It’s hard for revenue managers to keep up with evolving technology. On the other hand, the latest technological advancements in the field of business software, such as Hotel Revenue Management Software, make revenue management a straightforward activity.
So what is it that revenue managers can use to do their job better and automate the majority of their daily tasks? Here are the 5 must-have tools in today’s revenue manager’s tech stack.
Hotel Market Data and Benchmarking Tools
Collecting all sorts of data and drawing actionable insights from it is of utmost importance in today’s world. With so many things taking place on multiple online platforms and different channels, it has become very important for revenue managers to collect this data and benchmark it in real time.
As a revenue manager, you should know that not all business intelligence tools providers are the same. Each one of them works with a different data provider.
It is important to identify the most relevant data provider and choose BI tools accordingly. This action will provide you with actionable data on your ADP indexes, Rate Insight, RevPar, and occupancy.
Rate Parity Monitoring Tools
If you rent your accommodations via several OTAs, it is very important to monitor their pricing policy. You don’t want to lose money by allowing OTAs to try to make more cash on your deals and thus make your services appear significantly more expensive then they are.
If you want to take full control of all your listings you should start using a parity monitoring tool. This software is designed to help you track rate parity in real time. You will be able to crossreference prices on the majority of search channels, your website, and all OTAs in your network.
Hotel Revenue Management Software
Revenue analysis is a very important effort towards optimizing your strategy. Collecting and analyzing data across all your channels is a daunting task, not to mention comparing it against your KPIs. Fortunately, a hotel revenue management software will automate it by collecting the data from your PMS.
This is especially useful in terms of optimizing marketing better. In fact, with just a few simple clicks you will be able to see exactly where the most bookings come from and take a look at your KPIs. Rate Shopper
As a revenue manager, you are aware of how important it is to stay tuned to the pricing strategy of your competitors and to the shopping rate of your clients. Browsing through all their listings manually can eat up a lot of your time, and since you do it manually, you can make a few errors along the way.
You can automate this with a rate shopper platform. This tool will help you see your competitors’ prices in real time and see how the accommodations are being rated. By identifying the market demand, you will be able to become proactive and seize market opportunities.
A Reliable Booking Engine
A booking engine is one of the most important tools in a revenue manager’s toolbox. And this is not only because it will help you streamline and automate online booking, which is easily the most important channel you have.
When looking for a booking engine, make sure that your PMS supports it. Why? Because when you integrate a booking engine in your PMS, your inventory will be updated automatically. A bonus is if you can connect it with your rate shopper to monitor and cross-reference the rates on your website and the ones on your OTAs.
Channel Manager
If you want to effortlessly manage your inventory, you will have to use a channel manager tool. It will help you get control of your inventory and manage online rates across all the booking channels. Your channel manager tool should be supported by your PMS so that you can make updates across all the channels with just one PMS entry.
Property Management System
As one of the most frequently used Cloud Hotel Software Solutions, Property Management System (PMS) is a pivotal tool every revenue manager should have and use on a daily basis. A PMS will help you automate a bunch of tasks. And, remember, it is always better to invest into one that supports more integrations and has more features so you won’t have to worry about upgrades down the line.
Using any of the cloud hotel software tools will make your job a lot easier. The best way to go is to leverage the synergy of their integrations so that you can collect the data, monitor the KPIs, draw meaningful insights, and become more proactive.
About The Author
Deepak Chauhan
Deepak Chauhan is responsible for marketing and positioning of “mycloud” platform and is a veteran in the hotel software industry with over 25 years’ experience giving him a strong understanding of the product requirements in the industry. He has very rare mix of working in operations of various hotels and chains for over 10 years and then co-founding a software product and service company, servicing 5 star hotels and chains for 14 years.
Deepak has led the development and marketing of cloud based hospitality systems to meet the specific, business objectives of small and mid-size properties across the globe and has worked closely with a diverse group of hoteliers and hotel technology vendors.
