InterContinental Miami Hotel

Lorenzo Pedone is the Director of Revenue Management at InterContinental Miami Hotel, where he blends data-driven strategy with human-centered leadership. With international experience spanning Latin America, the Caribbean and the U.S., he is known for cultivating cross-functional collaboration and delivering measurable results through innovative revenue approaches.

Pivotal Career Moments That Shaped My Path

My experience at the Holiday Inn Resort Aruba was a turning point in my professional journey. It marked several firsts—most notably, it was my first role at a large, casual-branded resort where I gained exposure to key areas that sharpened both my soft and technical skills.

On the soft skills side, regular interactions with upper management at the Corporate Office improved my English communication and helped me engage more confidently with coworkers, partners, and guests. Living in a close-knit island community also required me to adapt to a new culture and build resilience in the face of unique business and social challenges.

Technically, I gained valuable insights into the North American demand landscape and the dynamics of the Caribbean beach-resort market. I learned to forecast and manage the complexities of the all-inclusive model, including food and beverage operations and cost allocations, while overseeing inventory distribution across multiple channels—during a major renovation of guest rooms and public spaces.

I still remember the challenge of preparing a room’s revenue budget segmented by category, including the all-inclusive components. With no prior experience in that model, I collaborated closely with F&B, Finance, and Reservations teams, gathering historical data to build an accurate projection. By organizing the data in Excel and refining it over time, we finalized a full-year budget, which—one year later— proved to be within 2% accuracy.

This experience strengthened my leadership across departments and laid the foundation for my current role at InterContinental Miami, a respected industry icon.

Defining Strategic Leadership in Revenue Management

I firmly believe that even in Revenue Management—often seen as a “solo discipline” centered on systems and remote pricing—strategic leadership is rooted in human connection. At InterContinental Miami, I’ve worked to strengthen our “One Great Team” culture by: 1) staying consistently present for my team with the right tools, support, and coaching; 2) collaborating with Sales to secure business strategically; 3) promoting a revenue management mindset across departments through education; 4) accommodating operational requests with empathy; and 5) contributing to creative brainstorming to enhance guest experiences beyond pricing.

“Strategic revenue leadership isn’t about systems alone—it’s about people, process, and purpose. True success lies in combining technology with collaboration, empathy, and adaptability to drive performance, elevate guest experience, and create long-term value for both teams and stakeholders.”

A recent success was the launch of our beautiful Oceanview Luxury Cabanas at InterContinental Miami after a major pool deck renovation. Leading this project, I collaborated with teams across Marketing, Finance, F&B, Front Office, and Guest Experience to shape packages, pricing, target markets, and delivery logistics. I created a detailed SOP covering everything from positioning and pricing to delivery. We launched January 1, 2024—and continue to see strong ancillary revenue as a result.

Balancing Technology with Exceptional Guest Experiences

Human control and interaction are essential—there’s no doubt about it. Technology, by definition, is valuable as long as it delivers results in both quantity and quality while minimizing physical effort. This principle also applies to revenue management, particularly in multi-property approaches that require greater sophistication and accuracy with decisions and projections. However, where does the human effort make a difference? I believe it exactly lies in not taking everything the systems suggest at face value: it’s crucial to listen to diverse opinions, cross-check pricing recommendations, and move away from the notion that technology alone will make us exceptional. Instead, we should recognize that the real brilliance comes from a collaborative team that can reach more profitable conclusions for both guests and owners through discussion and constructive debate with the sales, marketing, operations and finance teams.

Challenges and Opportunities in Tech-Driven Hospitality

The opportunity lies in the continuous improvement of the accuracy and the precision of business projections, pricing decisions, and the profitability of those choices, as well as in increasing market share and enhancing customer loyalty.

Conversely, the challenge is to manage and limit the standardization of these business decisions and evaluations, which can result in a lack of customization and may hinder the revenue leader’s ability to adopt a more efficient management-by-exception approach.

However, the real greatest opportunity of leveraging technology to enhance revenue management sits into enabling revenue leaders to extend their strategies beyond guest rooms: this includes optimizing pricing for function spaces based on utilization, refining food and beverage menu pricing and costs, and maximizing revenue from other amenities such as spas and golf courses. By doing so, we can directly connect the efficiency of a 360-revenue management model with the overall enhancement of the guest experience.

Advice for Aspiring Revenue Management Leaders

I recommend that professionals remain continuously well-trained and up-to-date with the latest revenue management technologies available in the market. This knowledge is essential for driving revenue, automating business evaluation processes for other teams, and facilitating in-depth analyses to make informed decisions. However, success and excellence in revenue management cannot be achieved in isolation; collaboration with the team is crucial. I encourage future revenue management leaders to view these technologies as foundational tools that stimulate discussions and facilitate constructive engagement with other stakeholders in the hotel.

Furthermore, I recommend leveraging the time saved through the management-by-exception model (enhanced by advancements in AI) to broaden the revenue management approach to other revenue-generating areas and explore how these areas can be optimized for profitability.

Last but not least: Cultivating a revenue management culture within your organization will promote greater engagement among colleagues in understanding data analytics and pricing decisions.