Right Revenue Review

Endof an era, but what can we learn from it? Septemberwas a bad month for the travel industry with the collapse of both Thomas Cookas well as Amoma. Not only have thousands of travellers been left stranded…

We are excited to announce our first in a series of Webinars on 1 0 September at 11.00am BST. The subject is 'Top Revenue Tips That You Can Apply To Your Business Today' and it promises to be a game-changer! We…

Are you ready for the 'Alternatives?' This week, there has been further confirmation from two very well respected bodies (not just me, ranting about what I think will happen in our industry but actual cold, hard…

RFP season is almost upon us, so what are the new threats for our Corporate business? The traditional RFP season is almost upon us and whilst contracting can happen at any time, we are all used to the manic few weeks…

Loyalty… what exactly does that mean? Loyalty... it's a funny word that has different meanings to different people and definitely has all of us hoteliers scratching our heads at how we 'get it', how we 'keep it' and…

Are you ready for what might be our next big disruptor - SCA? Just when you thought you had gotten your head around GDPR, along comes Strong Customer Authentication (SCA)! Are you ready? Do you understand how this…

Your Summer Revenue Check-list For most hotels, Summer is the absolute busiest time of the year. Your properties are buzzing; full of excited guests in holiday mode, which means that for most of us, we have teams…

Review your OTA contracts and start to take back control This week I had the privilege of speaking at a Hotel Federation event organised by the Northern Ireland Hotel Federation and my subject was 'how to increase…

Why on earth are we dropping rates so close to arrival date? This week our wonderful friends at Mews shared statistics which I thought were really interesting: and that is the average rate sold in Europe based on…

The 'double whammy' of Booking.com's early payment scheme Most of us realise that Booking.com have automatically opted our hotels into their new 'Early Payment Scheme', but what exactly does this mean and how does it…

How Revenue Management Affects… Sales This is the first in a series on how revenue management affects every part of your business. If I am lucky enough to have you as a regular reader, you will know my belief that…

How to win friends and influence people… Or in hotelier speak - How to gain bookings and set yourself out from the crowd... In today's world of ever-increasing competition, how on earth do you set yourself out from…

More change in our distribution landscape and it's happening right now… Just when we thought we had enough on our plate managing Booking.com & Expedia, there is more change afoot! There have been two huge…

Now is the time to take control! In the UK, we have all been celebrating recently with the news that the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) are now investigating OTA's and the illegal practices which we as an…

Booking.com - a partner they are not! Over the past year or so, here in the UK we all know that Booking.com (as well as other OTA's) have 'softened' their approach. They want us to believe that they are partnering…

What do you need to consider in 2019? It's all about 'your people'… In our wonderful hotel world, we have two types of people - our guests and our team. In 2019 I believe that understanding and meeting the needs of…

If any of you read my articles regularly, you will know that my personal opinion is that Booking.com and other online aggregators are the single biggest threat to the profitability of our industry. This week I read…

Following on from last weeks blog - which can be found here - https://rightrevenue.co.uk/revenue-managers-how-we-get-it-wrong/ I thought I would take another few moments to outline how sometimes Revenue Managers get…

Revenue Managers rule the world, right?  Of course we do... But every now and again, I see some Revenue Managers who just haven't had the training or mentoring required and due to no fault of their own, get it wrong.…

As we settle in to the final quarter of 2018 and with 2019 budgets signed off and firmly behind us (hopefully!) what can we expect in 2019.  Well here are my thoughts...1.Understand the customer journey -…

As an industry, all of us in hospitality like to complain about OTA's; high commission levels and of course the impact that new aggregators such as AirBnB are having on our bottom line.But rather than sitting back,…

Utter the words 'rate parity' and we all shudder... after all, ensuring that we have the same rates on all channels - even if we employ the technology of a channel manager, isn't always straight forward. Often the…

We all know the scenario... you place an Ad for a job... you get a trickle of replies... you struggle to find a few candidates good enough to interview... then some don't even turn up to the meeting... then you…

I write this article as the founder of revenue management system, Right Revenue.  However, I promise this is not some veiled attempt at promoting our system.  It is however a shout out to all revenue management…

The changing face of Revenue Management... Back in the bad old days when I first started in revenue, the discipline was called Yield Management.  In those not-so-distant days we were seen as just yielding rates.…

For most of us, gone are the days of just having 'bodies in beds'.  There is of course a market for just that, and the hotels that provide that type of experience should be celebrated as successful hoteliers as much…

Which came first, the chicken or the egg? Or in hotelier terms, which came first, Revenue or Marketing? Does marketing turn on revenue or does revenue stimulate marketing?I often write about the need to stop 'working…

We are all quite rightly obsessed with the hefty commission costs from OTA's such as booking.com and Expedia.  But if I ask any hotel within the Right Revenue portfolio how much a direct booking costs, the first…

In our last blog, we looked at just how important making clever revenue decisions far in advance can be to your business.  But how on earth do you react to that last minute business?  How do you ensure you have all…

Ask any General Manager or Reservations Manager when the greatest percentage of business comes in and they, by-in-large will all answer the same, 'last minute'.  But ask any smart Revenue Manager and they will know…

Unless you have been hiding under a rock for the last 6 months, you will undoubtably know that our perception of environmental issues have changed and changed radically, and very quickly.  David Attenborough has a…

This week I read a really interesting article published by Oracle and for today's blog, I thought I would drill down on a couple of points that I found intriguing.The article is interesting in the first part as it…

As an industry we seem to have been having the same conversation for several years now and that is 'how on earth do we encourage direct bookings?'.  We all moan about the high commission fees that we pay to OTA's and…

This week, I am riding on the shoulders of an amazing travel writer Sherelle Jacobs, who writes for the Telegraph. Not something I normally do, but I thought this article was too interesting not to pass on and…

First of all, I have a confession to make... I am not a fan... Meta-Sites are a phenomena built on bad revenue practices and poor contracting...The facts are, that if you had good revenue practices; were water-tight…

RFP season may have passed, but it won't be too long before it descends on us again and perhaps now is the time to evaluate just how we contract - whether that be with your corporate sector or groups. The way we work…

At first glance, you may say it depends on which side of the fence you sit on – hotelier or customer, but does it really?  Do sites such as DreamCheaper.com really offer the best value for either?Let’s look at the…

There is one thing that you can say about our industry and that is that is always changing... However, as busy hoteliers we aren't always ready for it and by gosh have we ever made mistakes in the past (allowing OTA…

Last week AirBnb made the announcement that as of March 2018, they will officially open their platform to allow hotels & B&B's to distribute and sell through their sales platform.  We know that some hotels already…

Saying that all hotels need a good booking engine seems almost redundant these days but with so many providers out there to choose from, what should you consider before you get lost in the sales pitch? It should…

No, not furious with your GM with setting too high a budget; or about to blow a gasket because your Sales Manager has just contracted new business at a really low rate... but MAD as in do you know as a Revenue…

This week I read an interesting article in Mirai (and I am in no way taking the credit for some of the content in this blog) but they wrote an interesting piece about Booking.com's new 'hook' for hotels and I wanted…

As hoteliers, we are constantly battling with the OTA's and 15 years after the first explosion of Online Travel Agents, we are still giving them too much availability; not managing pricing and crying into our cheque…

Unless you have been living under a rock for the last few months, we all know that GDPR is coming and it is coming whether we like it or not.  There of course is reason to be a little confused as it becomes like…

2018 is a new year and perhaps a great time to review not only your rate strategies but also your cancellation policies.There has been a lot of hype in industry blogs and news feeds recently about how the giants like…

This week I am privileged to be one of the keynote speakers at DigitalDNA, an event focused on Tourism and taking place in Belfast.My topic is 'The Future Belongs to Those who Hear it Coming' and focuses mainly on…

Too often I hear the same very valid argument from independent hoteliers, that they can't compete with the brands and their loyalty programmes. I am not going to admit that this is an easy battle to win but I do feel…

I am often asked what the 'next big thing' will be in hospitality and will speaking on that very topic at Digital DNA in November.  The answer are things that we already know... Data will be key - not big data but…

So we all have a competitive set don't we?  We all review their rates every day and know their selling strategy inside out, don't we?  Well if you don't, you should.But where do you start assessing who your…

Data is daunting and tracking it can be exhausting and sometimes over complicated, but honestly if you aren't tracking your business you are potentially running blind.  And by that I mean, how on earth can  you…

Last week we looked at my Top Ten Tips for improving your website.  This week I thought we could dive a little deeper to look at how our websites could be improved to help our customers journey and hopefully improve…

This week I have been asked by no fewer that 4 of the hotels that I work with, if I could give them advice on website design as they are about to go out to tender to develop and design new sites. So I felt this was a…

If I am honest, a year ago I was an un-believer.  I was a doubter.  I genuinely did not believe that what customers said about you on review sites could impact pricing.  I was wrong.  I felt that positive or negative…

For the last two weeks, we have looked at how to convert better when those precious calls come into your hotel.  But how do you measure the conversions online and what are the first steps you can make to increase…

In last weeks Blog we looked at just how important telephone sales are to our business and this week I thought it would be appropriate to look at how we should train our Reservation Team to deal with the infuriating…

A few of us may be in very stable or rising markets but I am guessing that most of us are facing yet more challenges on rate, occupancy, ADR and RevPar as we look toward setting our budgets for 2018.Many of us work…

Yesterday one of the hotels that I work closely with rang me with a huge problem... Their server had crashed - actually not crashed but died.  Literally had to be taken off site and given the kiss of life. Diagnosis…

Whether we know it or not, we all use booking curves to some degree.  Some of us pluck figures out of the sky and use a 'guest-i-mate' but the hotels that benefit the most are the ones that have a good understanding…

Last week I had a 'proud mummy moment' when I watched my son graduate at Bristol University with a degree in Astro-Physics - don't ask me what that means exactly but lets put it like this... he won't be following his…

So we have all seen them... you know... the curtain twitching neighbours who are more interested in what is happening in their neighbours living rooms than they are about how their own life is shaping up. But are…

We all know that the 'golden ticket' for any Revenue Manager  is to increase not only rate but occupancy.  However, we all know that growing both can often be as elusive as that lottery win.  Not every hotel is in…

This week I have been asked to speak at an event and the subject is just that - 'The Robots are Coming!' I am really excited to be part of this panel as Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence is exactly what…

As the temperatures begin to rise and thoughts turn to the madness of school holidays, I felt it was a good time to review what you probably have or should have already considered moving into the Summer Season -…

Do you know your customer? I am guessing that the answer would be a resounding 'yes!' but to be honest, when I dig a little deeper, the answer is usually a lot more tenuous than that.The reason why this is so…

TripAdvisor, whether your reviews are generally good or awful, we all hate it... It has become the bane of our lives and yet another thing that we have to analyse and review. And not only TripAdvisor but there are…

Few of us can escape the demands of group business and for most of us, it is a lucrative segment of our business.  Groups block multiple rooms, often over multiple nights and they spend in our bars and restaurants,…

Last week we looked at the first data points that I evaluate when starting to consider a rate strategy:Base Rate / Lead Times / Day Trends / Current Rate Levels / Market Segment Behaviour and ADR bySegment - so you…

This week I was lucky enough to experience 3 of my favourite things all at one time: a fantastic hotel, great hotelier friends and rugby!I was taking part in Tourism NI's event and was lucky enough to get to listen…

Why do we do it?  Why do we give more and more control to the OTA's and not learn to manage these relationships.As I have mentioned time and time again, I am not against OTA's, in fact I think they are a fantastic…

I am hoping that this article might be mute for all of you and that fewer and fewer hotels are convinced that Genius benefits their business, but lets look at some of the reasons hotels join and then why they…

So they are at it again... As hoteliers, we know that this industry is always changing but just when we thought that Booking.com couldn't do any more to harm our business, they have recently upgraded their targeting…

I have been lucky enough to make a living and build a business on Revenue Management - a discipline I love and am passionate about but if I let you into a little secret... it isn't rocket science (there, my secret is…

Before the chocolate and Easter Bunny madness completely draws to a close, I would ask you to ask yourself this question: How was it for you?As hoteliers we often complain about the strangle-hold that the OTA's have…

First of all let me explain what 'bait and switch' actually means...Lets say that that you are a hotelier that choses not to participate in a specific OTA programme (lets use Hotels.com as this is the example that…

Yes, Yes, Yes!I have been asked a lot recently about whether a property should spend the money on re-marketing and like all things 'tech' and online, most hotels are wary and to be honest, I was too... But whether we…

Last week we talked about the first step in building a brand promise and that was with 'People' or should I say, the team you employ.  As I mentioned previously, building a brand promise is critical to any business…

Is it important to have a brand promise? Does anyone care?  Well in my view it is critical to any business to have what actually could be described as the core - the starting point - the ethos of what every action…

As in all good businesses,  we all know that the culture of the company comes from the top, hospitality is no different. And by culture I mean the owners and managers need to have a clear vision of their company…

We are in a relationship... and like some relationships one partner was a little more 'needy' in the early days and the other partner took advantage. Now the relationship has turned toxic and the fact is that the…

So be honest... how often do your Sales, Events, Marketing and Revenue Departments communicate? And I mean really communicate? In my mind, departmental or 'silo' working has the potential to have one of the most…

Whether you are considering an action on your website, or perhaps an E:Shot or even a post on Social Media, the ultimate goal is surely conversion.  And you may want someone to read content or join a mailing list but…

A famous David Bowie quote, but isn’t that so relevant in our industry… Hospitality changes, as does life but as in life, it will be the businesses who are ready for that change and willing to adapt that will…

This is the second part of our 'To-Do' list and I hope you found the first blog last week useful.Now if you were in any doubt as to whether our customers actually bother to shop around or if they always just use…

In last weeks blog, we talked about why you should have a Book Direct strategy at all and at the risk of repeating myself, I felt that it was useful at the start of a New Year to review some simple 'to-do's' that…

I feel that I often repeat myself when I speak to hotels about the why they should have not only a Book Direct strategy but a STRONG Book Direct strategy, but what often surprises me is that even with a mountain of…

As a Revenue Manager I love, love, love metrics. Sad I know, but give me a spreadsheet with lots of wonderful formula and I am happy... However, in this fast-paced industry that we all know and love, we are currently…

Some new revenue systems are moving away from considering historical information at all... They look only at future internal and external influences but as I have mentioned in past blogs, I absolutely don't agree…

This week I cannot take the credit for the inspiration behind this blog.  In fact, the subject matter came from a hotelier who called me and asked me to write something that the industry could read and that might…

As hoteliers we might have been accused of being caught napping 8 years ag0 when AirBnB launched.  I can still hear the voices in our trade (mine included) who said, 'this will never take on' or 'who wants to stay in…

Before the madness of the crazy Christmas season takes hold, I hope that November is giving you a little breathing space and allowing you to plan for your low season and into 2017.Last week we recommended you have…

It is that time of year again and whilst most of us would like to like to join the 'Keep Christmas in December' campaign, unfortunately  it is not possible in this industry.  So what should we be doing?  Well here…

We are all concerned about the level of commission we are paying the OTA's; adhering to rate parity; the impact OTA cancellations have on our revenue; availability parity - never mind out-bidding us on Google by…

We all know that we have all been guilty in the past of giving too much control to the OTA's. We panicked at the start of the last recession and contracts were being signed with little thought to the long term damage…

A year or so ago I listened to a prolific speaker who has written countless articles on the impact that reviews and User Generated Content (UGC) has on pricing.  I have a confession to make... at that time I was…

We hoteliers are a fickle bunch.  We can rant for hours about how much we hate TripAdvisor and how much we hate those 'Keyboard Warriors' - that feel they have a right to complain when they get home, using the safety…

Following on from last weeks blog which talked about the main KPI's your weekly revenue meeting should include, I thought that it would be an idea to discuss some of the action points your measurements might trigger.…

As hoteliers we are all time short and there are meetings for the sake of meetings, so do we need yet another one?Well in my opinion the most important meeting you should have every week should focus on revenue,…

So what is loyalty?  Well have a think about life in general. What makes you loyal to a person, a place, a brand?  Well it probably boils down to two things - they either make you feel special or they appreciate you…

This is the final part of our series (for now anyway) on social media. Last week we looked at how we should be using social media, remembering that social media should rarely be about selling but should focus on…

It seems that everyone has a bee-in-their-bonnet about social media at the moment and rightly so, but before you start running around like a headless chicken trying to decide which channels to be on, ask yourself -…

For most hoteliers I come across, social media is yet another annoying external influence they now have to consider.Gone are the days when we printed brochures, placed ad's in newspapers or placed a sign above our…

We all know the importance of our brand website don't we?  We all know that keeping this 'window to the world' fresh and up to date is a priority, don't we?  Well if not then perhaps we need to take a step back and…

This is the second on our series of blogs featuring tips and advice about making our websites perform better.As we know getting people to our website, helping them navigate the site and then proceed to book is the…

We are all looking for growth, right? And that might be in occupancy, ADR or RevPar. Or perhaps you want to gain market share or improve your position on STR. Well all of these are valuable measurements but are they…

We all know that the 'tech' space is moving quickly.  Daily we have new channels to consider... Do I have an Instagram account?... Should I be 'Snapchatting?'... Is Twitter worth the worry?... Is Facebook old hat? Oh…

So we all think that the threat to our business might be Booking.com or perhaps the start of a new recession... Maybe it's Brexit, AirBnB or even Donald Trump (please not!!!) But really, I feel that the real threat…

So 2017 budgets are creeping up on us and we are all interested in growing our business aren't we? Whatever our focus is: occupancy or rate, growth is what we are all desperate to achieve. But we can't blindly take…

So before you start reading, I feel I must warn you that some might find this blog a little controversial.  Some may say that as hoteliers we should 'put-up' and 'shut-up' and be grateful for what OTA's bring us and…

Okay, so you got bug-bear number 1 didn't you? The Mirror Marketing issue... So lets move to my next Achilles Heel...Rate Parity clauses I can almost live with but what about Availability Parity?So lets be honest,…

So I bet if I ask you what your main concerns are when battling the OTA's there would be two responses - the level of commission the strangle hold of rate parity Well I kid you not... you have actually more to worry…

In the 4 Book Direct Strategies published earlier this month, we looked at things we can do as hoteliers that are 'front-facing' and which will help our customers understand the benefits of booking direct.  But now,…

So for now, this is the final piece in the Book Direct Strategies Blog.  I hope you have enjoyed and perhaps taken one or two of the tips on board.  Here's to Channel Shift and Better Bookings Direct! 1 - Use your…

Welcome to the third in our series of strategies to help hoteliers 'channel shift' - we hope you enjoy the read 1 - Learn from the Big Boys! So we all look to what the Big Hitters are doing don’t we? So can’t we come…

Welcome to Right Revenue's second series to help reduce those ever-increasing OTA commission cheques. We hope you enjoy the read: 1 - Operate on a Level Playing Field We all know too well the ‘Panic Purchasing’…

We are all paying too much commission. We are all really aware that these commission cheques are increasing each month. But do we have all the bases covered?This is the first in a series of 3 blogs and to start, here…

Right Revenue is delighted to have been invited to speak today on "The Future of Digital" at the Northern Ireland Hotel Federation Digital Event.  Great day with some great speakers and content.

Right Revenue is thrilled to be through to the next round of Invent 2016! Right Revenue is delighted to have been chosen to proceed to the next round of Invent 2016.  This award is aimed at new technology businesses…

Well development is moving at a pace on Right Revenue and we are pleased to announce new integrations with Paragon Systems (Hotsoft), Welcome Systems, Fidelio and Opera coming on board soon! Exciting times ahead.