Fall 2026 comes with a mixed bag of signals. Corporate travel confidence has wobbled, leisure travelers are booking anyway, and a run of stadium shows and arena tours is about to hand some hotels their best weeks of the year. Here's what the numbers actually say, and how you can turn all that shifting signal into a pricing strategy that
Market Penetration Index (MPI) measures how your hotel's occupancy performs against a competitive set, market, or submarket. An MPI above 100 means your property is capturing more than its expected occupancy share, but the number only becomes commercially useful when you read it alongside rate, RevPAR, and competitive-set quality. Key Takeaways: MPI compares your hotel's occupancy with its competitive
RevPAM (Revenue per Available Square Meter) measures the revenue each square meter of hotel space generates, from meeting rooms and restaurants to the lobby and the parking deck. It is important to calculate because RevPAR says nothing about the parts of your building that aren't guest rooms, and those parts still carry energy, labor, and debt. Key Takeaways: RevPAM
Average Length of Stay (ALOS) is the average number of nights represented by each hotel stay during a defined period. It matters because stay duration changes how inventory is consumed and how frequently rooms turn over, so two hotels with identical occupancy can have very different operating and revenue patterns. Key Takeaways: ALOS measures nights per reservation, not nights
Cost per Occupied Room (CPOR) measures the average operating cost associated with each hotel room sold. It helps you determine whether room revenue is being converted efficiently into profit, rather than being absorbed by labor, supplies, laundry, amenities, utilities, and other rooms-department costs. Key Takeaways: CPOR measures what servicing one sold room costs, which revenue metrics like RevPAR never
Guest Acquisition Cost (GAC), commonly called Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC), is the total cost a hotel spends to win a booking or a guest, including commissions, advertising, booking fees, and incentives. It matters because room revenue growth means little when the cost of buying that demand climbs faster. Most properties measure only part of it. Key Takeaways: Guest acquisition
Dynamic pricing is often described as though it were one technique. It is not. It is a family of very different decisions that happen to share a principle: the price of a perishable or competitive product should reflect current demand rather than a number set months ago. The mechanics look nothing alike across sectors. A revenue manager moving a rate
Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS) is a workforce metric that measures how willing employees are to recommend your hotel as a place to work. It gives hotel managers a fast signal of employee sentiment, but the score becomes useful only when you connect it to departmental feedback, retention, and management action. Key Takeaways: eNPS measures employee advocacy on one
Rate shopping is the practice of collecting the published rates of competing hotels across the channels where guests actually book, so that pricing decisions rest on the live market rather than on last year's assumptions. Nearly every revenue management system now includes it, and nearly every revenue manager has at some point been shown a competitor rate that turned out
Flexible schedules are changing how hotels manage arrivals and departures. Guests increasingly expect options that align with flights, meetings, and personal plans. This shift requires operational adjustments that maintain service quality while unlocking additional revenue streams. Why Flexible Timings Are Now Part of the Guest Experience Industry data shows rising demand for adaptable check-in and check-out. A Statista Report from
Question for Our Revenue Management Expert Panel In markets where last-minute rates are often dropped, what pricing strategy will help keep hotels competitive without jeopardising long-term revenue goals? (Question by Mariska van Heemskerk) Our Revenue Management Expert Panel Tamie Matthews - Revenue, Sales & Marketing Consultant, RevenYou Massimiliano Terzulli - International Business
Ancillary revenue describes earnings that originate from the sale of products or services besides your primary offering. In the case of hotels, this means products and services beyond the sale of hotel rooms. For hotels, ancillary revenue is important because it provides additional income. When ancillary services are of a high standard, a hotel can extract more revenue from each
Question for Our Revenue Management Expert Panel What analysis should hotels use to evaluate pricing relative to perceived value and that of competitors? How might this influence their market positioning strategy? (Question by Mariska van Heemskerk) Our Revenue Management Expert Panel Mariska van Heemskerk - Owner, Revenue Management Works Massimiliano Terzulli -
Hotel demand can flip in an instant. A sudden storm, a sold-out concert, a strike, or a new flight route can reshape booking patterns faster than any static report can keep up. By the time you open yesterday’s numbers, the market has already shifted, and competitors have adjusted. Real-time data closes that gap. It shows what is happening now across
Are your room rates helping your hotel grow, or quietly holding it back? Pricing decisions directly affect occupancy, revenue, and competitiveness, yet today's hotel market moves too fast for guesswork. Demand shifts suddenly due to events, weather, and changing traveler behavior, making manual pricing increasingly risky. This is why more hoteliers are turning to AI-powered revenue management systems. These tools
An effective, data-driven room pricing strategy is the cornerstone of hotel distribution management, with the ultimate goal of finding the ideal price per room that ensures you can maximize revenue without losing guests to competing properties. 9 Effective Strategies for Rate Pricing While overall rate optimization is the main objective, there are various ways to get there. In this article,
Question for Our Revenue Management Expert Panel: Are hotels ready to effectively implement dynamic pricing for ancillary services? Are guests ready to accept fluctuating prices for ancillary services? (Question proposed by Pablo Torres) Our Revenue Management Expert Panel Pablo Torres - Hotel Consultant Tamie Matthews - Revenue, Sales & Marketing Consultant, RevenYou
Maximizing revenue is a top priority for hotel operators, and achieving this goal often requires the right pricing strategy at the right time. Making room rate adjustments based on demand, customer segmentation, and other factors can be the key to overall business success. In this article, we offer insight into 14 pricing strategies that hotels can adopt in their revenue