Hotel revenue management is commonly described as boiling down to selling the right room, to the right person at the right time, and for the right price. While that may sum up the goal, it does not come close to explaining the complexity of balancing all of those aspects for management. Hotel revenue management training provides management with a working system to manage occupancy, pricing, and marketing, which requires a coordinated effort across the organization. For any hospitality management professional, the goal is to maximize revenue by balancing demand, reservations, scheduling and variable pricing.

Managers must have a well-rounded understanding of what it takes to efficiently control proper hospitality management. Hotel revenue management training covers the specific drivers of revenue for a hotel. Training covers various topics including forecasting and availability controls, pricing and distribution channel management, overbooking and group management, and non-traditional revenue management applications. Constrained and unconstrained demand, as well as pacing, factor heavily into the momentum of the hotel industry. Managers need to be schooled in analyzing dates to evaluate different pricing models and apply duration management strategies. Hotels with a management team that is not adept at utilizing these tools will inevitably fall behind their competition and see a negative effect on the bottom line of the business.

Revenue management could be applied to any hospitality-based business such as restaurants, meeting spaces, spas, and even golf facilities. Any business with a fixed capacity, time variable demand, and perishable inventory needs to manage revenue. This kind of business has a clear ceiling for how much revenue it can earn; it becomes the manager’s job to try to reach that ceiling at the lowest cost. In order to do so, managers can employ analytics that forecast consumer behavior at the micro-economic level to optimize product availability and generate maximum revenue. Hospitality management professionals must have a firm grasp of finance, sales, marketing, and customer service, but the success of the business ultimately falls upon revenue management.

Managers are in the difficult position of knowing the nuances of every branch of the hospitality industry. However, the extent of a manager’s knowledge cannot stop with the hospitality industry. Managers must stay up-to-date in local and global economic news. Foreign currency values can play a significant role in tourism for a hotel. Managers need to be fully aware of local competition and politics to be able to properly forecast demand. Mathematics and problem-solving skills are both essential for effective management. A manager must develop the skills necessary to cross-analyze various sets of data over periods of time in order to detect trends and variations.

To keep up with modern changes in the hotel industry, managers must be tech savvy. Managers should understand social networks, as their role in the hotel industry could help marketing efforts. Managers should utilize the Internet to maximize their distribution channels and create a back-linking strategy, ultimately increasing their business’ online visibility. The hotel industry is moving forward, and those businesses that do not take advantage of hotel revenue management training will fall behind. Hotels and other hospitality businesses need to train their hospitality management teams in revenue management in order to remain successful.

David Shoemaker is Vice President of Learning Solutions and Innovation at eCornell. For more information on hotel revenue management training, hospitality management or eCornell, please visit http://www.eCornell.com

David Shoemaker is Vice President of Learning Solutions and Innovation at eCornell. For more information on hotel revenue management training, hospitality management or eCornell, please visit http://www.eCornell.com

Author Bio: David Shoemaker is Vice President of Learning Solutions and Innovation at eCornell. For more information on hotel revenue management training, hospitality management or eCornell, please visit http://www.eCornell.com

Category: Business Management
Keywords: hotel revenue management training,hospitality management