On a superficial level, the implications of the rising costs of customer acquisition are easily identified. Increased costs lead to a decline in profitability, which results in a loss of asset value. However, like most things, it is never quite that simple.
One of the first areas to consider in this type of analysis is the economic cycle in which the industry is operating. In a strong economy, like the one the United States has been experiencing over the last several years, many revenue strategy sins can be covered up by occupancies that are improving and average room rates that are increasing. Combine these two key performance indicators and all seems well; however, the truth lies beneath the surface.
In this kind of environment, any increased costs incurred to acquire the customer can be obscured by the increased level of room revenue. For example, if your hotel-collected RevPAR increased by 5 percent, that may appear to be excellent on the top line, but what might not be so obvious is the additional 1 percent in acquisition costs that are slowly eroding the bottom line.
Additionally, the analysis is made more complex by dynamically changing quantities of rooms booked through the OTA net or merchant models, where vendors keep their commission prior to sending funds to the property, or through wholesalers. In those cases, any incremental customer acquisition costs would be absent from the property P&L.
In contrast, when the costs to acquire the customer are increasing in a declining or recessionary economic environment—for instance, the most recent in 2008 and 2009—there is a much more obvious and dramatic impact on profitability and net asset value. Using the inverse example, if your hotel-collected RevPAR declined 5 percent while the cost of customer acquisition simultaneously increased by 1 percent, the effect on the property’s profit would be more substantial, as the change in both the revenue and cost metrics would be negative and declining.
