Have you ever wondered what it takes to become a successful Revenue Manager? Or is your hotel in the position of recruiting a Revenue Manager that will help your hotel reach and exceed your revenue targets?
NB: This is an article by NetAffinity
Revenue Managers have a more diverse skill-set than their name would suggest and have one of the most business-critical roles in the hotel.
The Revenue Manager has a key role in getting guests through the doors during periods of high and low demand. This article will uncover the 8 traits every successful Revenue Manager needs to do the job!
1. Relationship Management
Relationship management skills are key skills for Revenue Managers to possess for both internal and external stakeholders. A Revenue Manager has many internal contacts that need to be maintained from all hotel departments. Having the ability to develop relationships and be influential is all part of the relationship management skill-set.
There are numerous external stakeholders the Revenue Manager must prioritise how much time given to each of them. One of the most important relationships is with the hotel’s IT partners. It’s essential Revenue Managers realise the difference between their partnership with their Booking Engine provider (if external), and that of Online Travel Agents (OTAs).
Listening to their recommendations and providing them with information that will help to grow the hotel’s direct business is vital. Being able to manage conflicts of interest between these various relationships is important to ensure the hotel’s book direct strategy is maintained. This, in turn, maximises profit kept in the hotel, rather than paid in commission on booking.
2. Competitive Nature
Revenue managers by their nature enjoy targets and even more so, exceeding them! They are driven by the revenue budgets and ensuring they achieve them. Good Revenue Managers know exactly how far off target they are for the month and are always focused on how they are going to reach them.
They are also keenly aware of their Competitor Set’s results and want to ensure they are number one. This competitive nature helps to motivate and focus the whole team and is something that should be encouraged.
3. Analytical Skills
Every Revenue Manager worth their salt will pride themselves on their analytical skills. They love data and devour reports on a daily basis. Revenue Managers can quickly detect trends, spot anomalies and identify opportunities based on the data in front of them.
Understanding data is one thing, but making quick and decisive action is another, such as adjusting pricing and availability – a good Revenue Manager can do both. Revenue Managers also see the importance of monitoring the macroeconomic factors affecting the hotel’s revenue into each market segment such as the effects of political factors, FX fluctuations, demographic forces. Being flexible and quick to respond to these changes will determine the hotel’s success at achieving their targets.
Understanding the cost of distribution for each market segment is at the forefront of Revenue Manager’s minds. Having this knowledge allows the hotel to make more informed decisions when it comes to distributing their rooms and the price at which those rooms are distributed.
4.Creative thinking
Once you know what the data is telling you, do you know what action is needed? The Revenue Manager needs the confidence to go the road less travelled and use their skills to provide new and creative solutions instead of sticking to the status quo. Revenue Managers should be encouraged to take some strategic risks and learn which ones pay off. Revenue Managers should enjoy brainstorming alongside the Marketing department and come up with creative solutions to low demand periods
5. Attention to detail
Good Revenue Managers are thorough and like to double check details. They don’t assume that rate plans are loaded correctly, they always double check how things appear on the front end. They will ask the advice and opinion of others when it comes to names and descriptions for special offers. Ensuring that rates and availability are open and closed when they should be is something they continually monitor.
6. Leadership skills
Being armed with all the right data and a definitive strategy are the fundamentals but can the Revenue Manager lead all the relevant stakeholders to follow that strategy? Having the skills to influence a team comes from presenting a clearly thought-out plan that engages and convinces people. Revenue Managers cannot just be thinkers, they must be doers and lead their strategies from the front.
7. Tech-savvy
Revenue Managers need to be comfortable with systems and ensuring they are getting the most out of them in terms of functionality and reporting. They are quick to adapt to new technologies and will embrace all the opportunities that it offers rather than grumbling about the time needed to adapt to it. New technologies, including automation and reporting tools, should not be shied away from, but instead viewed as ways to become more efficient and effective at the job.
8. Question everything
Finally, the best Revenue Managers have inquisitive minds. They don’t just look at data and accept what it says, they question why it says it to continually improve.They are confident to challenge the General Manager and the Sales & Marketing Managers on their strategies, not confrontationally but in a way that makes everyone wonder why they hadn’t questioned it themselves!
