News and events

Summer—the holiday season—has arrived, and it’s time to reflect on what travelers are really looking for. The year 2024 has brought a wave of change, especially thanks to new developments in the tourism industry—most notably AI, but not only that.

Between climate change and growing awareness around key issues, travelers have become increasingly demanding. Let’s explore their main needs when choosing a hotel and a destination.

Whether traveling close to home or across the world, the desire for exciting and meaningful experiences is universal. Travel is now seen as a moment of personal enrichment, even before leisure.

Travelers want to feel something when they explore the world. According to a Booking.com study, 78% of Italian travelers feel more alive than ever while traveling. Additionally, 66% say they discover hidden aspects of their personality during a trip.

“Sustainability” is one of the key buzzwords of recent years. Travelers are looking for eco-friendly accommodations that adopt environmentally responsible practices—such as using renewable energy sources, reducing waste, and preserving local culture.

Another key concept is “authenticity.” Travelers are no longer satisfied with standard tourist experiences—they seek authentic, immersive experiences connected to the local territory. They want to feel like part of the destination they are visiting.

To meet this need, hotels must offer unique and immersive experiences that involve local communities and highlight traditions and local production. This can include guided tours led by locals, visits to small artisan businesses, and meaningful interactions with the community.

Interest in food is also growing among travelers, with a strong preference for local and authentic cuisine. Travelers are increasingly curious about the origins and stories behind dishes.

This is nothing new—tasting local food has always been one of the best ways to truly understand a destination.

As mentioned before, personalization in hospitality is essential. From offers to services, tailoring the guest experience is one of the most important requirements.

Travelers are willing to pay more for customized services that are authentic and locally immersive. Flexibility also plays a key role in booking decisions, especially when it comes to cancellation policies.

The adoption of innovative technologies—such as artificial intelligence—is among the most requested features by travelers. These tools can make both the booking process and the hotel stay smoother and more enjoyable.

Chatbots and virtual assistants help ensure efficient and responsive customer service.

In a time when time itself has become even more valuable, tools that save time are highly appreciated. Digital solutions—from apps suggesting eco-friendly transportation options to hotel energy management systems—are also supporting more sustainable tourism.

The combination of sustainability and technological innovation not only reduces environmental impact but also improves operational efficiency, making sustainable tourism economically viable.

One of the key travel trends in recent years is the rediscovery of local tourism, encouraging exploration of nearby destinations. This reduces environmental impact while supporting local economies.

Today, hoteliers and tourism operators must be ready to implement concrete strategies to adopt sustainable practices and offer unique, immersive experiences that enhance local identity and production.

Have you already planned your strategy? If you need help, feel free to get in touch!

How effective channel management can impact overall revenue

When thinking about Revenue Management, people often focus only on pricing, which needs to be flexible to maximize revenue. However, pricing is not the only factor that influences your hotel’s income.

Today, we’ll focus on distribution channels. A good hotelier who cares about the success of their business cannot overlook them and must understand how to get the most out of room distribution. Yet, even today, only a small percentage of professionals use them correctly, limiting their revenue potential. Let’s take it step by step.

Hotels have access to many different distribution channels, so it’s essential to understand how to use them effectively to maximize results and what advantages each one offers.

The hotel’s website is the primary distribution channel—or at least, it should be. It’s where potential guests go to learn about your property and possibly book a room.

Among all channels, it has the lowest cost. A website also helps you be found on search engines and reach a wider audience.

In the age of social media, some believe that a website is no longer necessary, but that’s not true. Your hotel website communicates your brand values and increases visibility. It is also the only online distribution channel where you can sell without paying commissions to third parties.

OTAs (Online Travel Agencies) are another key distribution channel. The most well-known include Booking.com, Expedia, Hotels.com, and others.

They offer several advantages, starting with the ability to reach a very broad audience and increase bookings. In particular, OTAs are widely used by travelers browsing via smartphone.

However, unlike your website, they come with relatively high costs for hoteliers. That said, with the right incentives, guests who book through platforms like Booking.com may later become loyal customers and book directly with your hotel.

Global Distribution Systems (GDS) are networks used by travel agents to book hotels, flights, and car rentals for their clients.

To be listed, hoteliers must pay an initial commission, but the benefit is access to new customers from all over the world.

Metasearch platforms are price comparison tools that show users the best available offers.

More and more travelers use metasearch engines because they allow them to compare hotel room prices from multiple OTAs and booking platforms in one place. For hotels, the main advantage is increased visibility.

First, you need to understand your market. Not all markets behave the same way. For example, the U.S. market tends to book mainly through official hotel websites, while the Chinese market—and many others—prefer OTAs.

Guest age also influences booking behavior. Younger travelers tend to book through OTAs, while older ones are more likely to use hotel websites.

As you can see, personalization is key here as well. Every traveler is unique, just like the journey they are planning. A holistic approach is essential to attract more customers and increase profits.

It’s important to use a mix of channels, such as your website, OTAs, and metasearch platforms. The key word is diversification, to avoid relying on a single channel.

You probably already know how important technology is in the hotel industry. Distribution across multiple channels can also be optimized through tools like a channel manager.

This software connects your property to multiple booking platforms and search engines, increasing your visibility.

The goal is to be present everywhere online so potential guests can’t miss you. When choosing a channel manager, make sure it integrates with your booking engine and is mobile-friendly.

Choosing not to use technology to manage distribution makes your work slower and more complex, and puts you at a disadvantage compared to competitors. For example, without a channel manager, handling overbookings becomes more difficult. With one, everything is automated and does not require manual processing.

Channels are updated simultaneously whenever a new booking is made. Additionally, this tool allows you to fully control your rates and create promotions, packages, and last-minute offers.

The ideal mix of distribution channels varies for each hotel—there is no one-size-fits-all solution. Instead, distribution strategies should be tailored to your audience and business goals.

Some hoteliers believe that removing OTAs from their distribution will increase profits by eliminating commissions, but that’s not necessarily true. A better approach might be to limit OTA bookings while encouraging direct ones.

Before making any decisions, it’s advisable to create a report on your channel performance. With this data, you can make more informed choices.

If you want to improve your distribution strategy and increase your revenue, get in touch with me. Together, we’ll develop the best strategy for your property.

Dynamic pricing can be used to optimize your property’s revenue in real time, quickly adapting to changes in demand.

Dynamic pricing is a highly effective approach to hotel price management, but it is still not widely known or used by many hoteliers, who are often tied to static rate lists. Let’s take a closer look at what it is and how to use it to grow your revenue.

For years, hoteliers have relied on traditional rate lists with static prices and fixed rates. Prices were set in advance and changed very little—usually only on weekends, during high season, or on holidays.

Today, the most profitable approach is dynamic pricing. A small revolution in the hospitality industry that has transformed the way room rates are set.

With dynamic pricing, data is analysed in real time and prices are adjusted based on fluctuations in demand. Rates can change from hour to hour or day to day in response to various factors. The most common include room availability, forecasted demand, weather conditions, time remaining before the booking date, and more.

However, this does not mean waiting until the last minute to decide prices. Even with dynamic pricing, the strategy is carefully planned, with rates set well in advance based on data analysis and forecasting.

Among the factors that influence pricing, demand is the most important. During periods of high demand—such as holidays or major events—hoteliers can increase prices to maximize revenue. Conversely, during low-demand periods, they can lower rates to stimulate bookings. Of course, accurate forecasting requires prior data analysis.

Another key factor is seasonality. During high season, when many people travel, prices tend to rise to maximize revenue. In low season, when demand decreases, discounts and promotions can help attract guests and encourage bookings.

Other influencing factors include weather conditions and competitors’ pricing strategies.

Tracking and forecasting tourism demand and adapting pricing strategies accordingly helps optimize your property’s revenue.

Using a single fixed rate throughout the year would limit your ability to maximize occupancy during low season and prevent you from fully capitalizing on high-demand periods. Dynamic pricing allows you to optimize profits and compensate for forecasting errors when demand is either overestimated or underestimated.

Additionally, dynamic pricing allows you to offer lower rates early on to encourage bookings and then increase them for last-minute reservations, improving your average selling price.

The key word is flexibility—allowing you to respond effectively to market changes.

For dynamic pricing to be truly effective, it must be managed quickly and efficiently. This is why automation systems are essential, allowing you to update prices across multiple platforms in just a few steps.
For example, using a channel manager enables you to manage all your rates smoothly, increase prices as your property approaches full occupancy, and lower them when availability is high—quickly and across all channels simultaneously.
The advantage is the ability to instantly adjust prices based on the most up-to-date data, with just one click. Monitoring and making manual changes takes time—and time is money.
Another key technology is a Revenue Management System (RMS), a tool designed to analyse customer demand. It helps optimize pricing strategies and maximize revenue growth. An RMS is integrated with the hotel’s PMS, providing more accurate insights to develop the most effective sales strategy for your property.
Get in touch with me—together we will find the best strategy for your hotel!

In today’s highly competitive tourism landscape, hotels must constantly adapt their strategies to the scenarios they face if they want to ensure the success of their business. One of the most effective strategies is using competitive benchmarking for revenue management. Have you heard of it before? If you’re not sure how it works, keep reading.

Benchmarking compares the performance of our property with that of competitors. Through this comparison, it offers a valuable opportunity for reflection and growth, helping us understand where we stand within our target market and, above all, learn from others to improve.

Thanks to benchmarking, it becomes easier to gain a clear view of objectives and challenges, as well as to analyse data and better understand demand dynamics for specific offers. In particular, competitive benchmarking is a direct comparison process with competitors, allowing us to understand how our business performs against the most aggressive players in the market, including pricing levels.

From this perspective, we can test different pricing strategies and discover which rates are most attractive to customers across different segments of our business.

By identifying practices that competitors are already using successfully, we can develop targeted strategic plans that help us reach new business goals—and exceed them.

Comparing ourselves with other properties is also important to understand their marketing strategies and campaigns. For example, if you notice that your email open and response rates are quite low, it may be useful to look at how competitors are running their email marketing campaigns. Through this analysis, you can discover best practices to adopt and refine your strategies to make them more compelling and targeted. As they say, “learn from the best,” right?

Among the most important metrics to evaluate in benchmarking are occupancy, ADR (Average Daily Rate), and RevPAR (Revenue per Available Room). Analysing your performance across these three indicators—compared to competitors, of course—will help you make more informed decisions and develop more effective strategies.

Let’s look at what these metrics represent. Occupancy is the percentage of rooms sold compared to those available over a given period. It is calculated by dividing the number of rooms sold by the total number of available rooms.

Average Daily Rate (ADR) indicates the average price earned per sold room. It is calculated by dividing total room revenue by the number of rooms sold.

Finally, RevPAR (Revenue per Available Room) represents the total room revenue divided by the total number of available rooms.

Analysing these indicators in relation to competitors helps you assess your position in the market.

The days when balancing supply and demand alone was enough to set room prices are over. Today, many factors must be considered to improve revenue performance. In revenue management—where the goal is to maximise revenue through effective pricing and demand management strategies—competitive benchmarking is a valuable ally.

By analysing performance data, pricing strategies, and competitors’ marketing initiatives, a hotel can discover opportunities for improvement and implement targeted strategic actions. This not only helps increase market share but also significantly maximises profits. But let’s take it step by step.

One of the first questions to ask is: how can I understand who my real competitors are?
Every hotel or accommodation facility may compete with others, even very different ones. The real deciding factor is the attention of the final customer. However, there are certain characteristics that help define who your competitors are.
First of all, geographical location, then category and service offering can help distinguish competitors from non-competitors. Other factors include property size, price range, and reputation—meaning how the property is perceived by customers.
These are just some of the variables that play an important role in identifying competitors.
There are various benchmarking tools that allow properties to understand their performance levels in the market or compare them with competitors. This information becomes extremely useful for decision-making, so my advice is to integrate it into your revenue management strategy.
Among the most useful insights are occupancy levels compared to competitors, the days of the week generating the highest revenue, and the dynamics influencing performance.
One of the greatest advantages of benchmarking is the ability to identify market gaps or weaknesses in competitors’ strategies and discover new growth opportunities.
If you’re thinking that maybe you should change your strategy to maximise your results, get in touch with me. Together we will build a tailored action plan designed for you and your property.