COVID has hit the global hotel industry hard. But as with every crisis, new opportunities surface. During the financial crisis of 2008/09, we saw Airbnb and Uber emerge.

Many revenue-generating ideas were born over the past year. From staycation and workation to renting out equipment and even offering outsourced services like housekeeping. Hoteliers have been creative in finding ways to keeping their business afloat.

What was born out of a need for survival might lead to a more permanent shift in a hotel's business model.

The idea of non-room revenue is nothing new and even pre-pandemic was something more and more hotels embraced. F&B or MICE revenue management is still in its infancy for the overall industry but terms like Total RevPAR have evolved from buzzword to serious KPI.

Is now the time to look at non-room, ancillary revenue? Where are the opportunities?

Jens Egemalm
Jens Egemalm
Director of Distribution at Pandox AB

COVID will (hopefully) be a catalyst for change in many respects. The big opportunity may counterintuitively lie in forgetting all we think we know about our guest: (s)he wants to book a standard room with breakfast and if we're lucky pay a visit to the bar to spend some extra cash, at what we think is an acceptable price tag. Unlearning the past can help the revenue community refocus on why a guest, internal or domestic, wants to come to our hotel and what parts of the experiences we have to offer that guest is looking and actually ready to pay for. In some cases this will be a room with breakfast, in others it will be a private dining experience, some hours at the gym or spa or a place to work with a view for a day.

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