Resorts, think twice—you, too, can reach revenue paradise
- Leading RMS providers are finally paying attention to resort-specific needs
- Automated dynamic pricing, flexible inventory optimization and more are possible for resorts
- Revenue managers can finally spend a little less time on spreadsheets and a little more time on strategy
Resort revenue managers, you eternal bachelors and bachelorettes, prepare to fall head over heels. You never thought the right one would come along, so you stuck to your manual spreadsheets, 24/7 work schedule, giant calculators and abacuses—or is it “abaci”? You believed automated revenue technology just wasn’t for you. “It doesn’t get me,” you’d say, or, “It would never work out.” And, in some ways, you were right. The early revenue management systems that helped traditional hotels achieve greater profitability and productivity weren’t designed to account for the deep complexities of your all-inclusive business model.
Resorts require a more tailored approach than the typical hotel that accounts for flexible inventory to accommodate families and groups of all sizes, while pricing per person or by room, as well as managing an abundance of package offers and contracted wholesale rates, among other factors. The good news is that the future of resort revenue management looks promising. As leading revenue management technology providers wise up to these specific needs of resorts, they’ll customize their products to better serve this industry.
New and updated systems with component rooms functionality will allow resorts to optimize all configurations of suites and room types and build a strategy based on guest demand and price sensitivity. An advanced capability like this will give revenue managers the confidence to know which components of a room to combine into larger accommodation offerings, and at what price, to achieve the greatest profitability and optimal mix across channels.
Some resorts still shy away from the perceived complications of dynamic pricing, but revenue platforms with the latest in machine learning can seamlessly provide automated pricing decisions that consider more possibilities than ever before. Other resort-centric solutions will include group pricing and evaluation tools—maybe a good way to finally see if those wholesale contracts are worth the displacement of other business—as well as meetings-and-events space analytics and other ancillary revenue stream optimization. Think beyond just guest rooms to total property profit growth. Restaurants, spas, golf…the sky’s the limit.
Many of these sophisticated features are already available, and with other AI breakthroughs on the horizon, a resort revenue manager may start to wonder if it’s too much of a good thing. Could the technology become so far advanced as to make their job obsolete? It doesn’t look likely; at least not any time soon.
Creative planning and a human understanding of the resort business and leisure-seeking consumer behavior are imperative for identifying new ways to increase revenue and improve the guest experience. Big data analysis still requires good old intuition and abstract thinking to be utilized successfully. What revenue strategy automation and optimization software really enable is user empowerment, boosted confidence, improved job performance, greater efficiency and a lot more time and energy for constructive, forward-thinking initiatives.
So, resort revenue managers, maybe the time has come to reconsider the possibilities of revenue technology, and who knows, you might just find yourself making a transformative connection.
- Rev Up Your Revenue Productivity Engine - December 12, 2018
- Did You Leave Your Revenue Technology in the Stone Age? - September 12, 2018
- Resorts and Revenue Technology Finally Elope in Magical Destination Wedding - July 25, 2018
