Shumi Khan, Global Vice President for Business Performance and Revenue Management at Accor and the Chair of the HSMAI Europe Revenue Optimization Advisory Board
- Review your pricing strategy and don’t be afraid to increase rates: the macro-economic changes taking place across the world including inflation, interest rates and currency fluctuations, mean that hotel’s revenue management teams should be reviewing and adjusting their pricing strategy It’s important the revenue manager takes a more holistic view by taking into account macroeconomic factors and by looking beyond standard segmentation into factor such as guest origin mix. for example favourable exchange rates I dictate strong willingness to pay whereas higher interest rates would mean that consumers are likely to save more.
- Ensure you are optimising all profit streams: – Gross operation profit is not at same level as 2019 – so now is the time to identify higher profit streams that go beyond rooms. Define KPIs for ancillary revenue streams and use them to ensure these revenue streams is optimised. Remember you can’t improve what you don’t measure
- Call to action for the hospitality industry to certify their Revenue Managers in professional development certification /accreditation for revenue management. HSMAI offers this – (The CRME) and the regional Advisory Boards reviews them regularly. A revenue manger is a highly technical role – yet the career path is not as well defined as other roles in the industry. Certification /accreditation will give managers clearer career paths and support the continued professional development programme.
- Revenue managers need to gain better leadership skills: Often it is not clear in a hotel where the decision-making lies and a result a GM may make decision which does not have the interest of hotel profits. It’s not enough for revenue managers to analyse and crunch the numbers, they need training in management and soft skills which will give them the confidence to assert themselves and have a power of influence in critical commercial /planning meetings.
- Provide (more) technology training for revenue managers: Advance AI /Technology systems around driven pricing strategies can save a lot of time and support the revenue management teams in their day to day role. There needs to be a concerted training drive so that managers can understand and embrace all the benefits of the technology.
