INTERVIEWS Hotel Revenue Forum, 2nd edition! Interview with Emanuele Nardin, HotelPerformance P.2
Hospitality vs Technology... who’s winning? Interview with Damiano Zennaro, HotelPerformance P.3
Training, brand reputation and hotel Revenue Interview with Giovanni Borriello, HPoint P.6
Travel Safe, Besafe. Interview with Alessandro Bartolucci, Besafe Rate P.14
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OUR PANELS TOTAL REVENUE MANAGEMENT 3 questions to: 2019: Hotel Revenue Forum is back! The event dedicated to Revenue Management. After the success of its first edition in 2018, Hotel Revenue Forum is ready to launch the second edition with more international speakers and exciting agenda. Hotel Revenue Forum will bring the Revenue Management brightest minds and the operators together to discuss the key factors that are shaping the hospitality industry. An event that in its first edition, thanks to its innovative model, allowed industry leaders to bring their contribution and elevate the strategic approach to Revenue Management of all participants.
Klaus Kohlmayr, Chief Evangelist of IDeaS P.4 Hanna Lak, Founder of HMMH Consulting and of Nordic Revenue Forum P.10 Joonas Ahola, CEO and Founder of Meeting Package P.11
ONLINE DISTRIBUTION 3 questions to: Sean Fitzpatrick, CEO of OTA Insight Annemarie Gubanski, Founder and Consultant of Taktikon P.13
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28 febbraio 2019
Hotel Revenue Forum, 2nd edition! Interview with Emanuele Nardin, Founder of Hotel Revenue Forum and Director of HotelPerformance During last 7-8 years despite the interest in Revenue Management has increased so much I still see a lot of confusion and sometime even some improvisation in its application. High school and Universities don’t teach the subject or do it with a too much theoretical approach and this doesn’t help the diffusion of Revenue Management, especially into small and medium hotels. Most Masters have instead understood the importance of Revenue Management and included it among the course topics, but as they are quite expensive, they are not accessible to everyone. So said, a lot of single courses were born that are much more accessible: but, some of these are too self-referential. I’ve heard so many hoteliers define the action of lowering price by a competitor with the phrase “Hey, that is doing Revenue…”; it doesn’t make sense! At the same time technology grows rapidly and becomes more and more accessible, but still few hotels are taking advantage of it. These are the reasons why I started thinking about creating an educational event open and different from training courses, where to stimulate the comparison, with witnesses from all over the world and where participants can talk with experts and others, sharing their experiences and best practices… in conclusion a forum!
I like to describe the event with 3 words: training, inspiration, sharing. Just as everyone knows what it is a General Manager or a Reception Manager and has an idea of what to do to become such, I would like the same about how to become a Revenue Manager. We must definitely “undress” the Revenue Manager from that mysterious aura that is often given to him and make him part of the team, with a role that is increasingly transversal between the different departments even “front of the house” or “ back of the house “ ones. I am absolutely convinced that Hotel Revenue Forum is not an event exclusively dedicated to Revenue Managers, but also very useful to those involved in marketing, reception, sales, cost control and, why not, catering, SPA and congress areas: it is on these last areas that there will be major developments in the near future. We will speak about at Hotel Revenue Forum with some really interesting speeches. Don’t miss it!
We need to take a step forward both in the awareness of what Revenue Management is, both in the application and ability to do networking. In this second edition we wanted to keep the Forums, the heart of the event, we invited many international experts and we decided to organize panels, with panelists coming from technology companies, consultancy and from accommodation.
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Hotel Revenue Forum
Hospitality vs Technology... who’s winning? Interview with Damiano Zennaro, Director of Revenue in HotelPerformance
Who wouldn’t like to see profit raising year after year? Success is always the result of innovation and tenacity, strategy and leadership the real one the one that inspires and motivates. Hotel industry (and not only) is constantly in evolution. Trying to compare what we were used to do 10 or even 5 years ago to what we do today and what we will do in the next couple of years is almost impossible. Hence flexibility, willingness and power to change, open mindedness, strategy and a good dose of courage have done, do and will do the difference from a human (the one close to our heart, the hospitality which is so specific to our industry) and a technology/data perspective. These two elements are inseparable, a sine qua non condition for the success of a hotel: from one side the attention to the client , the power of letting him feel at home, the relentless attempt of making him happy at all costs in order to get another positive review in the social media world; from the other the progression of technology, the necessity of elaborate more and more data to stay competitive, optimize and continue to operate in serenity. Trying to manage a hotel with only one of these two elements is like driving a car (whatever the size is) with one hand only. Hospitality must be integrated with technology, with data and it is here where Revenue Management is playing and will play a vital role because understanding where we were, are and will be is the prelude to success. But which data and for whom? The ones who are more relevant to the hotel in question, whatever the size and location is.
Pricing together with marketing and sales strategies need be linked to the acquisition and interpretation of data which have become too many and too complex to be managed manually. Data amount that you can collect is huge: from historical to future data, from booking pace to forecast, from use of length of stay controls to group displacement calculation, from reputation management to ever increasing cost of sales and all this by market segmentation and channel. We know that data is not all but we should be able to get them in an easy and reliable way in order to transform them in effective and winning strategies. This is why the role of the Revenue Manager is also continuously evolving moving from the Excel, analytical “guru” of the past to a strategic leader with an eye on profit where skills like team building, excellent communication, great influencer are a must. Where are you and your hotel in this evolution? Have a great Hotel Revenue Forum!
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Total Revenue Management 3 questions to Klaus Kohlmayr, Chief Evangelist of IDeaS a pioneer and global technology company founded in 1989 leader in revenue management solutions in the hospitality and travel industries
I encourage readers to take a look at this video (http://bit.ly/Hotel-Revenue-Forum_ IDeas) about the future of revenue management, as moderated by Sherri Kimes, professor of operations management at Cornell’s School of Hotel Administration. Will Total Revenue Management be limited only to complex hotels with different revenue generators like restaurants, spa, meeting space, golf court, etc.?
While we read about Total Revenue Management everywhere there might be some confusion on what it really is… How would you define Total Revenue Management ? Total Revenue Management is the optimization of all of a hotel’s revenue streams. Revenue management used to be considered a very niche function, and one that was only applied to guestroom strategies without the influence or contributions from other hotel revenue streams. Over the years, however, hotels have recognized its benefits and enthusiastically adopted more scientific and analytical approaches to strategic revenue management—experiencing significant financial rewards in the process. Today, more and more hotels are seeing the benefits of extending the principles of strategic revenue management to their ancillary streams. The shift from focusing solely on guestroom revenue to the adoption of an organizational culture that applies revenue management throughout various departments has also encouraged hoteliers to broaden the types of metrics they use for performance evaluation. Traditionally, hotels solely relied on KPIs such as occupancy, average daily rate and revenue per available room (RevPAR) to evaluate the revenue performance of their properties. And while these are still important metrics of performance measurement, the industry has begun gravitating toward other standards that represent their wider spectrum of operations.
Total Revenue Management is important for any hotel that derives a significant portion of its revenue from “outside room” revenues. A hotel does not have to be complex to have opportunities to sell more. Food & Beverage, internet access, as well as selling services outside the hotel (and receiving commission for them), are opportunities any hotel can aim to achieve. Total Revenue Management encourages hotels to intelligently decide which business to accept across multiple revenue streams at all times, based on greatest overall value to the asset. What are the biggest barriers for implementing Total Revenue Management? One of the biggest challenges is having relevant and clean data which is easily accessible and can be transformed into information and decisions. Hotels have many different systems which don’t always exchange information efficiently – or make it very hard to extract data from. The biggest barrier is ensuring the data is accurate and relevant. Making a concerted effort to track these types of performance metrics within an organization, in addition to having the right technology and processes in place to capture, measure and control these KPIs, will help establish a baseline for hotel teams to work towards improving and optimizing their business performance. And while the industry does not focus on a standard KPI to account for Total Revenue performance and profitability, it is an area of focus that is steadily gaining more traction.
Hotel Revenue Forum
Online Distribution 3 questions to Sean Fitzpatrick, CEO of OTA Insight a cloud-based data intelligence platform which provides a suite of revenue management solutions that empower hotels to make smarter revenue and distribution decisions, founded in 2012. At the end of last year, Google launched Book on Google, an evolution of Google Hotel Ads. How do you perceive increasing hegemony of Google in the distribution space? Google’s extensive investment and its hotel and flights products have rightly captured the attention of the industry. It’s always notable when a large company invests heavily in its product; in this case, Google’s control of so much demand via its search product amplifies the industry’s concern. Even so, competition is healthy. It pushes us to build better products that solve real problems for customers. In our view, anything that turns more lookers to bookers is a good thing. It starts to become an issue when demand sits behind a pay-to-play wall. Hotels must see Google as part of a healthy, balanced distribution plan that includes direct booking, OTAs, metasearch, and wholesalers. Do you foresee a merger or acquisition in the medium-term within the distribution world? The bold entrance of Airbnb adds an entirely new dimension to distribution. The company is flush with cash and heavy with ambition. As we’ve already seen with its six acquisitions in 2017, Airbnb certainly does not hesitate to throw that weight around. It was a quiet 2018 on the acquisitions front for them, so look for more in the year ahead as they fill gaps heading into an eventual IPO. Airbnb has certainly captured the attention of the incumbents. Expedia, which has expressed clear intentions of becoming a technology platform for hotels, bought two companies focused on vacation rentals. The renewed focus on vacation rental inventory by the OTAs highlights concern about Airbnb’s encroachment into the OTA space. It also shows that customers want to see vacation rentals alongside hotels, and this influences M&A. To the chagrin of hoteliers everywhere, bedbanks continue to consolidate. As Hotelbeds settled into its ownership of GTA, WebBeds entrenched its position with its own shopping spree, acquiring Destinations of the World. As part of WebJet, WebBeds is uniquely positioned to thrive as a wholesaler across both hotels and flights. While wholesalers may struggle to find new channels to acquire, we will certainly see more M&A as traditional demand players, such as OTAs, look to become stronger allies to hotels by acquiring hospitality technology players.
What are the three most significant trends in the distribution arena? I’m bullish on the continued importance of distribution as the Revenue engine of hospitality. Three trends highlight my perspective: 1. Data accessibility. It used to be that the major players controlled access. That stifled innovation since startups couldn’t unlock the value stored within the data. Thanks to the power of cloud computing and the popularity of open source, we can crunch more data than ever before, at a cost that would have been unthinkable years ago. Data is more accessible and transparent. For example, hotels can now access pointof-sale data to determine the geographic location of searches on brand.com and OTAs. 2. Product innovation. Cloud computing and open-source have opened the floodgates of innovation. It no longer takes millions of dollars to build servers and deploy custom code. New distribution products can be tested and scaled far more quickly and affordably than ever before. This reduces risk for both startups and established companies, which fuels product innovation. 3. Channel consolidation. As wholesalers control ever-larger chunks of the market, hoteliers face pricing pressures. A thorough understanding of channel max, as well as how rooms are priced across channels, has become an essential capability of Revenue Managers worldwide. On the positive side, consolidation means fewer channels to monitor, and some stronger bargaining power for hotels to remove inventory from channels that promote rate disparity.
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Training, brand reputation and hotel Revenue Interview with Giovanni Borriello, Founder and owner of HPoint
We asked Giovanni Borriello how important it is to have qualified staff in hotel to improve guest experience and hotel brand reputation. What are the main mistakes about communication between departments in a hotel and how these influence hotel reputation and its revenue? During the last years, hotels world has radically changed by becoming more than any other business a complex system where communication plays a key role. Many hotels do not take into consideration many important factors about communication; in this way they make mistakes which affect service perception and compromise their reputation in the market. One of the biggest mistake is not being able to answer promptly to guests requests, but also the mismatch between question and answer. Last mistake is an excessive personalization of communication: it means that staff responds to client needs in an arbitrary way confusing the guests. These three aspects are particularly important when evaluating how hotels welcome their guests. Management often underestimates the importance of the role of hotel housekeeping staff. What does it mean having qualified and motivated staff (for example: impact of poor cleanliness on the reputation, service quality, cost and time optimization)? Often it seems that people do not understand how much housekeeping market has changed. Today there are new businesses that are appreciated by their low cost, but not by the quality of the service delivered.
banner HPOINT
Inevitably every extra activity for staff, such as on-going training and updates on last innovation around sanitisation and housekeeping, is a cost increase. This is an aspect that the Management team should take into account in order to offer an impeccable service. Quality doesn’t exist without investing in excellent staff! HPoint believes in the importance of ongoing, constant training activities; that’s why we offer to our staff an upgrade programme “on the job”. What are the trends hotels shoud follow in order to stay tuned and avoid losing ground? The most important trend is to avoid using the term Experience if this is not offered. In the past, it was enough to give to the guests the feeling of comfort, by offering all kind of accessories that would make the stay very pleasant. Today, the customer wants to live a 360 degrees experience, where functionality, comfort and aesthetics are just some of the necessary elements to make the stay unique. We at HPoint support hoteliers in managing all aspects of the comfort: we rent mattresses, televisions, electronic equipment and we provide energy in the Esco formula, with a service designed specifically for hotel needs, proposing a pay-as-you-go solution.
Hotel Revenue Forum Program A
ADVANCED
B
Revenue Management’s evolutions
BASIC
First notions about Revenue Management
TITLE
FORUM
Big “round tables”
9.40-10.20 SPEAKER AND COMPANY
7
PANEL
Dialogue between experts
ROOM
A
Hotels and Event venues: How to increase your revenue and decrease your costs
Joonas Ahola Meeting Package
Viscontea
A
The Revenue Excellence Compass methodology
Nicolas Alsterdal Choice Hotels International
Sforzesca A
Piergiorgio Schirru Blastness
Sforzesca B
A
La centralità del Revenue Management per ottenere il mix distributivo ideale e ridurre il peso delle commissioni
A
Personalizzazione Predittiva: sommare l’utente all’equazione del Revenue Management
Lucia Cianchetta The Hotels Network
Torriana
Non solo ricavi: l’efficientamento energetico per l’ottimizzazione dei profitti
Rossano Sciabbarrasi Smart Energy Hotel
Gonzaga
B
Revenue Management Talk Show
Lorenzo Cesarotto e Fabrizio La Volpe HotelPerformance
Braidense
Ok, il prezzo è giusto? L’importanza della profilazione del cliente
Salvatore Lo Re Expedia
Ambrosiana
TITLE
BREAK 10.20-10.50 10.50-11.30 SPEAKER AND COMPANY
ROOM
A
Untapped potential: Identifying revenue opportunity with data analytics
Cindy Heo Ecole Hôtelière de Lausanne
Viscontea
A
Il valore del prezzo: la precisione delle tecnologie e l’indispensabile intervento umano
Vito D’Amico MyForecast by Sicaniasc hospitality
Sforzesca A
Revenue & Marketing Tips
Daniela Carbonara Ge.Co.
Sforzesca B
Nuovi modelli di Pricing: possiamo prendere spunto da altri settori?
Federico Quarato - Dynamitick, Ivan Martinez - lastminute.com, Raffaele Pasquini - Aereoporti di Roma, Michele Resta - Costa Crociere, Emanuele Nardin - HotelPerformance
Torriana
Metasearch & Revenue Management: un approccio condiviso ai dati per raggiungere la massima redditività degli investimenti
Michele Ferrato e Massimo Trovò Nozio
Gonzaga
Il Revenue Management nella giungla della distribuzione 2.0: equilibrio, compromesso o guerra?
Silvia Cantarella - Revenue Acrobats Francesco Criscuolo - H.N.H. Hotels & Resorts
Braidense
Come coniugare la gestione del prezzo dinamico con le tariffe Corporate e FIT
Marco Montalto e Massimo Fresu Mentefredda
Ambrosiana
B
B
BREAK 11.30-12.00
8
TITLE
12.00-12.40 SPEAKER AND COMPANY
ROOM
Total Revenue Management Is this the real life, is this just fantasy? The future of Total Revenue Management
Cindy Heo - Ecole Hôtelière de Lausanne, Klaus Kohlmayr - IDeaS, Joonas Ahola - Meeting Package, Hanna Lak - Nordic Revenue Forum, Damiano Zennaro - HotelPerformance
Viscontea
Ullrich Kastner - myhotelshop, Erjon Gorani - HQ plus
Sforzesca A
A
Updates on Google: Commission vs CPC, Book on Google vs. Direct Business Three tips how market intelligence can drive direct bookings and maximize your hotel Revenue.
Matteo ToresaniBooking Expert Elena Mascolo Revenue Goal
Sforzesca B
B
L’analisi delle statistiche nella distribuzione online orientate all’incremento del Revenue
Simone Puorto Simone Puorto Consulting
Torriana
B
Non si esce vivi dagli anni ‘90. Dalle parole chiave alla personalizzazione predittiva dei contenuti SPA Revenue Management, due chiavi per il successo: Spa Engineering & Spa Menu Engineering
Regis Boudon Doris LEMI
Gonzaga
B
Oltre il dynamic pricing: l’estensione del prezzo dinamico alle colazioni
Francesca Maio e Mariangela Parillo NH Hotel Group
Braidense
Gli indicatori di costo a supporto delle decisioni di Revenue Management. Dal costo di acquisizione al rendimento dei canali commerciali
Gabriele Gneri Hotels Doctors
Ambrosiana
TITLE
BREAK 12.40-14.00 14.00-14.40 SPEAKER AND COMPANY
ROOM
Klaus Kohlmayr IDeaS
Viscontea
A
The role of humans in the future of Revenue Management: a story of magic, intelligence and dogs
Kris Glabinski - Lybra tech Ramzi Zawaideh - BAARI, Board of Arab Airlines Representives in Italy
Sforzesca A
A
The science of Revenue Management from flights to hotels: a holistic approach to the right data
A
Forecasting, Group Rating & Availability Controls in Revenue Management
Nazarena DonettiRateBoard
Sforzesca B
Come integrare Upselling, Cross Selling e Ancillary nei processi di Revenue Management
Maurizio Mischi - Ancillary Guru, Alberto Pasinato - Marriott International, Vito D’Amico MyForecast by Sicaniasc hospitality Luca Liparulo - Manet Mobile, Silvia Cantarella - Revenue Acrobats
Torriana
Dai Big Data agli Small Data: i dati fondamentali per una strategia di vendita mirata
Luca Migliavacca Sysdat Turismo
Gonzaga
Revenue Management Analytics & Benchmarking
Luciano Scauri SKL International
Braidense
Travel Clubs: come utilizzarli correttamente e sfruttarli al meglio
Francesco Lasaracina Hotel Selling
Ambrosiana
B
BREAK 14.40-15.10
15.10-15.50 SPEAKER AND COMPANY
TITLE
9
ROOM
A
The current state of parity in Europe: a deep dive into parity performance
Sean Fitzpatrick OTA Insight
Viscontea
A
10 cose da evitare per aumentare il fatturato
Stefano Montagna Vertical Booking, Zucchetti Group
Sforzesca A
A
Come aumentare il profitto in un mondo digitale e guidato dai dati
Francis Louis Passerini D-Edge
Sforzesca B
RevPAR vs NetRevPAR: il fatturato Top vs Bottom Line
Filippo Fasolo - AdsHotel, Gabriele Gneri - Hotels Doctors, Italo Paltrinieri - 5stelle, Eugenio Cignolini Dimora Ghirlandaio, Damiano Zennaro HotelPerformance
Torriana
Conosci i tuoi dati e sai come usarli? Metodi e soluzioni di data quality management e marketing automation in cloud per sviluppare più ricavi diretti
Alessandro Calligaris Serenissima Informatica
Gonzaga
Come costruire un Revenue Management System fai da te con la potenza dei fogli Google
Edoardo Caldari e Bruno Domenico Strati HotelPro360
Braidense
Ancillary Revenue & Global Experience Marketplace: le nuove frontiere del turismo digitale
Matteo Furina e Antonietta Lauria Booking.com
Ambrosiana
B
TITLE
BREAK 15.50-16.20 16.20-17.00 SPEAKER AND COMPANY
ROOM
Online Distribution Intermediate or not to intermediate: how is distribution evolving?
Robin Rossman - STR, Sean Fitzpatrick - Ota Insight, Elga Castro Boquete - NH Hotel Group, Vassilis Syropoulos - Juyo Analytics, Annemarie Gubanski Taktikon Consultancy
Viscontea
Revenue vs Marketing: competizione o cooperazione
Simone Puorto - Simone Puorto Consulting, Francesco Criscuolo - H.N.H Hotels & Resorts, Lorenzo Totaro - Royal Group Hotels & Resorts, Giuseppe Messina - MAG Hotels, Sara Digiesi - Best Western Italia, Enzo Aita
Sforzesca A
B
Integrazione tra Revenue e Marketing: 3 strategie vincenti per il tuo hotel
Marco Montalto e Massimo Fresu Mentefredda
Sforzesca B
Guest Experience & Revenue Management - Ottenere l’equazione perfetta: soddisfazione, reputazione e fatturato
Carlo Fontana Hoxell
Torriana
B
Monitors e TV per comunicazione digitale. Innovare per distinguersi ed offrire esperienze efficaci
Luca Urati Interface Globe
Torriana
B
Reputazione alle stelle! Come ottenere visibilità gratuita su portali di recensioni e metamotori
Marzia Baislak Qualitando
Gonzaga
B
Come monitorare gli scostamenti dal budget attraverso l’analisi del pick up
Emanuele Mansueti c-hotels
Braidense
Alla ricerca dell’optimal mix, contribuzione per segmentocanale e impatto sui KPIs
Federica Finzi AccorHotels
Ambrosiana
10
Total Revenue Management 3 questions to Hanna Lak, Founder of HMMH Consulting and of Nordic Revenue Forum
The properties with less services manage to see the efficiencies in certain market conditions on the Total Revenue KPIs. I also see that the Total Revenue Management movement will bring with it tools for restaurants and conference facilities that do not offer accommodation. What is the biggest barrier for implementing Total Revenue Management?
While we read about Total Revenue Management everywhere there might be some confusion on what it really is… How would you define Total Revenue Management? I agree, the interpretation varies. The scientific view of the total revenue management often relies on hard facts; data & analysis and drive for short term profits. In my view, the Total Revenue Management is about balancing the drive for profits of each department and understanding, which departments enable the property to charge premium for the most profitable department and should therefore be considered more as part of the overall image of the property and part of marketing offering the highest value for the customer. Will Total Revenue Management be limited only to complex hotels with different revenue generators like restaurants, spa, meeting space, golf court etc? Absolutely not! Naturally if there is only one revenue generating department then rooms Revenue Management or Restaurant Revenue Management in themselves already is defined as total revenue for that particular establishment. This kind of operators are part of the market’s Total Revenue Management benchmarking on Total Revenue Management KPIs. In the Nordics we use the Benchmarking Alliance for hospitality trends and for example the RevPASM (Revenue per square meter) is one of the measures where the properties can see how efficiently their space is generating revenues.
TECHNOLOGY is without the doubt the number one reason Total Revenue Management has not evolved since the first time the studies on it were published. There are companies with very smart Revenue Management professionals whose hands are tied, and they cannot develop themselves further until technology catches up with the need. I am hopeful thou, as instead of just talking about F&B Revenue Management or conference Revenue Management with no digital services to support the work, there are each year more and more solutions coming to the market to tackle these issues. However, I am yet to find a company, which can respond to the variable needs of different hotels with an “all-in-one” solution - this applies not only to the revenue management, but the Hospitality technology in general. There are great solutions, yet nearly all of them are “standalone” leaving the hotel teams managing dozens of different systems - and the Revenue Management team desperate to capture important data from each of them. Some BI solutions gather information to some extent, yet even most of them are rooms only focused - so far. Another reason are the goals. If the team is measures on KPIs such as RevPAR then that’s what the companies get. If in addition to rooms KPIs, the goals were set on TrevPAR and GOPPAR, then we may see a shift to Total Revenue Management sooner.
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Total Revenue Management 3 questions to Joonas Ahola, CEO of Meeting Package a company which makes meeting rooms bookings as easy as booking hotel rooms, founded in 2014 While we read about Total Revenue Management everywhere there might be some confusion on what it really is… How would you define Total Revenue Management and how it effects the Meetings & Events? I would say that Total Revenue Management is just a new way of looking at traditional Revenue Management. To me revenue management even without the word “total” should already include all aspects of business where Revenue is triggered. The Revenue Management has been a hot topic within hotels for quite some time. A lot of the time hoteliers think about Revenue Management only for bedrooms but it includes so much more. To be able to yield your property better you will need to know where you stand today and understand the data of different areas of your business. (bedrooms, F&B, Meetings & events etc.) For example if we look at only pricing part of the equation, hotels are getting better and better to price their bedrooms dynamically but then M&E side of the business is not even close to this. Many times hotels are selling their M&E space on Mondays the same price as their selling on Thursday’s or that there is no change to the pricing nevertheless if you book two or ten weeks in advance. Total Revenue Management should be looking after the whole operations on where the hotel is currently getting revenues from and not necessarily looking into totally new revenue streams. By yielding the operations better and more cost effectively hotels can create more profits by either increasing pricing per demand, lowering pricing per low demand days while increasing utilization as well as increasing conversions and automating manual processes. Will Total Revenue Management be limited only to complex hotels with different revenue generators like restaurants, spa, meeting space, golf court etc? Revenue Management strategies can be implemented in a simplified and more advanced ways. Having said this I believe every property should have their own Total Revenue Management strategies in place and of course depending if you M&E spaces or restaurants you should take these also as part of that strategy.
The less you have operational areas your Total Revenue Management will also be more straight forward and easier to implement. What is the biggest barrier for implementing Revenue Management for Meetings & Events? Working on the M&E side of the industry for years we have seen that hoteliers don’t typically know the basic details of their group or M&E sales. Things like average delegate price, utilization of M&E space, conversions are typically unknown figures. Not to mention even more detailed metrics such as RevPAS (Revenue Per Available Space). What I have understood is that one of the main problems is to get the data collected rather than knowing how to use it. This should be taken into consideration in the operations from day one since you can’t improve if you don’t know where you stand today. There is a big trend at the moment in starting to sell your M&E spaces as well as other operational areas of your business online which makes the Revenue Management even more important. When power is given to the customers to make the choice of their meeting rooms or F&B the pricing and logics behind need to automatically adjust to the strategy set by the hotel. This gives a lot more possibilities to increase sales and revenue but also generates risks if not managed correctly. You might end up in over pricing your M&E space by just showing the rack rate for all days or selling all of your spaces with too low Revenue per booking.
9 OTTOBRE 2018
PALACONGRESSI RIMINI
INCONTRARSI, CONFRONTARSI, AGGIORNARSI.
8 ottobre 2019 Palacongressi di Rimini
Un’intera giornata dedicata all’ospitalità Ideato e organizzato da Teamwork, Hospitality Day è arrivato alla sua 6ª edizione. Grazie alla partecipazione di esperti relatori e di professionisti del settore alberghiero, oggi è diventato un momento di incontro e di condivisione di idee per gli operatori turistici.
www.hospitalityday.it
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Online Distribution 3 questions to Annemarie Gubanski, Founder of Taktikon a leading training- and consultancy firm within Revenue Management and Distribution, founded in 2010 and based in Stockholm and Amsterdam
End of last year Google launched BoG – Book on Google, an evolution of Google Hotel Ads. How do you perceive the increasing hegemony of Google in the distribution space? I believe that guests will have a different way of booking their stay in a near future and Google is one of the players that is very much in the Drivers Seat for this change. This is a new type of Metasearch / OTA where guests find the hotel (or lodge, apartment, etc), book their stay on a third party channel without understanding they have left the Google platform. In my opinion, this is a huge opportunity for hotels as they will be able to attract the guests booking direct. Do you foresee a merging or an acquisition in the medium term in the distribution world? Difficult to say; I believe one of the OTAs, most probably Expedia, will quite soon be merging with the major Wholesaler of today; TUI. What are the 3 most significant trends in the distribution arena? 1. Metasearch will evolve towards a model where guests will not notice they have left the platform (as Google is moving into) and I think that more of these types of players will come into the market. Amazon might be one of the future players here.
2. Rate Parity is a thing of the past and this does not necessarily have to be a good thing as more distribution channels will try to move towards the Wholesaler platforms. One example is Expedia Package which is distributed to (amongst others) Wholesalers and this means that they will end up on OTA sites such as Amoma. 3. Voice will definitely be the way to book in the future and this also means that security will become a very big issue. With all our devices listening to whatever we have to say; what will happen with all this information?
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28 febbraio 2019
Travel Safe, Besafe. Interview with Alessandro Bartolucci, CEO & Founder of Besafe Rate
Direct bookings are still a challenge for hoteliers however innovation is bringing news and tools to grant to travelers the same comfort and customer experience offered by OTA. We have interviewed Alessandro Bartolucci to know benefits and services that Besafe Rate gives both to hoteliers and to travelers.
Hotelier and tourist: what need to do both in order to boost direct booking? Hoteliers should have a performing and attractive website from a content and photographic point of view and they have to be active on social media. They should offer to their prospects valid reasons to visit their website. In regard to tourists, hotel competition is booming. Hotel owners offer all kind of services (even free of charge) to increase direct bookings. So, even bookings should have another gear – it is not enough to discount and offer extra services such as transfer, personalized tour, bouquet of flowers… How do you improve the user experience for the ones booking directly on the website? Besafe Rate is a rate for every kind of tourist accommodation and it could be sold even through direct channels (phone, email…). It is a unique hotel rate with an insurance cover included in the booking. Different from any other stay insurance package, Besafe Rate doesn’t need flags and doesn’t need to be redirected to other websites – and this is the real innovation.
This mean that the person who books does not need to exit the Online Booking page avoiding distraction. What are the benefits for the guests and how to best inform them about it ? Today traveler wants to be smart and safe. We should not inform him about contingencies however it is necessary for a successful travel! For this reason, Besafe Rate cover the full refund in specific cases and foresee free coverage in case of cancellation due to unexpected events, such as: flu, injuries, hospital recovery and natural disasters. Besides the cancellation guarantee, price includes: sanitary assistance, baggage guarantee, theft, refund of the stay in case of early departure due to real problems, roadside assistance. Would you mind revealing some information about your next projects? The innovation is Besafe Rate Online Travel Agency: the hotelier will be the core. BeSafeRate.com is under development and it will be a hotel incubator like an OTA, but differently from OTAs it will be a hoteliers friend. Besafe Rate will only offer prepaid rates including insurance. Insurance will no longer be a plus, neither for hotelier nor for traveler, because it will be included in the fee, that will be very low. A new, different and revolutionary OTA.
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