Guest Column: What Hoteliers Need Now, Like Really, Really Need Now

By Jean Francois Mourier, RevPar Guru

Most likely bookings, customers, cashflow are the top-billing items on hoteliers' what I need right now wish-list. But moving these items from wish to reality will take substantially more effort than crossing fingers, reactive strategies or hoping for the best. What hoteliers need right now is a finely tuned orchestration of effective strategies that work in tandem across all aspects of a hotel's operation – sales, marketing and revenue management, right through to the front desk. Oh, and don't forget about online – greatly overlooked and undervalued! Having been on the hotel industry front lines for the past 25+ years, we have compiled a short wish list of what hoteliers need right now.

Revenue Management
The importance of having a robust and effective revenue management strategy (and system) is a business imperative in today's market. Having the right system in place can wring the maximum amount of revenue from any hotel property – automatically. The added benefit of having such a system is that it frees managers to control pricing and other crucial variables in a proactive, rather than reactive manner. Hotels can increase their occupancy rates and manage their distribution costs like never before. Given the effects of the global economic downturn, managing RevPAR intelligently and effectively is a necessity for hotels everywhere.

Automate or Die
Most hotels (and revenue management systems) rely on the revenue manager to analyze and implement complex and rapidly changing pricing structures. But relying on humans is, unfortunately, a significant contributor to lost revenues. By implementing a system that eliminates the human error element will ensure rates are optimized for the best booking rates with the highest RevPAR available – at all times. Having such a system eliminates the day-today repetitive (and overwhelming) data crunching tasks, so that revenue managers can use their online sales knowledge and internet expertise to focus on the big picture - to actually manage revenues and grow business.