The Importance of Management Development Training For Hotels and the Hospitality Industry

By David Shoemaker I.

Due to the economic hardship and recession over the past few years, hotel revenue management has become crucial for survival in the hospitality industry. With fewer people spending money on vacations, fewer people have been staying in hotels. As a result, many companies have realized the importance of hotel revenue management and are starting to make it a top priority within their establishments. The required job skills of these specific management positions are growing and evolving. A revenue manager’s job tasks are far more extensive than oversight of inventory control. The role of a hotel revenue manager will continue to change and evolve alongside changes in the global economy.



While hotel revenue managers may frequently be the person best suited to make pricing decisions, they are oftentimes not authorized to make those decisions and implement necessary changes. Many are realizing that it would be a smart choice to give revenue managers an executive seat at board meetings and expand their role in building and executing company strategy. Successful revenue managers must not only be analytical, but they also must know how to accurately evaluate market conditions and understand existing demand to make pricing decisions. Additionally, they must also be able to formulate this data into a corporate approach plan and standards in order to determine the best strategic actions to take. The success of the organization’s profitability all depends on the planning set in place. Therefore, having the right revenue manager who has completed management development training is key to the success of a business.



Experienced hotel revenue managers make smart and strategic decisions about revenue. They have a working system in place to manage occupancy, pricing and marketing. Hotel revenue management is an increasingly vital function and involves a coordinated effort across the organization. Through proper planning, hotels can increase their revenue by balancing demand, reservation scheduling and variable pricing. Being a manager is not easy, and those interested in a role as a hotel manager must complete proper training. The basic formula for proper revenue management is simply to sell the right room to the right person at the right time for the right price. Course-specific management development training focuses on several high-impact drivers for maximizing revenue: forecasting and availability controls, pricing and distribution channel management, overbooking and group management, and non-traditional revenue management applications. Courses can explore these topics in detail, with particular emphasis on the role of strategy in effective hotel revenue management.



Prospective revenue managers who complete training will be able to fully describe hotel revenue management and identify potential benefits it can bring to an organization, as well as understand its fundamental parts and critical considerations. Managers will feel confident in discussing the strategic levers of hotel revenue management and how they can be manipulated to increase revenue. Lastly, once in their deemed role, hotel revenue managers will confidently develop and recommend non-traditional ways in which revenue management techniques can be applied to increase revenue.



Hotel revenue management does not have to be a complicated process in order to be effective. Smart managers have come to realize that strategy is a learned process for those who have a legitimate interest and curiosity for numbers. If you are not interested in handling training and learning from your mistakes, then this job is not right for you. However, through skilled planning and careful management, the return on this modest investment can be huge.



About the Author: David Shoemaker is Vice President of Learning Solutions and Innovation at eCornell. For more information on hotel revenue management, management development training, or eCornell, please visit http://www.eCornell.com



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