The Future of Hotel Revenue Management

Abstract

A survey of some 400 revenue management (RM) professionals finds that the application of hotel RM has gradually become more strategic and more centralized, but changes in RM practices have come more slowly than expected in the past six years. In particular, an earlier prediction that RM would be applied to all hotel revenue streams remains a work in progress, as does the use of mobile technology and social media as distribution channels. In addition, it is now more common for hotels to establish separate RM departments, as projected. Poll participants in the current research project suggested that, going forward, RM practices will be more fully integrated into all hotel operations, including function space (although these ideas have yet to gain much traction in the industry). These findings represent an update of a similar study on emerging trends in RM conducted by the author in 2010.