Last week’s post found us chatting about some of the crucial pieces of information that revenue managers can share with their marketing department. Demand forecasts, pricing, competitive set information, booking pace and transaction-level data all contribute to the overall success of your marketing department, their campaigns and metric evaluation.
This discussion inevitably flips the conversation from last week to the alternative side: What does marketing have that you need? I mean, if you’re going to be contributing time and resources to mutual successes, it’s only fair that you get something valuable back in return, right?
Here are some critical areas of information that marketing can give to you:
Refined Guest Segmentation
Revenue managers generally segment our customer business at a much higher level than our marketing department does. Let’s use the transient segment, for example. A transient segment for a revenue manager may include: “individual,” “business” and “family.” Marketing may break down this category at an even more granular level. “Family” might be comprised of: “single family,” “family with kids,” “adults ages 55+,” etc.
If you’re looking for ways to differentiate attractive rates and target the “right” people to the hotel, look no further than your marketing department. Exchanging this information creates a common language between revenue management and marketing, making it easier to work together to optimize revenue.
In-Depth Understanding of Guest Demographics & Psychographics
As a revenue manager, you’re constantly putting together packages to increase revenue opportunities. Marketers can help you develop these types of hotel packages through their understanding of where guests live and what their interests are. Working together produces offers and packages that are derived from these guest demographics and motivates them to occupy your hotel.
Demand-Generating Offers
Marketers are in the business of inspiration. They are aspiring to create demand for hotels by inspiring people to commit to their products and services. When you know that they are placing offers into the marketplace, you can use this information to create and validate more accurate demand forecasts. Sharing this knowledge between departments leads to better revenue optimization and stronger bottom-line performance.
Let’s be real: The hotel revenue management industry never stops evolving. This continuous evolution makes it important for us to embrace interdepartmental collaboration on processes that enhance business analytics and maximize revenue. Opening up the dialogue between revenue managers and marketers compounds the value of each department to proactively take mutual revenue opportunities to the next level.
A successful combination of these two areas is a true win-win for everyone and helps ensure that you’re providing the right price to the right customer at the right time.