Will the New – Age Revenue Manager Stand Up?

They might conjure up images of people hunched behind a range of computer terminals, tapping away on keys, pulling out numbers in the air and then putting it back into the systems so that their hotels can keep chugging along on the growth path. Well, forget about this vision being anachronistic, it is pretence personified. Revenue managers are suave executives who have come into their own when it comes to helping improve the rate efficacy of hotels. In some properties, they even report directly to the general manager. This enables them to take key strategic and analytic decisions, without interference. Today, the decisions they take no longer have ramifications on just the revenue, it also impacts the overall performance of the hotel – and they know it. Hence, these professionals are using their management skills to focus more on devising long-term strategies to increase profitability. To maximise revenues, it might require them to focus on other aspects of the hotel, like F&B, a fast-growing segment. Mudit Kaushik, revenue manager of Crowne Plaza Jaipur Tonk Road highlights how many hoteliers have started breaking food sales down into meal periods, to better track business volumes throughout the day in their F&B outlets; enabling them to understand where they get their maximum revenue and profits. This is a good practice as it gives them better understanding on how much footfalls the property is actually getting for different meal periods. Others like Ankit Pradhan, revenue manager of Hilton Chennai are having regular conversations around ways to customise their revenue management systems (RMS) to create automated daily pickup report so that their commercial team can better understand prospective demand and make pricing decisions accordingly. This helps the reservations team to increase booking conversion by constantly updating the RMS with hotel information and selling strategies. Revenue managers are also digging deeper into the numbers to understand ways to use a mix of traditional and modern models for setting rates and augment their businesses’ profitability. Sheraton Grand Bengaluru Whitefield and Convention Center as well as Aloft Bengaluru Cessna Business Park has been doing this successfully, while analysing its competitor’s rate, and taking elements like upcoming city events, socio-political factors into consideration. What’s more, these professionals no longer work in isolation but have to take along various team members across different verticals with them. In fact, revenue managers have now evolved to become goal managers for their companies – maximising profits while also driving the positive brand perception.