Hotel Sales, Revenue Management Collaboration a 'Balance of Power' With Common Goal

As both the sales and revenue management divisions at hotel companies become more centralized and lighter-staffed, collaboration is paramount.

But experts said achieving the best level of cooperation requires an understanding of the two separate functions and how they each operate.

Speaking during the "How to Unsilo the Sales Process" at HSMAI's 2022 Revenue Optimization Conference Americas, Lori Kiel, chief commercial officer for the Kessler Collection, said it's increasingly difficult to find quality salespeople. As a result, some companies have had to "make salespeople out of people we otherwise never would've considered" and centralize sales duties so that one salesperson covers multiple properties, she said.

"It's not ideal, you know, but you have to stop whining and get over it," she said. "You have to figure out how you're going to get those leads, and how you're going to convert them in whatever shape or form they appear."

Chris Hardy, vice president of sales and revenue strategy for Parks Hospitality Group, said the hotel industry is getting to an important tipping point as requests for proposals and inbound sales leads are starting to return, and how their sales teams approach those are going to decide how successful revenue-management teams are, as well.

"We started to train [our sales teams] on revenue-management principals and strategy ... and I think that has really benefited our team so we have a broader understanding of how the two disciplines need to work together," he said.

Michael Feldman, senior vice president of revenue management and distribution for Atrium Hospitality, said leveraging data will be key to bridging the gap. He added his company tracks "a tremendous amount of data."