The value of Outsourcing Your Revenue Management process

Choosing to outsource part of your business unit's revenue management and/or analytics requirements can provide benefits that go far beyond mere cost - cutting. RSVP Hospitality outsourcing allows the hospitality independent business to identify the areas where specialized support is more needed, in order to complement the skills of their internal reservation, revenue and marketing teams.

We see the most successful outsourcing arrangements, is a partnership where existing capabilities are enhanced to provide better revenues results with the client.

So what kind of advantages can revenue management outsourcing offer to an organization?

1) A larger skills set
In many independent hotels, too many activities are operated between too few people. The Revenue / Yield / Business analyst position are far more using the associate time into a report extraction function and less impact is driving pertinent analysis that will translate in a decision that impact the property (pricing, inventory restrictions, competitive set performance, market segmentation, distribution channels cost analysis, system configuration...). When Travelclick solutions came on the markets, with their innovative reports, the choice was given to the hotel to either continue performing competitors rate check manually, or outsource to Travelclick Intelligence and collect automated reports with multiple functionalities.

By outsourcing non core areas, of your revenue management, you can extend your analytical performance with specialist skills when you need them.

2) Ability to focus on what you do best
Even the most capable revenue manager and sales & marketing teams or business owner will be stronger in some areas than others. For example, I see many hotels hiring a "chain/hotel group" revenue manager into an independent one (Standalone brand), and the fellow revenue manager is struggling because he/she does not have all resources that its previous company used to offer. If you are struggling to deliver on projects/k.p.i and tasks that contribute to a competitive advantage, the outsourcing of external activities could be the answer.

3) A fresh approach
For internal analysts or data input people, it can often be difficult to "step out of the comfort zone", to look past the familiar and try something different. An advantage of outsourcing is the introduction of fresh ideas and new ways of thinking, resulting in exciting, creative exchange that make the company gaining revenue and market share.

4) More experience on what works (and what doesn't)
Even the most experienced revenue managers, directors of sales and marketing or general managers can't know everything. The changing ways that clients book your services, their booking methods, their payment methods, their feedback methods, their satisfaction and the difficulties across service industries and job functions makes it hard to keep it up. Incorporating the experience of revenue professionals results in a broader collective experience of which tactics, approaches and strategies are most likely to be successful.

5) Reduce overheads
There is little doubts that selective outsourcing has a financial impacts. If the focus is solely on hourly/daily rates, then outsourcing may be viewed as expensive. But if you review the project target and cost, the deliverables required and the efficiency that expertise and the luxury of being one step removed the day-to-day has for the outsource provider - it becomes clear that there is money to be saved. Add to that a lack of training costs, equipments or tools to work efficiently, and the savings become all the more apparent.

Do you selectively outsource part of your revenue and distribution tasks to an external supplier? let us know your experience of outsourcing and how you ensure you're getting the most out of your outsourcing arrangements. Leave your comments below:

If you are interested by outsourcing some/all functions of your revenue management at info@rsvp-hospitality.com, and we will schedule a meeting accordingly.