Finance

Profit Over Revenue: The New Measure of Growth

The shift from revenue growth to profit optimization isn’t just about changing metrics—it’s changing how hotels think about performance. With rising costs across labor, energy, and distribution, a strong RevPAR doesn’t guarantee a strong bottom line. Being busy isn’t the same as being profitable.

When Revenue Managers Become Profit Architects

Revenue management isn't just yielding prices. In fact, the difference between yield management and revenue management is precisely that revenue management doesn't stop at room revenue and captures all revenue streams.

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From Rooms to Stories: Turning Experience into Measurable Revenue

Millennials and Gen Z are inheriting a world where everything costs more. Housing, food, even free time come at a higher price. There's less money left for travel, so when they do travel, it has to matter. They're careful with budgets, but when they spend, they spend with purpose. They'll trade frequency for depth, choosing one meaningful trip over several forgettable ones.

2025/26 Federal Per-Diem Update: Steady Rates Ahead

The federal government per-diem rate is made up of a lodging allowance and a meals and incidental expense (M&IE) allowance. The per-diem lodging rates, which set the maximum amount a federal traveler can reimburse, are based on the average rates for mid-priced hotels and are set annually by the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA). A standard rate applies to most of the continental United States (CONUS), while individual rates apply to about 300 non-standard areas (NSAs), mostly comprising primary destinations or key cities.

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New Survey: Majority of Hoteliers Scaling Back Development Plans

Rising costs and uneven demand challenges are placing a significant strain on hotel investment and operations, according to a new survey conducted by the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA), the leading voice representing all segments of the hotel industry. The survey, conducted in late August, featured input from nearly 400 hotel property owners and operators nationwide.

Demand forecasts are always wrong. Agility is more important than accurate forecasting.

As a seasoned Revenue and Profit Optimization professional I would like to reitarate (which I have already expressed in my book Hospitality 2.0 and other publications): travel demand has always been uncertain, and history never repeats itself. Recent events just highlighted this fact for all of us (again), just like COVID did, and many events before that.

Now that the industry has come to this understanding, it's time to build a better "model of our reality" that can incorporate the uncertainty in a more optimal manner. It's time to rebuild our forecasting methods. Again, I describe this in detail in a separate chapter of my book.

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