Is There a Disconnect Between Hotel Revenue Management and Sales Strategy?

Many would think that revenue management and sales strategies automatically complement each other. After all, these two are deeply interrelated to one another. However, this perception is idealistic at best because in reality the sales department and the hotel revenue management are usually at odds with each other. When this happens, frustration occurs and this can hinder the thought process that makes good decisions possible. It is a good thing that majority of hotel revenue managers are willing to compromise to bridge the gap.

In many cases, it has been observed that the frustrations of hotel revenue managers arise from the fact that the sales department wants to provide “sale” prices at inappropriate times because they want their bonus incentive when they reach their quota. This is against the revenue manager’s job of ensuring the profit is optimized at all times for the overall well-being of the hotel. While this perception may be true in some cases, it is important to look past this bias and look deeper into specific problems. Among those that can be identified include:

Inappropriate Discounting – using the discounting strategy to cope with low market demand is an almost automatic reaction for sales people. It has been the standard operating procedure (SOP) ever since the demand drastically decreased because of the deep recession. And when you couple this with travelers who have reduced their budget, sales people scramble to give the lowest rate possible. It is important to analyze the market first before giving drastic discounts. Effective yield management should be prioritized in this case.

Revenues from Different Profit Centers – the sales department is more likely than not to be familiar with the customer behavior. They can actually help the hotel revenue managers in this case by helping develop the hotel rate strategy for specific times of the week and the month. The highest demand from corporate travelers tends to occur during midweek while weekends are preferred by vacationers.

Building Client Relationships – this is a common cause of tension between sales and revenue managers. Though revenue managers know the value of building and maintaining relationships, it may not be their first priority in all cases. Meanwhile, sales people usually strive to accommodate all client requests at the expense of the hotel’s profitability. This needs to be ironed out for maximize hotel sales.