Travel & Hospitality Tech Outlook | Saturday, November 27, 2021
It's time for the hotel industry to take a more holistic approach to revenue management and safeguard its long-term viability.
Fremont, CA:Travelers' behaviors are evolving as the world becomes more digital, and hoteliers' tactics must adapt to meet and exceed customer expectations while remaining profitable. Hoteliers used to hire former reservation managers and front-desk managers to pull pricing levers before the turn of the century, in what appears to be simpler times. Now, highly competent mathematicians, sometimes with degrees in economics and statistics, are required to complete the process. More than ever, the hotel industry has devolved into a computerized numbers game.
It's crucial for hoteliers to think beyond revenue and use technology to enable and empower people in a variety of ways. Technology is no longer designed to accomplish a single goal—such as increasing revenue—but rather to assist hoteliers in working smarter and more effectively, as well as providing a better guest experience. Revenue gains will follow once such benefits are in place.
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Hoteliers may be concerned about their reliance on technology. Some people, particularly revenue managers, believe that automated technologies will eventually take their jobs away. However, revenue management is no longer solely a price job, and the vast volumes of demand, visitor, and transactional data accessible mean that the role now requires more art and research than ever before. Revenue systems are meant to assist revenue teams rather than to take their place.
Management of revenue should not be a 9-to-5 job. There are many things that can happen when the revenue manager is not at their desk, and even certain things that can happen while the revenue team is sleeping, such as surges in demand. This is where automation comes in, guaranteeing that technology intervenes and responds to these events in real-time. Hotel technology will be able to undertake much of the tiresome labor for hoteliers as it advances, giving them more time to focus on long-term goals.
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