It's an age-old story: Revenue managers are paid to improve unit-revenues and profit margins, but down the hall, the sales department is paid to hit sales targets. Question: What's wrong with this picture? Answer: Nothing. The yin and yang of RM departments disagreeing with Sales organizations, if managed properly, is healthy and moves a business closer to great results. However, if not managed carefully, it can deteriorate into power struggles and politics that will doom an organization to fail. The keys are communication, communication and communication — and an RM team that understands how to position revenue management techniques as a win-win-win for the company, the salespeople and the customers. READ MORE

To understand the benefits of revenue management, it is important to understand just how far the technology has come in recent years. This article covers the early days of revenue management in the 1990's, where its primary focus was single and independent hotels to the 2000's where it has continued to evolve to deal with the advent of the internet and third party booking sites. For hotels to use their revenue management technology to its full potential, they need to understand its ongoing ability to keep pace with the ever changing hospitality industry. READ MORE

As a hotelier, you it is your responsibility to select the best executive team possible to streamline daily operations, maximize revenue, monitor exposure, stay ahead of your competition, increase repeat business, while managing a million other things every day. Your executive team members represent specific areas of the hotel that generate revenue, as well as influence and interact with the guest experience. Communication and messaging, both internal and external are key functions to managing your property effectively against competition and market changes. So, why isn't Public Relations on the Executive team? READ MORE

If you have ever felt as though you and your sales team are on a treadmill, spending day after day and year after year chasing down new accounts, now, thanks to social media and review sites like TripAdvisor, you can focus a portion of your energy every day in helping your property enhance the guest experience, and maximize your revenue instead of just replacing it. READ MORE

Truly the online reputation of the hotel is influencing several aspects of the business: Operations can now better understand their product and service levels; investors and owners can measure what impact renovations could have on demand; marketing can analyse, influence, and respond through loyalty and CRM programmes, whilst distribution and revenue management can better drive revpar. READ MORE

Both academic and industry research shows that social media has an impact on the consumers' decision-making in relation to travel and hotel decisions and marketers are investing heavily in social media channels to reach customers. Though social media marketing $$ spend is comparatively conservative, time spent on constructing presence and customer communication is not! READ MORE

The breadth of online guest feedback shared online is massive and is showing no signs of slowing down. Being able to mine the insight, extricate the rich details, and aggregate the feedback into industry-specific operational categories is a distinct competitive advantage. Only when armed with this information can hotel executives effectively determine how best to deliver an experience their guests will enjoy and, just as important, talk about. READ MORE

The philosophy and tangible actions of anyone in a leadership or management role will steer employee behaviors in the direction of service excellence--or quite the opposite. The words, interactions and thoughts reflected in any one leader's style will rub off and influence all those with whom he or she comes into contact. READ MORE

The process of identifying, qualifying and acting on a new hotel location does not have to be a daunting or overwhelming task. In fact it can be a fun and exciting process as long as you establish your objectives and fully investigate the opportunities presented to you. Roedel Companies, through its construction management subsidiary, ROK Builders, is in the business of designing, building and renovating nationally branded hotels along the east coast of the United States, both for itself and independent investors. Over the past four years, ROK has completed over 40 major renovation projects along the east coast for independent investors. Learn about the five most crucial points to address when selecting a location for your hotel in this article. READ MORE

In many ways, 2011 was the year reviews and social media went mainstream within the hotel industry - becoming nearly universally embraced by hotel executives as both a key source of customer insight and a tool to achieve operational and service excellence and to drive revenue growth. From my perspective, as founder and CEO of a company that is leading change in the way hotels leverage and benefit from the social web, I would like to share the top trends I see in this area in 2012. READ MORE

Since ADA sensitivity is a growing concern in the hospitality industry, a proactive plan for training would seem prudent. Discrimination - especially subtle discrimination - continues to thrive. It is the everyday stereotypes and assumptions about our differences that are the basis for most unintentional discrimination and a lack of training about sensitivity issues that can result in these inadvertent offenses. READ MORE

The global hotel market is at a tipping point. Booking windows have shrunk from weeks to days, and the increase in mobile bookings is leaving hotels behind who are trying to stick with the old ways of managing distribution channels. If hoteliers are not using the right tools and techniques to maximize bookings across all available platforms, they are risking a fate of continually playing catch-up to those hoteliers who have embraced channel management technology and the advantages that these systems bring. To help hoteliers on the road to a successful channel management program, here are the top five mistakes that are commonly made in this field, and how to avoid them. READ MORE

Over the past 10 years, the web has become a powerhouse for growing business. For the hotel industry, it has changed all the ground rules, from how you interact with your customers to how you drive bookings. Ten years ago, hotel chains started investing in online virtual brochures. These sites were designed simply to lay out the product and drive customers to call centers. As the sophistication of the web platforms increased, rudimentary booking engines were laid into the websites. No one anticipated that this electronic brochure would soon be a key business driver. READ MORE

In the 70's and 80's many communities built Convention Centers as the cornerstone of economic development. The same cities have exhausted their taxing ability so the Convention Centers are left with annual deficits. Rebates have been the answer to offset their costs. Now, Convention Centers have increasingly become competitors in the local market they serve. Becoming a competitor in the local economy is not fair, and they continue to increase rebates. There is little to no government regulation on the amount of rebates, or their business plans. Each city should take a close look at their Convention Center, and get back to basics. READ MORE

The overarching web and social media presence of many hotel brands often don't educate potential guests on the amenities that differentiate one property from another. Many hotel websites and their social media initiatives seem content to simply post photos in the appropriate site subsections and list a selection of their hotel's perks on a standard Amenities & Services page. Then, they blindly hope that online consumers will find what they're looking for. That won't happen very often - not with today's social media savvy consumer. READ MORE