The field of hotel revenue management is a constantly evolving one, both through small steps and incredible leaps.
The practice itself is changing, with more and more hotel companies adopting commercial strategy as their way forward, combining the skill sets of revenue managers and sales and marketing leaders. At the same time, those in the field were adapting to a year in which hotel and travel demand didn’t play out exactly as expected.
Uncertainty was a significant challenge for hotel revenue managers in 2025. During a roundtable discussion at the 2025 Hotel Data Conference, revenue and commercial strategy leaders discussed the reality of changing expectations.
"Come out the gate in January, great January. Great February. Go to do the forecast for March, it was like, 'Oh, that's not good,'" Mark George, senior vice president of commercial strategy at Island Hospitality Management said during the roundtable. "It's just kind of continued since then. Every month, we open it up and prepare it and go to send it off to the owners, and there's a caveat every time."
It was acceptable to not be sure during the pandemic, but not knowing the answer received a much different response from owners this year, said Leah McFarland, senior vice president of revenue strategy at Crestline Hotels & Resorts.
"We're in a different place now. [For] owners — especially your publicly traded, your [real estate investment trusts] — 'I don't know' isn't acceptable," she said. "We're in a very different time than we were then, where we could say the world knew everything was uncertain, and now it's like, 'Well, no, you should have this figured out by now.'"
Many hoteliers see the potential in artificial intelligence to bring meaningful and beneficial changes to the industry overall and to revenue and commercial strategy specifically. In a panel discussion at HSMAI's 2025 Commercial Strategy Conference, hotel executives spoke about their hopes for AI.
"I think it's going to relieve us of the burden of all the drudgery and things that we really don't want to do every day that limit our ability to think and think deeply," said Kristie Goshow, chief commercial officer for Peregrine Hospitality. "That will just make for far more enjoyable hours at the desk."
At the 2025 Hotel Data Conference, revenue managers spoke about the evolving landscape and what it will take to keep up. Phill Burgess, senior vice president of sales and revenue at Athena Hospitality Group, said the path to purchase is no longer linear but algorithmic.
“It’s as if AI is the new frontier,” Burgess said. “We have to discover the rules of the terrain to just survive and thrive, so it’s like the wild, wild west of modern revenue management."
On another panel at the HSMAI conference, hotel executives spoke about best practices for attracting talented younger employees. One major factor at play is showing potential hires their careers can grow in a company.
"Scope of work is big, as well," said Taylor Baca, director of revenue management for Kona Village, a Rosewood resort. "I left a director of revenue position for another director of revenue position because my scope of work changed. I have a larger portfolio with more responsibilities. It's important to think long term."
The topic came up at the Hotel Data Conference as well. Erica Lipscomb, Crescent Hotels & Resorts' senior vice president of revenue strategy, said that mentorship is vital, and it has allowed her company to tap into eager young professionals.
"It's a reverse mentor program," she said. "And the reason I like those is because candidates show they are interested. They are the ones who are going to stay tapped in, stay connected. If you have a forced mentorship program, I find that you lose people quicker because they feel like it's more of a task than their own personal desire."
While there’s no Eras Tour on the horizon, U.S.-based revenue managers have one major event with multiple locations to look forward to next year. The 2026 World Cup will hold matches in 16 U.S. markets as well as in cities in Canada and Mexico. Harry Carr, senior vice president of revenue management at Pivot Hotels & Resorts — the lifestyle hotel operating vehicle of Davidson Hospitality Group — said the recent reveal of which teams are playing where has helped Pivot's hotels plan out their approach.
"It clarified our strategy that we need to build more base. It's not going to be the game days. It's going to be who can fill their hotel for the most days between June 15 and July 15," he said. "We need length of stay to be successful. We can't be full for two days around a match and then sitting at 30% occupancy because nothing's going on."
Three podcasts interviews from the Hotel Data Conference provided deeper insight into the revenue and commercial strategy practice.
Sage Hospitality Group Senior Vice President of Sales, Revenue and Distribution Strategy Priya Chandnani said that the hotel industry seemed to learn its lesson on pricing during the pandemic.
"I think my favorite takeaway from today — and I think we should all do this in hospitality, we've learned this a number of times before — is to continue to hold on that pricing," she said. "Continue to hold on rate. We've seen this movie before. We've read this book before. Dropping rate does not trigger demand."
Pyramid Global Hospitality's Senior Vice President of Revenue Management Lori Kiel spoke about the need for clear communication between operators and owners during the budgeting process.
"What we owe the owners is to make sure that we understand what the hotel's performance potential is," Kiel said. "When they were in a similar timeframe, what did that look like, and what did the year after look like? So while I'm also big on saying be careful about the trends you follow and looking too far back, I think that in this moment you have to understand that, especially relative to the economics and the politics, there is a lot at hand here that wouldn't necessarily be worthy of calling a trend."
First Hospitality’s Chief Commercial Officer Jenna Fishel highlighted the benefits her company has seen after moving to a commercial strategy approach and bringing its revenue management, sales and marketing teams together.
“If they’ve seen underperformance in a specific area, it doesn’t have to be a blame game,” she said. “They feel comfortable with each other that they know if something is being brought to their attention, it’s for a business purpose. There’s no ego in it.”