HOTELMARKETING.COM

Mobile and its impact on hotel revenue management

May 16, 2012 | Hotel Marketing

Hotel marketers have so far not observed material differences in booking patterns between the online channels - brand web, online travel agent and mobile. What's more, the increasing trend to mainly offer last-minute exclusive deals via third-party mobile platforms cannot be a sustainable strategy.

When it comes to bookings mobile holds great promise but there are challenges for revenue management (RM) professionals. Chinmai Sharma, Vice President, RM at Wyndham Hotel Group lets EyeforTravel’s Ritesh Gupta in on what to beware of.

Sharma believes revenue management (RM) specialists have so far not observed material differences in booking patterns between the online channels - brand web, online travel agent and mobile. But since that mobile is still a nascent channel for booking rooms, differences could emerge over time and RM specialists should keep a close eye on trends.

In general, mobile platforms are a good investment from a revenue management perspective as they represent another consumer friendly channel where a company can distribute its rates and inventory.

That said, Wyndham disagrees with the idea that they safeguard brands and price integrity, the exception being if the hotels and brands in question are selling the same offers on their own channels including mobile.

An increasing trend has been to offer last-minute exclusive deals to third-party mobile platforms which undermine the value proposition of brand.com and other partner channels. That can never be a sustainable strategy. Just because a customer is booking last minute through a mobile device doesn’t mean that Wyndham gives them exclusive deals.

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