5 best ancillary revenue ideas for independent hotels

When you distribute your rooms through online travels agents you are liable to pay a commission fee for the bookings they drive for you. The good news is it doesn’t have to be lost money. You can regain this expenditure through ancillary revenue.

Ancillary revenue is when you take income from additional services or products offered at your hotel. In order to optimise this, you need to think of your hotel as more than rooms and rates, but in a more holistic way that leans towards complete revenue generation.

Although it should be a secondary consideration to making sure your guests receive quality service and value for money, it is still a clever and effective method to boost your revenue while also offering guests an even more enriching experience.

Without a successful revenue management strategy that produces consistent year-on-year results, your hotel will stagnate. The more revenue you have streaming in, the more flexibility you have to make improvements to your hotel and offer guests exclusive services.

Ultimately, implementing ancillary revenue ideas will lead to a more fulfilling experience for the guests who accept them and flood your hotel with a whole new source of revenue.

Before you employ any ideas you need to ask three questions:

  • What is unique about your hotel – the setting, the geographical location, the theme?
  • What do guests praise the most – the amenities, the restaurant, the convenience?
  • Why do they choose it over others – for luxury, for service, for other features?

Once you start to analyse these questions, you’ll start to see opportunities for extra revenue arising from the story of your hotel.

There’s a huge range of revenue-boosting ideas you can use. Here are five of the best ones…

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