns

Between 2009 and 2013, South American outbound travel grew by 50% in terms of the number of trips, twice as much as the overall global increase. Despite subsequent economic problems in the two largest economies in South America, Brazil, and Argentina, 43 percent of South American international travelers still want to travel this year as much as in 2015 and 27 percent might travel even more, according to IPK’s Latin American Travel Confidence Index for 2016.

Nevertheless, the outlook for South America in 2016 expects a moderate growth of just 1.9 percent for outbound travel from the region.

South American outbound travel has slowed in 2015 after several years of above-average high single-digit growth but still grew by 5% in the first eight months of the year partly due to the football World Cup in Brazil.

The estimated less than 2 percent growth in 2016 is due to continuing economic challenges in the region’s two main markets, Brazil and Argentina, which together accounted for about 50% of the South American outbound trips. In Brazil, the currency has devalued and that makes trips abroad more expensive while Argentina lost market share due to its economic problems.

The best economic performers at present are Columbia, Bolivia, and Uruguay.

Source: World Travel Monitor.

How to cater the world’s travel champs?

How to cater the world’s travel champs?

How to cater the world’s travel champs?

Germans are the champions of world travel and hotels should work to win their patronage.

The German market is very attractive: Germany has the largest population among EU countries with Germans spending more on foreign travel than any other nation, which is almost 70 billion euros per year. If you are looking to establish a market presence in Germany look no further. YieldPlanet offers a connection with the major German OTAs.

Contact us and we will provide you with valuable insights on how to pave the way for your entry into the German market.

Auf Wiedersehen Rate Parity!

Auf Wiedersehen Rate Parity!

Auf Wiedersehen Rate Parity!

The Bundeskartellamt, Germany’s Federal Competition Authorities issued on December 23, a decision that requires Booking.com to remove all rate parity clauses from its contracts with accommodation partners in Germany, by the end of January 2016.

Following the decision, Booking.com can no longer apply “best price” clauses in its contracts with hotels, and German hoteliers will be allowed to offer lower prices and different conditions on their own direct online and offline channels.

Booking.com already made public is intention to appeal the decision.

How to increase online visibility in Central Europe

How to increase online visibility in Central Europe

How to increase online visibility in Central Europe

The XML connectivity with Szallas enables YieldPlanet clients to make immediate prices and availability updates on the channel through YieldPlanet’s Channel Manager in a few clicks. This partnership is a great opportunity for hotels to drive more bookings by targeting local audience from the eight countries in Central Europe where Szallas operates.

The Szallas Group started in 2007 as a start-up founded by a group of friends. Today, it is a major player on the Hungarian hotel booking market, operating in eight countries and ten languages, in Central Europe.

How to use this channel to increase the number of guests?

Once your hotel is added to Szallas.hu it will become visible in all countries where Szallas operates with its portals. This means that a tourist from Hungary or from Slovakia looking for a stay in Poland will find your property when searching in his local Szallas OTA, and the hotel description is available simultaneously in 10 languages.

Are you ready to start distributing to a new sales channel? Click here to register to this OTA and fill in the web form. After submitting it, a Szallas’ sales specialist will contact you to assist you with the completion of the registration process.

Do not forget to contact our Customer Support in order to plug the new channel into YieldPlanet Channel Manager. The XML connection between YieldPlanet Channel Manager and Szallas Group allows you to manage prices and availabilities of your room inventory in real time.

szallas

Is Central Europe a new hit in tourism?

Is Central Europe a new hit in tourism?

Is Central Europe a new hit in tourism?

It seems that Central European countries are becoming a more and more approachable region for tourism. What is the region’s potential for the hotel industry? How it differs from Western Europe? How can you attract tourists from other regions to your hotel if you operate in Central Europe?

Hidden from tourists for much of the 20th century, Central Europe has not been a well-established touristic region until recently. In the eyes of many globetrotters, the region, between the Carpathians and the Baltic Sea is closely associated with its tumultuous past, the Iron Curtain and its mix of the Slavic languages. Changing with every moment that goes by, the countries from this region are now full members of the European Union, and as they adapt to greater European culture and reflect the plunge into modern day capitalism, the region is becoming a touristic destination to remember.

Economic development has a real impact on the hotel industry. Given the standard of living of the inhabitants of Central Europe, wealthier citizens are more willing to book accommodation in hotels, even luxury ones. Twenty five years after the fall of the Soviet Union and the regimes of satellite states, Central European countries are trying to catch up with respect to Western Europe. Citizens are quite hungry for the same standards as their neighbours from the west enjoy. Nine years ago the Polish GDP per capita was 54% of the EU average, 3 years ago it was already 68%. Hungary reduced its gap from 61% to 67%, and record holders in the region are Czech Republic (80%) and Slovenia (83%).

Lonely Planet has recently published a list of 10 most important states and cities in 2015. One of the listed was Bulgarian Plovdiv as the biggest city right after Sofia in Bulgaria, boasting the state’s most beautiful sights, attractions and nightlife. The countries of the former communist bloc countries are increasingly present in Western guidebooks, which is good news for hoteliers!

Eurostat data shows that smaller markets are more dependent on the influx of foreign tourists, For Poland, foreigners accounted for 30% of the total guests in hotels. In the case of smaller countries such as the Czech Republic and Lithuania, this number rises to more than 60, and in Bulgaria, 70 per cent. Croatia also recorded a high score thanks to its tourist attractiveness.

What distinguishes the markets of Central Europe from the West? Undoubtedly, the price for the stay. So that’s why the Croatian, Bulgarian or Polish seaside are besieged by Germans, Austrians and even Italians! Cheap holidays at a high quality can become a key to the success of a hotel. Here are a few simple steps on how to attract more tourists from the West to your hotel:

Potential of OTAs

Take advantage of the potential of sales and marketing of OTA portals. Enjoy the benefits of the big global names, but also the locals covering a country or several countries from the region. Global OTAs have massive advertising budgets on Google and enormous databases used for email marketing. However, they don’t have the same access to the little local treasures offered by local, in-the-know OTAs.

Tailor your website to your clients

Is your website offered in multiple languages? Research into the most commonly-used tourist languages in a given region pays off. If the number of Dutch tourists booking stays in a Polish hotel is significant, then supporting a Dutch-language version of your website may bring serious results.

Adjust your hotel to Western standards

Take care to maintain the highest standards of housekeeping, reception and restaurants. Bet on delicious food, local menus and the best quality bed linens! Let wireless internet be available for free in every room, not just the lobby!

Take advantage of the potential of the hotel’s surroundings

Foreign tourists come to your hotel to know the area. Help them in this! Organize attractions in the form of guided tours, or allow your guests to hire a car and a bicycle right from the property.

Are GDSes a good opportunity for independent hotels?

Are GDSes a good opportunity for independent hotels?

Are GDSes a good opportunity for independent hotels?

To successfully respond to the challenges posed by online travel agencies, hotels need to strengthen their direct distribution channels.

One major strategy to reduce a hotel’s dependence on OTAs is to pursue diversification of distribution and promotional channels. At most hotels, the prominent channels are OTAs, the hotel’s website and front desk, corporate relationships, and travel agents connected to the GDS whose users are largely corporate.

Global distribution systems remain an overlooked yet lucrative source of revenue for hoteliers. If the GDS network puts hotels in front of more than 600,000 travel agents worldwide and millions of corporate and leisure travelers, then why are these channels so often overlooked? Mainly, because many properties, especially small independent hotels, fail to realise the full extent of the potential benefit to be gained by exploiting these channels in the first place.

Hoteliers can see a boost by marketing through GDSes if they dissect and distribute their information in the right way. So, what is the right way?

The distribution side is easy: global chains are connected directly. Content is shipped to GDS. Simple.

What about independent hotels?
Well, they can use a Channel Manager, like YieldPlanet, which provides GDS connectivity. Live rates and availability are sent directly to the GDS and online booking websites through YieldPlanet. As soon as a reservation is made on the GDS, YieldPlanet’s Channel Manager instantly reduces inventory across all channels. Et voilà!

What also many independent hotels may not know is that there is a sales & marketing side to GDSes. This centers on taking ongoing GDS distribution and using it to actively generate revenue.

In order to sell and market themselves effectively, hotels need global account distribution managers, marketing specialists, and technology to put them on the international market. Global hotel chains have this. Independent hotels don’t.

Here is where GDSes come in. They offer global sales, marketing, and distribution through GDS connectivity, enabling smaller independent hotels to join the wider international market alongside the world’s top big-name hotel chains.

While the benefits are obvious, GDSes is not the answer for all properties. For maximum benefit costing the least required time & effort, we recommend global distribution systems to hotels, both chains and independent, with approximately 25 rooms or more and/or located in a popular travel destination.

5 brilliant tips for successful hotel reputation

5 brilliant tips for successful hotel reputation

5 brilliant tips for successful hotel reputation

Taking into account the past and prevailing sales trends, everything points to a continuation of the marked preference for most hotel reservations being made on the strength of information first found online in 2017. Since the Internet first became an international community and marketplace, information about a hotel with an online presence has been written not only by the hotel itself but also by clients.

According to research recently conducted by TripAdvisor, up to 96% of clients chose a hotel based on reviews they had read online; what’s more, 53% of clients deliberately avoided hotels which did not have any feedback or client reviews published online.

Reviews can often be frustrating – however, for the most part, they reflect the truth, and may indicate important areas of improvement in the areas of customer satisfaction and offered services. This is the field of reputation management.

Hospitality industry professionals, seeing the undeniable effect that negative client opinions have on hotel revenue, have added ‘client opinion’ to the list of variables that have a significant part to play in hotel pricing strategy, particularly as a part of the larger revenue management process.

2012 research from Cornell University and ReviewPro show that an increase of 1 point in GRI™ (Global Review Index – a ReviewPro parameter) causes a RevPar increase of 1,46% and an increase in reservations of 0,5%. A hotel’s reputation is composed of several key elements: location, personnel, gastronomy, and marketing, among others. With this in mind, what is the best way to manage your hotel’s online reputation?

Generate positive reviews

Our human nature means that it is easier to recall our bad experiences than our good ones. Therefore, in order to receive as many positive reviews as you can, it is wise to encourage satisfied guests to post leave a review on such websites as Booking.com, TripAdvisor, and HolidayCheck. This can be done during check-out while thanking them for their stay, or by sending an automated email afterward asking them for their opinion and including a link to the hotel’s online profile. Some online portals allow you to install an application on a Facebook page, or a widget on your hotel’s own website.

Do take note that it’s not only on the previously-mentioned websites that guests can leave reviews. Your Facebook page, for example, is a place where direct contact between your hotel and your clients is also possible and can be easily managed. Guests looking for the fastest response possible often post questions on a hotel’s Facebook page. Additionally, Facebook offers the possibility of creating a separate “Reviews” section of your main page, where guests can leave a number of stars and an opinion. Google is also a place where guests can leave their reviews, and also their own photos of your establishment.

Monitor and analyze

Always check for new online reviews on a regular basis. The majority of online portals offer the option to receive notifications of new client comments automatically, however, the best way to keep track is to take advantage of an internet-monitoring tool. Such tools allow you to create your own reports of all references concerning your hotel in community portals, on forums, blogs, in article comments, etc. You can respond to these references, the sum of which combined put at your disposal an advanced analysis of all comments, sentiments, and emerging influences.

Reply to comments

Whether or not you reply to comments counts towards your online reputation as a whole. Don’t be afraid to respond to negative comments – they often provide a valuable lesson or the motivation to make a much-needed change in your hotel. The answer to such a comment cannot, however, be aggressive – TripAdvisor’s recent research claims that as many as 70% of users consider a rude, aggressive answer to a negative review as a major disincentive to book a stay at the given hotel. Please also remember that your replies should not be identical, copy-pasted templates. Just as in real life, approach each commentator individually.

Apply guest observations to real life

Making an in-depth analysis of all guest comments can produce a ranking, which your potential clients eagerly look for. There were no bathrobes in the hotel rooms? Buying bathrobes will be not a mere expense, but a good investment in your reputation. As written above – the better your grade, the higher your RevPar and overall occupancy will be.

Take advantage of the newest technology

If you already have the previously-mentioned tools for monitoring the internet and social media, you can expand your online toolkit further with programs that measure your GRI™ index. They work either individually or in tandem with tools for managing sales or pricing – working to find the correlation between these variables and the price recommendations resulting in ADR value. The most popular tool of this kind is ReviewPro, whose Guest Intelligence experts created the GRI™ online reputation score. Its current use is estimated at more than 30,000 hotels worldwide. Certain of its elements have been incorporated into new functions now available in the YieldPlanet Channel Manager.

The Channel Manager’s new ReviewPro widget gives hoteliers swift access to statistics formed on the basis of reviews collected from such varied sources as TripAdvisor, Facebook, Booking.com, and Expedia. These statistics indicate the main source of your hotel’s reviews, and what’s more, breaks down these said reviews into negative, neutral, and positive categories. This allows you to quickly catch wind of negative or neutral reviews damaging the reputation of your hotel.

Is it time to reassess your market segments?

Is it time to reassess your market segments?

Is it time to reassess your market segments?

Segmentation has always been a very important part of a hotel’s revenue management strategy. This was true even before hoteliers called it “revenue management”. In other words, segmentation has been around for quite some time and has always played and important role in marketing and sales strategies.The question now is, “Do the traditional definitions and way of tracking segmentations still work for hoteliers?”

Traditional definition

The traditional definition of segmentation includes having a clear understanding of customer definition, segments that apply to the property and to the corporate level, and an understanding of the source of business.

At the most basic level, the industry differentiates between rooms sold as a group and those sold individually, also known as transient business. The next level of categorization usually separates rooms booked but the purpose of the guests travels such as business or leisure. Sub-segments are then further developed and customized to unique demand drivers in a market. These are commonly referred to as market segments.

Market segmentation

Initially defined as the purpose of the customers visit to a hotel such as someone travelling on business staying at a corporate negotiated rate. Prior to the inception of the internet and the of the internet as a channel through which to receive hotel reservations, it was relatively easy and sufficient to define market segments as each customer’s reason for travel. If the reservation was made via the telephone directly with the hotel, the reservation associate would simply ask the direct question, “What is the purpose of your visit to the hotel?” If the reservation was booked via a Global Distribution System (GDS), the confirmed rate or rate code would typically provide the reservation associate with the reason for travel. For example, someone traveling on corporate business but not with a preferred company would typically book the public corporate rate. This was obviously long before hotels offered more complicated rate structures. In other words, it was clear and typically very easy to understand the customer’s purpose of travel making it easy to track and measure. But today, we operate in a very different environment and the purpose of our current market segments has become less cut and dry.

Behavioral segmentation

It may be time to rethink segmentation. Perhaps it is time to create segmentation based on the booking conditions, behavior of customers and lifestyle of customers. For example, customers booking through an opaque channel may be traveling for either business or leisure, or both. But their willingness to accept the strict booking terms imposed by an opaque channel makes them a unique group of guests compared to others who do not want to prepay and who want a last minute change and/or cancellation option.
It is important that hotels understand the behaviors of their customers. This will lead to a better understanding of what choices the customers are willing to make. If the hotel knows the specific value proposition the guest is seeking they can price accordingly.
A large global hotel company is a good example of a company that is segmenting with a focus on behaviors. They have created brand targets based on the behaviors of the customers for each of their branded hotels. They actually incorporate profiling questions into their guest satisfaction program. Because each guest defines value differently, their goal is to identify whether or not the target segments are getting the intended experience.

New definition

One could argue that Internet-Merchant and Internet- Opaque could in fact be market segments defined as non-loyal guests traveling on business or leisure. Hotels that define these channels as market segments can easily adopt this definition.
For hotels that prefer to keep channels and market segments separated, it may work better for them to redefine their market segments by focusing on behavior and lifestyle segmentation. Behavior segmentation can be defined as guests traveling for business or for leisure who have specific booking preferences or varying levels of willingness to accept different booking conditions.

Lifestyle segmentation is based on those individuals who select hotels based on their own values and lifestyle choices.

Benefits

One of the benefits of redefining traditional market segmentation and how we use segmentation information is that it will allow hoteliers to ensure the definitions currently in use are reevaluated to reflect the needs of today’s market. Too many hotels use market segments that are outdated or serve little purpose.

Reevaluating segmentation will allow hoteliers to stay ahead of trends. There does need to be some continuity to be able to accurately compare data year-over-year but this should not prevent hoteliers from tweaking the segments in the same way amenities and soft goods in the rooms are refreshed every few years. Or perhaps hoteliers can add behavior and lifestyle segmentation to their existing market segmentation allowing for yet another way to slice and dice the data. Adding another dimension could provide more depth to the hotel’s performance information. It may complicate things in the short-term but technology can help to ease the burden.

Adding another dimension by which to collect and analyze hotel data may very well allow for more accurate and easier tracking and ultimately add value to the accuracy of hotel forecasting.

Another potential benefit to this is the opportunity to increase the accuracy of hotelier’s target marketing initiatives.

In the end by adding another dimension to understanding behavior segmentation, the biggest benefit is a clearer understanding of who and what is truly making up the mix in the hotel, and understanding a hotel’s mix of business is critical.

Lifestyle segmentation is a tremendous opportunity for hoteliers to understand their customers far better than ever before. Having a greater understanding of the lifestyle choices customers are making with regard to their hotel stays will lead hoteliers into the opportunity of practicing one-to-one revenue management which after all, is the future of revenue management.

Once a hotel makes the decision to incorporate behavioral segmentation, they will need the ability to track the data in their existing technology. It will require writing reports to allow them to gather the information. Training must also take place to ensure all of the appropriate team members such as reservations and front desk agents understand not only the new fields and definitions they see but also the reasons for the changes. Ensuring everyone understands the reasoning behind the changes and the benefits they will bring will increase the accuracy of the implementation, tracking and ultimately the results.

Key review questions:
What is the purpose of market segmentation?

    • What is behavioral segmentation and what are the benefits?
    • Which of your customers are price elastic and price inelastic?
    • What are some of the actions or items that a hotel may need to consider in order to effectively implement behavioral segmentation?

BOOST YOUR HOTEL REVENUE WITH PRICE OPTIMIZER

How to plan and implement winning revenue strategy II

How to plan and implement winning revenue strategy II

How to plan and implement winning revenue strategy II

A revenue strategy is vital to the success of a hotel’s revenue management philosophy. A revenue strategy allows the entire revenue team to discuss, strategize, and understand what the goals are for the hotel and how to work towards these goals. It is also critical that the strategy is put into writing. By strategizing with the team and documenting the revenue strategy a hotel is setup to ensure that the hotel looks out into the future and creates a long-term measurable path for success.

The objective of a revenue strategy is to capture the optimal profitability from projected demand. It is important that there is a focus on creating a successful strategy.

Developing a Successful Revenue Strategy

The first step in developing a revenue strategy is to first ensure that the entire revenue team is included, prepared and attends the meetings. To be successful the entire revenue team needs to provide their input, and fully buy into the strategy. This is the only way to ensure all perspectives are taken into consideration and that there is across the board agreement. Moving forward, everyone needs to be working from the same foundation and goals.
It is also important to understand that the development of a revenue strategy may take one long meeting or several shorter meetings. So be sure to plan accordingly and make sure everyone has the same understanding and expectation

The elements that should be included in every revenue strategy are as follows:

    • Demand targeting, to determine the most appropriate segments and identify which ones will deliver the greatest profit or value to the hotel. This must be done for the entire year and broken down by season, by month.
    • Acquisition planning, to determine a communications plan and a sales plan that outlines how to reach each of the targeted segments to achieve the goals.
    • Customer retention, to identify the method(s) by which the hotel plan will retain customers. How will the hotel work to communicate directly with the customers to capture their next booking? How will the hotel target the appropriate customers directly?
    • Revenue per available customer value Identify the types of customers who provide the most value to the hotel. Factors to be included in this are the total spend, the time-of-year or day-of-week the customer typically stays with the hotel and finally the method of booking. Once the hotel has a good idea of the revenue per available customer, create a plan to target the customers with higher value.
    • Channel costs determine the cost to the hotel for each channel. This will allow the hotel to understand the most profitable channel through which to receive bookings.
    • Channel shifts once the hotel understands the most profitable channels, develop a plan to target specific customers or customer types to shift their bookings to a lower cost channel as appropriate for each customer. For example, for those customers who currently book through a higher cost channel such as a third party site, provide an incentive for them to book via a lower cost channel like the hotel’s website. It will not be appropriate to shift all customers to another channel but it will benefit the hotel to shift those that are appropriate.

As mentioned earlier, all of the decisions and factors must be documented and distributed to all revenue team members. Be sure to include the following in the documentation.

        • Be specific and detailed with all action plans that are created in support of the strategy;
        • Assign responsibilities for all action plans;
        • Assign timelines or specific dates for all action plans.

The last step in the development of the strategy is to set a follow-up meeting or meetings to review the progress, discuss any challenges and identify resolutions. This meeting will allow hoteliers to ensure everyone is doing what they should be doing in order to stay on target.

Communicating the strategy

Once the revenue strategy is developed and properly documented, it is critical to communicate it to all key stakeholders. “This must be done in a well planned and thorough manner in order to obtain a high level of ‘buy-in’ of the current goals and objectives of the hotel.

All members of the revenue team must receive a final copy of the strategy. Be sure to distribute the final copy to all team members by the predetermined due date.
A communications plan must be created and executed in order to ensure proper understanding, support from the field and success. Each department and level of staff or management has their own role in ensuring success. Therefore, they will need to understand varying parts of the strategy in order to support it and do their part. Remember—one size does not fit all. The communication will need to be tailored to each audience member. For example, what the general manager needs to know may be different from what the front office manager needs to know and will certainly be different from what the reservation agent need to know.

It is very important that the revenue director (or whoever is responsible for the communication) manage the communication to all team members. The communication of the strategy can ultimately determine its success.
Following are 7 crucial recommendations to help manage the communication of a revenue strategy:

      • Prioritize the information that needs to be shared.
      • Educate appropriately.
      • What is the specific information that each department needs to know?
      • Provide specific ways each department plays a role and show them their importance.
      • Be specific about what is needed from each department.
      • Create a plan of action with each department. Be specific by assigning dates and responsibilities.
      • Set follow up meetings to ensure ongoing communication and buy-in.