Changing guest behaviour is affecting the way business is conducted and this means a change of the KRAs for many key positions that affect the bottomline. BY CS RAMCHANDRAN
I remember a time not too long ago, when smart phones were prevalent in the market; a time when the revenue manager (RM) was a better qualified reservation manager in most hotels, who had the skills to work with Microsoft Excel and was equipped to load rates on PMS and OTA’s. Revenue managers were responsible for collecting, compiling and presenting data in spreadsheets and graphs. Some of them also had the innate ability to analyse this data and identify trends and subsequently arrive at pricing decisions on the basis of the same.
Times changed, and the “connected” world of today makes the job of a RM a lot more than just managing rates across channels and generating excel reports. Rapidly changing technology is ensuring that the customers of today have more information than ever before. Hence the RM, apart from loading rates across all distribution channels, has a multitude of responsibilities – that of Big Data analyst, business strategist, trend forecaster, IT and systems expert, an e-marketing whiz, social media guru, and sales consultant.
On the data analysis front, information overload is the key challenge hotels are facing. The revenue teams have access to a variety of information available from PMS, CRS, CRM and RMS to understand business patterns and make sound decisions.
Emerging technologies have also changed the way business is done. On the Negotiated Rates front, despite all the talk of their ultimate demise, GDS and Online Bookings Tools powered by GDS are showing growth on travel transactions. Therefore, it becomes important for the hotel and the RM to review the online presence of the hotel and monitor the rates that are being represented on the GDS. MIS reports for GDS performance have become a key part of the revenue meetings, wherein the RM consults the sales team on the agencies and geographic regions that are key opportunities or supporters for the hotel.
Lastly from an e-marketing/Social Media perspective, it is becoming imperative for hotel revenue team to focus on the digital presence of the hotel. Nearly 95% of the guests research online – regardless of how they make their final booking. Therefore it becomes extremely important to ensure the right content and pricing is visible to the end consumer on different channels or medium of search to maximise gain on direct conversions.
ORM (Online Reputation Management) tools have gained significant importance in hotel meetings, while analysing business performances. Preferred Hotels & Resorts’ member hotels use iQA, an exclusive customised ORM tool, which not only aggregates reviews across online and social media sites, but also provides hotels with key data to identify areas and keywords impacting guest experience. This helps them to derive action items with the hotel management team and help in enriching experiences and maximise revenue opportunities.
These are just the first steps into the “new age” revenue management where the lines of revenue, sales and marketing are blurring and fast converging. The road ahead is full of possibilities and it will be exciting to note how this pans out in a year. Will hotels adapt to convergence or will RMs be busy loading rates, managing inventory and creating spread sheets?
(The author is director, Revenue Account Management, India, Middle East & Africa, Preferred Hotels & Resorts)
