To say that the world has changed in the past ten years is an understatement. A decade ago, mobile phones were still primarily used to make phone calls, a ‘tablet’ was something you took for a headache and ‘TripAdvisor’ was only in its infancy. Even more dramatic is the change we’ve seen in how hotel rooms are booked: from traditional channels to online travel agencies to making reservations from the palm of your hand.
Armed with more options for booking and research than ever before, plus the ability to share their experiences in real-time; consumers are in control and it’s crucially important to attract the right guest at the right time for the best rate.
Hotel revenue managers are under enormous pressure to ensure the way they operate and the rates put out by their hotels reflects real-time market trends. Adding to that pressure is a rival property’s ability to change rates and influence the local hotel booking environment at any time of the day.
Technology moves quickly, and keeping up with constant changes can be difficult, but of paramount importance to hoteliers is understanding the role that mobile technology can play in any business’ critical decision-making strategy.
Today Working Offline Doesn’t Mean You are Disconnected
The rise of the mobile consumer isn’t the only trend impacting a hotel’s operation today. Hotel staff, too, are becoming more mobile. Revenue managers responsible for multiple properties, across multiple time zones – including those who regularly travel for work and are away from their desks and office environment for long periods – have a critical need to be able to access their group’s (or single property’s) pricing systems at any time of the day and in any environment.
Importantly, where hoteliers and revenue managers in the past have needed to make pricing decisions at the beginning of the day while sitting at their desks, it is now possible to make impactful decisions on the go through mobile applications at any time through revenue management system mobile applications.
Revenue management apps help enhance productivity for hotel personnel by providing critical demand forecasts and rate analysis including historical behaviors, seasonal patterns and recent trends in pricing that can all be acted upon. In today’s fast-moving and multi-screen world, the ability to make impactful decisions anywhere and assess real-time performance against financial goals may be the competitive edge a hotel needs to thrive.
Based in the cloud, with online syncing to any mobile device, mobile revenue management helps ensure that key hotel personnel responsible for pricing decisions are never offline. Mobile access to a hotel’s key metrics and rates also presents an opportunity to capitalize on time-sensitive opportunities as well as involve a wider management team in viewing valuable KPIs. New first-to-market revenue management mobile apps mean that revenue managers are empowered to make informed pricing decisions anytime, anywhere.
Click to read full article: Hotel Business Review
