Established hotels are able to offer comparatively more discounts than the smaller and budding ones because of the availability of the inventory. Revenue management practices have brought down these indifferences till an extent.
FREMONT, CA: With data driving the technological force, it has become inevitable for the industries to deal with the wide array of data that arises during every transaction, with utmost care. Data analysis is essential for everything i.e., from marketing to pricing, and the force driving it, is nothing but a better revenue management system. Revenue management assesses the amounts that customers have to pay, and this is done by measuring and monitoring the demand and supply of the hotel rooms at a particular time.
With data driving the technological force, it has become inevitable for the industries to deal with the wide array of data that arises during every transaction, with utmost care. Revenue management practices have brought down these indifferences till an extent. Analytics is playing a vital role in inventory control and demand forecasting. Hotels with analytics-driven inventory control are witnessing a significant improvement in the revenue.
Conducting manual research and comparing prices are not enough to stay competitive in the market. Hotels with more extensive inventories might recover quickly, but the smaller ones have numerous challenges to overcome. Thankfully, the revenue management resources can do a lot to it, without any requirement of manual processes like manual research, analytics, data entry, and price changing. Here are a few tips for using revenue management tools wisely and making the best of it.
Adoption of AI
AI is one of the strategic keys to success that can gather and evaluate a huge array of data, helping even a small hotel to remain and serve the best. From making global rate updates automatically to generate automated messages in various query-based platforms, AI has been making the implementation of revenue management system way easier.
Formulating Revenue Management Strategy
It is essential for any hospitality player to understand that the market is always crucial to monetizing leads and hence must build a good customer base. An updated hospitality revenue management strategy requires more data and analytics to predict demands and shortfalls. A property management system (PMS) is emerging as an essential area of the hospitality revenue management strategy for its real-time updating capabilities.
Seeking out Cloud-based Solutions
Besides bringing flexibility into the software development process, cloud-based systems also accelerate the pace of new features of the hospitality industry. As software has a shorter cycle, they become accurate in meeting the evolving needs of the hoteliers. The availability of affordable and easy to execute cloud-based PMS solutions has made the existing software outdated.
Integration
A PMS, a channel manager, and a Web Booking Engine are all the best possible tools for the modern hotel operator. A combination of these tools is very essential as without being integrated together, they are of little value. They will consume more time and will demand laborious amounts of updating across the platforms. The integration provides maintenance and housekeeping management, prevents overbooking, tracks, and helps keep the pricing competitive.
Analyzing Distribution Channel Data
To cater to the need of evaluating the data from the channels, PMS takes all the data from channels and analyzes them with the real-time trends and other factors. Analyses can be automated, and pricing updated rapidly with the good PMS and a planned distribution strategy at work.
Using Strategies to Improve Direct Booking
There are number of strategies that help companies to improve direct bookings. Booking through social media platforms such as Facebook, optimizing the website, attracting visitors with freebies or upgrades if they book directly through the site, and creating a loyalty program are some of the ways that help to boost direct bookings.
