Your strategy for the future should always be informed by your performance in the past. By relying on empirical data and objective evaluations you can plan for obstacles, optimize opportunities and ultimately put the best rate strategy in place to maximize revenue throughout the coming year. Use the following strategies to carefully calibrate your rates so you can help your hotel excel through to next year-end.
Run the Reports
Before thinking about the coming year, you need to take a critical look at the closing year. A careful approach to reporting reveals your specific strengths and weaknesses over the previous 12 months. Once you understand the financial footing of your hotel, you can determine and set your targets and goals for the coming year. Rely on a PMS system that makes it easier to incorporate more sources of data into your reporting with less effort.
Analyze Booking Patterns
Hopefully, you have a system in place that gives you a refined look at your booking patterns over the past year. This system should show occupancy patterns and booking trends while enabling you to forecast your reservation rates in the coming year. Once you have a sense of how many guests to expect you can make broad adjustments to your rate strategy. You can also identify periods on the calendar when it’s advantageous to raise or lower rates.
Identify True Sources of Value
The end of the year is a natural time for reflection. It’s a necessary process, especially if you have lost sight of the true value your hotel provides guests. You may want to consider offering new features, like pet lodging at a time when other hotels are phasing this option out. Or if there is a new annual event in town that puts you in a prime location for travellers, how can you get more guests to book your hotel? Look back over the past year and think about when and why guests chose to stay at your hotel over others. Then determine how much you can leverage that unique value into your rates for the coming year.
Factor in Improvements
Ideally, your hotel consistently makes upgrades and enhancements with the goal of improving the overall value of the property. This might mean installing a new pool, opening a restaurant or renovating a large block of rooms. All of these improvements should be factored into the rates for the coming year. Guests will pay more—and in some cases a lot more—to stay at a hotel that puts every amenity at hand. A solution that gives you a top-down perspective of your property or properties makes it easier to factor in every improvement you make when deciding your rates.
Re-evaluate the Marketplace
The purpose of this process is to help you seize every advantage. But it’s just as important to forecast risks, disruptions and shifts in the competitive landscape. That requires a lot of careful reflection and a close look at the numbers from the previous year. It also requires you to survey the marketplace both locally and generally. Your future rates should be adjusted based on the performance of competing hotels and the evolving expectations of hotel guests.
Make Formal Commitments
Once you have a general understanding of your rate strategy for the coming year, identify ways to inflate the figures. You know how much revenue you need to make, now think about how much revenue it’s possible to make. Adjusting your staff mix, scheduling renovations, updating your marketing strategy or implementing new technologies are all great places to start. Don’t simply replicate your rate strategy—use it as a building block for a strategy that is more ambitious than ever.
RoomKeyPMS is a comprehensive suite of solutions designed to keep your focus on both the present and the future. Contact our team to learn about improving your rate strategy and maximizing your revenue.
Photo: Shutterstock / michaeljung
