We were fortunate enough recently to have a project on us carried out by an SBP team from the world renowned Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne.
As part of their excellent project, they conducted a study into current practices in revenue management and hotel technology in general. You can download the full, fascinating report below. They interviewed many hotels, as well as consultants such as SHS, the hotel association, hotelleriesuisse, and CEOs of property management systems (including CASY, The Booking Factory and onstay).
Key findings from the report are as follows:
- Hoteliers still have little insight into hospitality technology, their use is limited to PMS and Channel Manager.
- Lack of technical support is a common source of dissatisfaction.
- Concerning pricing, manual computation and artisanal methods are commonly used. The majority of
hoteliers adjust their rates based mainly on competitors’ prices, occupancy of the hotel and events, using
their experience of the market and gut feeling. - Most hoteliers see room for improvement in their pricing approach, but are still sceptical about the implication of technology. They want more transparency on how such systems work to be able to trust them.
- There is more than one Revenue Management definition among hoteliers, who both recognise its
importance in today’s world and still have concerns about its application. - Hoteliers are still unaware of Revenue Management Systems on the market but are considering using one in the future if such systems could increase their revenue and allow them to save time.
- A hassle-free integration with the PMS and a strong support system are expected. Hoteliers learn about the
existence of new software mainly through word-of-mouth and hospitality associations. - PMS providers have identified a need for a pricing tool among their customers. They showed interest in
recommending a Revenue Management System from another party, as opposed to developing one
themselves. This is because they expressed preference for focusing on their own area of expertise.
The report also contains statistics on technology use in Switzerland and satisfaction levels.
Overall it’s well worth looking over. And we would like to thank Alejandra Abad, Alix Vermeil, Lara Sutter, Laura Vasquez Ortiz, Maria Oltean and Pauline Bochet for their great work here, as well as their coaches Ian Millar and Christina Tavares from EHL.
You can get the report by filling out the small form below.
