DENVER | Numbers are now in that dramatically demonstrate the major impact Richfield Hospitality's dedicated Revenue Management and e-Commerce Division efforts are having on both the top and bottom lines.

“The hot button for most owners in this day and age is top-line revenue,” said Terri X. Radcliffe, Richfield’s Vice President of Marketing and Sales, “and Richfield has found the quickest way to make an impact on the top line through a strategic approach that combines sales strategies with revenue management and e-commerce.

“By using this approach, we have seen RevPAR contributions increase by as much as $8 to $10,” Radcliffe added. “More important, many times these results are seen within 60 days.”

Richfield’s Revenue Management and e-Commerce Division, led by Director Peggy Lee Hassan, provides direction and support to all Richfield-managed properties.

“It’s hard to overstate the business potential that e-commerce presents for our managed properties,” Hassan said. “What our team does is streamline the distribution management and rate optimization of existing channels, such as the global-distribution systems, proprietary Web sites, and third-party Internet providers for both our branded and independent hotels. We also utilize Richfield’s existing on-line intelligences, integrate and coordinate property-level yield, franchise and Internet strategies.”

Two Richfield-managed hotels can attest to the effectiveness of the strategies Hassan’s team developed for them. One is an independent New Jersey property that Richfield has managed since the hotel was built 22 years ago; the other, in North Carolina, is a franchised, branded hotel, the management of which Richfield took over less than two years ago.

The 190-room Madison Hotel is a family owned, four-star property in Morristown, N.J., that was built in 1982 and has been managed by Richfield since the day it opened. General Manager Martin Svigir said Richfield’s Revenue Management and e-Commerce Division began formulating strategies to increase the Madison’s Internet-based bookings about a year ago. Since then, Svigir said, improved Internet production has resulted in a 40 to 45 percent increase in room nights, an 80 percent increase in revenue, and a 27 to 30 percent increase in ADR. The increases are based on year-to-date May 2004 numbers versus those compiled during the same period in 2003.

“Richfield has kept ahead of the increasing shift toward Internet use by consumers,” Svigir said. “Two years ago, the Internet was more a novelty for booking hotel rooms, but now it’s the wave of the future not only for business bookings but for leisure travelers, too. Richfield was well ahead of everybody else in recognizing and preparing for the trend.“

Another case in point
Though the hotels are vastly different, the story is similar at the Clarion Hotel Research Triangle Park in Raleigh-Durham, N.C. Ownership of the 81-room upscale business hotel hired Richfield to manage it about two years ago, said Director of Sales and Marketing Suzanne Villani.

“Richfield took over management in October 2002 and immediately brought in their revenue management and e-commerce team,” Villani said. “The result has been a significant increase in business from Internet bookings.”

Villani said year-to-date May 2004 numbers are up substantially over figures generated during the same period in 2003. She said Internet bookings have spurred a 16 percent increase in room nights, a 29 percent increase in revenue, and an 11 percent increase in ADR.

“I’ve worked with several other management companies in the past, and none of them are as on top of revenue management and e-commerce as Richfield is,” Villani said. “They’re phenomenal.”

“We have always prided ourselves in being on the cutting edge of hotel-management innovation,” said Aik Hong Tan, President of Denver-based Richfield Hospitality. “We saw the trend of e-commerce and Web-based reservations coming long before our competitors in the management market, and it was with that in mind that we created our Revenue Management Division. These numbers show we made the right move at the right time to make these services available to our owner/clients.”