Insights Type: Thought Leadership

Ancillary Revenue Growth and the Shift to Total Revenue Thinking

Sofya Williams (formerly Sofya McIntosh), SVP Sales & Customer Success, ComOps, Sales Advisory Board Member 

Chris Hardy, Vice President of Commercial Strategy, Parks Hospitality Group, Sales Advisory Board Chair  

A recent discussion of HSMAI’s Sales Advisory Board centered on a truth everyone felt but hadn’t said plainly: moving from rooms-only goals to a total revenue strategy is no longer optional for Sales. Guests make decisions based on the whole experience. Profit comes from far more than the room. And revenue leakage happens early, long before a contract or check-in. 

As one participant mentioned, everyone has a stake in total guest value. 

Who Owns Total Revenue? 

Ownership varies by hotel type and data capability, but the commercial leader often ends up as the controller. They are the ones who ensure every piece of business is evaluated on its full contribution and who coach sellers to think like owners. The problem is data. Most hotels can’t track spend at the guest level, and when the technology does exist, cost and brand restrictions limit adoption. 

Incentives That Actually Match Reality 

The group discussed incentives and highlighted a mismatch. Some companies reward leaders for total contribution, while others skip Sales entirely and tie ancillary metrics only to operational roles. The consensus: incentives shape behavior, and room-only compensation structures push sellers toward room-only decisions. 

Where Ancillary Revenue Lives in the Journey 

The board agreed ancillaries are inconsistently integrated. In full-service hotels, they may appear during contracting. In select-service, they land mostly in operations, handled by staff with little sales training. The opportunities span the whole journey: pre-arrival touches, reservation quotes, internal pre-con alignment, understanding group demographics, and building simple offers like paid early checkout or grab-and-go bundles. 

The biggest unlock is confidence and training. Without that, even guests who want to spend more won’t be asked. 

A More Intentional Revenue Architecture 

Shifting to a total-revenue mindset requires:

  • Clear KPIs that reflect total contribution
  • Shared ownership across commercial functions
  • Incentives that reinforce total value
  • Training for operational teams
  • Simple, consistent ancillary offers
  • Better visibility into guest behavior 

The architecture already exists in frameworks and playbooks. The challenge is making it part of everyday sales behavior, not an afterthought once business is already booked. 

For more on total revenue, check out the session The Next Frontier of Hotel Revenue: Activating TRevPAR on June 17th at the HSMAI Commercial Strategy Conference.  

Recommended Reading 

Team Discussion Questions 

  1. Who owns total revenue per guest today, and who should? 
  2. Are we optimizing ADR at the expense of total spend? 
  3. Where in the buying journey are we losing the most revenue? 
  4. Are ancillaries intentionally part of the sales process or only surfaced after contracting? 
  5. Do our incentives support total contribution or only rooms? 

The Human Advantage: Hospitality Leadership in an Automated World

Jennifer Hill, Senior Vice President, Commercial Strategy, Kalibri, HSMAI Revenue Optimization Advisory Board Member

Automation is everywhere, and hospitality is feeling it. This piece comes from a recent discussion by the revenue advisory board.   

The participants agreed that the question isn’t whether technology will expand, but what happens to hospitality when it does. One line from the conversation hit the center of the issue: “We won’t know until we’ve gone too far.” 

A recent Harvard Business Review article framed it clearly: efficiency scales, but human connection differentiates. As one discussion participant pointed out, the moments when human interaction matters most are also the moments when revenue and loyalty are most at stake: service recovery. high value guests, long lead bookings. These are the places where automation creates risk, not relief. 

Across the group, a pattern surfaced. Routine questions? Automate them. Anything that removes friction for the guest? Automate that too. But experiential touchpoints — the ones that shape loyalty, pricing power, and return behavior — stay human. A callback after checkout at a leisure resort landed because it felt intentional. Nobody expected it at an economy hotel, and expectations matter. 

Chain scale framed much of the debate. Some expect the “human touch” to become a luxury, with automation freeing staff to focus on higher value interactions. Others questioned whether loyalty even holds the same weight in a world defined by efficiency and rising labor costs. The examples of “autonomous hotels” underscored the gap between promise and practice. Fully automated rarely means fully autonomous. 

Still, one of the sharper questions came late in the discussion: if technology handles most transactions, and efficiency becomes table stakes, what will actually create pricing power? Will it be efficiency, personalization, brand strength, or human hospitality? Initial answers split, but the group agreed that traveler intent adds another layer. A business traveler arriving at midnight wants speed. A leisure guest wants connection. The same brand can deliver both if it knows who it’s talking to. 

The last thread focused on segmentation. Traditional models aren’t holding up against today’s patterns, and without accurate signals, personalization is limited. Several pointed to the value of first-party data and engagement — prearrival behavior, direct booking behavior, and what guests opt into or ignore. Others noted that even the best segmentation doesn’t matter if the technology doesn’t work. Friction kills trust fast. 

The conversation ended with more questions than answers, which seems right for where the industry is. Automation is accelerating. Human hospitality still matters. The tension between them is where commercial strategy now lives. 

Recommended Reading 

Questions for Teams 

  • As hotels adopt more automation across booking, messaging, and operations, where should hospitality organizations intentionally preserve human interaction because it drives higher revenue, stronger loyalty, or greater lifetime value?
  • How much influence should commercial leaders have in shaping the guest experience if that experienceultimately drivespricing power, repeat business, and long-term revenue growth? 
  • Where have you seen human hospitality directly influence revenue performance, whether through higher ADR, repeat stays, ancillary spending, or stronger guest loyalty?
  • When evaluatingnew technologyinvestments, how should organizations balance cost efficiency with the potential revenue upside of better guest experiences and stronger loyalty? 
  • If AI eventually handles most transactions and operational efficiency becomes table stakes, what will create pricing power for hotel brands in the future? Is it efficiency, data-driven personalization, brand strength, or authentic human hospitality?

The Contact Centers Role in Commercial Strategy

Megan Becker, Manager of Hiring and Training, Reservations, Hershey Entertainment & Resorts Company
Megan Becker, Manager of Hiring and Training, Reservations, Hershey Entertainment & Resorts Company
Stephanie Poirier, Senior Team Leader, Sales Support & Quality Performance, Accor
Stephanie Poirier, Senior Team Leader, Sales Support & Quality Performance, Accor
Anita Travis, VP Global Contact Center, Outrigger Hospitality Group
Anita Travis, VP Global Contact Center, Outrigger Hospitality Group


The HSMAI Contact Center Special Interest Group (SIG) met to explore how contact centers consistently drive substantial annual revenue while showcasing a high standard of hospitality. To appreciate the contact center’s impact, it is important to understand the shifting trends in the last several years. Two of the most identifiable causes for these shifts are the pandemic and the emergence of AI and other technologies that have changed guest behavior.

Guests are now researching online, and often reserving online, and then calling the contact center to ensure everything they’ve booked themselves is accurate, or to get more information about the property or general area. Additionally, guests are asking far different questions than they used to, a result of becoming accustomed to having so much information available at our fingertips.

To assist these guests, contact center representatives need to have even more information than properties’ websites boast. As one member pointed out, it’s important for leaders to identify commonly asked questions and communicate with hotel properties to get additional information that can be shared with the contact center. Leaders also need to manage their educational resources for their teams and update those resources frequently.

One way to accomplish this is to have hotel partners join a “stand-up” or to require them to send a daily update with relevant details to help the contact center team. These updates could include rates and availability for early check-ins or late departures, so contact center agents know what they are able to sell that day.

Despite the shift to online environments, contact centers are still uniquely equipped to deliver excellent guest service and increased revenue. As one member highlighted, on-site agents (front desk, operators, etc.) are often juggling many tasks and can be distracted by trying to support on-site guests, whereas contact center agents are completely focused on the guest experience. Another member added that contact center team members are “sellers” who are incentivized and motivated to secure the reservation, which leads to increased conversion.

Further illustrating the effectiveness of contact center teams, one participant identified success in redirecting in-room dining calls to a centralized and specialized team, noting a 12% year-over-year increase in in-room dining sales.

For participants who track average spend by phone and average spend for online bookings, the average spend for phone sales is consistently higher. In fact, phone interactions can increase reservation value by up to 60% through upselling and cross-selling. Members highlighted successes with the ability to offer services, personalized recommendations, special features like “executive floors,” dining, spa, and golf via the voice channel.

In short, contact centers see higher conversion rates than digital channels, with a higher average booking value. Including them in the commercial strategy is not only a wise decision, but a profitable one.

Key Takeaways 

Across hospitality research, the voice channel consistently shows three advantages: 

  1. Higher conversion rates than digital channels
  2. Higher average booking value
  3. High-intent travelers who are ready to book 

Top 10 Statistics About Hotel Voice Bookings 

  1. Voice bookings still represent a meaningful share of hotel reservations 
    • ~18% of hotel reservations are made via phone calls despite the rise of online booking channels.  
  1. Inbound reservation calls convert extremely well
    • ~50% of inbound hotel reservation calls convert to bookings on average in North America.  
  1. Calls convert at higher rates than most digital channels
    • 46% of qualified hotel calls convert during the call, outperforming other travel segments.  
  1. Many hotels miss significant revenue because calls go unanswered
    • ~40% of incoming hotel calls go unanswered, and this can rise to 62% without dedicated reservation staff.  
  1. Voice bookings often generate higher revenue per booking
    • Phone reservations typically produce higher booking values and more complex stays (e.g., suites, multi-room reservations).  
  1. Voice bookings often come from high-intent travelers
    • Guests calling hotels tend to be high-value or complex-trip travelers who want confirmation before purchasing.  
  1. Optimized reservation teams can significantly increase revenue
    • Hotels implementing voice reservation sales programs have generated ~$1,748 in incremental revenue per room annually from voice-driven outbound engagement.  
  1. Poor call handling dramatically reduces conversion
    • If hold times exceed 2 minutes, hotels lose ~47% of callers before they book.  
  1. Call conversion rates vary depending on operations
    • Typical reservation call conversion ranges between 15%-30%, depending on staffing and training.  
  1. Telephone channels enable stronger upselling and higher ADR
    • Phone interactions can increase reservation value by up to 60% through upselling and cross-selling.  

This year at HSMAI’s Commercial Strategy Conference, join fellow hoteliers for an interactive peer discussion focused on shared challenges, emerging trends, and practical takeaways in contact center strategy. Monday, June 15 | 2:00-5:00 PM CT 

Read More 

Questions for Your Commercial Team  

  • If Contact Centers disappeared tomorrow, how much revenue would brands lose?
  • On the contrary, how much more revenue could Contact Centers be generating if additional calls were routed through the contact centers vs on-site teams?
  • What percentage of revenue is generated through your contact center? 
  • Given the outcomes in contact center vs hotel; how aligned are our contact center goals with sales, marketing, and revenue management? Are there additional opportunities to further support one another?  

A More Disciplined Year for Hospitality

Sydney Eason, Founding Partner and Marketing Strategist, Eason Branding, Marketing Rising Leader Council Member 

This perspective comes from a marketing rising leader council discussion, rooted in what teams are dealing with now. Growth has slowed, forecasts have been revised, and 2026 feels far less forgiving than recent years. The data has already landed, and it is shaping decisions in real time. 

Industry forecasts point to slower lodging performance across supply growth, demand, ADR, and RevPAR in the U.S. Those revisions are not abstract. Guest expectations have shifted again, with more focus on rest, ease, and value rather than constant novelty. Marketing teams are adjusting accordingly. Creativity matters more when performance tightens. Foundational content is back in focus because AI tools rely on accurate, detailed information. Group and business travel are carrying more importance in many markets. Wellness has become less about amenities and more about removing friction from the stay experience. 

One comment from the discussion summed up the year clearly: “RevPAR is down, ADR is down, growth is down, a lot of numbers are down”. 

That reality is driving discipline. Teams are simplifying messages, rebuilding core assets, and being selective about where dollars go. The group mentioned that there are fewer experiments, clearer priorities, and paying more attention to what converts and what simply sounds good in planning decks. Commercial teams are adjusting to the numbers in front of them and doing the work required to stay relevant in a slower cycle, without pretending the cycle does not exist.