In last year’s article on hotel ancillary revenue we shared insider tips on how to generate extra revenue at your hotel or resort. We explained, among other things, how to upsell and cross-sell your services and how to leverage underutilized areas to increase revenue.

These main strategies will stay relevant during the coming years, but there are now novel ways of increasing revenue per guest too. In this article, we will go into detail about these new methods of using the strategies mentioned previously and discuss other tips and tricks to supercharge your revenue by getting your guests to spend more.

Continuously rethinking revenue management, I have come to the point where I wanted to build a revenue management and pricing solution myself. One of the crucial elements was the recommended pricing. Together with two revenue management teams and technology specialists, we have established a significant list of elements that we wanted to incorporate when it comes down to how we decided on any price for any given day.

The list of elements keeps on expanding and it seems never ending, as we add new elements on a regular basis.

So, if you are thinking of adding new elements in the way you decide on your price strategy, here’s a bunch of ideas to play with.

Over the last few years we have gotten more and more involved in the businesses of our hotel clients. We have seen a clear difference in revenue and profitability in hotels where we got involved at project definition stage vs coming in at pre-opening. There are many key points that increase the revenue potential of a hotel or resort, which architects, designers and investors are overlooking. And we are not talking about pocket change. I estimate the upside by utilizing revenue management insights to be easily 10% to 25% in top line income. Just think about how much this would impact your bottom line profit.

Total Revenue Management is a much-discussed concept in hospitality, but in reality it has produced a great deal of confusion. Put simply, it is the revenue management of all revenue sources in a hotel. From your RevPAR and GOPPAR to the hotel restaurant, and from the bar, spa and gym to activities and excursions, it encompasses every single hotel income stream.

Let's dive in and see how this can be done ...

The rooms of your hotel are one of the most powerful tools you have at your disposal as a revenue manager. It allows you to segment and position the hotel product, differentiating yourself from the competition. If segmented correctly it also allows you to build a revenue management strategy based on a comprehensive demand based yield or rate grid. 

What can you do in your hotel or resort to generate additional income? It often sounds easier than it is in reality. We have been brainstorming and have come up with some great hotel management tips to sell extra services. And then there is the next challenge with upselling and cross-selling. There are several extra services to offer in our hotels but how do you know what is most profitable. Which ancillary revenues bring more income while require less effort in terms of investment, time spent and people dedicated?

OK, so last year we sold 1.836.117 rooms at Xotels. Not bad. To be honest I am even impressed by these kind of numbers myself. But how did our team of hotel strategy experts maximize revenue and profit for these? We have put together 4 revenue management and marketing challenges, with their case studies and checklists highlighting our best practices and proven techniques.