Most revenue management professionals have been taught past history dictates future performance. Does the old adage hold true in today's economic and diversified environment? The answer quite simply is the old adage and past methodologies are not enough. While the saying still holds direct relevance to the future of hotel demand, the change in both technology and consumer behavior has substantially evolved over the past several years. Today, how does a revenue management team predict and hit their goals and what will come of tomorrow? READ MORE

While the application of revenue management techniques to improve RevPAR (revenue per available room) is an important aspect of strategy planning amongst many lodging providers total or ancillary revenue management is not as widely used. The goal of revenue management is to generate more revenue by analyzing demand to devise the most applicable pricing and product distribution strategy. This holds true for both rooms and ancillary revenue management, but the latter has a number of additional complexities making it more difficult to even get started. This article will provide an overview of various areas for ancillary revenue management and explore strategies and challenges of implementing a total revenue management strategy. READ MORE

Asian hotels have a much greater fixed component of labor cost than those in North America. Asian hotels are not be able to reduce number of employees during times of lower business volumes while their North American colleagues can do that owing to the hourly/daily/weekly nature of pay periods and the nature of contracts that are signed up. This has implications on profitability. Notwithstanding these and other differences, perhaps, the common approach that both North American and Asian Hotel Managers will need to take is to keep the revenue graph going upwards faster for a longer time than the labor cost graph. That can mean the difference between a sustainable bottom line and being in the red. READ MORE

A significant portion of available lodging supply in the US is condominium hotels and resorts, yet this segment has been largely overlooked by many traditional hotel management companies. Larry Spelts, director of asset management for Charlestowne Hotels, writes about his firm's business model that has the potential to transform the condotel business model and bring a greater degree of professional management to the segment. READ MORE

Corporate responsibility, sustainability, green - whatever you prefer to call it, it's here to stay. But is CR even relevant for travel, you might ask, how seriously should we be taking it? Getting to the heart of the matter can be tricky - there's no shortage of myths surrounding CR and the hotel industry. But if they're not dealt with, these myths can mask the many opportunities that sustainability offers the astute hotel business. READ MORE