How to Maximise Revenue Management Systems

Revenue management refers to the various strategic pricing and distribution techniques you employ to sell your hotel products to the appropriate guests at the right moment to increase revenue generation. Other goods like your food and drink offerings and your hospitality services will also enter the picture. Revenue management is a complex art/science concerned with controlling costs and keeping expenses under control. If done correctly, it will contribute significantly to your hotel's profitability.

There are two types of hotel pricing strategies: Long-term and Short-term. In the long-term plan, which most companies practice, there is a period when the prices of the underlying asset (in this case, the hotel) tend to increase. Short-term hotel pricing strategies give you immediate discounts when you purchase rooms or increase room rates immediately before the rates go up. You can use either the system or a combination of strategies depending on your particular circumstances.

For most hotels, short-term revenue management strategies are preferable because they result in immediate discounts. One of the advantages of implementing a short-term approach is that they do not tie up management staff for extended periods. Also, they do not require the extensive research that planning and long-term strategies may require. However, these strategies have some disadvantages as well.

Hotel revenue management strategies involving a discounting system generally require extensive planning. You need to determine the best times when most people are likely to be looking for a hotel of services. Once this information is available, you then need to decide the prices you will charge, the number of discounting agents you will hire, and other distribution channels you will use. These decisions may seem trivial, but your business could suffer if you implement the wrong hotel revenue management strategies without thorough planning.

Another option that is popular with small businesses is yield management. Yield management is sometimes considered a more appropriate tool for small companies than other revenue management methods such as room rate increases or discounting. In yield management, a company obtains profits by predicting from a particular transaction. The yield manager collects the data through mathematical formulas based on each room's current price, the occupancy level, the cost of operating the room, etc. Once profitability is determined, a discount rate is assigned based on the predicted amount of profit.

To effectively implement a yield management scheme, you need to identify the product, which is difficult or impossible to produce, and the product or service's price elasticity. Price-sensitive products, such as food, tend to be price elastic. Inventory-sensitive items, such as retail clothing, tend to be price-sensitive, and predicting customer behavior can help control inventory levels.

Many companies view room price elasticity as a significant factor in revenue management systems. However, other factors, such as product quality, customer service, ease of use, and other elements, are also crucial to profitability. You should seek assistance from an accounting firm, such as a CPA, to determine your operational costs. Once operational costs have been established, you can use a spreadsheet to maximize profits. The spreadsheet should allow you to decide which areas in your organization need the most improvement. You can then make changes to optimize revenue-management systems without affecting the areas that are not profitable.

There are many tactics for you to use to maximize revenue in your company. However, identifying the tactics that work best for your organization is the key to ensuring that your revenue management system will be useful. If you find this too challenging to do, seek assistance from an accounting firm for more help.