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?

Ally Northfield
Ally Northfield
Director at Revenue by Design

Total Revenue Management offers all of the opportunity and none of the mystique if you're lucky enough to have different profit centres. The same principles of rooms revenue management apply but with key practical differences with different thought processes and different outcomes. 

First the cost base will differ; for F&B, food costs are higher than room turnaround costs. There's more flexibility in capacity management; think about the different room set up in meeting space. Available inventory can change over time; Golf course tee-times are governed by daylight hours and can be influenced radically by season. Spa menus can adapt to reflect popularity and profitability. And many profit centres can be adapted to reflect the new operating scenarios in the pandemic; for example offering shorter food menus to keep down waste and cost, or migrating to takeaway services. We've seen some fantastic creativity around this and its set to continue. One other key takeaway - keep Profit Management front of mind as a primary metric alongside Total Revenue Management.  

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