Revenue Management, A Boon For Tech Industry

By Danny Tan, Director of Revenue Strategy, G Hotel Penang, Malaysia

Danny Tan, Director of Revenue Strategy, G Hotel Penang, Malaysia

1. In your opinion, how has the Revenue Management landscape evolved over the years? What are the myriad advantages of technological evolution for businesses today?

Revenue Management has evolved from the initial by the book yielding methodology into an instant/impromptu way of determining the true meaning of yielding. The direction of yielding is no longer based on the up and down of hotel’s occupancy but rather a revenue performing dimension that allows elasticity and based on many other factors such as whether if the demand comes from dynamic or static rate, are bookers buying higher rate on specific timing etc. The Technological evolution for hotel booking allows hotel to have a communication directly with customer bypassing layers of middle man, in which a lot costs are spent on paying out the commission.

2. What according to you are some of the challenges plaguing Revenue Management today and how can they be effectively mitigated?

One of the biggest challenges has been balancing between online (dynamic) revenue and traditional (static) revenue. At most time, both of the mentioned create conflict of interest toward each other. The effective way to mitigate this problem varies based on hotel and its volume of business. First of all, hotel would have to identify whether is the volume of business comes from dynamic or static supplies. Once identified, hotel would have to make a clear direction to go one way of another. My direction would have been the dynamic supplies as this is understood as the away ahead for hotel bookings now and for the future.

3. Which are a few technological trends influencing Revenue Management today? What are some of the best practices businesses should adopt today to steer ahead of competitors?

Technology to book direct, hotel reputation management, customer relation management and hotel inventory management are among the systems many hotels are adopting today to optimize their revenue. Slashing rate in order to get ahead of competitors is definitely a no solution. Being globally visible on as many platforms, selling rooms with additional perks and selling the right rate to the right customer at the right time are some of the best ways to yield the intended revenue to compete with competitors.

4. Do you have any suggestions for our reader segment which comprises of industry veterans and young entrepreneurs from the Revenue Management space?

Revenue Management is a vast performing stage that the trends and knowledge about revenue management are changing on a daily basis based on global consumer’s behavior. This means by the book practice is on its way out and that elasticity should be introduced into revenue management.