The relatively new but firmly established hotel sector discipline of revenue management is more than ever at the forefront of building profitability.

　　The relatively new but firmly established hotel sector discipline of revenue management is more than ever at the forefront of building profitability.

　　To offset potential clashes between GMs, sales teams and revenue management departments regarding pricing strategies and optimization, some are demanding revenue management adopts new thinking and strategies.

　　The goal: to pull in all available data, to forecast with the broadest possible view, to formulate a space where the entire team is more trusting of final information and to succeed in a crowded, competitive space.

　　So concluded a private roundtable chaired by Patrick Mayock, editor-in-chief of Hotel News Now and led by Patrick Bosworth, founder and CEO of revenue strategy company Duetto, at last month’s 2014 Hospitality Technology Europe conference in London.

　　Technology is playing a major role, according to the roundtable members.

　　"Previously we had all the information, but it was in different places, and by the time you collected it, it was out of date,” said Graham Dungey, a hotel consultant based in Paris.

　　"In a market such as Cannes, France, rate prediction might come no further out than the next weekend, where information such as what the weather can make the difference of say €500 ($690) to rates,” he said. “In other markets, it can be far, far more complicated.”

　　"Added to this is historical data and its market relevance,” said the group’s other consultant, Christopher Bates from Barcelona-based Enrich Revenue.

　　Leveraging data

　　"Big data is a funny term, one invented for Google, Facebook, Twitter, et cetera. (The hotel industry) describes (itself) as a big data business, but really it is one that is more about flexibility and being able to adapt to new data sources,” Bosworth said.

　　Moving quickly is not typically a trademark of larger, legacy chains, he added.

　　"With hotels being told that the benefit of being part of a chain is, among other things, the availability of good tech, but with innovation making available newer and newer tech, how can these properties get out of those legacy models without seeing disruption to their fee structures?” Bosworth said.

　　Their value used to lie in massive distribution systems, Dungey said.

　　"But now 30% of my brand business comes from the Internet. Increasingly, independents will be able to compete against the brand, and do even better than the flags if their review scores are higher,” he said, adding that brands are finding it more difficult to connect with customers.

　　"Often it is small and medium-sized businesses that led innovation and flexibility. Eventually, technology becomes cheaper and more available to independents,” Bosworth said.

　　The industry might see consolidation as large hotel companies acquire those smaller innovators to help implement better solutions across their bigger portfolios, he said.