Yielding Results

Revenue management wasn't always so easy for the 161-room Gainey Suites hotel in Phoenix, Arizona. Up until last summer, the property relied--if that is the word--on an outdated seven-year-old system that had limited functions and was slow and cumbersome. "One of the priorities for us when we got this new system was to have an effective and easy-to-use yield management module that would feature a two-way interface," explains Rich Newman, general manager of Gainey Suites.

To take the guesswork out of forecasts and determine which days bring in the most cash flow, and what times of year are best left at a discounted rate, Newman turned to Northwind's (maestropms.com) Maestro front-office system. "We wanted a module that wouldn't have to be constantly monitored and that would adjust automatically given different market conditions and scenarios," Newman says.

During installation, senior staff at Gainey inputted various possible scenarios covering different seasons and demand periods. "When conditions change, such as increased occupancy or reduced inventory, the system will adjust based on the parameters and scenarios that we had already put in place," Newman says.

Unlike the single property Gainey hotel, Hyatt International has been using automated revenue management systems for years. The company is presently migrating from an IDeaS (ideas.com) v5e hotel server-based application to a v5i Internet-based version. "When we looked at installing a new system, we were looking to further the revenue culture within Hyatt," explains Rhett Hirko, corporate manager of pricing and distribution at Hyatt.

At Hyatt pricing is separate from revenue management. Senior staff set pricing using a different application, and the RMS controls the delivery of those prices to the consumer. "What's different with our system is the ways employees can access the system and analyze the decisions being made to ensure the quality that comes out," Hirko says.

The IDeaS system offers forecasts on levels ranging from a macro level on a particular month to a granular level, such as a market segment on a given date or hour. The system is theoretically taking a snapshot of Hyatt's reservation system and polling data from the central system to analyze booking trends. "It gives us the advantage to look at a property at the hotel level, at a regional level, or at a corporate level by brand, and allows us to determine a forecast by market segment," Hirko says. "We are going to be able to use the system to give us the information we need to enact better marketing strategies on a hotel, regional, brand or global level."

Launched in 2003, Marriott's One Yield system centralizes transient and group revenue-management functions and ensures optimal management of Marriott's inventory and rate recommendations through integration with Marriott's reservation and distribution systems. Marriot's centralized RMS enables 1,879 properties to receive and adopt new capabilities as soon as they are available and obtain training directly online with the system's integrated e-learning program.

"Users access the system through browsers, so the roll-out was actually a decommissioning of a lot of old software in the field on servers and on PCs," explains John Whitridge, vice-president of revenue management systems at Marriott. By removing all of the company's antiquated revenue systems, Marriott was able to lower operating costs making the system more cost effective for some of the smaller hotels.