In hospitality, the real horror stories don’t always come from haunted rooms or flickering hallway lights – though our very own Leslie, Sales and Revenue Manager for North America, once managed what’s rumored to be one of the most haunted hotels in America. And yet, ask any hotelier and they’ll tell you: the real chills don’t come from ghosts…
NB: This is an article from RoomPriceGenie, one of our Expert Partners
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No, no… the real chills come from the quiet ping of a WhatsApp notification from your work group. That moment you look down, open it, and realize… something’s gone terribly wrong.
So, we asked our revenue management experts to share what really keeps them up at night. The nightmares that make even the calmest RM break into a cold sweat.
Nightmare #1: Static Pricing – The Eternal Flatline
For many hoteliers, rates still look like this: one price for weekdays, one for weekends. That’s it. No shifts, no strategy, no reflection of market demand – just the same rate week after week. To a revenue manager, that’s pure horror.
Static pricing means missing out when demand spikes and overselling when it drops. It’s the equivalent of driving with your eyes closed. You might stay on the road for a bit, but you’ll never reach your full potential.
And yes, the RM community has one universal nightmare: seeing a hotel that still prices the same for a rainy Tuesday and a citywide concert Friday.
Nightmare #2: The Sold-Out Sorcery
That eerie sense that something’s off…
You’re fully booked… but everyone else in the market just doubled their rates. Then you see it: there’s a massive event in town that somehow slipped under the radar.
You didn’t mean to underprice. But now you’re watching competitors celebrate record ADRs while you serve up “value deals.” It’s the stuff of nightmares and a very real reminder that timing is everything.
Nightmare #3: The Never-Ending Discount
What began as a short-term promotion has become a permanent part of your life. You meant to run it for a week. It’s now been three months.
Every time you log in, you tell yourself you’ll deactivate it… but then something else comes up.
To a revenue manager, this is the “curse that won’t die.” Discounts are great tools but when they linger too long, they eat into your ADR like a hungry ghost…or something even worse.
Nightmare #4: The Missing Minimum Stay
It’s always the big weekends, the ones you plan for weeks in advance. Everything’s set up beautifully… except that one tiny detail. You forgot to apply the minimum stay restriction.
