Channels are evolving at a rapid pace, customers have more options for comparison, and selling systems are finally seeing satisfactory returns on investment.
But is your revenue management system (RMS) keeping up?
In this piece, I will elaborate on some of the latest features in revenue management analytics that are needed to keep up with the evolving technologies.
They are the minimum analytical requirements for an advanced RMS.
1) Understanding How Different Rates and Segments Are Controlled
Many RMS systems roll up transactional data into aggregated groupings such as market segments or by classifying reservations based on value alone. This can result in losing important information on how different rates are priced and controlled.
Capturing information individually by transaction allows an RMS to separate transactions based on the influencing factors of their key behaviors, in addition to the critical aspects of how rates should be influenced, priced, and controlled.
It then becomes possible to build effective groupings that support accurate forecasting and optimization decisions.
Example:
Imagine there are two corporate rates: one is contracted at a fixed price, with the hotel able to restrict availability on high demand days; the other is contracted at 10% off the Best Available Rate (BAR) with Last Room Availability (LRA), which prohibits the rate from being restricted in its availability.
These two rates often end up in the same market segment, as they are both corporate business accounts.
But from a revenue management and analytics perspective, these two rates behave differently and must be controlled by using their rate attributes to separate them into relevant analytic groupings.
Creating analytic groupings by identifying how rates are controlled in the RMS results in optimal decisions and better bottom-line performance.
Forecasts can still be accessible to revenue managers and other system users in a manner that is consistent with their organizational reporting needs.
