This paper is about a new approach to optimizing profits, called Customer Centric Profit Optimization (CCPO). In CCPO a new analytical model is used to create lifetime customer behavior profiles (lifecycles). These lifecycles are used across the whole organization to coordinate all departments' actions/interactions to assure they nurture & optimize that customer's strategic lifetime value, turning their loyalty into affinity. CCPO pricing is based on the lifetime strategic value of each customer, not their tactical value for just one transaction or one product. By nurturing and optimizing customer loyalty, where enough customer data is available, strategic profits are increased instead of the tactical profits that are optimized today. READ MORE

Today more than ever, the number one way to reach travelers and bring in bookings is online. If your website isn't operating effectively as a part of comprehensive branding and marketing plan, you are losing business to other properties. Website Analytics tools offer accurate tracking and assessments of your online marketing strategy and bring you a clear picture of your website's reach. With a basic understanding of how to utilize the data from analytics, you can develop the most effective online marketing strategy, maximize your presence on the web and attract new and repeat guests to your properties. READ MORE

While many operational and service related items affect the overall guest experience, the culmination of these events and guests' reactions to them result in their overall impression of both their stay and the hotel. The best way to measure the value guests place on their stay is if they express either intent to return to the property or if they intend to recommend this property to others. And, with such a high percentage of guests seeking input from others before booking their hotel stay, a review that states a willingness to return tends to carry a great deal more weight than one that does not. As such, intent to return, in the social media world, will ultimately be more important to hotels in measuring their relative performance, than the traditional 5-point scoring scales currently being used by many online review sites. READ MORE

It's difficult to understand how people can spend millions of dollars to build a spa and not operate and market it to its full potential. Perhaps they just don't know what to do and what to expect because their experience, expertise and “comfort zone” is more with rooms and F&B than with the spa. We do know that without knowledge, expectations are low and, therefore, results are low. The spa can and should be a profitable and marketable asset, not a waste of valuable real estate or an expensive, under-performing asset that detracts from rather than adds to the overall guest experience and financial viability of the property. READ MORE

It's easy to lose the "science" part of rate setting and switch to "art" or even gut feel. But a series of pricing studies by Cornell's researchers has found that a hotel can leave money on the table by setting inappropriate prices. In this discussion, we're talking about an overall pricing strategy with regard to your competition. Within that strategy, you may want to apply certain tactics from time to time. Tactics and strategy are two related sides of your pricing coin. READ MORE