The Fundamentals of Revenue Management: The Cornerstone of Revenue Strategy

With a fixed capacity, a highly disposable product and high fixed costs, hotels are a natural candidate for the application of revenue management. Originally developed by the airlines in the 1970s, these analytics-based techniques help predict consumer behavior at the hotel’s market level so that the hotel can sell each room each night at the optimum price. With modern-day rising acquisition costs and distribution complexities, revenue management techniques have increasingly been adopted by both small and large hotel companies, making a comprehensive understanding of segmentation, forecasting and pricing an essential requirement for today’s hospitality professionals. The purpose of this course is to provide a core understanding of the fundamentals of revenue management, which ties into the larger picture of revenue strategy. The course is structured to provide an insightful look into Revenue Management. Created in conjunction with Duetto, this course is hosted by a group of revenue management leaders in both theory and with hands-on experience at properties around the world. Upon completion of the course students should be empowered with industry best practices, which can be applied across the vast diversification the hotel industry to empower those to optimize profits. Duetto delivers powerful revenue strategy solutions to the world’s leading hotels and casinos, combining unparalleled expertise with world-class cloud-based technology. Acknowledgement: Bela Nagy, Agnes Roquefort , Jonathon Liu, Frederic Toitot, Pierrick La Masne, Markus Keller - ACCOR Simone Truscello - ACE HOTELS. Richard Valtr - MEWS SYSTEM. Jean-Luc Chrétien - FAST BOOKING. Jeannette Ho - FAIRMONT RAFFLES HOTELS & RESORTS. Chinmai Sharma - TAJ HOTEL & RESORTS. Cindy Estis Green - KALIBRI LABS. Jason Thielbar - RED LION. Christopher Cooper - ROCCO FORTE. Rom Hendler - SANDS. Rafi Rejerano - AB Hotels. Riko Van Santen - KEMPINKI HOTELS & RESORTS. Vinod Sukhija - BANYAN TREE HOTELS & RESORTS. Olivier Flement - WALT DISNEY COMPANY. Cidalia Pinto Coehlo - LOUVRE HOTELS. Trevor Stuart-Hill - REVENUE MATTERS. Vincent Cusma, Marco Benvenuti, Eric Stoessel, Gayle Ehrean, Nevin Reed - DUETTO. Claire Bertrand, Vincent Chatain, Jessica Moses, Benjamin Six (ESSEC Business School), Emilie Dupré (IMAGE-IN), Gregory Halidy (TRIPLAY)

• Getting Started with Revenue Management
• Welcome! In this first module, you will understand what revenue management is, why it’s important, simple steps to get started, how revenue management can increase profit through booking curve management and how effective yielding can improve a hotel’s profits. Moving forward, we’ll share best practices and better prepare you for today’s complex digital age.
• Introduction to Segmentation
• In this second module we will discuss segmentation 101, four things to consider while determining segmentation, as well as our best practices in regards to working with properties who need to go through a re-segmentation exercise, and presenting you with some key takeaways.
• Introduction to Forecasting & Budgeting
• In this third module, you will have an overview of forecasting and its basic terminology, explore forecasting goals, trends and tools, and understand how to link forecasting and budgeting together.
• Introduction to Pricing
• This last module should help tie together concepts from the previous three modules to give you a practical understanding of the fundamentals of revenue management. You will understand why pricing is important, the difference between common pricing strategies, and what are the 7 most common pricing mistakes. After that we will revisit the topic of Big Data, automated systems, and system connectivity as it and discuss best practices for pricing.