5 Benefits of Partnering with a Remote Revenue Manager

With COVID-19 steamrolling the hotel industry, most hoteliers are scrambling to regain their financial footing. The chaos may have left you in a panic. Luckily, there’s an untapped resource that many hoteliers are now turning to in order to breathe easier, lift revenue, and pave a path towards higher profits: remote revenue management. 

Not completely familiar with remote revenue management? It’s worth it to learn more about this financial lifesaver. We’ve pinned down the five biggest benefits of partnering with a remote revenue manager. 

What’s the role of a hotel revenue manager?

Simply put, hotel revenue managers are experts in increasing RevPAR, identifying revenue opportunities, and carving out a clear path from top-line revenue to your hotel’s bottom line. However, just because someone has the title “revenue manager” doesn’t mean they’ll deliver results—and more money—to your hotel operation. There are a few telltale signs to look for if you want a revenue manager to deliver: 

• Data is central to their plan. For the best remote revenue management teams, data is the backbone supporting every decision. They know how to scour internal figures, competitor sets, and external market indicators. More importantly, they have the know-how to extract this critical info and use it to create a strategy that increases revenue. 
• They know revenue management is ongoing. If COVID-19 has taught hoteliers anything, it’s that the market can turn on a dime. It’s just one reason that your hotel revenue management team should use monthly, weekly, and daily data to keep your revenue strategy fresh.
• They see personalization as invaluable. No two hotels are identical, and neither is their clearest path to more revenue. That’s why revenue managers should personalize your hotel revenue strategy to fit your operation’s unique strengths, weaknesses, region, and opportunities. 
• They should have a history as experts. It may be tempting to haphazardly throw an internal staff member into your hotel’s revenue manager role. Unfortunately, that’s a recipe for an overwhelmed employee and missed revenue opportunities. Instead, if you want to increase revenue, it takes a dedicated team with a track record of proven revenue growth. 

Why partner with a remote revenue manager?

Wondering why so many hoteliers are turning to remote revenue management teams to open the floodgates to more revenue? Here are a few less-known reasons partnering with revenue experts is more critical to a hotel’s long-term success than ever: 

1. Spot new demand in shifting markets.

Even when major world events aren’t bearing down on the hotel industry, the market is constantly shifting and morphing. New demand can spring out of the ashes of even catastrophic events. For instance, even though the pandemic demolished demand for shared food and beverage services and buffets, golf and take-out services are booming. 

Effective revenue management experts will keep a close eye on both external market data and your hotel’s internal metrics. That way they spot trends early, know how your hotel can capitalize on demand, and quickly put a plan in motion. 

2. Revamp your hotel’s tech stack.

Technology can drastically lift a hotel’s revenue, but too often, hoteliers will end up with a tangled mess of systems they need to manage. Few have the time to sort through technology inefficiencies on their own. That’s where the best remote hotel revenue management teams can simplify your life.

Hotel revenue managers examine a hotel’s existing technology and dig into the best solutions to reach more guests. They manage hotel revenue software and rearrange technology for more profit. That may mean everything from hooking you up with a global distribution system (GDS) or revamping your internal booking engine to managing the best revenue management software for more profit. 

3. Retain more revenue from bookings.

Not all hoteliers realize it, but online travel agencies (OTAs) often charge hefty fees that cut into a hotel’s profit. Expert hotel revenue managers will know how to shift booking toward more efficient internal technology. By diving into your channels, they find the most direct way to usher money from visitors to your hotel’s bottom line.

For instance, remote revenue managers can help hotels boost more direct sales (that costs zero!) through their own online booking engine with inducements or exclusive offers or connect to a GDS and rely less on those OTAs that are grabbing high commissions. Being listed on a GDS still costs a fee, but it’s often lower than the commission of OTAs. Whatever route is best for your hotel, the end result is you retaining more of the money you collect from bookings. 

4. Reach more visitors.

The best remote revenue managers will know how to reach more visitors and amplify your hotel’s most appealing messages. That often includes tapping into channels such as social media, OTA matrix, GDS, or other high-traffic paths to broadcast messages about your property and boost conversions. 

This fresh approach to marketing can be especially handy when it comes to examining seasonal data that can increase guest demand. Because remote revenue management teams pore over internal figures, they can spot opportunities to lower labor costs during seasonal lulls or chances to lift rates for higher revenue during season spikes. 

5. Turn revenue into profit.

Revenue is the lifeblood of your hotel operation, but it’s useless if it dries up before hitting your bottom line. That’s where the best hotel revenue managers will use internal metrics and a deep dive into operations to transform revenue into profit. By examining profit-centered metrics, such as gross operating profit per available room (GOPPAR), managers are able to spot those areas that can be tweaked to make revenue go further. 

At the same time, remote revenue management teams give you more bang for your labor buck. They free up time for internal employees to provide exceptional guest satisfaction to boost guest review rankings and help you get more ROI from your labor force. Rather than having a single internal revenue manager juggling duties, you end up with a full team of experts who have dedicated years of their lives to one task: increasing revenue.

How can RevOptimum help you raise RevPAR?

The RevOptimum team is known as the pioneers in revenue management. In fact, we’ve helped hotel clients manage more than $2 billion and increase revenue by as much as 50 percent. Here’s a quick look at how the experts at RevOptimum help hoteliers rake in more revenue and breathe easier:

• Our experts assess your hotel, examine data, and dig into your technology.
• We revamp your revenue management technology to prepare for more revenue.
• We build a revenue strategy that’s personalized to fit your hotel’s circumstances.
• We monitor figures and make adjustments to fit your market and strengths.

Ready to start pulling in more revenue? Contact one of our remote revenue management specialists today.