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The “A Paradigm Shift: Sales and Marketing and Revenue Management”

webinar will begin shortly.

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“Marketing Strategies and their Impact on RM”

September 26th, 2006

presented as part of the series

“The Role of the Sales & Marketing Professional in the Creation and

Management of Demand”

by

Hospitality Sales and MarketingAssociation International (HSMAI)

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Overview of Format and Topic

� ModeratorBarb Taylor Carpender CMMManaging Director, HSMAI University

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POLL QUESTION #1How many people are participating in

this webinar at your location today?

� 1

� 2

� 3

� 4

� 5

� 6

� 7

� 8 or more

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Today’s Speaker

Victoria EdwardsVP Strategic DevelopmentBuckhiester Management USA, Inc.

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Series Objective

To assist the Sales & Marketing professional in better understanding

their leadership & strategic roles in the Revenue Management business process.

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Today’s Agenda

� How do Sales & Marketing Strategies Impact RM

� Re-examining traditional market segmentation

�What questions should a DOSM ask in order to ensure that the team is optimizing profit.

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POLL QUESTION #2

My marketing strategies have been adapted to effectively address changes in buyer behavior and distribution?

a)Strongly agree

b)Somewhat agree

c)Somewhat disagree

d)Strongly disagree

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Revenue Management as a Business Process

Product Definition

Competitive Benchmarking

Strategic Pricing

DemandForecasting

DistributionManagement

BusinessMix

Manipulation

REVRoadMap™

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Customer Profitability

� Critical information because cost of providing the service/product is related to customer behavior

� Looking at the value of each guest should drive

-pricing decisions

-marketing resource allocation

-inventory to segment allocations

� Guest contribute value to a hotel based on the revenue they generate over time, acquisition cost of guest, the cost of servicing the guest/account

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Distribution Strategies

� Conventional marketing shift to digital marketing

� Migration of guest from less “hotel friendly” intermediaries to hotel web site

� Focus on CRM by targeting link strategies, ensure SEO, best use of PPC

� Website is your online brand image – first point of contact

� Key: Content, Navigation, Booking Engine

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Hotel Website Effectiveness

� Two primary areas: usability & market capture

� Usability – navigation, booking engine, availability of information

� Market Capture – SEO, PPC, keywords

� Marketing tools include: Alexa, wordtracker.com, Google key word tool

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Web site ratio’s

1. Visitor to Book ratio = website visitor per reservation

2. Visitor to Look ratio = visitor per request on site

3. Look to Book ratio = request to site engine per reservation made

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e-Marketing - RM Impact

1. Reservation conversion ratio online – look to book ratio vs visitor to look

2. Overall channel costs

3. Dynamic marketing opportunity for better product match

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Business Mix Manipulation

� Adding Science to Sales

� Quantifying the value of each customer – a new look at segmentation

� Contribution based approach to segmentation issues

� Approach assists Sales by quantifying segment buying behavior

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Segmentation Contribution

$ 490,810 $ 256,460 $ 1,282,300 $ 370,120 $ 912,180 6520Total

$ 52,560 $ 26,280 $ 131,400 $ 27,000 $ 104,400 $ 116 900Associations

$ 154,770 $ 88,440 $ 442,200 $ 154,000 $ 288,200 $ 131 2200Convention

$ 108,680 $ 54,340 $ 271,700 $ 78,000 $ 193,700 $ 149 1300Corporate

$ 97,520 $ 48,760 $ 243,800 $ 60,720 $ 183,080 $ 199 920Packages

$ 77,280 $ 38,640 $ 193,200 $ 50,400 $ 142,800 $ 119 1200Discounts

CostsCostsSpendRev

VariableFixedTotalOtherREVADRRNSegment

CPA - customer profitability analysis

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Segmentation Contribution

31%$ 61 $ 399,390 $ 882,910 $ 20,200 $ 44,540 $ 70,900

30%$ 43 $ 39,060 $ 92,340 $ 900 $ 8,100 $ 4,500

35%$ 70 $ 154,990 $ 287,210 $ 4,400 $ 24,200 $ 15,400

27%$ 57 $ 73,580 $ 198,120 $ 9,100 $ 10,400 $ 15,600

32%$ 84 $ 77,280 $ 166,520 $ 4,600 $ 1,840 $ 13,800

28%$ 45 $ 54,480 $ 138,720 $ 1,200 $ -$ 21,600

RNCostCostsCostsCost

% contributionNet RevNet RevTotalMarketingSalesChannel

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Business Mix - RM Impact

1. Ability to pin point premium demand

2. More accurate revenue forecasting

3. Better understanding of the value of each channel

4. Matching customer buying behavior with product allotment & development

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Forecasting

Sales plays a role in the forecast process in three ways:

1. How the inventory is sold – hard block versus ROH

2. How the inventory gets washed – group block accuracy

3. How demand is considered – transient/group baseline, pricing considerations

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Value of Forecasting

� Forecast accuracy translates into increased revenues

� Who says? Cornell, Robert Cross

� By how much?

• 1% – 2% increase in revenues for every 10% improvement in accuracy

• $5M annual revenue = +$50-$100k !!

� Why is this true?

� Let’s illustrate

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Forecast Accuracy

Forecast Rooms Sold

Mon. 375 348

Tue. 403 440

Wed. 490 459

Thu. 487 500

Fri. 479 498

Sat. 500 489

2734 2734

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Forecast Accuracy

Forecast Rms. Sold Variance

Mon. 375 348 -27

Tue. 403 440 +37

Wed. 490 459 -31

Thu. 487 500 +13

Fri. 479 498 +19

Sat. 500 489 -11

2734 2734 0

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Forecast Accuracy

Forecast Rms. Variance Absolute Rms.Sold Variance Avail.

Mon. 375 348 -27 27 500

Tue. 403 440 +37 37 500

Wed. 490 459 -31 31 500

Thu. 487 500 +13 13 500

Fri. 479 498 +19 19 500

Sat. 500 489 -11 11 500

27 2734 0 138

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Setting Selling Strategies

ROB % Occ Selling Strategy

Mon. 345 69% OpenTue. 430 86% Disc closed Wed. 445 89% Disc closedThu. 480 96% Rack onlyFri. 445 89% Rack onlySat. 340 68% Sell, sell

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Group Booking Curve

Group Name:

Group Name:

Group Name:

Day of Week Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu FriDates 13-Jul 14-Jul 15-Jul 16-Jul 17-Jul 18-Jul 19-Jul 20-Jul 21-Jul 22-Jul 23-JulOriginal Block 75 100 150 150 160 150 150 100 50 50 25Forecasted Block in PMS 60 85 125 140 150 125 100 85 40 40 20Pickup to Date 15 68 73 100 105 99 85 42 10 8 4Pickup to Date (% of original block) 20% 68% 49% 67% 66% 66% 57% 42% 20% 16% 16%New Forecasted Block 21 97 104 143 150 141 121 60 14 11 6Actual Block Pickup

Sample Group Pickup Forecast

Today's Date: 26-Sep-06Physicians Conference

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Group Booking Curve

Group Name: Group Name:

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Sales Impact on Forecasting

� Wash can mean inventory becomes available after booking window

� ROH leaves more margin for upgrades

� Over-forecasted revenues can lead to owner cash flow issues

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Strategic Pricing

Key Concepts

� Pricing indifference range

� Rate threshold per channel

� Break even analysis

� Rate integrity versus rate parity

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Comp Set Rate Response

Data extracted from the Hotelligence Report

What does it mean in terms of fair share?

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Comp Set Rate Response

What does it mean in terms of revenue?

What money are you “leaving on the table” at each rate level?

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Rate Parity – Literally!

In-houseReservations

$169

PropertyWebsite$169

3rd PartyInternet$169

CRO$169

GDS$169

Do you fully understand the difference between rate parity and rate integrity?

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Premium Demand

Retail Demand

Discount Demand

Fence: e.g. Product Line, Channel

Fence: e.g. Pre-payment, day of week availability, association membership

Continue fencing to further disaggregate demand

Volume of Sales (in rooms)

Rate

$300

$0

1,000

Fencing the Price Triangle

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Rate Integrity – Reality!

In-house Res.$169

*Breakfast6pm cancel

PropertyWeb $149*Internet onlyPrepay, no cxl

3rd PartyInternet$159*PrepayCxl fee

CRO$169

*Breakfast6pm cancel

GDS$129

*Consortia rate

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Break Even Analysis

� Scenario: Third party IDS - 315 room nights @ $109 net rate

� Dilemma: Account rep. says Rm. Nts. +15% (362 room nights) with $10 rate drop

� Question: Can you generate enough incremental revenue to justify rate decrease?

Are you “doing the math” before you make a pricing d ecision?

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Break Even Analysis

$99.00$109.00ADR

$35.00$35.00Variable Cost

364Required Rooms Sold to Break Even

$23,310Required Revenue to Break Even

$64.00$74.00Profit

315Rooms Sold

$10 Discount3rd Party IDSFebruary

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Strategic Pricing – RM Impact

� Price Integrity – across segments & product lines

� Fencing – ability to filter business based on product, LOS or membership conditions

� User needs – properly defined helps optimize all revenue streams, decrease need for upgrades

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Competitive Benchmarking

� Sales & marketing plays a significant role in external benchmarking to establish product differentiation

� Analysis of business intelligence for positioning purposes

� Creates a better understanding of competitive pricing competency

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Competitive Benchmarking – Impact on RM

� Improper set definition leads to inaccurate selling strategies

� Rate anomalies within comp set will lead to index imbalance

� Degree of index imbalance points to over/underselling property (lost revenue share)

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Questions That Every DOSM should ask the RM Team

1. Product Definition – How many upgrades have we had this week? (translation: Are you leveraging the inventory properly)

2. Competitive Benchmarking – What is our revPAR variance to our comp set? (translation: Have you set selling guidelines appropriately)

3. Pricing – Do we have any significant pricing anomalies compared to the comp set? Which channels? Which segments?

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Questions That Every DOSM should ask the RM Team

4. Forecasting – How accurate is our forecast MTD? Where are the largest segment variances? (translation: Did we leave money on the table on any given day)

5. Mix Manipulation – Do our strategies yield reasonable balance in our indexes? (translation: Where did we loose revenue share)

6. Distribution: What is our look to book ratio MTD (translation: Why is website business not converting)

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Questions?

Victoria EdwardsBuckhiester Management USA, Inc.

Office: +1 (206) 694-4555victoria@buckhiester.com

www.buckhiester.com

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Upcoming Webinars in this Series

� Session 3: Tuesday, October 3rd, 2006“Bringing It, and Us, All Together”

All sessions are held from 2:00 – 3:00 p.m. EDT

For more information or to register, visit www.hsmaiuniversity.org

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Upcoming HSMAI University Webinars

For information onupcoming webinars,

visit the HSMAI Universitysection of

www.hsmai.org.