dan skodol
Event Space Revenue Analytics: The “Marriage” of Revenue Management and CRM
Dan Skodol | December 15, 2023
By Dan Skodol An area of opportunity where the three commercial disciplines converge more so than others is event space. Like hotel rooms, restaurant seats, spa treatment rooms, and other types of time-based, perishable inventory, event space shares many of the conditions that are conducive to the application of Revenue Management: Relatively low variable cost, relatively high fixed cost structure Seasonal, varying demand levels Flexible pricing structure Advance reservations Fixed capacity On top of these ideal conditions, add a focused, funnel-driven, outbound Sales effort that arguably doesn’t exist for something l...
Plotting the Comeback for Hotels in a COVID-19 Environment
Dan Skodol | July 6, 2020
By Dan Skodol For the past nine weeks since our original blog post, we’ve continued to track hotel selling rates, planned opening dates, occupancy, and usage of out-of-order rooms among our client hotels. It’s been interesting to monitor the extent to which hotel reopenings have stayed on track with initial plans and how demand has responded to the reopenings. The interactive tool we provide here illustrates how the four key metrics we’ve tracked have changed week-by-week from May 5th to June 30th. Reopening timelines As of May 5th, 80% of hotels had sell rates available for June 1st and beyond. At the time it seemed th...
Managing Capacity Constraints in a COVID-19 World
Dan Skodol | May 20, 2020
By Dan Skodol As hotels around the world gradually reopen following closures brought about by the COVID-19 crisis, they face the daunting challenge of balancing the need to bring guests back with the importance of keeping them safe and healthy. Hotels that reopen typically must adhere to strict guidelines around social distancing, cleanliness and sanitation, and reduced capacity across rooms and outlets. At the same time, competition among hotels for the returning business threatens to put downward pressure on rates. All of this translates into increased costs, thinner margins, and a slew of other financial and operational risks. ...
Plotting (Literally) the Comeback for Hotels in a COVID-19 Environment
Dan Skodol | May 13, 2020
By Dan Skodol Plotting (literally) the comeback Hotels in North America and around the world are starting to look ahead to reopening their doors to guests. As we speak, from the smallest independent boutiques to the largest global chains, properties are formulating strategies for operations, marketing, revenue management, and many other areas in the context of a post-COVID-19 environment. Theories and forecasts abound as to what the actual ramp-up of business will resemble, with general agreement that companies should have plans in place for various scenarios. But looking at certain data now can help with understanding how and when s...
RM Strategies & Best Practices for Pre-Opening Your Property
Dan Skodol | August 20, 2019
By Dan Skodol, Vice President of Revenue Analytics at Rainmaker, a Cendyn company Despite reports of a weakening global growth rate through 2020,1 research from IBISWorld shows that the hotels and motels industry has outperformed the broader economy for the past five years, and total industry revenue so far this year has reached $206 billion.2 Globally, there are 100,535 businesses, with a slate of new project openings continuously being added to the lodging landscape. We saw an increase of 669,460 rooms in 2018 in the U.S. alone.3 Whether renovating a building, buying an existing hotel, or building from the ground up, a hotel owner is ...
Rainmaker, a Cendyn Company, Has VP Lead Session on Measuring the Success of Group Business at Hotel Data Conference
Rainmaker | August 13, 2019
ALPHARETTA, GA. — August 13, 2019 — Rainmaker, a Cendyn company, today announced that Dan Skodol, the company’s vice president of revenue analytics, will be leading a session at Hotel Data Conference on August 15, 2019 at the JW Marriott in Nashville, TN. Dan will also participate in a panel on August 16 discussing The true price and value of loyalty at the. conference. The company is a Presenting Sponsor of the event. Skodol’s session titled, “Group Revenue Management – Measuring Success” will take place from 4:15-4:40 on August 15th and will highlight key metrics hoteliers can use to evaluate the success of a Revenue Manage...
The Key to Profitability: Understand Your Demand Forecast
Dan Skodol | August 7, 2019
By Dan Skodol A hotel that is constantly jam-packed with guests is not automatically a profitable one. The goal of a successful hotel is not necessarily to achieve 100 percent occupancy, but rather to optimize revenue. And developing a way to more accurately forecast daily demand is a key operational challenge for hoteliers.1 Today’s hospitality landscape is characterized by increasing room supply and tight margins. In addition, stiff competition makes it imperative for hotel revenue managers to continuously adjust strategies to remain relevant. Predicting how many customers your hotel will have on any given night, anticipating the sa...
In Revenue Management, You Can Have Good Timing AND Good Forecasting
Dan Skodol | April 25, 2019
By Dan Skodol I recently read a piece about an international resort company that introduced a Revenue Management System (RMS) within the last five years. Like many resort properties around the world, their hotels have a high degree of dependence on contracted tour business and other leisure-oriented distribution channels. Because of the long lead-time associated with forming these contracts, "timing" is a very important focus of Revenue Management as missing a contract season means missing out on bookings that are essential to their performance. This certainly makes sense. But I got lost was when the Revenue Manager stated in an intervi...
