While guests were generally understanding of the challenges hotels faced during the pandemic, the latest review data suggests they are less forgiving now, especially when faced with escalating prices.
NB: This is an article from ReviewPro
The combination of rising rates and operational challenges has created a perfect storm that threatens to stir up conflict between revenue strategies, and reputation objectives. During ReviewPro’s recent webinar Reputation & Revenue: Putting a Price on Guest Satisfaction, our presenters discussed five key areas to focus on.
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1. Review Data Analytics
Today, hotels have access to more data than ever to help align reputation and revenue management practices. What does the data tell us? We already know from numerous studies that a hotel’s online reputation has a direct impact on its revenue performance.
We also know from our global data reports that guest satisfaction and guest perception of value has fallen since 2021 and 2019.
Once you are armed with the right data, you can decide how to act.
2. Agile Revenue Strategy
Another key part of the equation is revenue management. As uncertainty and volatility in room demand continue, revenue managers must pay close attention to traveler sentiment and behavior and adapt quickly to changing market conditions.
Revenue managers should regularly compare price positioning with reputation positioning because reputation impacts price elasticity (the degree to which changes in pricing affect demand). The success of revenue strategies can be measured by the impact on guest satisfaction and reputation.
3. Proactive Operations
To protect their reputation, hotels need to take proactive approaches to manage operations and uphold standards under suboptimal conditions. Proactively reach out to guests via in-stay and post-stay surveys to identify and resolve issues directly with guests and prevent issues from escalating to negative online reviews. Leverage the high visibility of management response to put recent improvements in the spotlight, or to manage guest expectations.
4. Cross-Departmental Collaboration
Getting cooperation across departments is a top challenge for hotels. It requires integrated tools and close collaboration between the revenue and reputation teams, but also with operations, sales & marketing, etc. Use your guest intelligence data to identify what is hurting your online reputation, and then work with the affected departments to prioritize improvements.
5. Technology and Tools
The current tension between pricing, costs, and guest expectations increases the risk of “skimplation” i.e., the lowering of the quality of goods and services in response to higher costs. Investment in tech and infrastructure is essential to mitigate the risks of a negative online reputation. It allows you to create efficiencies where savings were previously impossible and shift labor from one area to the other.
The pandemic dramatically accelerated tech adoption for both consumers and businesses. To accommodate the demands of increasingly tech-savvy travelers, hotels are investing in software to streamline processes and automate tasks, as well as digital guest-facing solutions like digital check-in and check-out or guest messaging.
The real magic happens when data from revenue management and review management is integrated to find patterns, correlations, and areas that need attention. It enables hoteliers to factor reputation data into pricing decisions, price more strategically, and converts more bookings. In the end, any revenue strategy needs to keep the guest experience at its core, and an integrated tech stack can bridge the gap between revenue and guest experience.
