Tips & Best Practices for Hospitality & Travel Professionals | RateGain Blog

One of the issues I hear more and more about, as I meet with our existing partners and potential new clients, is direct-connect fatigue. With online travel agencies, wholesalers and tour operators looking for access to the most up-to-date and reliable rates, hotel companies are bombarded by requests to develop direct connections to their central reservation systems. But direct connections can be not only taxing on legacy systems, but also complex and costly to maintain....

Airbnb is a common platform that connects Bed & Breakfast lodging providers (could be homeowners subletting a room, entire accommodation, etc.) with potential customers who look for alternate lodging. It works on platform business model and derives its revenues from commission 12% from hosts and 3% processing fee to customers. Airbnb has introduced PriceTips; works like a revenue management software that helps to increase revenues for the hosts by using inputs such as ...

Perishability and limited inventory are two most important aspects of hotel business & thus pricing of a room becomes one of the most important KPIs for a Revenue Manager. Thus, hotels cannot be living in silo and not monitor what their competitors are pricing and offering their prospective guests. It's no secret that hotels offer multiple rates combined with multiple room options and to track the competition multiply that to number of competitor hotels one has to trac...

While a lot of hotels strive to achieve a fine balance on what strategy to apply in their business strategy, Push Occupancy or Strive for higher rates; it is extremely critical to identify high-demand periods in advance as those are the dates when hotels MUST push rates as well as occupancies. All markets experience seasonal fluctuations in their business patterns and this seasonality clubbed with perishability aspect makes revenue management in hotels a crucial exercise, ...

Human minds are inherently prone to biases. Isn’t it? In hotel revenue management, biases can be your worst nightmares since these can result in imprecise conclusions. And, inaccurate conclusions often equal to missed revenue opportunities. Look, either you have a crystal ball that empowers you to know how much will be the average length of stay for varied rate categories in your hotel or what will be the occupancy percentage for “x” number of room nights and many more. Do...

Are you opening a hotel soon? This New Year, adopt the correct prioritization approach in your hotel pre-opening roadmap. Entering into the market with a brand new hotel comes with its own set of challenges and opportunities. After all, hotel business development and planning can be highly demanding, especially during the pre-opening phase. As a hotel general manager, did you realize that opening a fully staffed hotel in 2017 without guests can put your entire investment at ...

It’s growing and getting stronger. This Zika virus news capsule is not easy for the travel and tourism industry professionals to swallow. As the mosquito-borne Zika virus enters into the United States, there’s a growing anxiety in the tourism industry. Further, a warning from the WHO that the Zika virus is “spreading explosively” and that it’s now an international ‘public health emergency’ has global implications. Vacationers are now rethinking their travel plans, especial...

Scientific pricing arrived on the scene as a diverse collection of pricing models developed by industry experts. This methodology is being employed by a rising number of hotels to supercharge their hotel operations and pricing strategies. This quick adoption of the scientific pricing methodology is being triggered by the huge revenue benefits and process improvements it has already garnered for many early adopters like Grandhotel Zvon, Hotel Bernini Bristol, The Landmark Bang...

Improving hotel forecasting is critical for effective planning and quick decision. Your goal is to avoid what we call the curse of "inaccurate forecasting." The more accurate hotel room forecasting you have, the better you can strategize across marketing, operations and pricing. In fact, an improvement of 10% in forecasting accuracy can result in an increase of 1.5% to 3% in revenue generated from a revenue management system. The infographic below outlines the reasons why ...