By Loren Gray & Lily Mockerman
ThinkUp presents practical and immediately applicable Hospitality Revenue Management best practices - including exercises that make it happen. Topics will include:
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The podcast currently has 32 episodes available.
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:
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:
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:
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
Revenue Management – The Podcast
How to Align Revenue Management, Sales and Marketing to Impact Guests
Welcome to Hospitality Highlights! In this 29th episode of the ThinkUp Podcast, host Lily Mockerman talks with Eric
Sutfin, CMO at Social Capital Agency (SoCap) and Kathryn Baker, founding partner of ThinkUp Enterprises and Vice
President of Strategy at Total Customized Revenue Management (TCRM).
ThinkUp Enterprises:
SoCap:
HIGHLIGHTS FROM THIS EPISODE
Lily: How have you seen COVID-19 impacting hoteliers, and specifically, how are they now having to adjust to meet customer demands?
Kathryn: Guests are now traveling more locally than they typically would. Hoteliers are trying to turn them into repeat customers and show them that this destination is worth coming back to. They can do that by really creating a unique local experience, focusing on all of the things that make that hotel, that area, that larger market special and unique.
Eric: Our friends went up to Aspen the other week. They had booked the skiing, the hotel, and a spa/hot springs experience in one package. The property provided an enhanced and elevated experience for my friend, and he loved that. He said, “Why aren't more doing this?” I think that's certainly a way to build deeper relationships with those local partners in your destination and share in that experience to elevate and add value for guests.
Lily, Kathryn and Eric go on to discuss:
ThinkUp is a commercial strategy consulting firm. We focus on standing out by cutting to the
chase. We're here to give hotels true actionable guidelines to make a difference in their revenue and in their
profitability. We focus on assessments, looking at every piece of the hotel – everything that touches revenue, any
expenses that are related to those revenues, and maximizing all of them to get our clients on a more profitable path.
We believe in increasing the social capital, the guest experience, and ADR of various international resorts,
boutique hotels and hospitality brands. We do that by provoking truthful and authentic messages that really
revolutionize how people are engaging, exploring and connecting with the industry today. As an agency, our main focus
is really to be conversion oriented. And so we optimize the guest experience across whatever channel they touch
through the micro moments that build customer satisfaction, add brand value, drive sales, and enrich customer data for
the hotels we represent.
• Kathryn’s and Eric’s top 3 tips, tactics or tools that hoteliers can implement today that will make a difference through this recovery.
FINAL NOTES FROM KATHRYN
You can visit www.ThinkUpEnterprises.com. We'd love to have the opportunity to talk with any property that feels like they might have some potential that they're not quite tapping into.
FINAL NOTES FROM ERIC
To reach Social Capital Agency, you can visit www.SoCapAds.com. There we have a variety of great resources that we put out monthly for the hospitality industry, some really thought provoking and progressive ideas across the marketing sector for you to explore, to digest and to learn how you can implement them yourself.
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 [email protected].
Revenue Management – The Podcast
Welcome to Hospitality Highlights! In this 28th episode of the ThinkUp Podcast, host Lily Mockerman talks with Jenny
Poff, owner of Presque Isle Designs, a boutique marketing and advertising agency based out of Erie, Pennsylvania.
A Scientific Creative Approach To An Integrated Commercial Strategy
Highlights from this episode
Lily: You mentioned having to really dig through data in your work with hospitality. What kinds of data did you look at to
help drive the business objectives, and how did the customer profile data impact marketing strategies?
Jenny: We really dug into the data. I wanted to see what the average day was – their frequency rate, their booking window, where they were coming from, what kinds of people. We dove into this over 200,000-person database. Our goal was to uncover patterns in the guests’ purchasing and stay behavior. The result was a customer profile dashboard which broke it into buckets. I started filling the buckets with patterns, similar purchase behaviors. Now, what did we do with that data? What did that tell us? In the marketing side of things, it generated specific strategies.
Lily and Jenny go on to discuss:
Revenue Management – The Podcast
Welcome to Hospitality Highlights! In this 27th episode of the ThinkUp Podcast, host Lily Mockerman talks with Vinny Cuneo of Autocamp, a unique alternative accommodation option.
Strategies to Deploy to Maximize Revenue and Guest Value Perception
Highlights from this episode Lily: There have been certain advantages to experience driven lodging options, especially in the mindsets of travelers dealing with the restrictions of COVID. What opportunities do you think hotels have to capitalize on that or mimic some of the successes?
Vinny: I think no matter where you are, be it Yosemite National Park or Hermiston, Oregon, it doesn't matter. There's something unique and inherently cool about every place in the world. Really dive into that and build those relationships with the local community, then give guests that true local experience.
Lily and Vinny go on to discuss:
How to Create Magical Moments for Guests That They Will Treasure Forever
Highlights from This Episode
Lily: I know in your work, you emphasize the memory, and how the brain works in relation to how customers
rate their experience when traveling. Tell us a little bit more about your thoughts on that.
Antonio: In a parachute jumping experience, it’s not that we are writing about the experience at the moment we jump. We write about it when the jump is done, our memory of the experience.
The experience that hotels and restaurants or any business in hospitality wants to deliver has to be good enough most of the time, but occasionally remarkable. And the higher the emotion intensity, the more likely a person is going to talk about your experience, whether good or bad.
Lily: In the middle of this pandemic, keeping the staff’s spirits’ high can be especially challenging. How do you see this connecting back to review scores, and what can hoteliers do in the midst of a stressful situation to keep the team on track?
Adele: If you're listening to what your team is saying, and you're listening to what your guest is saying via the reviews, emails that they send, or little comments that they make at the desk, if you're deeply listening, and you're all wired, looking for ways to improve, you're going to take off like a rocket ship. And your revenue will show the difference.
Lily, Adele and Antonio go on to discuss:
Welcome to Hospitality Highlights! In this 26th episode of the ThinkUp Podcast, host Lily Mockerman talks
with Adele Gutman about how to inspire 5-star reviews and Antonio Pibia of Guest X Inside, who emphasizes
how a guest’s brain works in relation to how they rate their customer journey.
For questions or to contact Antonio:
www.GuestXInside.com
Antonio on LinkedIn
For questions or to contact Adele:
www.AdeleGutman.com Adele on LinkedIn
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 [email protected].
Revenue Management – The Podcast
Helping Leaders Become Free, Healthy and Wealthy From the Inside Out
“What really started me down this road of money therapy was that
I was existing wealthy, but internally, I was far from it.”
Welcome to Hospitality Highlights! In this 25th episode of the ThinkUp Podcast, host Lily Mockerman talks with Jennifer
Love of the Living Wealthy Institute. Jennifer is a wealth philosopher, money therapist and the founder + CEO of The
Living Wealthy Institute. She presents a model that world influencers and leaders use to deepen and reconfigure their
complex relationships with worth, value, and money.
Highlights from This Episode Lily:
that?
Jennifer: One is fear. “How am I going to be evaluated? How am I going to be judged? How is someone going to see
me?”
I don't like to reference just money, because money is only one form of exchange. We also have a relationship exchange.
Lily and Jennifer go on to discuss:
In hospitality, we have what we call commercial strategy departments, incorporating sales, marketing and revenue
management, which are really the main departments focused on generating money for the business in strategic ways.
Could you give a few examples of what those money mindsets might look like or how those might manifest in a role like
And so that fear begins to run the show in how we're making decisions, whether it's about our money, or how we're
allocating things, or resources in our teams, right?
Jennifer’s top 3 tips for business leaders, owners, or revenue managers who are driving money for a business going into 2021, where there’s still a lot of uncertainty around the future of travel and when we will all be able to travel freely again.
Resources to learn more about the Wealth Zone and Money Mindsets Jennifer’s website
Contact Jennifer on LinkedIn
Living Wealthy Institute
Want To Become A Millionaire? Ask Yourself These Four Questions Forbes Magazine
Money Morphosis 3-Day Online Event – March 16-18, where your Wealth Zone & Freedom Flourish. Designed to help
you increase your net worth and live truly wealthy.
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 [email protected].
Revenue Management – The Podcast
Timeless Principles To Scale A Business That Hotels Can Use To Rebound
2X founder & CEO Austin Netzley:
Highlights from This Episode
Lily and Austin explore the following questions and tips The ITA, or Ideal Target Audience
The Irresistible Offer
Rebounding from COVID
“We want to really simplify things, get the business owners free from the weeds, and
then start to take the company to the next level.”
Welcome to Hospitality Highlights! In this 24th episode of the ThinkUp Podcast, host Lily Mockerman talks with Austin
Netzley about proven principles and strategies that help 6 and 7 figure business owners scale.
Lily: One of the things that many hoteliers have struggled with over the years has been defining their target
market. You're looking to attract group business; you're looking to really provide a great corporate travel
experience. You want to be that romantic getaway, and also family friendly.
Austin: Most businesses go too broad. We're afraid to go narrow because we think that we're turning business
away. But by going specific, we get much more clear on what we need to do from a marketing standpoint.
Lily: As someone who has experienced hospitality as a traveler, have you ever seen a great irresistible offer used
in travel or hospitality?
Austin: Brian Chesky, the founder of Airbnb, wants the Airbnb hosts to think about and write down what a 10-
star experience looks like. For an irresistible offer, think about what makes a 10 star experience. Then working
backwards from there, detail how to go above and beyond to make the client’s experience go through the roof.
Lily: You have worked with businesses that have really taken a major hit from COVID. What business tactics have
worked best for those businesses to rebound?
Austin: Being real with the moment. Know your ITA in more detail. If you know them, then you know what news
they're watching or what their concerns are in relation to cleanliness and other things. Then you can take those
proper measures and beat them to the punch before they become concerned.
Austin’s advice for the future
Businesses that are planning for the future are going to be the ones that get ahead. We've worked with a lot of
people that have gotten hit, most have rebounded really nicely by doing exactly what we've talked about so far,
which is updating and refocusing their business model, or doing different marketing initiatives and
communicating in a very human manner. Just give value and connect with your audience.
For questions or more information:
Website: 2x.co
The 7-Figure Playbook: 2X.co/7fpb
FREE Audiobook: From 6 To 7 Figures: 2X.co/freeaudio
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
[email protected].
Revenue Management – The Podcast
The Power of the Pause
multiple options, multiple choices for you to choose from.”
Welcome to Hospitality Highlights! In this 23rd episode of the ThinkUp Podcast, host Lily Mockerman reflects on 2020, what we have
To wrap up, Lily talks about her personal method of inserting a pause in her daily schedule to help her make decisions from a place of being more centered, less reactive, and more proactive.
Read more articles on Hospitality Revenue Management on our ThinkUp Thought Leadership page.
Join us live on the 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
[email protected].
The podcast currently has 32 episodes available.