22 November, 2022
Hotel Revenue Management Strategies: Boost Daily Profit Now
Effective hotel revenue management is perhaps more important to hospital businesses today than ever before. Running a...
The aftermath of the pandemic has left many hoteliers with depressed earnings and lost revenue. At this stage, business owners are doing everything possible to improve profitability.
Some are searching for innovative new methods to boost their bottom lines, while others are utilizing traditional techniques that have assisted during previous recessions.
Hotel proprietors in the digital realm are learning how to increase hotel revenue utilizing software from vendors like Luxe Pricing.
Understanding how to increase hotel revenue requires full cognizance of the business's customer base and needs. This article explains how to increase hotel revenue through various strategies and implementations.
How to Increase Hotel Room Revenue
Increasing hotel revenue is often challenging. However, with the introduction of revenue management software, achieving your hotel income goals becomes more manageable. Various RMS and upselling programs are available online, but most are arduous to utilize and can generally be unreliable.
Instead of viewing the software user experience as an afterthought, HouseCount RMS was developed to be both user-friendly and robust in terms of the back-end technology that controls pricing recommendations. The main approach with HouseCount is based on the engineering fundamentals of Feedback Control Theory. In a nutshell, this theory describes the process of tracking the output of a system by considering every stage: the input, the process, and the output. In other words, HouseCount works by constantly maintaining a bird’s eye view of factors that affect hotel and casino-hotel pricing, allowing the system to make transparent and accurate recommendations. At the same time, RMs can make holistic or granular adjustments to meet the needs of the businesses.
With HouseCount, you can achieve accurate pricing based on market data while at the same time reducing the workload for hotel revenue managers.
LuxSell URS, on the other hand, was developed to maximize revenue from upselling activities, making the process more streamlined and boosting productivity between team leaders and agents.
Micro-experimentation is the learning framework built into LuxSell that constantly expands its price prediction abilities with A-B testing. Our machine learning algorithm adds depth of knowledge with each upsell processed, making price recommendations smarter over time, and allowing front-end employees to make confident recommendations tailored to each customer with little input needed from RMs.
Revenue Management Solutions That Optimize Pricing 24/7
From upsell opportunities to accurate price management, Luxe Pricing is here to maximize your revenue.
Increasing hotel revenue requires systematic collaboration between revenue managers and sales representatives. Luxe Pricing's software solutions make these strategic partnerships more dynamic by providing an app that both parties can utilize simultaneously.
Here are seven effective ways to boost hotel room revenue during peak or quiet seasons:
- Maximize your premium inventory - LuxSell has built-in tools that help optimize the upselling process by suggesting price recommendations.
- Develop mailing lists - Customer analytical data retrieved from a PMS or HouseCount RMS can be used to create client mailing lists.
- Create once-off events for special celebratory days, cultural or art shows, and holiday season spectacles.
- Offer food and beverage packages.
- Tempt weekend guests to stay longer with a discount for extended stays - LuxSell makes client upselling suggestions to front desk employees and provides a basic sales script for agents to use.
- Promote the hotel to local businesses that could utilize it for special events or meetings
- Offer prizes to guests that stay midweek
Besides these tips to increase hotel revenue, hotel revenue managers can also focus on marketing to the correct customer based on their previous interactions with the hotel. Collaborating with tour agencies or other local organizations is another excellent way to boost the hotel's visibility.
How to Increase Hotel Revenue
Every manager or hotelier thinks about increasing hotel revenues and profit without overspending or raising prices too high. Getting the correct answers can be complicated, especially when inundated with day-to-day tasks.
Here are six tactics hotel owners explore when learning how to increase hotel revenue.
- Implement Luxe Pricing Revenue Management Solutions:
HouseCount RMS focuses on achieving two main goals. The first is to provide the most accurate and robust pricing recommendations on the market for hotels and resorts. The second is to create a user experience that empowers hospitality professionals to leverage their insights into revenue-maximizing opportunities. LuxSell URS helps hotels grow revenue through active yielding and management of room upsell prices. Quite simply, LuxSell URS tells the front desk and reservation agent the right offer at the right price to extend to each arriving guest or booking. - Build a road map:
Determine where the business stands and set goals based on analytical data retrieved from LuxSell or HouseCount RMS. - Segment the target market:
Create guest personas so marketing efforts can be personalized; record client information in a CRM to improve customer segmentation efforts. - Sell the experience:
The abundance of hotel offerings across the internet makes it crucial for a property to have something unique to stand out. An outstanding guest experience can become part of a business's value proposition. Ensuring that the hotel is managing its online reputation by actively responding to online review sites is a great way to sell the experience. - Utilize multiple distribution channels:
Utilizing a channel manager can positively boost the number of bookings across various Online Travel Agencies (OTAs) simultaneously while syncing bookings with a PMS platform avoids overbooking issues. - Partner with local companies:
Develop solid relationships with other organizations in the local community. Locate entities, such as schools, conference centers, tour operators, and small travel agencies, and suggest a commission-based deal with them.
Savvy property owners deploy these methods to increase hotel revenues. However, there's more to consider before setting up a winning hotel marketing strategy.
Let's look at hotel revenue sources and chat about how revenue generation in the hotel industry performs in each category.
Define Hotel Revenue Sources
Hotel revenue, for many hospitality businesses, isn’t just measured from room sales alone. Entertainment venues, including theaters and casinos, are additional factors that need to be considered to make up a total revenue management (TRM) approach. Being able to cross-reference profits from all sources of a resort is essential for determining total RevPAS (revenue per available space).
From there, effective pricing strategies can be established to maximize revenue generation.
- Dynamic pricing involves adjusting room rates based on external data such as market demand, competitor prices, weather data, and booking patterns, as well as internal data such as customer segments, profiles, and current rates.
- Open pricing can also be used to create different reservation prices made by different segments of guests, depending on the time period, distribution channel, and more. This allows the resort to maintain stable occupancy levels during periods of fluctuating demand.
- Length of stay pricing is rather self-explanatory; adjusted rates can be set based on a guest’s length of stay, with discounts being offered for longer stays.
- Package pricing refers to offering a bundle of services that encourage the guest to take full advantage of the facilities the resort has to offer. For instance, a casino-hotel with multiple amenities could offer discounts on meals, poolside entertainment, drinks, and more.
With HouseCount and LuxSell, resorts are able to marry revenue growth with exceptional operational performance. These tools allow hoteliers to use data-driven insights from information like preferences, demographics, spending history, and so on to make informed rate decisions and determine reinvestment strategies.
Why Defining Hotel Revenue Sources is Important
Having diverse hotel revenue sources is the key to a successful business. Multiple revenue streams can help hotels and casino-hotels maximize their entire property, ensuring that revenue is generated from every available source.
Rather than solely focusing on room revenue, resorts, and hotel-casinos sell experiences. To effectively sell an experience, a holistic view of the entire property and all its offerings needs to be considered.
Often, the room is the space that the guest uses the least; they are going to be seeking out enjoyment elsewhere on the property, whether that be the casino, pool, restaurants, or concert and event halls. Offering a fully immersive experience that invites the guest to participate in all the amenities that the hotel offers is not only good customer service, but it also exemplifies the vacation experience and encourages the guest to spend time on the property rather than them leaving to seek experiences elsewhere.
Strategies to Increase Hotel Ancillary Revenue
Hotel revenue management strategies are becoming the pillar for lucrative and successful hotels.
The plethora of technical information readily available to hoteliers through PMS platforms provides numerous new opportunities for hotels to turn a profit.
The most prosperous hotel owners are tech-savvy individuals who constantly search for methods to improve business processes and gain competitive advantages. However, only some hoteliers utilize revenue management strategies to generate higher earnings.
Below are four strategies business owners can utilize when on a quest to increase hotel revenues.
How to Increase Food and Beverage Revenue in Hotels
Hotel restaurants can be challenging to manage. Organizing an entire property is considered arduous already, so imagine figuring out how to get the kitchen to run optimally.
However, it pays handsomely to consider increasing a hotel's revenue through its food and beverage departments.
This table shows hoteliers seven foolproof ways to boost hotel revenue through food and beverage sales.
|
Method to Increase Food and Beverage Revenue |
Actionable Steps |
|
Improve customer service levels |
Screen feedback from guests and utilize this information to improve food and customer service. |
|
Include healthy options on the menu |
The requirement for healthy food is greater now than ever. Consider dishes that may tantalize the taste buds of vegetarians or vegans to expand into a larger market. |
|
Make food and beverages available everywhere |
Although a restaurant is often the centerpiece of the hotel, it pays to deliver food to guests elsewhere on site. |
|
Maximize seating capacity |
More customers can be accommodated with more seating space. With a cleverly thought out floor plan, the number of clients accommodated at a single time can be maximized. |
|
Aim for world-class room service |
Guests generally spend a rest day in their room. Ensure that room service is as elegant as the restaurant and guests will be begging for more. |
|
Modernize the restaurant space |
Having regular additions or following new food trends will tempt customers into tasting new things. This will also boost the restaurant's reputation by showing the business will never settle for less. |
|
Utilize Competitive Pricing |
Pricing food right is critical to making more sales. The prices charged should reflect the level of the hotel’s guests. |
Taking these actionable steps, hoteliers benefit significantly from the restaurant division of their organization. It's the most underutilized revenue-generating area of the hospitality business, so be sure to take advantage of adding a good kitchen and competent employees.
How to Increase Hotel Spa Revenue
There are multiple ways to increase hotel revenue, and utilizing a spa is one of them. However, it's not always simple to determine the true impact of the potential earnings on the bottom line.
A good rule of thumb is improving employee efficiency and enhancing the overall guest experience. This is a great way to increase revenue and ensure a steady stream of cash flow.
This table focuses on three ways to increase revenue in a hotel's spa:
|
Revenue Increasing Method |
Actionable Step |
|
Focus on ease of booking |
Ensure booking buttons are located on the main page and that the booking process is easy for the customer. If guests have no clear path to follow, they may get frustrated and utilize a competing spa. |
|
Enhancements and Upselling |
Upselling enhancements or spa add-ons are great ways to boost the average ticket price. Offer a diverse range of services that can be included with the guest’s original purchase. |
|
Recurring and gifting revenue |
Self-care and spa services make fantastic gifts. Sell spa gift certificates for predetermined amounts as online or physical versions. |
Hotels can also sell packages or series of particular spa treatments so customers can benefit from discounted rates. This improves client retention rates and allows employees to set restrictions on when the vouchers can be redeemed.
How to Increase Hotel Retail Revenue
Hotels with retail spaces can grow their revenue through convenience stores, onsite art galleries, and gift shops. Try to offer the guest a fluid, immersive experience showing everything you have.
Expanding your merchandise area or hosting unique pop-up events are other ways of increasing hotel earnings. Here are a few ways to boost customer engagement in the retail spaces of your hotel.
- Have monthly themes - Guests love shopping at stores where there is something different every time they visit. Whether it's moving the shop's layout around or featuring a new artist every month, the constant evolution of products or services will impress almost any audience.
- Work with local artists - Having unique one-of-a-kind artwork from local artists is an excellent way to guarantee your guest gets something they can’t find anywhere else.
- Open a convenience store on-site - Ensuring guests have everything they require at the hotel is a great way to get them to spend more. Think of everyday products, such as feminine hygiene products, deodorant, shaving supplies, and other items that your local corner shop sells.
Establishing the retail section of your hotel is one of the best methods to increase hotel revenue. Collaborate with local businesses or artists to create more opportunities for the local community.
How to Increase Hotel Sales Revenue
Adaptability and creativity are vital to improving and accomplishing a hotel's expectations. Upselling is the best way to increase hotel sales revenue while boosting positive reviews and customer experience.
Incorporate these methods to increase overall revenue and average spend per guest:
- Offer paid room upgrades pre-arrival
- Create custom packages and deals
- Segment guests to understand the client base better
- Capitalize on food and beverage sales
- Optimize room revenue with dynamic pricing
LuxSell and HouseCount RMS allows you to process these tasks through an intuitive user interface. For example, LuxSell allows front desk agents to search for specific room types and upsell the guest through the system. On the other hand, HouseCount RMS offers a real-time automated dynamic pricing solution that can change prices on autopilot.
Integrating the dynamic pricing model into a hotel is perfect for hoteliers who want to earn more. It allows business owners to maximize profits during high demand without affecting sales in the off-season.
Revenue Management Solutions That Optimize Pricing 24/7
From upsell opportunities to accurate price management, Luxe Pricing is here to maximize your revenue.
Ideas for Increasing Hotel Revenue
Guest expectations no longer correlate with in-room amenities only; instead, they dilate to include a variety of all-inclusive packages, experiences, activities, and services.
Here are six hotel revenue-generating ideas to grow a hotel.
- Encourage guest referrals: If a guest recommends the hotel to family or friends, incentivize them with a discounted stay or gift.
- Offer packages based on guest preferences: Utilize a PMS to determine guests' behavior during the booking process. Concentrate on their taste and personal interest to offer exclusively designed accommodation options to them.
- Rent out the hotel's amenities: A gym, pool, and spa are an opportunity to increase hotel revenue. Rent these services out to the local community to obtain additional income from non-staying guests.
- Offer special discounts: Promote discounts and special offers to guests via room service or digital advertising mediums. Why not advertise discounted cocktails by the pool on a sunny day? If the weather is terrible, there's an opportunity to promote spa treatments.
- Make the hotel kid-friendly: Kid-friendly hotels are excellent for traveling families and alluring the local community. Offering childcare services to locals and guests allows parents to enjoy their time away from the kids with peace of mind. Recreational activities such as week-long summer camps, pools with toys, and educational classes are other fantastic ways to increase hotel revenue.
- Offer exclusive experiences: Over 70% of Americans value experiences over products. Selling guided tours of local museums or cooking classes with a world-class chef can provide guests with a memorable time.
These ideas can kickstart a hotel's revenue-boosting efforts while remaining aligned with customer expectations. Forecasting the profitability of these areas requires a CRM or similar tool that can help decipher client behavior.
Conclusion: How to Maximize Revenue at Your Hotel
Understanding how to maximize revenue at your hotel comes with many intricate nuances. There may be hurdles in a hotel's successful implementation of different hotel revenue management strategies.
However, deploying simple tactics and changes is often the most lucrative.
Utilizing Luxe Pricing’s software solutions, better and more consistent experiences can be provided to guests, while at the same time reducing the workload of hotel revenue managers.
Hoteliers can then establish the departments and processes required to increase hotel revenue in their organization. With the right technology, anything is possible. Request a demo to determine if Luxe Pricing’s offerings can fulfill your hotel revenue optimization duties.
Revenue Management Solutions That Optimize Pricing 24/7
From upsell opportunities to accurate price management, Luxe Pricing is here to maximize your revenue.
