Implementing New Hotel Revenue Management Metrics

It has never been more imperative for hotel revenue management and hotel sales activities to set objective metrics that accurately measures effectiveness. Until the economic crisis, many hotel staff including those from the sales department and revenue management has been contented to go with the flow. It is important right now to let these individuals know that their strategies or skill set is no longer sufficient in this economy. Rather than firing those with inadequate skills, it might be a better idea to give them the opportunity to improve.

Right now, the benchmarking standards implemented by hotels can be described as arbitrary at best. Only a few hotel revenue managers seem to set metrics that measure the success of their strategies. But in today’s challenging environment, the importance of effective revenue management is at its highest. There are some steps you can take to develop these metrics and boost hotel sales. Below is an outline of what you can implement:

• Creating a Personal Sales Strategy – determine how many prospects you have, the alternatives, and the type of market you can attract. After you find out these things, it is essential to identity how you will find these prospects and what marketing activity they will most likely respond to.

• Prioritize and Organize – while organizing is important, it may not be as critical as prioritizing the right things. Learn to discipline yourself. Actually, no one cares if your desk is cluttered. But they will care of the hotel is not producing the kind of revenue it should. At the start of the day, know which tasks should be prioritized and what the hotel can do for them. This will enable you to increase hotel sales.

• Set Metrics – it is impossible to manage what you can’t measure. The concept behind this is simple; you can improve if you don’t have a solid measurement for success. The metrics can be as simple as setting how much online hotel sales you want to generate each month. Other metrics can include determining the productivity of each employee involved in sales.

The importance of setting metrics is undeniable. It sets acceptable standards that everyone in the sales and revenue management team should accomplish. In addition, it will enable quality output to be produced consistently. Hotel revenue managers who implemented effective metrics for their yield management strategy are deriving the benefits of this initiative. It will help hotels succeed even during the bad times.