The trends shaping hotel revenue management training
They say a change is as good as a holiday, but few sectors have seen as many changes in the last few years as the holiday industry itself.
Hotel revenue management, in particular, has evolved at breakneck speed, keeping pace with the growth of online travel agencies, increased competition and an ever-savvier clientele.
So what can we expect for our industry in the coming months? And crucially, what trends will hotel management training need to keep up with?
Clawing back direct sales from OTAs
This is a trend that feels like it’s been a long time coming, but as more and more key hotel personnel are trained in areas such as search engine optimisation (SEO) and hotels invest more in their own websites, more of the smaller independent guys will be able to compete with the OTA giants.
What once seemed like an insurmountable task is becoming more attainable thanks to good quality hotel management training opportunities that are open to even the smallest of independents.
Revenue management training providers like Octopus Revenue offer affordable programmes, including online revenue management courses, that can empower hotels to drive up direct sales using techniques such as optimising websites and running successful pay-per-click ad campaigns.
With OTAs charging anything up to an eye-watering 25% of booked room rates, driving up direct sales can mean significant savings. Smaller hotels are starting to recognise that initial investment in their own management teams’ training can be quickly recouped the long run.
Using available data more effectively and efficiently
One of the issues we often come up against as revenue management consultants is that revenue managers and hotel managers are simply overwhelmed by the sheer volume of data available to them now.
With everything from competitors’ market share to how much guests spend on breakfast able to be tracked and recorded, the potential historical data yield is vast.
As revenue management techniques evolve, we are getting a better understanding of which KPIs are most valuable for accurate forecasting and for shaping business decisions.
This is why ongoing revenue management training will continue to be ever-more relevant for key hotel management personnel. Learning to cut through the jungle of information to weed out what is the really valuable data is a crucial element of effective revenue management.
Keeping up with developing revenue management technology
The technology that revenue managers rely on is constantly developing, and as we approach 2018, this evolution shows no sign of slowing down.
Certain elements of revenue management are benefitting from an increased level of automation, but that’s not to say the human revenue manager will become obsolete!
As automated systems increasingly take over the data collation and logistics, revenue managers can spend more time focussed on using that data to drive profitability.
Hotel management training will therefore certainly develop to have an increased focus on areas such as sales strategy and pricing for profit.
Octopus Revenue has a well-earned reputation for delivering quality and affordable revenue management and hotel management training courses. Whatever your hotel management team’s training needs are, Octopus Revenue can help. See our full training calendar here, or get in touch
