To price, or not to price - that is the question - a lesson from Shakespeare

To Price, or Not to Price

(A Revenue Manager’s Shakespearean Tragedy)

Every revenue manager has had that moment.

You sit there, staring at the screen. Pickup is… meh. Forecast is blinking at you like it knows something you don’t. Sales wants action. Marketing wants “a campaign.” The GM wants certainty. The owner wants sleep.

And suddenly you hear Shakespeare whispering in your ear:

To price, or not to price?

This is not a pricing question. This is an existential one.

Hamlet Was a Revenue Manager (He Just Didn’t Know It)

Hamlet wasn’t indecisive because he was weak. He was indecisive because every option had consequences.

Sound familiar?

Hold rates? → You risk being “too expensive.”

Drop rates? → You risk teaching the market you panic easily.

Do nothing? → Everyone thinks you’re doing nothing.

Revenue management lives exactly in that tension. Between action and restraint. Between logic and emotion. Between what the data says and what the room feels like.

Romeo & Juliet were a distribution problem

Romeo didn’t lose Juliet because he didn’t love her. He lost her because timing, messaging, and channels were completely misaligned.

If Romeo had waited one more message… If Juliet hadn’t assumed… If someone had managed expectations…

That’s distribution in a nutshell.

Guests swear they love you. They say they’ll book direct. They promise loyalty.

Then they disappear… …and reappear on an OTA at 2am comparing prices.

Not because they lied. Because love without frictionless conversion is just poetry.

Revenue Management is emotional math

Here’s the part nobody likes to admit:

Revenue management is not about being right. It’s about being right enough, repeatedly, under pressure.

You’re balancing:

• Fear of empty rooms
• Fear of cheap rooms
• Fear of being blamed later

And just like Shakespeare’s heroes, the real danger isn’t the wrong decision.

It’s letting fear make the decision for you.

The Tragedy Isn’t the Wrong Price

The tragedy is this:

• Discounting because it feels safer
• Chasing competitors instead of understanding demand
• Confusing movement with progress
• Explaining decisions instead of owning them

That’s how good strategies die quietly. Not with a bad forecast. But with a room full of people nodding while nobody really agrees.

The Quiet Power Move

Great revenue managers don’t dramatise every decision.

They:

• Accept uncertainty
• Make fewer, better moves
• Let demand reveal itself
• Trust patterns over panic

They know that sometimes the bravest thing isn’t action.

It’s patience. Or, in Shakespearean terms:

Thus conscience doth make cowards of us all.

But experience? Experience turns conscience into judgment.

And judgment into profit.

Love,

Fabi

Bit about me: I’m Fabian Bartnick aka Fabi – The Commercial Growth Leader. I’ve built and exited hospitality tech companies, trained thousands of leaders worldwide in sales, marketing and revenue management, and helped businesses in multiple industries align their commercial teams for measurable growth. TL;DR: I make people better and companies more money.

If you’re ready to align your sales, marketing, and data into one unstoppable growth engine, connect with me on LinkedIn.