6 tips to increase your hotel RevPar in 2009

1 - SUPERCHARGE YOUR INTERNET SALES
Only web based internet sales can compensate for what has not been sold in advance to fill your hotel. In 2009 all reports show that meetings and corporate are going to be down so focus your sales efforts on the internet. Manage your hotel’s web presence to gain greater visibility and better positioning by using blogs, web 3.0, travel search engines promotions and by putting your hotel on more websites.

2 - OPEN YOUR SALES OFFICE AT NIGHT
During evening, nights and weekends hotel staff cannot manage Online Travel Agencies (OTA) allotments and price changes because they are at home resting while most travelers are also at home shopping on travel websites. International travelers with different time zones also shop and book hotels at night when most hotels cannot react to market changes and fluctuations. As supply and demand fluctuate 24-7, automate your pricing at night to increase your hotel profitability.

3 - INCREASE SALES BY CHANGING YOUR RATES MORE OFTEN
Once the OTA allotments are filled do you know that your hotel is closed for business because there is no one to reopen? As more bookings arrive hotel rates should naturally increase but most hotels leave money on the table because there is no one to change prices in real-time. In this economic environment, changing rates once or twice a day does not make sense anymore so automation is the way to go.

4 - USE TECHNOLOGY TOOLS TO SELL YOUR HOTEL
Revenue managers and reservations mangers get overwhelmed by day-to-day data entry. The Manipulation of extranets, rate buckets, rate codes, allotments, promotions, page positioning has become so complicated that many leave rates stagnant in fear of changing the wrong codes or buttons. Provide your team with new technology such as RevParGuru software so they can automate the process. By doing so they can focus their time and energy on the “big picture” such as strategy development, OTA market manager relationships, promotions, packaging, implementation, group values, etc.

5 - RE-DIRECT SALES FROM YOUR ONLINE COMPETITION TO YOUR HOTEL
Back in the days hotels used to only have a few competitors to worry about but the internet changed everything to the benefit of travelers. There are many hotels to choose from in your area, but increasing your internet visibility, managing complicated internet opaque channels, and having the perfect competitive rate all the time on your Hotel website while keeping rate parity and best rate guarantee will inevitably increase sales. To monitor the price of all the competitors and change your rates as they change is like shooting at a moving target especially nowadays when the booking windows is getting shorter and shorter. But pricing competitively all the time will keep your hotel in the front of your online competitors and will re-direct guests to your hotel.

6 - INCREASE YOUR HOTEL REVPAR
REVPAR GURU recognizes the growing need for a competitive pricing system that updates rates and allotments automatically in real time. It is reacting to the changing consumer purchasing behavior and delivers results that are based on current supply and demand instead of poor performing forecasts. For more information visit revparguru.com