The Convergence of Marketing and Revenue Management

The Convergence of Marketing and Revenue Management

Technology based on real information and learning algorithms, like Machine Learning, are replacing other types of technology that have become stagnant and too complex for the user. RMS technology is fundamental for revenue management departments to understand their hotel, consumers, and market.

The confluence of marketing and revenue departments is inevitable. The two departments complement each other, so information must flow between the two and they must work together to develop actions based on your hotel’s internal and external information. To market your product at the right time, place, and to the right user, these two departments need to be integrated and constantly share information. When these two departments work side by side, it’s much easier to carry out campaigns for determined periods of time with variations in pricing and availability.

Below are 4 ways your marketing and revenue management departments can work together and make the biggest impact, with the help of RMS technology:

• Track all leads and conversions. The convergence of marketing and revenue teams in developing strategies for attracting, nurturing and converting as many leads as possible is essential. Depending on the strategy adopted by the marketing department, you can decide how to interact with prospects. For example, if you have a leisure guest and a sporadic business guest at the same time, you’ll need to take two different approaches and adapt your strategy to guest type.

• Monitor competitors. Competition is one of the 4 C’s of marketing and one of the most relevant parameters in an oversupplied market, like our market today. Evaluate your competitors’ pricing and availability and compare it with your own market position. BEONx‘s BQI uses more than 21 objective parameters to help you easily determine and compare your market position with your competitors.

• Demand forecast. It’s important to talk about accessory income for hotel rooms, as this one of the most important factors for boosting hotel revenue. There are some airlines that generate more revenue off of accessory income than airline tickets. It’s not unreasonable for guests to spend more money on your hotel’s pool, bar, restaurant or room service than on the room itself. That’s why it’s essential for your marketing department to identify and track these levels of consumer spending and ensure that these guests continue coming back to your hotel. What your guests spend their money on is valuable information for both your revenue and marketing departments to be able to plan and implement the right strategic actions.

Earlier, only 3 important factors were mentioned, however, there are many others worth considering. During daily hotel operations, there are many moments that your marketing and revenue management teams can collaborate. To improve collaboration between these two departments, we propose the following tips:

• Flexible and aligned teams. As mentioned before, team collaboration is important. One way different departments can work together is by holding periodic meetings to exchange ideas on propose strategic actions.

• Evaluate information generated. All information and reports generated must be organized by both departments. At the same time, information is generated between departments in real time and there’s an immediate access to that information.

• Take immediate action. For this to be possible, you need to have a protocol in place that can expedite actions or an action plan for when opportunities or needs come up at your hotel. Launching campaigns at specific segments during opportunities or periods of low occupancy, based on information provided by your revenue management department, will help the marketing department execute their actions more strategically.

Marketing has changed and consumers are diversifying their purchases of tourism products in a fragmented market. Fortunately, we now have access to sophisticated hotel technology to analyze the market and forecast demand. At BEONx, we encourage you to implement technology, work as a team and optimize your hotel’s results by adapting your product to market demand.