NASHVILLE, Tennessee—With so many practices and systems available for managing revenue, hoteliers have an almost overwhelming choice of what is best for their operations.
During the 2015 Hotel Data Conference’s panel discussion titled “Completing your revenue manager’s toolkit,” panel members shared their thoughts on preferred systems, practices and philosophies for optimizing revenue.
The hub of operations
While in school learning about the hospitality industry, Kathleen Cullen, senior VP of revenue and distribution for Commune Hotels & Resorts, said she was taught the hub of a hotel is its front office.
“For many years, I’ve been saying it’s no longer the front office, it’s the revenue manager’s office,” she said. “The reason is, everything the revenue (manager) does touches every department.”
Someone needs to focus on revenue management in every hotel, she said, because every property needs that person reminding everyone about the ultimate goal: optimizing revenue.
While revenue management has progressed, Cullen said, more support is needed. Many hotels still have one person dedicated to the task, but more and more hoteliers are realizing that they need to dedicate more resources, staff and tools. The revenue managers define the metrics, define the goal for the hotel in the company and they make sure everyone buys into what those goals are and helps them work toward them.
“You can have goals, but if everyone has a different understanding of them, people are not going to necessarily be able to achieve the goals,” Cullen said.
The right tool for the job
There are so many directions to go with toolkits, said Courtney Russell, corporate director of revenue management for JHM Hotels. One thing hoteliers often overlook is the toolkit they already have, he said.
“Brand tools are amazing,” he said.
He said his portfolio includes a good mix of brands, and he receives e-mails and updates from the brand companies. The brands are doing a good job of ramping it up, he said. At his previous company, a revenue management consultant business, he said hotel owners would call to say things are going well, but they believed there was something else they could do, or they loved their revenue manager, but felt he or she wasn’t ready for the job.
“In either case, 90% of the time, once I do an audit, they’re not using all the brand tools,” Russell said. “Ninety percent of the time, that’s not happening. There was nothing new to bring to the table. I just pointed them to using the tools available to them.”
Three years ago, Cullen said, she had to create a revenue management system that could be used across brands that were on the complete opposite ends of the spectrum of how they operated, what technology they used, who did what as well as organizational structures and culture. Now, everyone uses the same platforms, gets the same training and has the same processes, she said.
“The beauty of using the same tools across the board is we can move people around as we need them,” she said. “If we have a new hotel opening, and someone wants an opportunity in Nashville, we can bring an experienced person and put them in Nashville and know they can open the hotel and be successful.”
Others took a different approach. Marc Nelson, senior revenue analyst for Aqua Hospitality, said his company has 55 independently owned properties. Because executives can’t tailor one product or solution to all properties, he said they generalize. They also use simpler tools available to anyone.
“We still find Excel to be one of the most useful tools,” he said. “If there’s a takeaway from this conference, it’s get good at Excel.”
Staying on the same page
Communication is important, Nelson said, and while there are positive aspects to communication, there are also negative aspects. One person within the company might want to build an empire, he said, while the executives want to grow the company. It’s necessary to identify any communication roadblocks and come up with a diplomatic way to resolve them, Nelson said.
With all of the data available through revenue management tools, Russell said, it helps to share the data with team members. Show them the data with digital visualization tools, he said, and walk through it with them.
“I went to (a housekeeping) meeting and showed them the graphs,” he said. “I explained what we needed to get to 100%. It worked, because I came in early one day and a housekeeper wanted to know if we sold out tonight.”
On top of that, revenue managers should share their skills and tools with other managers, said Jeff Borman, VP of revenue management for Marriott International.
“If only the revenue manager can use it, it’s not going to be effective,” he said. “The GM is being tasked with more financials, but the tools have to be simple and easy for them.”