LODGING LEADERS
233 | How Does Your Hotel Rate? Smart pricing strategies key to winning in a downturn
LODGING LEADERS
It’s often said the U.S. hotel industry is a street-corner business. With that point of view, it may not take much for a hotel operator to panic and set off a price war on your block.
The industry fell victim to mindless discounting in the days immediately after 9/11 and during the depth of the Great Recession.
Today’s hotel owners and operators like to think they’re smarter than that.
Over the past decade, revenue management – the science of smart pricing – has become a standard practice.
At the same time, technology providers have created automated programs that help properties determine the right price for the right guest at the right time. And hotels have a long list of online channels where they can advertise rate and convert browsers to bookers.
As the industry begins to see a slowdown in business performance, Lodging Leaders explores how hoteliers should be pricing now and in the near future.
We interview several specialists and technology innovators who focus on nothing but revenue management for hotels.
They share what to do if a hotel in your market starts to discounts rates; how to use online booking channels to generate more business; how far out to plan your revenue strategy; and what tactics to deploy to optimize profit.
Resources and Links
- Patrick Bosworth of Duetto
- Bill Daviau of Kriya RevGEN
- Klaus Kohlmayr of IDeaS Revenue Solutions
- Lily Mockerman of Total Customized Revenue Management
- Ira Vouk, independent revenue management consultant; senior product strategist, Cloudbeds
LODGING LEADERS
-
346 | Repositioning For Recovery: Hotel conversions to outpace new builds
Lodging Econometrics has tracked the hotel industry since 1998. Its global database includes new-hotel pipelines as well as renovations and brand conversions. Hotel franchisers once eager to launch new brands are focused on converting existing hotels because it’s a faster way to recover revenue lost to the COVID-19 pandemic than through new construction. In Episode 346, Lodging Leaders explores the increasing number of conversions in the U.S. hotel industry and what owners and operators need to consider before repositioning an asset.
-
345 | ‘Rosy View of Future’: Hotel industry sees unleashing of pent-up investor demand
In the first few months of the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S., financiers anticipated a swell of distressed hotel businesses. Some raised rescue funds to respond to what they thought was a pending crisis. Though there are financial rescues taking place, the level of such activity is far below what industry advisers and fund managers expected. Commercial real estate investors positioned to act in the early days of the pandemic held off and are now just beginning to unleash their cash hoards totaling billions of dollars. Episode 345 of Lodging Leaders podcast explores the state of capital investment in the hotel industry.