Luxury Hotelier - February 2008 - (Page 43)

Today’s guest is very business savvy and they understand a lot more the practice of yield management and how hotels use it.” Revenue management at casino is no game n the casino-hotel segment, yield management is a different animal altogether. Revenue managers still are in the business of maximizing rates, but the gaming properties aren’t necessarily focused on attempting to get demand to equal supply. Instead of a push to obtain top dollar for rooms, casino revenue managers focus on getting the right people into those rooms. “Obviously we want everything full; that’s everybody’s goal,” says Lyra Hynie, director of hotel yield and teleservices for Boyd Gaming, which operates 17 casino-hotels across the U.S., including Sam’s Lyra Hynie Town in Shreveport, La. [right]. “But if you can get the rooms filled with the right people, you don’t need to be full.” Ms. Hynie is in the process of installing Revolution, a specialized revenuemanagement system from The Rainmaker Group (www.letitrain.com), at all of her properties to help track a guest’s gaming value, as well as other factors, when determining room rate and comp availability. She says the software has catapulted her industry away from the days of preparing 12 months of whiteboards to BOYD GAMING display rate options. “It used to be that the front-desk clerk had to look at the screen, look to a calendar, determine what color code the day was, and translate that into a rate,” she says. “Now, with a [property-management system] and Rainmaker, it’s easier.” When determining room rates at a casino-hotel, revenue managers look at variables similar to other hospitality segments, such as events taking place nearby, catering events at the property and the number of rooms forecasted to sell. Ms. Hynie says software can produce more than 100 reports for her revenue managers to analyze. -J.F. I plays a large role in pricing. Even everyday influences such as the weather factor into determining room rates. At the luxury level, though, Ms. Gibson says a guest won’t see too many discounts due to outside influences. A Valentine’s Day that falls on the weekend will attract higher room rates, for example, but if the holiday falls on a Tuesday, travelers won’t see deep discounts. Instead, revenue managers will take advantage of that opportunity to offer packages such as wine tastings and spa experiences. “With the luxury segment, discounting is not always the answer,” Ms. Gibson says. “Guests are looking for what they can’t get at home. Today’s guest is very business savvy and they understand a lot more the practice of yield management and how hotels use it.” The process of yield management first developed in the airline industry and quickly made an enormous impact, reportedly putting airlines that did not develop a strategy out of business. However, some questioned whether fluctuating rates depending on timeliness or outside influences would be viewed negatively by the customer and therefore result in brand loyalty issues. Ms. Gibson says if done correctly, yield management, particularly in the luxury segment, should have no effect on loyalty. “Pricing is subject to availability, and today’s consumer is understanding of that,” she says. “They are very familiar with promotional rates and value-added promotion.” Ms. Gibson says her team at Vintage works on pricing and promotions at least four months in advance. She starts by using Maestro’s yield-management tools to analyze data from previous years. She says it is important to not only view numbers from the previous year but to look at past years that would offer applesto-apples comparisons. “Given what’s happened in the tourism industry, to look at just last year would be a big mistake,” Ms. Gibson says. “You want to be looking at similar years to get a true snapshot of the pattern.” After analyzing previous years, yield managers monitor competitor pricing and then put together a strategy. In the end, Ms. Gibson says it would be foolish for a property to rely solely on the numbers produced by yield-management software to determine rate strategies. “I always say it’s 90 percent statistics and 10 percent human instinct,” she says. “If you don’t apply the human factor to purely what your data is telling you, you’re missing an important element.” » BY JASON Q. FREED www.LuxuryHotelier.com | February 2008 | Luxury Hotelier http://www.letitrain.com http://www.LuxuryHotelier.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Luxury Hotelier - February 2008

Luxury Hotelier - February 2008 Editor's Letter Publisher's Letter Inform Network Forever Young Evolution for Jumeirah Insight Diamond in the Rough Amenities Televisions Art in Residence Yield Management Development Wine Lists Marketing to Locals Update Advertisers Index Editorial Index Source Listing Dossier

Luxury Hotelier - February 2008

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