The waiting is the hardest part

Dear Diary,

Ever scrolling on social media in search of something that will satiate our desire for novelty, our patience has worn thin with our waning attention span. We are so accustomed to the rapid changes around us that if something remains constant, it feels odd and unproductive. The world we live in is so fast paced that we often forget to reflect upon what we are doing and keep on running, often missing important milestones. After a while, we are so habituated to change that we feel unfulfilled even after achieving our goals. The fear of leaving things in their status quo can result in failure to determine whether the change was required after all. This attitude to keep moving forward without pausing to assess our journey can be seen in every industry and the hospitality industry is no exception.

I realized after a couple of calls with the properties that most of the General Managers within the industry want to make quick changes either reactively or proactively in hope of doing better than the competitors. They expect the Revenue Managers to make at least a few strategic changes on every call to make it look fruitful. But is this correct? Is this the way we should continue doing it? Definitely not!

Revenue Managers are often expected to wave a magic wand and send the property performance numbers flying high in the sky. On every call, the General Managers (GMs) expect Revenue Managers (RMs) to necessarily make some changes. They feel the call isn’t worthwhile if there are no changes being suggested. What they fail to appreciate is that not making a change can also be an effective strategy. Sometimes, all we need to do is stick to a strategy which has been working out well and not experiment further with it. Adhering to a strategy is important because the benefits can often be seen only after the strategies have been in place for enough time. We need to wait patiently to get enough data so that the impact of the previous implementations can be assessed. Such analysis will form the base for further optimization, if possible and necessary.

Just the other day, I was talking to a property which lies in a market with a lot of production from tourists and sports events at a nearby university. We had reviewed all the key property settings in the last call and had made the necessary changes. The impact of these implementations was extremely satisfactory as we were able to get a substantially higher revenue share than our competitors. We discussed the performance numbers during the call and the GM was undoubtedly pleased. After reviewing ad hoc reports, I confirmed that the booking trends and market conditions remained unchanged. Since the appropriate settings were already in place, I recommended that we should continue with them for the next month as well. However, the moment I suggested ‘no changes’ as a strategy, the GM was unhappy. He felt that something was lacking. That “something” is the habit of making changes, sometimes even unnecessarily, on every call. I had a hard time explaining to him that it was not necessary to make changes every time, but gladly, he finally understood my point and agreed.

Although not all properties are of the mindset that constant changes are required, there are also properties which do not understand the importance of seasonality. It is equally tough to explain to them why a strategy that worked in a particular month will not work in the next month. I remember my conversation with one of my GMs. He has a property which receives traction from numerous tourists flocking to the area for skiing competitions. Having recently taken over as the GM, he was new to the region and was unable to grasp the need to increase rates to be “abnormally high” (in his words) for the next couple of months despite seeing low occupancy in the previous month at lower rates. I had to review with him the market prices, past year trends and multiple such examples for him to be accepting of the higher rates.

Now, I have decided to talk about this simple yet important topic- ‘To change or not to change’ with as many revenue managers and general managers as I can. I want to develop more insights into it and normalize not making changes. People need to have trust in themselves and their analysis and that is the simplest solution to this itch of making unnecessary changes.

In fact, in any business, it is very important to learn from the past and make necessary changes with time. However, sometimes, we simply need to have faith in our analysis and stick to it. Adopting this will yield better results for us instead of resorting to making unnecessary changes in the hope of quicker and astronomically higher profits.