We explain what a revenue manager does and why they are one of the most important people in a hotel. But how do you become a revenue manager and what do you need? And the most important question, will this job still exist in the future?
Content
- What does a Revenue Manager do?
- Why do you need a Revenue Manager?
- How do you become a Revenue Manager?
- Will there still be Revenue Managers in the future?
- Fit for the future with the right support
- Conclusion
What does a revenue manager do?
The Revenue Manager is the most important person in a hotel as he is responsible for the complete hotel turnover. Every hotel should have a person to do this job. The job involves a lot of hard work. The daily tasks include checking the individual bookings, for example using lots of Excel lists and manual analyses.
The revenue manager is the interface between marketing and sales. He works with the most important key figures of a hotel: variable and fixed costs. He calculates the price floor and analyses the total costs incurred in the hotel.
What are the competitors doing? Regularly looking at other hotels helps to see what they are doing. But compare yourself with hotels in your category! However, it is useful to see what trends are in other categories! These questions should be at the forefront of your mind:
- What are the competitors’ prices?
- What is the occupancy rate?
- Do the competitors have special offers or promotions?
- What are the competitors’ reviews like?
- Why do potential guests book with the competition?
However, the revenue manager should not only look at the competition, but also analyse his own guests and their behaviour. Questions here are, for example:
- How long do guests stay at the hotel?
- What offers and promotions do our guests book?
- What prices are guests willing to pay?
- When is a stay booked?
- Why do guests come to our hotel?
Why do you need a Revenue Manager?
As mentioned earlier, this person is responsible for all hotel revenue. Since every business owner knows how important revenue is, it is obvious why a hotel should staff this job.Many small hotels work with standard prices and do not realise that they lose a lot of revenue. This is exactly why happyhotel exists. Every hotel owner can work with dynamic prices and be the revenue manager of his hotel.
How do you become a Revenue Manager?
There are different ways to learn the profession: Through an apprenticeship, by distance learning or in the process of a hotel management degree. There are also some good courses, further education opportunities or conferences to get the knowledge. However, a lot of experience is required, which can currently only be gained in city hotels. To become a good revenue specialist, it is important to have a lot of practical experience.
Will there still be Revenue Managers in the future?
In many areas of a hotel, machines will solve manual tasks through automated processes in the future. This also includes revenue management. Decisions will no longer be based on gut feeling or experience. Because actions should be based on numbers and data. Tools can carry out the daily tasks of a revenue employee quickly and easily. Hours of calculations and estimations in Excel lists are replaced by automatic data entry.
The revenue specialist will still exist in the future, but his way of work is changing. He receives support from specific programmes and tools that make his work easier. This means that his area of responsibility is shifting.
Fit for the futuer with the right support
With the right support and the use of suitable tools, the owner of a hotel can make his work much easier. The selection of new applications is increasing and more and more areas of a hotel are being digitalised. Thus, there is hardly anything standing in the way of smart work!
happyhotel facilitates the work of the revenue manager by enabling him to find the right prices for his hotel. With the help of dynamic prices, he can not only get more bookings out of it, but also achieve more turnover.The revenue manager can use the price suggestions depending on the time of the booking and use them flexibly.
Tools like happyhotel support the modern revenue manager to offer the right product, at the right time, at the right place to the right guest.
Rafael Weissmueller
Conclusion
Thanks to newer tools, like happyhotel, it is also possible for small hotels or family-run accommodations to carry out revenue management on their own. And without having to hire an additional employee. Currently, this is only found in the city hotel industry or in hotel chains. Here, such a tool can simplify and meaningfully support the work of the manager.
The future will provide us with tools that simplify data-based decisions and support the revenue manager in his work. happyhotel will play a big role in this. The more data a hotel has available, the better the analyses and thus the results for the pricing will work.