Strategies for hotel revenue managers in COVID times: brace your business upfront! Part I

May 7, 2020 | COVID-19, Revenue Management

The spread of the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 followed by the lockdown of many countries around the world is obviously very difficult for the whole travel industry. We understand you are doing your best to save your business. As travel and hotel enthusiasts, it hurts us to see how the hard work you all are putting into your businesses every day is overshadowed by the COVID-19 crisis.
After the most urgent things are done, this is the time for all of us to concentrate on the future, be strategic and prepare for the time when the situation gets back under control. When it happens, you will be again very busy restoring your business to operations.
Therefore our team of experienced and certified revenue managers has prepared a list of the tips and recommendations of what you can do to start getting ready for the market bounce back already today and outpace your competitors.

Revenue management

Switch to flexibility
In conditions of instability, it is very important to allow your guest to choose a flexible rate at an affordable price. People will be still afraid to make plans, so definitely they will prefer flexible rates during the next few months. It is necessarily important to check the restrictions for flexible rates as well. Each hotel may have a different situation, but on average it is advisable to give the possibility of free cancellation 2-3 days before arrival. In case of late cancellation, the penalty should not exceed the first night.

Check your pricing structure
Review the pricing structure until the end of the year. Make sure that your Best Available Rate is available at all OTA. If you have a rate shopper, compare prices based on a refund rate. We are not recommending dumping the prices, but maybe for some dates, you should make adjustments. Some hotels build their pricing policies based on non-refundable rates, so, if that is your situation, please take a look at that. Try to find a balance between your rates and offer just 1 or 2 options with flexible conditions. Only closing the non-refundable rate and leaving the “unattractive” refund rate is not the right option. Make the flexible rate affordable and competitive.

Get used to more cancellations
Unfortunately, as you offer now free cancelation, expect to receive more cancellations than usual during the next few months. Offer upfront easy rescheduling of the booking instead of simple cancellation. When it comes to people’s health, all other plans take second place and guests will appreciate your understanding and kindness. Be patient, give people time to recover from the situation and high indicators will back to you again.

Extra tips:
Keep the non-refundable rates still available especially for higher room categories. That way you will be able to examine the customer’s behaviour and have the clear data for market recovery. But make sure you always offer the best price for the cheapest categories with a free cancelation. This will bring you up on any OTA search results.

2. Distribution

Extend the distribution period
Check your rates and availability for at least next year and make sure you are offering the possibility to make a reservation in your hotel in a long-term distance.
YieldPlanet’s Channel Manager offers an opportunity to distribute future rates without limits. Being presented on the long-term perspective is a must for every hotel. Not every channel will accept rates for a very long distance but make sure you are fully using the it’s capabilities.

Review your integration list
Use your channel manager’s help. Check the descriptions and rates on various resources where you are already presented. In parallel, start monitoring the integration list, available for connection. Pay your attention to B2B channels as well. These channels are not available for any “customer eye”, but they have a wide base of users and can bring you good income.
The increasing audience will help you to get more bookings not only through this new channel but also to expand the base of loyalty guests in the future, it will give you more visibility and advertising. The channel diversification is one of the key elements to maximize your revenue and keep the balance between customer segmentation.

Concentrate at your future guest
How can you choose a new channel? The first step is to identify the target customer for your hotel (geographic and demographic zone, the purpose of his stay, his budget). You should take into consideration the fact that the profile of your customer can change now. Crisis will influence travelling budgets and travel restrictions might modify the addressable market.
Having mapped out your target area, imagine the way your future guest is looking for accommodation. Try to follow his steps in the search. Review the properties listed at the new channel you’ve found (your competitors, target group), check the connectivity list of your channel manager and if they have this channel, ask for work conditions. Remember to calculate the net profit of the reservation you will receive and check all conditions before signing a contract. It is always a good idea to stay in touch with your competition. That way you can exchange the information and ask their opinion about certain channels.

Corporate business
From the data from China, we can see that the corporate travel segment was the first one to recover. Make sure you have a targeted offer for this type of guests and you can reach them on suitable channels. Use the time to negotiate the contract with the GDS if you were not present there before (check the connections available at the integration list).
Some of the traditional online channels you work with can offer you as well the special program for Business guests. Being presented in the list of the hotels recommended for business trips can bring you not only higher occupancy when the tourist demand is low but increase your visibility showing your hotel to many people across the world.

Invest in automation
You will not have time for any manual work during the hotel reopening. Make sure your channel manager is sending reservations to the PMS and availability are updated accordingly. This will help you to use the time of your staff more efficiently which will become more important than before.
Implementing the real dynamic pricing is only possible if you do it 24/7. Look for good revenue management systems which are fully automated and can offload you.

We have a special Price Optimizer Revenue Management System helping program where we offer 3 months for free. Learn more below:

GET PRICE OPTIMIZER FOR FREE

You might also be interested in reading:
Price strategies that support increase in revenues
Rate management in the peak season with YieldPlanet’s Channel Manager
Price management: the key when selecting hotel technology

Airbnb’s guide for software-connected hosts

May 4, 2020 | Apartments, Connections, COVID-19

Airbnb’s guide for software-connected hosts

We know this is a challenging time in the travel business, and there’s a lot of uncertainty around COVID-19 and how it will affect you and your hosting business. Understandably, many guests are concerned about booking future travel right now.
There are still many guests making reservations, but under different circumstances. Much higher demand for longer stays and flexible cancellation policies, and many hosts are opening their properties to COVID-19 responders.
Our partner Airbnb wants to help you get through this difficult time. They’re working to support you by giving you resources to do what you do best – providing excellent hospitality for guests around the world. Airbnb also launched a new site, Airbnb.com/COVID, an online resource for hosts with valuable info including frequently asked questions, updates, and more.
Read on to discover how you can adapt your business, including tips for updating your settings to encourage guests to book now, cleaning guidelines, and how to open your space to COVID-19 responders.

DOWNLOAD GUIDE HERE

You might also be interested in reading:
The 8 most common distribution management mistakes
Rate management in the peak season with YieldPlanet’s Channel Manager
Price management: the key when selecting hotel techn ology

More Improvements

Apr 9, 2020 | Price Optimizer Update

More Improvements

More Improvements ⚡️
We made some product improvements that recently went live.

What’s new?

‘Season’ changed to ‘Strategy’
Reports tab redesigned
Multi-day price level change revamp

‘Season’ changed to ‘Strategy’

The word ‘Season’ was replaced with ‘Strategy’. When we think of a season, it’s categorized as Low, Mid and High/Peak season, each associated with different expectations and demands.

We made this change because by changing the < Strategy > not only the price range changes but also the entire strategy started with the prices, the aggressiveness of the price changes, virtual rooms, distribution rules, packages, etc. changes. Therefore, strategies have a much bigger impact.

To change or configure strategies, go to Config tab > Strategy.

Reports Tab Redesigned

The Reports tab was given a clean shave look. Better alignments and consistent button placements all across the reports interface. 📈

More improvements coming soon to reports. #staytuned

Multi-Day Price Level Change

PO > Price Control > Multi-Day Update.

Multi-Day update, as the name suggests, allows you to mass-change price levels for a selected period, strategy, and room type.

New Version

Now, there are two possibilities:

1. Set value to a price level

2. Change value by a price level

As usual, should you have any questions or problems using new features, please contact [email protected]

Pickup Overview

Apr 8, 2020 | Price Optimizer Update

Pickup Overview

Introducing

↑ Pickup Overview ↓

Since the hospitality industry is in the middle of a storm, we have steered our development roadmap for current needs so that hotels have an umbrella in place i.e to plan and prepare for an upturn in bookings when the market restarts.

A new Pickup Overview tab is now available within the hamburger menu 🍔 (we mean ☰)

A great way to identify pickup information < all in one view >
React to bookings/cancellations or demand gaps in real-time

Each box represents a room night booked within the specified pickup window. Boxes highlighted in white are weekdays, while the ones in red are weekends.

That’s not all.. this is just the start! Pickup Overview is the first module in a row of new developments. New modules to follow.

Please note that we are seriously taking your suggestions to prioritize our development. Feel free to write to us at [email protected] if you have any questions or problems using new functions.

Your quoting screen — now clearer than ever

Apr 7, 2020 | Price Optimizer Update

Your quoting screen — now clearer than ever

Meet yieldPlanet’s CRS

Your quoting screen — now clearer than ever.

✔️New layout ✔️Alternative hotel chain view ✔️Virtual Rooms

Alternative hotel chain view

For users that have more than one hotel (chains) – we offer the possibility to show more than one hotel on the CRS.

→ Your front desk or sales team can easily quote the best offer from all your properties on one screen

Each alternative hotel from the same group/city can be shown (when enabled) that would display the lowest available price at the standard rate plan for selected PAX and the total available rooms in that hotel (for given PAX).

Clicking on the other hotel switches to that hotel. For instance, in the above example, clicking on Sister Hotel would redirect you to Sister Hotel.

Virtual Rooms

Virtual Rooms are now also available in CRS. Virtual Rooms or VR work the same way as regular rooms and are controlled in various ways in Price Optimizer (Price Rules, Distribution Rules, etc.).

The role of VR is to ensure the best possible offer is available. This could mean that the ‘bestseller’ room can still be made available at the lowest price or anything else you come up with.

To enable virtual rooms, go to Configuration > Room Types tab and make virtual rooms visible that you want to work with on the price grid.

As usual, should you have any questions or problems using new functions, please contact
[email protected].

The 8 most common distribution management mistakes

Mar 26, 2020 | Revenue Management

The 8 most common distribution management mistakes

Effective hotel revenue management is all about using its full potential. This requires not only using the properly synchronized software and keeping an eye on competitor offers, but also maintaining best possible relationship with guests and making regular evaluations of sales channels being in use and adjusting their pricing strategy to current state of the market.

If you want to manage booking in your hotel successfully you should remember about avoiding 8 common mistakes described below.

1) Lack of proper software synchronization
Having the proper software in place is today more than crucial. Without using new technology and omnichannel distribution strategy you won’t be able to use the potential of your object to its limit. Remember, though, that all the software you use should be properly connected and synchronized. Lack of channel manager, channel manager not connected to PMS (Property Management System) or booking engine not supported by your technology providers – all that mistakes will cause you lots of problems and make the effective distribution management much more difficult, onerous, time consuming and prone to errors.

2) No structured approach to price lists extension
Booking in advance is still a pattern for a group of foreseeing travelers, so you shouldn’t forget about putting in place not only pricing strategy, but also organized approach for price lists extension. Giving your clients a chance to book a room only for next 2 or 3 months deprives you of a significant portion of potential revenue. In all OTAs you work with prices should be available for at least next 12 months.

3) Improper restriction management
If it comes to managing OTAs you should also learn how to properly work with restrictions. You can set restrictions on a general level in any OTA you work with or apply them on a daily level using your channel manager – usually a good channel manager gives you much more options and takes your restriction management to a higher level. So where is the risk here for your hotel? In general using restrictions may improve revenue of your hotel, but there is one condition – you have to use them wisely. Improper restrictions management leads to a situation when your property is available to book in OTAs only during certain periods making your property less visible to potential bookers. You need to learn how to use minimum / maximum stay restrictions, when to close particular OTA and how effectively use CTA (Closed to Arrival) and CTD (Closed to Departure) restrictions, otherwise your object may become unbookable on too many days what in return will reflect on your revenues.

4) Overwriting data in OTAs manually
Thanks to investing in technology and creating powerful and perfectly synchronized software infrastructure you can now automate huge part of reception duties. This results not only in significant savings for your hotel, but also better and more efficient booking management. Once you connected all channels to your channel manager, remember to avoid overwriting data in OTAs manually. Why is this so crucial? Any manual input reduces data consistency which in consequence can lead to lower sales or in extreme cases even no sales.

5) Opening all dates for booking without revenue management analysis
Hotel revenue management is all about optimization and understanding how the supply and demand forces work. The common mistake here is to open all dates for booking without prior revenue management analysis. This mistake may result in selling off the most attractive dates too quickly, what in other words means you will lose a chance to optimize revenues for your hotel for the most profitable periods during the year. If you earn mainly during the high season and your hotel occupancy remains low during the remaining months, you should be particularly careful in this regard – possible mistake is yours “to be or not to be” in the business.

6) Group reservations mismanagement
Do you have a lot of group reservations? Admittedly they are not always highly profitable, but thanks to them you can quickly raise your occupancy rate. On the other hand in case of late cancellation your potential loss can be significant, thus remember to have a precise procedure how to deal with group bookings, secure payments and negotiate sufficient cancellation deadlines. Because of improper management of group reservations many hotels are not using the full potential other channels and revenue sources. Nowadays you can even use software to assess revenue from group bookings and help you with group bookings pricing.

7) Lack of yearly OTA performance review
Already having technology in place, OTAs mix added to your channel manager, but your revenue still stays at the same level? Instead of adding another bunch of OTAs try to reach current channels fullest potential first. Start with an audit and figure out what is the performance of each channel and what are the barriers to earn even more revenue there. Locked accounts, outdated contracts or low quality content – all these issues are potentially decreasing the number of bookings in your hotel. Keep in mind that quality matters . It is better to invest your time in boosting already performing channels first and then move on to market research and look for new potential sources of revenue.

8) Strict approach to overbooking can end up with lower revenue
Dealing with overbooking is always a challenge, but proper overbooking strategy may help you generate more revenue. Dive into statistics, learn your cancellation ratio and get to know your customers behaviour patterns. All this will help you in building overbooking strategy that will work for you. Secure strong relationships with neighbouring hotels in case you need to find alternative accommodation from time to time for your customers. Not only overbooking strategy that matters but also detailed procedures securing guests comfort when there is no room left. The common mistake here might be putting too much focus on avoiding overbooking which results in closing distribution too quickly and losing many potential bookings.

How to protect your business from the Coronavirus pandemic

Mar 20, 2020 | Channel Manager, COVID-19

How to protect your business from the Coronavirus pandemic

The hospitality industry is particularly affected by the coronavirus epidemic. Number of reservations is rapidly going down, some hotels are forced by law to close temporarily. However, some positive prognosis says that this situation is temporary and will last several weeks, as far as all measures have been taken. This cannot but encourage hoteliers and vacation rental managers to keep monitoring the market development very closely in order to spot opportunities when they arise.

Following practices would help you to continue maintaining your property in business and to overcome the difficulties which coronavirus could bring:

The first step you should take to ensure that your business remains viable is to create and implement an emergency strategy for your property, as well as forecasting and productivity enhancements. Build a profit protection plan with your executive team; have a clear revenue management direction to avoid reckless discount actions to reduced demand.
Your Channel Manager should keep on running. People postpone their holidays but once the situation is under control hoteliers and vacation rental managers may expect many last minute bookings. Moreover, some people are still making reservations, so they (reservations) could come from different sources, which hoteliers would not usually expect them to.

Stay in touch with your customers. Keep informing your guests about how they can protect themselves in your hotel and facilitate their needs for additional hygienic care.
Provide appropriate human resource management and take health measures to protect your employees. Maintain relationships with service providers to inform each other about epidemic-related issues.
Focus on the long term to be ready when business picks up. Update the reforecast weekly, monitor how it is reflected on your cashflow.
Concentrate distribution more on domestic markets – advertise your alternative services to local citizens. Protect your public rates and use non-restrictive cancellation policies
Manage your existing customer base well. Use silent time to organize your database. Fulfill the missing information, make updates, segment your customer base properly.
List all your costs to be sure that your expenses are within your budget borders. Create an emergency budget plan which will help you to avoid unexpected expenses and save funds.

Now is the time to take actions that make sense for your business in this challenging period: brainstorm ideas, innovation solutions, special approaches. Besides it is time to take care of your team, customers and yourself. Travelling is a present-day lifestyle. We stay optimistic that demand for accommodation services will improve as fast as soon as the situation improves.

Want to talk to us right away? We’re happy to help via email if you need immediate assistance.

YieldPlanet has become a Booking.com Premier Partner for another year in a row

Mar 10, 2020 | Connections

YieldPlanet has become a Booking.com Premier Partner for another year in a row

We are happy to inform that YieldPlanet has reached a Premier Partner Status in Booking.com for 2020. Booking.com is a leading OTA worldwide and a leader in measuring overall performance and grant standard, advanced and premier status to its channel manager partners. Yieldplanet has earned premier which highest status is granted for another year in a row.

Being a premier partner of Booking.com is a great privilege and prize but also hard work in proving excellence in various areas. We are looking forward to 2020 opportunities that premier partnership brings to YieldPlanet and all its users.

During February event for premier partners in Amsterdam we were delighted to hear that Booking.com is going to focus greatly on boosting hotel revenues this year as this is YieldPlanet’s goal as well.

“As an outstanding channel manager among the closest competitors, YieldPlanet keeps increasing hotels revenue through online channels and we will do our best to be on a growth path also in 2020.”
Paweł Rytel, Product Manager

All YieldPlanet users will benefit much from YieldPlanet’s premier partner status. YieldPlanet is granted not only fast and efficient premier support from Booking.com but also a lot of business advice and growth opportunities. As a premier partner of Booking.com we are obliged to deliver newest products supported by Booking.com fast and stay in tune all the time.

“Delivering the highest quality of product requires from YieldPlanet constant activity in keeping IT infrastructure and all solutions in perfect health (condition) all the time. We are proud of being a leader in real time reservation delivery for YieldPlanet’s users as well as of pace of rates and allotment sending to Booking.com.”
Tomasz Fitulski, Chief Information Officer

You might also be interested in reading:

Price strategies that support increase in revenues
YieldPlanet among Airbnb’s 2020 Preferred Software Partners
Occupancy based pricing in Booking.com

Price strategies that support increase in revenues

Mar 3, 2020 | Channel Manager, Revenue Management

Price strategies that support increase in revenues

Proper implementation of a price strategy is of fundamental relevance for each type of property, regardless of the size. A good price strategy is the key to success defined as the acquisitions of the prognosed number of reservations and achieving the optimal amount of revenue as a result.

Creating a price strategy brings properties many benefits in the form of generated revenue and laying the foundations for further development of business. It also helps in strengthening reputation and provides for the determination of long-term sources of income and has an impact on the return on investments indices, so important for capital investors.

Building a coherent price strategy for your property requires in-depth market research to perform segmentation of customers and defining the level of rates which the customer is able to accept, as well as understanding the consumer’s thinking patterns and securing a competitive edge.

Price strategies in revenue management

Every price strategy should include the following elements: prognosis, segmentation and market position.

Prognosis

Before making any price decisions, you should make a forecast to find out exactly where your customers come from and how much they will be willing to pay for the offered services. The ability to predict demand helps in making strategic price decisions. A correct prognosis based on market trends and results from recent years can also be helpful during the process of adjusting prices and the scope of implemented promotions. It also provides a clear picture of the increase in future bookings, enabling you to make the necessary adjustments when the forecast does not match your revenues.

Segmentation

Understanding the concept of customer segmentation allows you to create an accurate segmentation of customers for your property and define the prices which will be attractive to each segment.

Customer expectations within the defined segments vary significantly, therefore rates will also differ. Proper distribution of potential customers can bring many benefits in the area of marketing and distribution. Considering individual segments, we can better adjust rates and specify corporate, group or lowest price customers.

Market position

Knowledge about the position of your facility in relation to the competition is crucial when determining the price for a room. Establishing competitive prices must take into account the division into room categories, the range of services within the offered rate, and the type of rates used – such as non-refundable or refundable under certain conditions.

Implementing a price strategy

Channel manager features a number of functions that will make the revenue manager’s work more effective. A properly selected tool, correct configuration and maximum utilisation of all channel manager functions enables automatic preparation and implementation of a pricing strategy.

Controlling price levels depending on market circumstances supports the implementation of the property’s price strategy. Price grids permit the application and modification of previously defined prices at any time. It is a very advanced form of price management in the channel manager. Price grids offer maximum flexibility when building your pricing strategy.

In YieldPlanet’s Channel Manager you can use up to 30 different price grids in each season. Channel Manager also permits cooperation with the revenue rules module, enabling the creation of complex distribution rules based on the current occupancy ratio and consisting in closing selected channels or automatically changing prices by a percentage or value. This solution allows your facility to get reservations only from its own website.

REQUEST A DEMO

You might also be interested in reading:
YieldPlanet among Airbnb’s 2020 Preferred Software Partners
Basic features of YieldPlanet’s Channel Manager I part
Basic features of YieldPlanet’s Channel Manager Part II

YieldPlanet among Airbnb’s 2020 Preferred Software Partners

Feb 18, 2020 | Connections, OTAs

YieldPlanet among Airbnb’s 2020 Preferred Software Partners

We are extremely happy to inform you that YieldPlanet has received Airbnb’s preferred partner status in New 2020.

“Airbnb’s Preferred partner status gives YieldPlanet the opportunity to work even closer with Airbnb Team on delivering better solutions to all channel manager users. I believe Preferred Partner status brings direct benefits to customers with improved connection quality and new features developed fast”, – Paweł Rytel, Product Manager, YieldPlanet

What does it mean for hoteliers and vacation rental owners?

In October of 2018 Airbnb launched the Preferred Software Partner program to provide relevant criteria by which they could measure and recognize best-in-class tools for all hosts. Airbnb’s preferred partner status requires software providers to meet stringent baseline standards in order to connect to be able to integrate and to provide an exceptional level of service.
This means that Airbnb strives to invest in strength and powerful integrations to ensure their hosts convenient, smooth and fast experience of the connection. Airbnb identifies the Preferred Software Partners twice each year as part of their recurring assessment process.

“In order to satisfy customers and keep Preferred Partner status YieldPlanet’s developers work constantly on making existing connection smarter and more advanced. We are happy to have a chance of working directly with Airbnb IT team and benefit from technical and business advice that is a part of Preferred Partner programme”, – Tomasz Fitulski, Chief Information Officer, YieldPlanet

Need help? If you have any question or if you want to connect your Channel Manager to Airbnb, contact our sales team to get more details.

You might also be interested in reading:

Basic features of YieldPlanet’s Channel Manager Part II
Occupancy based pricing in Booking.com
Alternative Hotel and Vacation Rental Listing Websites

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