Program Director, Master’s Degree in Hospitality Strategy and Digital Transformation at Les Roches Global Hospitality Education
More from Scott DahlCorporate Director Revenue Management Palladium Hotel Group
More from Diego Fernandez Perez De PongaNothing divides revenue managers more than the discussion around artificial intelligence and machine learning. The two schools of thought fall into the category of technophobics and technophiles, with AI-enthusiasts on one side and Luddites on the other.
During COVID-19 pandemic, nearly 1 Billion rooms have gone unsold every week in the US only. With so much unsold space, hotels had to become creative with their offers and packages. Out-of-the-box th.
For years, revenue managers used historical data as a "compass" to navigate rates and inventory. Due to the pandemic, however, historical data lost much of their relevance, as 2020 and 2021 were statistical anomalies, to say the least.
Cost optimization and profitability: Cost-optimization has always been a central notion in revenue management. That being said, the pandemic brought renewed attention to the topic. Today, more than ever, proper cost control is crucial to navigate these difficult waters and prepare for the "new normal.
According to the Global Travel Staffing Barometer, due to the pandemic, travel companies around the world have laid off or furloughed over half a million people, and the number of LinkedIn users in the hospitality space applying the #opentowork hashtag to their profiles grows day after day.
The discussion around the pros and cons of rate parity has been around for almost a decade now. Regulations on the issue are, at best, patchy, with some countries where RP clauses are strictly prohibited (such as France, Austria, Italy, and Belgium), partially prohibited (Germany and Sweden), announced (Switzerland), or still unregulated (US and Latin America).
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.
According to Bloomberg, over 300 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines have already been administered; President Biden said the U.S. expects to vaccinate every adult by mid-May, and 53.7% of Israelis has received the first dose of the coronavirus vaccine.
It is no longer news that the hotel industry has suffered the worst decline in history. The resulting business failures are starting to make the news and most industry experts agree that it will be several years until the industry returns to anywhere near the health it had in 2019.
By the end of 2019, many of the thought leaders in revenue management had begun echoing a common theme, basically that the Revenue Management discipline was stuck in a rut. Industry-wide, Total Hotel Revenue Management was starting the become a joke.
The global hospitality industry has been through every perceivable calamity over the past decades: earthquakes, tsunamis, tornados, major floods, terrorist attracts like 9/11, SARS, global recessions, epidemics and pandemics like SARS, MERSA, ZIKA, swine flu and now COVID-19.
Robert Cross, the de facto Godfather of Revenue Management, stated "…everything starts with a day by day, segment by segment forecast", yet many hoteliers no longer produce one as part of their strategic process.
Recently the question has been asked at events, in social media posts and industry articles if revenue management is stuck in a rut. The authors assert that revenue management has not really advanced in the last 10 years and revenue managers are not doing anything differently than in the past.
Hospitality Net's World Panel is a thought-leadership platform where hospitality-industry opinion leaders share insights, views, ideas and reactions on important issues and events currently affecting the hospitality business. Each panel is made up of a select group of experts, and industry leaders who, by invitation, contribute succinct commentary on viewpoints which are suggested by panel-champs.
