Hotels Need Better Skill-Building in Revenue Strategy, Experts Say – CoStar

Companies Continue Efforts To Integrate Revenue, Sales and Marketing

As hotel companies continue to work to better bridge the gaps across their commercial teams, which include revenue management, sales and marketing, leaders must do a better job giving employees diverse experiences.

For years, hoteliers have talked about the need to “breakdown the silos” between the disciplines of revenue management, sales and marketing, but experts say those silos remain, at least somewhat, and leaders must reconsider how they approach career development to address that problem.

During the “Great Debate: Setting the Foundation for True Revenue Strategy” session at HSMAI’s 2023 Revenue Optimization Conference, Jeff Borman, vice president of revenue optimization at Ashford Inc., said not enough focus is given to providing employees a diverse set of experiences.

“The bigger problem is that people will look at their plan and really think ‘I need to go up and up and up,'” he said. “And leadership reinforces that. Unfortunately, bosses and employees tend not to focus on skill-building.”

Borman said moving employees into different roles that will elevate their skill sets rather than positions that would seem to be the next rung on the ladder of traditional growth is helpful in crossing the divide.

He said one of the most meaningful points in his career was going from overseeing revenue management for a portfolio of Ritz-Carlton hotels to a portfolio of select-service hotels.

“My Ritz-Carlton friends thought I was being demoted, and it was really a change to go learn how to do it in a different way,” he said. “It’s about being a better leader in the next step because you know how to solve the same problem in a few different ways.”

Janelle Cornett, market director of revenue management at Sonesta Hospitality, said like many in the discipline, she came up almost exclusively within revenue. She said often people in different disciplines have different viewpoints, with salespeople viewing the world in shades of gray while revenue experts see the world in black and white.

Cornett said that point of view is quickly changing across the industry.

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