Google is taking the hotel industry by storm to gain market share and grow their advertising revenues. We will take a look at how Google is penetrating the hotel distribution vertical with Google Hotel Ads, and what opportunities this gives in terms of hotel revenue management and marketing. From Hotel Finder to GHA Exactly ten years ago, Google launched what Andrew McCarthy, at the time Software Engineer for the Mountain View’s company, described as an “experimental search tool designed to help users locate and book hotels.” We’re talking, obviously, about Hotel Finder.  In that di ..read more

For many people, starting their own boutique hotel or luxury bed and breakfast is like a dream. Most are drawn by the charm of hospitality and see it as a chance to start a new beginning. But opening a hotel business , just like any new company, is more difficult than it might seem at first sight. The Hotel Dream… Where it all Starts Particularly if you have never worked in the international hotel industry, you will be faced with many things you might have not considered or imagined before. The hotel business is highly competitive and achieving good financial results is not as easy as it s ..read more

Strategy Tips during Covid-19 / Coronavirus The unofficial definition of Revenue Management used by insiders is ‘the art of turning away business’. This certainly does not apply during the current Covid-19 (coronavirus) global healthcare crisis, and the economic downturn the hotel industry is facing in its aftermath. All the standard strategies and playbooks are out of the window right now. So what to do? Hotel revenue management has now turned into a more commercial role, one that is focussed on generating demand, and getting eyeballs to your shop’s window. Not the typical role a revenue ma ..read more

Even more so during the COVID-19 crisis ... Covid-19 has exposed weaknesses both in hotels managing Revenue Management internally as well as the traditional outsourcing model and Revenue Management software providers. Nowadays, hotels need to be more resilient and agile than ever before. Being prepared for anything, whereby reducing risk is top priority. Hoteliers need to rethink their businesses entirely, and outsourcing is the perfect facilitator in this process. With external expertise and a proven track record since 2006, Xotels has guided 100+ hotels since its inception through both ..read more

Hotel low season revenue has long been considered to simply be an unfortunate fact of the industry. It brings less demand and, therefore, lower revenues too. But the industry has changed so much in such a short space of time, and hotels no longer have to accept that low season automatically means slow business. By adopting a proactive stance and implementing a series of tried-and-tested tactics, your hotel can blossom in what traditionally is considered low season. Read on to discover our five best practice steps to attract guests and increase hotel revenue during a low occupancy phase at a ..read more

We have compiled a list of the best Hotel Revenue Management articles published last year to give you a head start into 2021! Before diving into the list, we would like to welcome you to check out our recent articles covering the plethora of essentials to Hotel and Operations Management, Marketing and Distribution, Finance and Accounting, Systems and Technology and other hospitality-focused insights. Let´s dig in! Must-Read Revenue Management Insights 1. Industry Outlook The Future of Revenue Management = Total Revenue Management Topic Focus: Hotels – Other Revenue Sources – Revenue Manage ..read more

At XOTELS, it has been a while since we covered this topic on our hotel management blog, so I thought it would be good to have another look at forecasting in hotels. With reservation lead time changing in key markets we operate in, it is becoming more challenging to forecast accurately. And still, it is essential to give our operational departments a realistic financial outlook to run the day to day operations of the hotel as cost-effective as possible. And also owners and investors need to have insight and the right expectations on the financial performance of their hospitality business. A ..read more

In our last post, we went over some of the successes and challenges of revenue management in the apartment rental business. We came up with a number of elements that we believe need to be applied to take revenue management to the next level. Horizontal Analysis vs. Vertical Analysis Given that you can sell each apartment only once, there’s simply no solid way to measure pick-up accurately. The view on capacity has to be adjusted from a vertical point of view (on day X I am selling fast, therefore I can raise my price), to a more horizontal view (this apartment is selling faster for period X ..read more

It has been a few years since Xotels is operating in Italy now. And we wanted to share some of our successes in terms of hotel revenue management strategies with you. Before entering into the market we were faced with the same hurdles as always. Owners and managers were concerned we did not know the market, and did not have first hand local experience. Of course as a strategist these concerns are not valid to us, as we analyze demand patterns, performance KPI and and other statistics to optimize a business. And regardless of where it is located, the methodology and best practices of Revenue ..read more

It is no news that the vacation rental business has exploded worldwide thanks to the sharing economy. With the industry generating billions and billions of revenue per year, providers for related services have popped up like mushrooms. To be able to separate the wheat from the chaff we have composed a number of basic principles that apply to revenue management for vacation rental business or apartments. With sites like Airbnb, Homeaway, Onefinestay, Tripping, Wimdu, 9flats, Vacationrentals, Flipkey and Booking.com making a swift move into the apartment rental business, the apartment rental ..read more