Generate Demand by Looking at Guest Booking Patterns

Revenue management should be planned before the guest comes through the hotel door. If you ask traditional hotel revenue managers, “When will your guests book?” most will answer “when they intend to stay”. This answer is superficial because it doesn’t really look into when the guest makes his decision. The shotgun approach used by a lot of revenue managers leaves much to the desired. The hotel is unable to track the real conversion of their marketing efforts because they are too busy chasing after people that don’t even intend to stay at the property.

Looking at the booking patterns of the guests will reveal the exact market the hotel should focus on to increase hotel revenue. After that, it becomes easy to offer the product in front of the ideal guest at the time when they are thinking of booking the accommodation. This is the perfect strategy for revenue optimization because it becomes easy for the guests to book so your ADR will increase as well.

The only issue is finding the right time to market your proposition to the guests:

Segmenting the Market – the traditional thinking in revenue management dictates that the market segment for hotel guests includes corporate, group, and leisure among others. It is important to look beneath this broad segmentation to find out what the guests are really like. Though this may involve additional research costs on your part, the saying that the “price is what you pay, value is what you get” is true in this instance. Consider pet-friendly hotels, it specifically caters to guests that want to bring their pet on their travels.

Web 2.0 – this is a catchall phrase for social networking on the internet. In essence, the user controls the content available to them. People who want better and more relevant information use web 2.0 as a tool to get past the web clutter. Traditional advertising is no longer as trusted as before. Today, people see the views of like-minded individuals as the more credible option. For the hotel industry, this means that in order to maximize booking results, they need to join the trend.

Technology – it is important to keep up with technological trends in the market. Using tools like RevPAR Guru can help you generate demand and grow revenue. With features like customized reservation features, ability to generate monthly reports, and real-time tracking system, this solution is exactly what you need to keep up with the changing industry landscape.