The festive season’s fast approaching. Your function space calendar is filling up. Holiday party packages are live, menus are confirmed, and your team is pushing hard on promotions.
But here’s the catch:
Just because your event space is booked doesn’t mean it’s profitable.
Many hotels make the mistake of equating full calendars with strong financial performance. But the reality is, busy doesn’t always mean profitable.
The real question is: Are your spaces booked with the right business at the right value, and are you measuring that value correctly?
To maximize revenue this season (and beyond), hotels must go beyond volume and start optimizing yield. Here’s how.
1. Factor in total group value
Not all events deliver equal value.
A Tuesday Christmas lunch for 30 might look great on paper, but if it displaces a Saturday corporate party that includes 40 room nights, spa bookings, and a premium dinner package, you’re likely leaving serious money on the table.
The mistake?
Evaluating event performance in isolation rather than across your property’s full revenue potential.
To make more strategic decisions, especially during high-demand periods. you need visibility into the entire financial impact tied to a booking.
That’s where total group value comes in.
Total group value is the combined revenue a single group or event generates across all departments, not just from function room rental. It includes:
- Guest room revenue
- F&B spend (banquets, add-ons, bars)
- Ancillary services (spa, parking, activities)
- Future business potential (recurring contracts or loyalty impact)
This approach not only boosts overall revenue but also helps you make smarter choices about space allocation and pricing, ensuring every square foot of your property is working toward your profit margin goals.
2. Run a displacement analysis to prioritize high yield events
Displacement analysis answers a critical question: If we take this event, what are we giving up?
Say yes to the wrong group, and you could be turning down more profitable business.
Ask yourself:
- What’s the total revenue this event brings in across departments?
- What’s the potential revenue of business we’d have to displace?
- Which booking delivers better profit per square meter (RevPASM)?
The most profitable hotels don’t just book out their space, they focus on optimizing it. They use tools like OpenSpace to run these comparisons in real time, ensuring that every square meter of event space is optimized for maximum yield, not just maximum occupancy.
3. Speed is money
In peak season, demand can be unpredictable and fleeting. A delayed response can mean losing a high-value booking to a faster competitor.
The solution? Use a dedicated, integrated booking engine that enables your team to:
- Quote faster with real-time availability
- Avoid double-bookings and miscommunications
- Offer dynamic pricing that reflects demand.
Speed and accuracy in your quoting process can be the difference between a full-function room and a lost opportunity.
4. Align with your team with the same goals
A fully booked function room isn’t a win unless the sales, catering, and revenue teams are aligned.
Misalignment often leads to underpricing, missed upsell opportunities, and conflicting priorities.
Instead, break down silos. With connected systems and shared KPIs, your teams can:
- Collaborate on pricing and space decisions
- Make faster, more informed choices
- Optimize every event for both guest experience and profitability.
Make technology your competitive edge
Implementing technology like OpenSpace, our function space optimization tool, allows you to automate quoting and pricing decisions, visualize and manage space availability in real time, and improve collaboration between sales, revenue and catering teams.
For example, Atrium Hotel Mainz used OpenSpace to achieve an average 22% increase in RevPASM (revenue per available square meter). Facing sporadic but strong demand, OpenSpace enabled the hotel to apply a day-specific pricing strategy that captured more revenue. Read the full case study here.
Don’t just get through the holiday season. Make it count
The festive season isn’t just about staying busy, it’s a chance to rethink how your hotel’s event spaces drive revenue.
With the right strategy and tools, you can turn every function into a high-performing asset – not just in December, but all year round.
OpenSpace helps hotels move from booked to optimized by connecting space, data, and decision-making.
Ready to uncover the hidden value in your hotel’s event space?
