THE
PERFECT REVENUE MANAGER
The perfect Revenue Manager is more like Chuck Norris than you think! History has
shown us that the traditional Revenue Manager has been a master of analytics; an
Excel guru. The analysis may have been perfect, without flaw, but the analysis
has largely focused on the past and what has happened rather than what is about to happen, and what
we need to be prepared for.
Statisticians may be experts with
numbers, tables and graphs, but that are more often than not the convincing
voice around the Hotel Boardroom table. Whilst their insight into the numbers may be
magical, they struggle to motivate resources and persuade action. Have Hotel Revenue
Managers forgotten that their title includes the word “manager”; they are
required and expected to lead both people, and actions. The frustrations we so
often see, and must be a large part of the rapid turnover of “Revenue Managers” is the fact that they struggle to change and lead new
initiatives.
Revenue Management success comes from proactivity, not reactivity. The
role should be 70% about the future and 30% about the past - learning from the
past, applied to the future. The numbers give Business Intelligence which should guide our insight into the future. Insight into improving RevPAR, and RevPOR. We all
claim short lead time as a barrier to insight, but the fact is that short lead
times are the norm in hotels today, so we can take this into action as a firm given. The
outcomes, in hindsight, aren’t any wildly different.
Today’s Revenue Manager is bold,
decisive and not afraid to speak out. Today’s Revenue Manager is much more
about the future, than the past. We are not analysts, we are Managers! We
provide insight, we provide insight and intelligence; we do not just report
accurately on the past. We achieve more by seeing the BIG picture, than the
PAST picture. We need to be politicians and motivate support for change -
change is this world’s constant.
So if you are, or about to be, a Hotel Revenue Manager then think and act first and foremost like a MANAGER.
You have to motivate, inspire, impart courage for change and never give up. The
others don't see the numbers like you do; this is about management and not
analytics. Your world is not about the spreadsheet, but more about the flip
chart to persuade new ideas. Go on, give it a try! Remember, you have the
answers behind you, so your boldness will be insured!
Duncan Bramwell
www.revenue-performance.com
Hotel Revenue Management Specialists
Revenue Performance
