Revenue Management – The Podcast

Revenue Management From Both Sides Now

Welcome to Hospitality Highlights! In this 32nd episode of the ThinkUp Podcast, host Lily Mockerman talks with Scott

Bunce, the Chief Operating Officer for Cabins For You. We're a vacation rental company that focuses primarily on cabins,

but we have 466 vacation rentals available now, from a one-bedroom vacation cabin, all the way up to lodges that sleep

up to close to 60 people. 

Highlights from this episode

Lily: How do you approach Revenue Management differently from the way that you would approach it for a hotel?

Scott: All of the revenue management skills are translatable. For instance, when I think of a hotel, I think of the charges for a view, being on the top floor, something on a club floor, which is all good. But here's the difference. Vacation Rentals kind of explode in the attributes that you need to forecast. Number of bedrooms? in my world, it could be a one-bedroom all the way up to a 11-12 bedroom cabin. Booking windows are vastly different. The type of clientele is vastly different. In addition, the community is also a factor in figuring out demand. Then there's the view - the mountain? A white river? A lake? The Gulf of Mexico, woods, a meadow? At least 80 of our cabins have pools that are either in or next to a cabin. Hot Tubs are another big demand generator, as well as video games. So all of these things just explode the different possibilities of managing, forecasting and predicting rates going forward.

Lily and Scott go on to discuss:

• The disparity in technology and tools for the vacation rental industry
• Tools such as Rev Max and Key Data, specifically for vacation rental companies
• How Scott converts a booking on an OTA to a direct booking moving forward
• How vacation rentals and hotels become part of the overall distribution landscape
• Ways that vacation rental companies can move towards this commercial strategy approach
• Tips for alternative accommodation providers or those who bridge the gap to a traditional hotelier as it relates
• to distribution and revenue management
• TO REACH SCOTT WITH QUESTIONS OR FOR ASSISTANCE
• LinkedIn Cabins For You See cabins and deals on our Facebook page
• FINAL NOTES FROM THINKUP
• Read more articles on Hospitality Revenue Management on our ThinkUp Thought Leadership page.
• Join us live on This Week in Hospitality Live Show, which you can register for at hospitalitydigitalmarketing.com/live. For questions on this episode or any other revenue management related topics, you can send them to us at info@thinkupenterprises.com. 

Bringing In New Business and Driving Direct Bookings With Meta

Highlights from this episode

Welcome to Hospitality Highlights! In this 31st episode of the ThinkUp Podcast, host Lily Mockerman talks with Dean Schmit, founder at Base Camp Meta and MetaSearchMarketing.com, where they provide help for staff suddenly responsible for running the property’s metasearch program, and educational content for digital agencies. Dean’s Revenue Management – The Podcast

Lily: From my perspective, some hoteliers seem to think that working with a metasearch isn't about direct bookings. So

that is essentially like working with another OTA and steering people away from direct bookings.

Dean: It really IS about direct bookings, and that is one of the core benefits of a better search program. When we talk about metasearch, it means that I've searched for something and I'm getting multiple results for the same search. So within hospitality, we're talking about different booking options for that hotel. I can go to hotels.com, Expedia, brand.com, whatever the case would be, and aggregating it all into one place. So not only are we getting the direct booking, but we're getting the traffic coming directly from that site to our website.

Lily and Dean go on to discuss:

• The fundamental shift in remarketing and display advertising
• How metasearch and revenue management are tied together
• How hoteliers can move forward with metasearch without feeling like they have to add another full-time person
• The simplest and most effective way to start getting involved in a metasearch strategy
• The first three steps that people should take as they're diving into this world
• TO REACH DEAN WITH QUESTIONS OR ASSISTANCE
• You can visit Base Camp Meta, email Dean@basecampmeta.com, or contact him on LinkedIn. FINAL NOTES FROM THINKUP
• Read more articles on Hospitality Revenue Management on our ThinkUp Thought Leadership page.
• Join us live on This Week in Hospitality Live Show, which you can register for at hospitalitydigitalmarketing.com/live. For questions on this episode or any other revenue management-related topics, you can send them to us at info@thinkupenterprises.com. 

specialty is running metasearch campaigns or helping to find the right vendor for your situation. 

Revenue Management – The Podcast

Proactive Selling – What to Ask, When to Ask, and Why You Aren’t Getting a Response

Highlights from this episode

Lily: I think many hotel sellers haven’t readily had the opportunity to be fully trained in business development as opposed to just relationship selling. What is the GitGo perspective about that process of new business development for hotels?

Amy: The difference between relationship selling and the proactive process is with the proactive approach, you’re reaching out to a customer before they probably even know they have a need, and the type of questions that you need to ask that customer are a little bit different. We train our clients which questions to ask and when. That's how we approach the proactive process, and how we train sellers, how we train our own team, and how we build our tools around and resources around this so that this can enable sellers to be more efficient at it and more productive.

Lily and Amy go on to discuss:

• Some reasons why the proactive process is so elusive to sellers
• How to use tech and marketing collaboration to enable sellers to be more effective
• The two sides to collaboration between marketing teams and sales
• How to up level types of B2B marketing and communications
• The best cadence and frequency for running great campaigns
• Why companies aren’t getting responses from prospects when they reach out
• Amy’s top 3 tips for sellers as they’re hunting for new business during this delicate recovery period.
• TO REACH AMY WITH QUESTIONS OR ASSISTANCE
• You can visit www.GitGoGroup.com, email Amy@gitgogroup.com, or contact Amy on LinkedIn
• FINAL NOTES FROM THINKUP
• Read more articles on Hospitality Revenue Management on our ThinkUp Thought Leadership page.
• Join us live on This Week in Hospitality Live Show, which you can register for at hospitalitydigitalmarketing.com/live. For questions on this episode or any other revenue management related topics, you can send them to us at info@thinkupenterprises.com.

Welcome to Hospitality Highlights! In this 30th episode of the ThinkUp Podcast, host Lily Mockerman talks with Amy

Infante, CEO and founder of GitGo, which focuses on the Hospitality and travel industry, with product to help sales

teams more easily convert business, email marketing campaigns designed for B2B marketing programs, and a new

coaching programs just launched in 2020, designed for individuals or teams to relook at the way they’re doing things

with an eye to innovation