While OTA commission rates can be high, having your property listed on the top sites is actually one of the best things that hoteliers can do for their business and revenues because of the billboard effect. Cornell Professor Chris Anderson found that a hotel's direct bookings increased from 7.5 to 26% when listed on Expedia, perfectly illustrating the impact that the billboard effect has on a property's direct bookings. This article will offer tips and tricks on how to maximize the billboard effect on OTAs to generate as many direct bookings as possible for your property. READ MORE

Difficult employees can be extremely costly to a hotel establishment. In addition to causing disruption of morale and business operations, they cause management to divert their attention from customers and operations, thereby draining valuable resources, energy, and time. This can damage your relationships with guests and public relations. Furthermore, difficult employees can result in significant potential legal liability. In this article, we will address several measures an establishment can take to prevent and address problems with difficult employees. READ MORE

While on the surface, hoteliers and retailers may seem very different, these two industries actually have a surprisingly amount in common. No it's not that both work long hours, deal with often challenging customer situations and have to do it all with good grace and a smile on their faces. But they do share the same business goal when it comes to revenue management: having to maximise revenue from limited inventory over a fixed time horizon by selling to customers with different needs. READ MORE

How can connectivity maximize revenues and minimize costs for hotels? This insightful column by Thomas W. Storey, President of Hospitality for SONIFI Solutions (formerly known as LodgeNet Interactive Corporation), offers compelling suggestions on how hoteliers can use their in-room entertainment and connectivity systems as a way to earn incremental revenue. Hoteliers can customize their in-room packages, based on their property type. They also can target different types of travelers and offer in-room entertainment and high-tech options that will keep their guests happy and turn them into repeat business. And this all means more profits and better occupancy, ADR and RevPAR. READ MORE

With a variety of many new forecasting tools and technologies at our fingertips, the role of the revenue manager has become much more involved and creative in finding the right mix of business to ensure the optimal revenue goals of a hotel. Through utilizing reports, knowing the hotel's customers and communicating with the hotel team, today's revenue managers are a valuable resource in planning optimal market segmentation and establishing a recovery strategy if the unexpected occurs. READ MORE