It is now clear that revenue management is a methodology that is finding more and more fields of application today, especially in the hospitality one.
NB: This is an article from Hotelperformance, one of our Expert Partners
Nowadays this technique can be applied not only to city hotels, in particular that linked to tourism outside, a sector that has been growing, especially in recent years.
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As we all know, we need certain conditions to apply Revenue Management, such as:
• The advance and traceability of the booking
• A variable and unpredictable demand
• A limited capacity
• The presence of a perishable and therefore non-storable product or service
• The possibility to segment customers with different preferences and purchasing habits
• The possibility to offer different products and services
• A methodical information system
It is therefore evident that all these assumptions are present in the world of hospitality en plein air exactly as in the hotel hospitality industry, with the right distinctions to assure that the Revenue Management techniques are as effective as possible. Let’s go in no particular order of the aforementioned list.
Referring to the advance and the unpredictability of the demand, we can say that buying habits have a strongly seasonal characteristic and also the advance of demand is widely recurring (usually bookings restart for the following season immediately after the Christmas holidays), but it is equally true that – in conditions of constant global economic growth – opportunities and audiences multiply and it is essential to know how to intercept them.
It is therefore important the marketing role, aimed as distribution and promotion and all the initiatives towards the search for new markets and new operators – even those that may appear less profitable – can play a winning role for the growth of volumes and consequently also of the average revenues themselves. Some actions may not have an immediate effect, but it is essential for a company to be able to see even in the long term.
With regard to limited capacity, camping villages have an additional advantage over traditional hotels, as they have greater opportunities to increase their housing units at relatively lower costs. This should not be interpreted as a limit to the principle of applicability of Revenue Management but, in fact, an advantage that can best be realized through Revenue Management as through the analysis of data (forecast, booking pace, average profitability) do the right choices.
Also with regard to segmentation, it is interesting to note the advantages that tourist villages have compared to hotels, opportunities that are not always catched. The “bad habits” of thinking that the product offer is static and the market particularly closed, tends to prevent the development of different travel proposals and not to sufficiently promote itself to an incremental market. If we analyze the product diversification of the Resort and Camping Village we understand how much diversity of customers a village can accommodate and how these offer segments are not likely to go each other in conflict with different rates (the so-called Rate Leakage).
Finally, tourist resorts can equip themselves with the same adequate and methodical information systems that Hotels have; PMSs, Channel Managers, Booking Engines, RMSs and Business Intelligence are available to Resorts as well as Hotels; It is important to point out how much for the Villages some performance Indexes are even more essential, namely those that lead to the sale of ancillary facilities, and therefore also of bednights; The revenue data therefore must necessarily be sectioned by Room Revenue, F&B Revenue and Extra Revenue, but in some cases it is also important to make further distinctions for revenue centers. When we talk about revenues, we do not mean only total revenues, but also those per period, per unit sold, per available unit and per bednights.
Today, more than ever, Revenue Management is finding new application outlets while Camping Villages and Tourist Villages find new opportunities for growth, which is why it is becoming increasingly evident how close the union appears.
Revenue Management and Campsites? Yes it works!!
