Q4 2016 Revenue Management Update
Since our last update in February, we have been progressing along our Revenue Management Roadmap, which includes all of the enhancements that have been recently rolled out, and those planned for the coming months. We’d like to highlight a few of these:
RPO AUTO-PUBLISH:
RPO Auto-Publish allows One Yield’s Retail Pricing Optimizer (RPO) to automatically publish rates to High Performance Pricing (HPP). Rollout is ongoing to all Marriott-branded hotels.
- Turning this capability on will allow a hotel to always have the most optimal rates “on the shelf” for customers to buy, helping to constantly drive revenue.
- This will streamline the process of setting up and maintaining retail rates, and allows hotels to price proactively.
ENHANCED GROUP PRICING:
In July of this year, new capabilities were delivered that allow users to generate future year group pricing that is aligned with a property’s goals. This enabled Sales teams to be more strategic with group opportunities and improve the process for Revenue Management outside of two years.
INVENTORY OPTIMIZATION:
As part of the proof-of-concept (POC) for One Yield version 2, an optional feature to have Inventory Optimization (IO) run automatically became available to the 22 participating hotels. This feature enables a hotel to always have inventory available that would drive the highest possible revenue, and this feature will be offered to additional hotels in the coming months.
ONE YIELD VERSION 2:
Current Focus: The One Yield version 2 pilot, representing 101 hotels globally, began on November 15. The training for sales strategy team members participating in the pilot will start later this month and run through January to a go-live date of February 6, 2017. In addition, a certification program will be included in the training for One Yield version 2.
Looking Ahead: Marriott-branded hotels (i.e., Marriott brands prior to September 23, 2016) are anticipated to go live with One Yield version 2 prior to Q4 2017.
- Retail Pricing Execution
It has become more apparent that a streamlined retail pricing structure is essential to the success of a hotel’s revenue management strategy as non-traditional structures will not work effectively in One Yield version 2 due to their complicated arrangement spanning numerous rate entities. In One Yield version 2, users will not be able to manipulate the opening and closing of rate entities – this will be automated – and therefore this may require adjustments for anyone currently using more than one retail rate program per room pool.Marriott is recommending that hotels take immediate action to streamline their retail pricing structure to use only one retail rate program per room pool (also known as Date Range Pricing.)
A Retail Pricing Execution memo will be distributed on December 12 via the Weekly Update to all General Managers and Revenue Management associates.
- Remote Solutions Plus Services is available for assistance with this effort at a nominal cost. Contact Tracy Gerlach (Tracy.L.Gerlach@marriott.com) for scheduling and pricing information.
- Please direct any additional questions to RMFieldSupport@marriott.com.
- Revenue Management Foundational Training:
In 2015, Revenue Managers and General Managers were asked to complete three short courses that covered the foundations of Revenue Management. This was designed to ‘refresh’ the basics before more complex training was delivered in preparation for One Yield version 2. General Managers that have not yet completed this training will be contacted in the coming weeks and reminded to finish this training before full rollout begins for One Yield version 2.
STARWOOD INTEGRATION:
While not specifically noted on the Revenue Management Roadmap, our teams are actively working with our new colleagues to build a strategy that delivers the best capabilities to all hotels within the Marriott International portfolio, leveraging the outstanding Revenue Management capabilities across both Marriott and the former Starwood organization. Our teams will be reaching out to owners and franchisees with specific updates as they are available.
