- How has the revenue management role changed over a period of time, especially after the pandemic?
Previously Revenue Management would follow a traditional process of demand forecasting and the strategies would depend primarily on the historical performance, pace report and seasonality of the hotel/chain. With the pandemic, things have changed and Revenue Management doesn’t only take in to account the above mentioned parameters, but also is based on new distribution channel development, loyalty and customer relationship management, focus on social media, touchless technology and also Online Reputation Management.
- What are the new challenges that the hotel faces in revenue generation?
Many new factors which can disrupt demand such as:
– Government Policies (pandemic related).
– Travel Restrictions.
– Increasing pandemic cases.
– Increased cost towards maintaining high pandemic related safety and hygiene standards is impacting margins.
– Scarcity of staff across various departments.
– Company policies which doesn’t allow Non-Essential Travel.
– Limited funds available towards Marketing.
– Current Economic (Inflation and Economic slowdown) and Geo political tensions
- How has the social media influx changed the way revenue is managed and what has been its impact in the present and for the future?
Traditional ways of influencing the buying decisions are irrelevant as there are various new channels that could influence the buying decisions.
– Few examples that come to mind are Travel Blogs, YouTube videos, Facebook/Instagram posts and posts on Twitter by influencers.
– Hotel content and booking engines will need to be integrated with various social media platforms. E.g. WeChat, Facebook and TripAdvisor Business Listing.
– Dropping Booking Engine widgets on various social media platforms will help hotels to covert these bookings via their Booking Engine.
- What are the other engagement tools and strategies that hotels are looking at to maximize their revenue?
– Enhance loyalty and also use the platform to stay engaged with loyal members.
– Respond to TripAdvisor reviews and also to all the guest feedbacks via social platforms. This is extremely important as not responding to negative reviews in particular may spoil the online reputation of a brand.
– Advertising on Social Media platforms and also on Online Travel Agencies (OTA) channels and Global Distribution System (GDS).
– Engage with travel influencers and have them write Travel Blogs or have them share their experiences via Social media platforms.
- What, according to you, are the changes that the revenue management will have to adapt to stay relevant in the years to come?
– Considering various countries have different travel restrictions, implementing Country specific offers via Geo Targeting will help.
– Work closely with marketing on Social Media marketing, Online Reputation Management, regularly audit online content and try and keep it updated.
– Focus on having an integrated distribution solution. There are many hotel groups which don’t have integrations between Property Management System (PMS), Central Reservations System (CRS), Central Revenue Management (CRM) and Revenue Management System (RMS) etc.
– Analysis and forecast of feedback markets in terms of economic, tourism activity will be important including flight schedules to realign efforts to increase hotel revenues.
– Targeting families and more local travel will be key in coming times
– Attribute based pricing and looking at revenue opportunities in minor operating departments and food and beverage will drive a higher top line
