Hotel Revenue Managers Say They Want a Revolution
Photo Credit: A study of 381 hotel revenue managers reveals a profession expecting change. Pictured here is a product demonstration at a 2016 customer conference of a software provider. The Rainmaker Group
Skift Take
Change has not come as fast as a 2010 survey had predicted. This study offers a few reasons why, but misses a big one: The industry is in desperate need of loud champions of new techniques and strategies.
A survey of 381 hotel revenue managers worldwide by Cornell University finds a surging interest in seeing the biggest possible picture of what's happening at their properties transactionally.
Many say they're interested in "total hotel revenue management," a concept that looks beyond rooms to include revenue and profit on restaurants, room service, and meeting space rentals. About 63 percent of those surveyed expect total hotel revenue management to become common soon, where only 10 percent mentioned the concept when Cornell did a comparable study in 2010.
Both studies were done by Sheryl Kimes, a professor of operations management in the School of Hotel Administration at Cornell University.
More broadly, the latest survey finds that many revenue managers want to look beyond the traditional focus on revenue per available room. For instance, a significant percentage of survey respondents also predict that they may soon measure performance per available square foot.
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