Best Western properties yield more profit

Best Western properties yield more profit from revenue management techniques

Hotel occupancy and rates are up on last year, according to a recent survey by Best Western Australasia, which is good news for small hotel and motel owners. The global hotel organisation is going one step further to help accommodation owners make the most of the traditionally quiet end-of-year season by employing strategic revenue management processes, helping increase profit.

Keith Meyers, Senior Revenue Manager for Best Western Australasia said his advice to struggling accommodation owners would be simple: look at ways to increase revenue per available room or RevPAR. “This is achieved by a range of strategies, including historical analysis, competitor analysis and forecasting demand with the aim to increase the properties fair share of revenue from its market” he said.

Meyers added that even though a hotel may have 100% occupancy, they could still make more profit, “Revenue opportunities exist for any property. For a property running 100% occupancy, the opportunity would be in increased rate, by leveraging a higher paying source of business or market segment”.

And although some accommodation owners in New Zealand would have suffered because of the global financial crisis, the most important thing is to look to the future.

Meyers continued, “The most important element is looking forward in time for revenue opportunities. It’s never too late to adjust rates for peak periods and adjust them for seasonality.”

Best Western New Zealand accommodation owners have enjoyed great success with the Property Revenue Management (PRM) program since it first launched in 2009.

Greg Young from Best Western BK’s Pioneer Motor Lodge in Auckland said, “We joined Best Western in May 2009 as it was getting harder to operate as an independent motel. Operating as an independent, it was tough to stay on top of being strategic about the business as my day was taken up with day-to-day operating issues.

“Operationally, the time required to manage all the electronic channels was crippling and error-prone. It was vital that we maintain rate parity across all channels and we just weren’t able to do this as our knowledge and available time was tapped out.

“Best Western’s PRM program showed me that the complexity of the industry that we were working with was the tip of the iceberg – there was so much involved than we had originally thought. We are now able to work with the whole iceberg with the PRM programme in place, and our Best Western bookings have more than doubled since last year”.

ENDS

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