Today’s hoteliers want to increase their online bookings and revise corporate rates to a profitable market rate. Revenue management is a proven path to get there. This small hotel partnered with a revenue team and succeeded in doubling its revenue in two years and breaking into Tripadvisor’s Top 10. Here’s how.
Revenue Management Boosts Online Reputation and Revises Static Corporate Rates for Hotel Success
Sometimes, it’s worth evaluating and redesigning your hotel’s entire marketing and pricing structure. With low occupancy rates and a minimal online presence, The Lancaster Hotel in Milan, Italy, knew they needed to implement revenue management with a strategic partner.
Hotel owner Filippo Bua shared his experience with implementing revenue management and how it grew their revenue and customer perception…even putting them into the visibility of Trip Advisor’s Top Ten and carrying them through the difficult years of 2020 and 2021.
The story starts in the summer of 2016. The historic 3-star hotel is centrally located near the Castello Sforzesco and the Duomo. Owner Filippo Bua of the 30-room hotel knew he needed to ramp up his hotel’s online presence and revisit the current corporate rates. In the first seven months of that year, The Lancaster Hotel claimed an average monthly occupancy rate of only 57%. Yet, modern Milan is a city of thriving leisure activities, and the hotel wanted to capture more of that demand.
Assessing the Opportunities
The hotel struggled in these two areas:
- Low online visibility due to few reviews and a below-average ranking score
- High static negotiated rates
Together, these two situations kept their occupancy rates low. The Italian hotel partnered with the Revenue Team by Franco Grasso to define a long-term strategy. They also wanted to implement RMS Revolution Plus to maintain pricing consistent with market opportunities.
They redefined the commercial pricing strategy and aligned it with area competition.
They also revamped the online channels. The hotel caught up with the dynamic market by refreshing the website and OTA listings and capturing additional revenue.
Finally, they implemented a new policy for attracting reviews and, thanks to the quality and volume, reached Tripadvisor’s Top 10 and gained a 9+ score on Booking.com. Owner Filippo Bua said:
“Human skills, supported by their excellent Revolution Plus software, have helped us to achieve outstanding pricing, occupancy, brand reputation and, therefore, ultimately economic and income results (more than double in a couple of years). When it happened that we had some divergence of views on the strategies to implement, we have always found professionals willing to listen to our needs and, with great patience, support us in the less easy moments of hotel management (see years 2020 – 2021).”
Revenue Management Works
Revenue management combines a long-term business outlook with short-term wins. By optimizing the online channels and revising static rate contracts, the hotel saw a 100% increase in revenue and Gross Operating Profit from 2017 to 2019, a 15% increase in revenue in 2022 vs. 2019, and an outstanding 30% incremental revenue in 2023 vs 2022. Additionally, yearly ADR went from 106 € in 2017 to 202 euros in 2023 with a consistent 90%+ occupancy.
Additionally, 95% of direct corporate customers opted for dynamic rates over static negotiated rates. The online channel optimization boosted ratings to the top 10 on Tripadvisor and 9+ on Booking.com in only six months.
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