In the revenue management game, the goal to remain competitive, innovative and consistent can be tough. In today’s revenue arena, we need to adapt and drive change projects, while holding on to beneficial procedures and standard tactics.
How do you get the right mix of adaptability and rigidity in 2014?
There are three mechanisms to be aware of when working with flexibility in your agenda
1. Time
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A meeting should run for 60 minutes once a week, and a 90 minute monthly session. If there are parties adverse to this length of time, explain why it is important to allocate this time.
Re-capping the prior meeting will take + – , 20 – 25 minutes. This leaves 35 – 40 minutes for new action exploration. Notably, entire meetings under 40 minutes leave out certain critical information or neglect to recap effectively.
A meeting over 90 minutes is too verbose, and you should assist with cutting down the time. There is a happy medium you, as the revenue leader, need to govern.
Getting through the information is one part of your meeting.
2. Team
Who are your team? They are the visionaries that drive your meeting actions. The force behind all revenue actions and development!
The below roles should be present in your weekly revenue meeting. Some of the roles might be governed under another department, which is not an issue – the idea is to look at the functions that are going to drive action towards revenues.
• General Manager – Supports and drives a revenue culture within the team
• Reservations Manager – Discusses and advises on inventory and pricing management from a short and medium term perspective
• Revenue Manager – Leads and prompts the discussions across all roles in order to drive holistic revenue path
• Director of Sales and Marketing – Discusses and advises on the sales pipeline and general market conditions
• Conferencing Manager – Provides insight on group enquiries, inventory management and group demand
• Front Office Manager – Advises on guest satisfaction levels and current upsell tactics in place. Loyalty initiatives are a possible added topic.
• Marketing Manager – Provides information on marketing efforts and targeted sub-markets, as well as direct or indirect ROI
• Online Manager – Advises on the reputation across the online platforms, parity and channel availability
Always keep your team in mind, and engaged throughout the meeting. Cultivate openness and commend those that take the lead in suggesting new ways of attempting a problem. This all speaks to flexible and adaptable thinking – a culture all teams should embrace.
3. TOPICS
The topics explored in the meeting, are at the heart of creating flexibility.
Firstly, revenue agendas should cover the variance to revenue goals of; occupancy, ADR and RevPar. An arbitrary metric tells you nothing; a better discussion is where you and the team are positioned in relation to your ideal state.
How much do you need to reach your ADR, Occupancy and RevPar targets, and what can be done about it?
If you are going through this information already, you are running a revenue meeting. Oftentimes, meetings get complex and lose a central focus, so be cautious when adding elements to your meeting agenda.
That said…..
In the changing field of revenue management, adaptation will become increasingly important. To keep things flexible, I revert to priority questions. There are two questions that should be satisfactorily answered when your meeting has ended.
“WHERE ARE WE?”
“WHAT DO WE DO NOW?”
To effectively answer these two questions, I use the below table to evaluate and action. What you need to CHECK remains similar, but teams must explore ACTION. Driving revenue is a mix of innovative approaches and consistent technical revenue application. The below table is a starting point, but should change and adjust as required.
Keep the CHECK list simple and ensure you are on top of your area information. If there is some external factor that needs to be considered in the meeting, add it onto the meeting agenda and drive some short term go-getting actions.
Explore what the competition is up to, and take the team on inspections at competing hotels once in a while. People love outings!
Time. Team. Topics.
Your three primary ingredients in the recipe of revenue flexibility. If you can navigate these three elements well, you are geared to run revenue meetings that are a bit beyond the revenue meetings of yester-year.
