Revenue Management Consultancy

working together to grow revenue and reduce costs

Revenue Management consultancy

The concept of revenue management has not changed. It is still about selling the right room to the right client at the right moment at the right price through the right channel. While accommodation providers understand the concept fully, a lack of time, resources and strategy often means this critical function can become secondary to operational issues.

The Rate Wise team have extensive experience in the hotel industry. We understand the challenges faced by many owners and operators in managing their day to day business. Operational distractions can prevent you from focusing on the most profitable area of your business – your rooms.

Our revenue consultants have a proven track record in increasing bedroom revenue for our clients. Our team will help you uncover the hidden revenue potential of your hotel, serviced apartments or hostel. Through best practice methodologies, strategic techniques and in-depth knowledge of online distribution, we will optimise the potential of every room sold leading to increased revenue and lower distribution costs.

Our consultancy service focuses on many areas of your business including book direct strategies, OTA account management and a deep dive into your systems and procedures. Our service includes an initial site visit to get a full understanding of your business, followed by regular conference calls and email communication.

Book Direct Strategy

Unfortunately, a hotel will never have the budgets to out-rank or out-bid the OTA giants such as booking.com or hotels.com. However, there are ways we can leverage the power of their billboard effect and convert an OTA looker into a direct booker.

Your hotel website is the lowest cost channel and should be positioned as the primary way to book. We believe that it plays a fundamental role in the revenue management picture.

While it’s crucial to have the pricing right, it’s equally important to have a website that’s attractive, easy to navigate and easy to book.

We will ensure your best room types and most attractive packages are available only on your official website and that users are reminded at every stage of their booking journey that ’Direct is Best’.

OTA Account Management

While hoteliers can become disgruntled at the high commissions charged by OTAs, it’s important to remember that OTAs can put your hotel at the fingertips of audiences you could not reach as a stand-alone hotel. Cumulatively, they spend millions in online marketing to increase their market share. We recommend that hotels should work with a select number of OTAs in order to leverage this worldwide exposure and create brand awareness.

We will complete a full health check of your existing OTA listings and review the rate plans and packages you have available. We will review your property description, photos and reviews. Based on our findings, we can decide how best to distribute your room stock in order to maximise potential. We have established relationships with all the major OTAs and can offer advice on their ever-demanding requests for rate parity, additional inventory and promotional programmes.

While we recognise the importance of the OTAs, our revenue management team know exactly when to turn the tap on and off. Our detailed analysis of your booking pace and pick up trends will alert you when OTA allocations should be reduced or closed out.

Revenue Horizon

Our Revenue Horizon report prompts the property’s management team to review room movement and pickup, average daily rate (ADR), revenue per available room (RevPAR) and overall revenue trends on a weekly basis for future months. All of which are benchmarked against budget and forecast.

This clever tool allows you to track movement of rooms and revenue by day of week, versus same time last year. Based on historical trends we can forecast accurately and target quiet periods well in advance.

Group Displacement Tool

Our Group Displacement Tool was developed to assist reservation managers with group enquiries. No more guessing games or weighing up the pros and cons of accepting a group enquiry.

Simply enter the dates, number of rooms and requested rate and the Group Displacement Tool will tell you:

If this enquiry will displace higher yielding business
If this enquiry will displace revenue to ancillary outlets: breakfast, food or beverage

It works in conjunction with our business analysis tool and takes into account your historical data and ADR for the same days of week last year.

Based on the data you input it can advise you if the group will make a positive impact on your revenue or if it will displace other business from higher yielding segments.

Group Wash Down Report

The groups segment can be an important segment for a lot of hotels. However, it has a high cancellation rate and can leave hotels wondering where all their business on the books went if an unexpected cancellation comes in.

Most group bookings are made over 12 months in advance of the tour being sold but may not cancel until 4-6 weeks prior to arrival. This can compromise the entire rate strategy.

Our Group Wash Down Report will provide you with accurate statistics. It will calculate which operators have the strongest conversion rates and what your average wash down percentage is, by month.

Systems Support and Set Up

Selecting the right property management system (PMS), channel manager and website provider can be a very complex, expensive and time consuming task. Many software companies are great at telling you the benefits of their platform but once you begin using the software, you may quickly realise that it doesn’t connect with your point of sale or website booking engine.

We have vast experience working with property management systems including Hotsoft, Opera, Amadeus PMPRO, Protel and Guestline to name a few. We also work with an extensive list of channel managers including Room Cloud, Cubilis, Siteminder, Availpro, Accubook and Yield Planet.

We can help you navigate this complex area and offer practical advise on what’s right for your property. No two hotels are the same and each property needs to select the optimum solution for their business.

Website Design, Booking Engine and Digital marketing

While it’s absolutely crucial to have the correct rate strategy, it’s equally important to have a website that’s attractive, easy to navigate and easy to book. Your hotel website is the lowest cost channel and is an integral part of your book direct strategy. It should always be positioned as the best platform for a guest to make their online reservation. Why would someone book on your website if it’s cumbersome and doesn’t reward them for booking direct?

We share our offices with a highly skilled digital marketing team from Sprint Digital (who are also part of PREM Group). They specialise in areas such as website design, booking conversion, search engine optimisation and paid marketing among many other things.

The team at Sprint Digital can help you drive direct business by optimising your digital strategy to encourage direct booking at every touch point. By partnering with Sprint’s website development team, you can maximise your opportunity to drive direct business. Experts in their field and accredited as official Google Partners, they will drive more qualified visitors to your website and increase your online conversion.