Revenue Reimagined: Innovative Strategies to Maximise Your Hotel's Earning Potential

Unlock new ways to boost profit margins

From economic uncertainty to global disruptions, hoteliers have faced no end of challenges to maximising their earning potential – especially under increasing pressure to drive efficiencies and reduce costs.

Competition is fiercer than ever before amid skyrocketing guest expectations – and it’s clear hoteliers need to think strategically to get ahead. Crucially, time is of the essence: acting quickly can help you gain a competitive edge within a crowded market.

While technology and data analysis – alongside the use of hotel specific software products – can be key differentiators in expanding revenue potential, it’s important to uncover innovative strategies to put them to good use. With several possible ways forward, here are some recommended approaches that will help you position your business for success.

Dynamic pricing

For the hospitality industry, dynamic pricing – adjusting room rates according to various factors such as location, trends or competitor pricing – is now pretty much table stakes. However, there is a way to up the ante to rise above your competitors using access to data insights that inform personalised pricing.

Essentially, the more the price is tailored to the guest, the better. For example, an understanding of the individual guest’s willingness to pay can contribute to pricing parameters, alongside other guest data, reservation history, and past purchase behaviour. This not only maximises revenue opportunities, but also helps improve the guest experience.

Tailoring your pricing in this way requires exceptional visibility across every single department – and every customer – via a single source of truth. Cloud-based hotel management software can provide properties with the transparency they need to make more informed decisions, particularly in regard to generating income.

Upselling and cross-selling

Upselling now goes beyond introducing paid add-on services, like adding a bottle of pinot grigio to a stay or charging for premium breakfast options. There are multiple alternative ways of diversifying revenue streams, such as offering wellness experiences, or partnering with local businesses to provide discounts on restaurants or theatre shows.

Having access to the right data can help hotels offer the right upsell or cross-sell opportunity to the right customer. For example, understanding why guests are staying can be influential. If they’re a small group visiting for a business meeting, then you might offer a discount on an upscale restaurant, whereas a family of four may prefer a relaxed fast-food joint.

On top of this, hotel executives should look to leverage hotel management software in more innovative ways. For example, they could provide tablets inside rooms for guests to browse and book local experiences, giving them autonomy over their stay while collecting essential data – and of course, increasing revenue.

Automation

Having the ability to do more with less is critical for driving revenue growth. Introducing automation can streamline tasks where possible, increasing efficiency and freeing up staff time.

At an operational level, this could look like automated housekeeping scheduling leading to improved room readiness. This then increases the opportunity for early check-ins or late checkouts – provided to the customer for a fee.

Automation can be implemented in myriad ways beyond day-to-day operations. Automating personalised offers or discounts can encourage spend while improving the guest experience, while automated loyalty programmes can track guest preferences and automatically apply rewards, encouraging repeat bookings and increasing lifetime value. Feedback requests can also be automated, contributing towards continual service improvement.

Focusing on the guest experience is particularly effective. McKinsey research shows that the main reason behind consumers’ choice of travel brand is ‘positive past experiences with the brand’, demonstrating a direct link with revenue increase.

Unleash earning potential with a technology partner

The use of data has now become one of the main business drivers within the hotel industry and hoteliers are in a strong position to maximise earning potential by leveraging technology, analytics and intelligence. To action this effectively, they should look to find a technology partner who can fully support their journey by offering end-to-end integrated solutions. Crucially, enhanced data visibility can help hotels stay rooted in success – no matter what disruption may lie ahead.


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