10 most common reservations and revenue department mistakes you cannot afford to make during peak season
Revenue 18/07/2024
In high season, the reservations and revenue departments of hotel establishments face critical challenges. Below, we detail the ten most common mistakes that can hurt efficiency and revenue, from fragmented availability issues and virtual overbooking to lack of communication of offers and inadequate customer service. Taking measures to avoid these errors is essential to optimize management and maximize hotel occupancy during periods of high demand.
Hotels often face non-linear availability problems for the same room type. For example, it may happen that on Monday a double room is available, on Tuesday a superior one, and on Wednesday, again, a double. Proper inventory management can consolidate this availability, optimizing the supply of rooms.
Likewise, minimum stays are sometimes trapped, preventing sales on key days.
At Paraty Tech, we offer functionalities that automatically relocate this availability, avoiding losses and ensuring greater efficiency in room management, something that not all channels can offer.
Precise mapping between the booking engine, OTAs and channel manager is crucial to selling every last available room. Configuring rooms with their permitted occupancy, instead of assigning one room for each occupancy, avoids duplication of actual availability and ensures the last units are sold without problems.
Has it happened to you that a last room allows you to book multiple units on booking.com when occupancy is mixed? Surely this sounds familiar to you:
It is common for the reservations or revenue department not to update slots in the Channel Manager during their free days, which leaves unsold rooms that could have been cancelled or been no-shows.
Implementing an internal protocol to manage these quotas automatically, or establishing bidirectional connectivity with the PMS, is essential to achieve 100% occupancy during weekends and holidays.
Launching offers in periods of low occupancy is a common practice, but sometimes it is forgotten to do so on the channels themselves such as the official website and the call center, thereby damaging the reputation of the direct channel and promoting customers in search of bargains instead of our ideal target.
Aligning these offers across all channels is essential to maintaining a coherent and effective strategy.
It is well known that it is always nice to raise the price, but unfortunately, sometimes you have to propose a reduction, creating attractive offers and, most importantly, communicating them properly.
OTAs will position us better and marketing campaigns will be more effective. Let's remember that the customer does not have to know the previous price, so they will not notice the difference if it is not communicated to them efficiently.
It is not the same to lower the price of a room from €200 to €160 in the channel manager than to communicate on your social networks or campaigns that you offer an exclusive 20% discount, a flash offer with a countdown, or a promotional code by time limited.
Here, creativity and the wow effect are more important than ever!
During peak season, the increase in calls can overwhelm both reception and reservations staff, resulting in numerous unanswered calls. This leads to loss of sales, bad reputation and diversion of customers to competitors.
It is crucial to have a well-prepared team to manage this increase in demand or outsource traffic that we are not able to handle.
We all know that calls need to be managed properly, but it is also necessary to provide written quotes (email, WhatsApp, etc.) and send booking links to ensure that potential clients are not lost. This allows you to track who books and who doesn't, make outbound follow-up calls, and maximize conversion opportunities.
Our Call Seeker tool, among other functions, allows you to manage these requests efficiently, achieving conversions of up to 50% on quote links. In addition, it is essential to implement correct collection processes, such as payment links, transfer payments and tokenization for deferred or automated payments, to optimize this channel.
You work offers by device, market and channel... But also on your voice channel? It is essential to offer mobile rates, geolocated rates and opaque offers by telephone. This aligns the expectations of the customer who has met you online and maximizes conversion opportunities.
A common mistake is to discriminate a specific offer by device and/or market. The potential client has seen a certain price, but the agent, not having access to those rates, quotes the standard price, generating distrust and, consequently, losing the sale. Make sure your team has access to all available offers to avoid these mistakes and maintain customer trust.
What hotelier has not had his establishment almost empty on a Sunday after a week at 90% occupancy? Promoting specific check-in days, such as Sundays, through special offers can help distribute occupancy more evenly.
These settings can be easily activated in the Paraty Tech booking engine, thus optimizing inventory management and improving the customer experience.
No-shows during high occupancy periods can hurt profitability and inventory management. Implementing automated collections a few days before arrival, especially on high demand dates, can prevent these unwanted no-shows and facilitate the resale of those last-minute units, thus maximizing revenue.
1. Fragmented availability
Hotels often face non-linear availability problems for the same room type. For example, it may happen that on Monday a double room is available, on Tuesday a superior one, and on Wednesday, again, a double. Proper inventory management can consolidate this availability, optimizing the supply of rooms.
Likewise, minimum stays are sometimes trapped, preventing sales on key days.
At Paraty Tech, we offer functionalities that automatically relocate this availability, avoiding losses and ensuring greater efficiency in room management, something that not all channels can offer.
2. Virtual overbooking
Precise mapping between the booking engine, OTAs and channel manager is crucial to selling every last available room. Configuring rooms with their permitted occupancy, instead of assigning one room for each occupancy, avoids duplication of actual availability and ensures the last units are sold without problems.
Has it happened to you that a last room allows you to book multiple units on booking.com when occupancy is mixed? Surely this sounds familiar to you:
3. Spaces sold out on free days of the reservations/revenue department
It is common for the reservations or revenue department not to update slots in the Channel Manager during their free days, which leaves unsold rooms that could have been cancelled or been no-shows.
Implementing an internal protocol to manage these quotas automatically, or establishing bidirectional connectivity with the PMS, is essential to achieve 100% occupancy during weekends and holidays.
4. Non-aligned offers (bargains!)
Launching offers in periods of low occupancy is a common practice, but sometimes it is forgotten to do so on the channels themselves such as the official website and the call center, thereby damaging the reputation of the direct channel and promoting customers in search of bargains instead of our ideal target.
Aligning these offers across all channels is essential to maintaining a coherent and effective strategy.
5. Lack of communication of offers
It is well known that it is always nice to raise the price, but unfortunately, sometimes you have to propose a reduction, creating attractive offers and, most importantly, communicating them properly.
OTAs will position us better and marketing campaigns will be more effective. Let's remember that the customer does not have to know the previous price, so they will not notice the difference if it is not communicated to them efficiently.
It is not the same to lower the price of a room from €200 to €160 in the channel manager than to communicate on your social networks or campaigns that you offer an exclusive 20% discount, a flash offer with a countdown, or a promotional code by time limited.
Here, creativity and the wow effect are more important than ever!
6. Nobody answers the phone!
During peak season, the increase in calls can overwhelm both reception and reservations staff, resulting in numerous unanswered calls. This leads to loss of sales, bad reputation and diversion of customers to competitors.
It is crucial to have a well-prepared team to manage this increase in demand or outsource traffic that we are not able to handle.
7. Voice channel
We all know that calls need to be managed properly, but it is also necessary to provide written quotes (email, WhatsApp, etc.) and send booking links to ensure that potential clients are not lost. This allows you to track who books and who doesn't, make outbound follow-up calls, and maximize conversion opportunities.
Our Call Seeker tool, among other functions, allows you to manage these requests efficiently, achieving conversions of up to 50% on quote links. In addition, it is essential to implement correct collection processes, such as payment links, transfer payments and tokenization for deferred or automated payments, to optimize this channel.
8. Not offering what the customer is looking for
You work offers by device, market and channel... But also on your voice channel? It is essential to offer mobile rates, geolocated rates and opaque offers by telephone. This aligns the expectations of the customer who has met you online and maximizes conversion opportunities.
A common mistake is to discriminate a specific offer by device and/or market. The potential client has seen a certain price, but the agent, not having access to those rates, quotes the standard price, generating distrust and, consequently, losing the sale. Make sure your team has access to all available offers to avoid these mistakes and maintain customer trust.
9. Promote check-in dates
What hotelier has not had his establishment almost empty on a Sunday after a week at 90% occupancy? Promoting specific check-in days, such as Sundays, through special offers can help distribute occupancy more evenly.
These settings can be easily activated in the Paraty Tech booking engine, thus optimizing inventory management and improving the customer experience.
10. Avoid No-Shows
No-shows during high occupancy periods can hurt profitability and inventory management. Implementing automated collections a few days before arrival, especially on high demand dates, can prevent these unwanted no-shows and facilitate the resale of those last-minute units, thus maximizing revenue.
