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Meeting Recap (January 11, 2012) "What You Should Know About Hotel Revenue" By Brynn Koster We kicked off our 2012 year with our January Chapter meeting which was held at the Association of Washington School Principals on January 11, 2012. Sue Davis, the Association's Executive Assistant/Conferences and Events and our Chapter’s Immediate Past President, was gracious to host the meeting for the second time in our educational year and she arranged for our wonderful, informative program! Occasions Catering and Special Events catered our tasty lunch. Paul Chappelle, CHA, CRME, Director of Revenue Strategy for Red Lion Hotels, came to our chapter to teach our members how hoteliers forecast supply and demand and adjust their pricing strategies accordingly. Chappelle has been forecasting hotel revenue since 1997. In addition to his work with the Red Lion Hotels, he has been Director of Revenue Analysis for Marriott International, and Area Revenue Manager for Doubletree Hotels. During the meeting, Government Planners and industry Suppliers learned about the factors used in determining whether a hotel takes a government event over a corporate event. Some of these factors included learning the types of demands, such as constrained demand and unconstrained demand. Chappelle went on to explain that constrained demand is a demand we can see such as proposals that are already out. Unconstrained demand is a demand we don’t see such as last minute reservations. Once the demand is identified, there are steps that are made in determining the priority. Chappelle called these "tactical decisions." The approach and the revenue strategy helps to determine the outcome, such as; total spending at the hotel during the guests stay, what season or day pattern the guest is wanting, cost of booking the venue of choice, cost of sale and group history. All these factors help to determine how the hotel forecasts its pricing. Meeting participants were able to step into the role of revenue forecaster as Paul facilitated the Revenue Management Simulation game following his presentation. This interactive exercise was a great way to reinforce our learning and it helped participants understand the concepts that he presented in a fun, engaging way. For more information, please click the presentation links to review Paul Chappell's presentation. |
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