ShareUnderstanding the basics of economics and how they apply to revenue optimization in the hotel industry is a prerequisite to learning about the market and how it impacts a hotel’s revenue optimization strategy.
The economic environment has a direct relationship with, and impact on, hotel pricing and revenue optimization strategies. Therefore, understanding the fundamental components of economics, including supply and demand and price elasticity of demand, is essential for all involved in developing a hotel’s revenue optimization strategies.
Learn more from Dave Roberts, Professor at Cornell University, and HSMAI’s 2023 Revenue Optimization Educator of the Year.
Hotel forecasts serve many purposes, from scheduling staff to purchasing supplies to managing cash flow and expenses. For revenue managers, the forecast is the key tool that they use to optimize revenue on a tactical level (i.e., in the short to medium term). In fact, the forecast should drive almost every decision that revenue managers make about day-to-day revenue optimization.
Hear about forecasting in action from Dan Skodol, CRME, a member of HSMAI’s Revenue Optimization Advisory Board.
Additional Resources
- Certified Hospitality Revenue Management Executive (CRME) certification
- Certified Revenue Management Analyst (CRMA) certification
- Hotel Revenue Optimization Essentials online course
- Revenue Ready certificate course
RM has a huge opportunity to embrace technological innovations like big data and generative AI. Finally the tecxh is at the point where it can have a meaningful positive impact on the way revenue management professionals work. Learn more from Dr. Kelly McGuire, Managing Principal, Hospitality for ZS, and a member of the HSMAI Americas Board.
The practice of revenue management began with the airlines in the 1980’s. Get a peek into the origins – and evolution — of this discipline with Monica Xuereb, Chief Commercial Officer for Loews Hotels & Co.
For hotel companies looking to create organizational structures centered on an overarching commercial strategy, identifying those measures of success — beyond profitability — can be a place to start. While metrics are not a strategy, they are essential for setting and monitoring objectives and are a key component of a strong and effective strategy.
Hear from Lori Kiel, CHDM, Chief Commercial Officer, The Kessler Collection and member of the HSMAI Foundation Board of Directors.
Customer segmentation is a valuable and effective tool for hotels to closely align their strategic and tactical initiatives and improve targeting of their customers. The benefit of a well-designed set of customer segments is the ability to better understand your customer base to refine pricing, optimize inventory, and increase profitability.
This video covers the history of segmentation and how it is evolving in today’s commercial strategy organizations.
Hear from Jennifer Hill, CRME, CHDM, VP, Commercial Strategy for Kalibri Labs and former HSMAI Revenue Optimization Advisory Board member.
Customer segmentation is a valuable and effective tool for hotels to closely align their strategic and tactical initiatives and improve targeting of their customers. The benefit of a well-designed set of customer segments is the ability to better understand your customer base to refine pricing, optimize inventory, and increase profitability.
This video addresses changes in booking trends (direct v. indirect), the costs of bookings, loyalty contribution, and shifting share into direct channels.
Hear from Jennifer Hill, CRME, CHDM, VP, Commercial Strategy for Kalibri Labs and former HSMAI Revenue Optimization Advisory Board member.
Customer segmentation is a valuable and effective tool for hotels to closely align their strategic and tactical initiatives and improve targeting of their customers. The benefit of a well-designed set of customer segments is the ability to better understand your customer base to refine pricing, optimize inventory, and increase profitability.
This video addresses the impacts of increasing average length-of-stay and day-of-week patterns on segmentation, “bleisure” shifts driving historic occupancy on Sunday and Thursday, and the impact of group attendees booking outside the block.
Hear from Jennifer Hill, CRME, CHDM, VP, Commercial Strategy for Kalibri Labs and former HSMAI Revenue Optimization Advisory Board member.
Revenue management practitioners should possess a thorough understanding of the breadth and depth of technology platforms and systems used by hotels to support commercial operations.
Learn about the architecture of those systems, the return on investment in them, and the “nice to haves” from long-time hospitality industry innovator Michael Levie, Co-Founder of KUBE Ventures.
How do you consider the overall commercial and operational strategy and organizational vision, and carefully craft a set of business requirements? How do you assess what is most important for the organization in achieving its strategy, where sacrifices may be made, what budget is available for investment in the platform, what internal resources will be required, and what timeframe is necessary for completion?
Learn about presenting an IT budget and business case, how to select the right IT architecture based on your commercial needs and opportunities, and more from long-time hospitality industry innovator Michael Levie, Co-Founder of KUBE Ventures.
Increasingly, industry leaders are thinking about and talking about commercial strategy in hotels as a distinct specialty that ties together revenue optimization, marketing, sales, distribution, and analytics in a disciplined way with a focus on enterprise profitability.
Learn more from Monica Xuereb, Chief Commercial Officer for Loews Hotels & Co.
With more and more attention being paid to commercial strategy and optimizing the total asset, applying revenue optimization techniques outside of guest rooms to other revenue centers is largely what many revenue professionals are working toward. And their focus is shifting toward managing the increasing costs of acquisition and their impact on profits.
How did we get here? Learn important context behind today’s focus on commercial strategy from Lori Kiel, CHDM, Chief Commercial Officer, The Kessler Collection and member of the HSMAI Foundation Board of Directors.
Don’t miss Part 2!
With more and more attention being paid to commercial strategy and optimizing the total asset, applying revenue optimization techniques outside of guest rooms to other revenue centers is largely what many revenue professionals are working toward. And their focus is shifting toward managing the increasing costs of acquisition and their impact on profits.
How did we get here? And, what does it take to be a commercial leader today? Learn important context behind today’s focus on commercial strategy from Lori Kiel, CHDM, Chief Commercial Officer, The Kessler Collection and member of the HSMAI Foundation Board of Directors.
Don’t miss Part 1!
Qualifying candidates for hotel-, area-, and corporate-level revenue positions requires a focused approach.
Get insights into how to make yourself an attractive candidate from Rosemary Browning, President & Founder at Global Career Horizons, and former member of HSMAI’s Revenue Optimization Advisory Board.
Revenue optimization is not an independent business process or system. Hear about the keys to integration including a collaborative culture infused throughout every commercial component of the hotel, organizational structure, goal alignment, communication and teamwork, and more.
Distribution in the hotel industry has become increasingly complex. The goals of distribution in the current landscape are straightforward: acquire new customers, and manage and control costs and profitability across channels in the process. Learn about the role that technology plays today.
Learn how hotels can leverage digital marketing to drive direct bookings, drive meetings and events business, and get all departments working on the same page.
Continuing where Part 1 left off, the video covers how hotels can leverage digital marketing to drive direct bookings, drive meetings and events business, and get all departments working on the same page.
The growing popularity of alternative accommodations — home rentals — shows no sign of slowing down and is contributing to the complexity of revenue optimization for hotels.
There are key implications for hoteliers when it comes to managing the complexities introduced by alternative accommodations including Demand Forecasting, Determining Optimal Pricing, Obtaining Market Intelligence, and Understanding the Consumer Experience.
Andrew Kitchell, CEO and Founder at Wheelhouse, discusses the unique opportunities and challenges facing the short-term rental industry in revenue management, such as pricing highly unique assets and the lack of standardized inventory categorization. Fragmentation in this category, ranging from individual entrepreneurs with a single listing to major hospitality companies investing in the sector, creates unique obstacles to identifying the true competitive set, predicting inventory availability and identifying signals for pricing, leading to the need for novel statistical approaches and solutions, including attribute-based pricing, interpreting booking signals, and the emergence of professional revenue management services in the alternative accommodation space.
