Hotel Revenue Management is the discipline that uses data to make pricing, distribution and sales decisions in a hotel.
Although it was long associated with large chains, today it is just as relevant for independent hotels.
Its goal is to sell the right room, to the right customer, at the right time and at the right price, always seeking to improve the property's profitability.
What Revenue Management analyses
To achieve this, several factors need to be analysed: the pace of bookings, future occupancy, competitors' prices, local events, seasonality, sales channels and customers' historical behaviour.
Same occupancy, different results
For example, two hotels can have exactly 80% occupancy and achieve completely different financial results.
One hotel may have sold a large part of its rooms far in advance at too low a price, while another may have managed its inventory better and achieved a higher average rate.
That is why a full hotel is not always a profitable hotel.
A good Revenue Management strategy tries to find the balance between occupancy, price and demand.
Anticipating demand
It also allows you to anticipate.
If we see that bookings for a given date are coming in faster than usual, it may be a sign of higher demand. In that case, it may make sense to review rates before availability runs down.
Conversely, if the pace of bookings is below expectations, we will need to analyse what is happening before simply lowering the price.
Do we have enough visibility?Is our rate competitive?Are we available on the right channels?Is there a restriction making it harder to book?
Revenue Management is precisely about making decisions based on data and not only on intuition.
A continuous strategy
At Almaris Hospitality we understand Revenue Management as a continuous strategy. The market changes every day, and rates, distribution and commercial strategy must adapt to those changes.
Because the goal is not simply to fill rooms.
The goal is for every room to contribute as much as possible to the hotel's profitability.