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:

• The disparity in technology and tools for the vacation rental industry
• Tools such as Rev Max and Key Data, specifically for vacation rental companies
• How Scott converts a booking on an OTA to a direct booking moving forward
• How vacation rentals and hotels become part of the overall distribution landscape
• Ways that vacation rental companies can move towards this commercial strategy approach
• Tips for alternative accommodation providers or those who bridge the gap to a traditional hotelier as it relates
• to distribution and revenue management
• TO REACH SCOTT WITH QUESTIONS OR FOR ASSISTANCE
• LinkedIn Cabins For You See cabins and deals on our Facebook page
• 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 info@thinkupenterprises.com. 

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:

• The fundamental shift in remarketing and display advertising
• How metasearch and revenue management are tied together
• How hoteliers can move forward with metasearch without feeling like they have to add another full-time person
• The simplest and most effective way to start getting involved in a metasearch strategy
• The first three steps that people should take as they're diving into this world
• TO REACH DEAN WITH QUESTIONS OR ASSISTANCE
• You can visit Base Camp Meta, email Dean@basecampmeta.com, or contact him on LinkedIn. 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 info@thinkupenterprises.com. 

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:

• Some reasons why the proactive process is so elusive to sellers
• How to use tech and marketing collaboration to enable sellers to be more effective
• The two sides to collaboration between marketing teams and sales
• How to up level types of B2B marketing and communications
• The best cadence and frequency for running great campaigns
• Why companies aren’t getting responses from prospects when they reach out
• Amy’s top 3 tips for sellers as they’re hunting for new business during this delicate recovery period.
• TO REACH AMY WITH QUESTIONS OR ASSISTANCE
• You can visit www.GitGoGroup.com, email Amy@gitgogroup.com, or contact Amy on LinkedIn
• 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 info@thinkupenterprises.com.

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:

• How you can bridge gaps for your guests and alleviate question marks and concerns about their stay at your property.
• How the alignment of sales, marketing and revenue management impact consumers.
• The difference in how to approach a commercial strategy versus an industry strategy.

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 info@thinkupenterprises.com. 

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:

• Jenny’s different approaches: a consultive and management approach; a scientific, creative approach; an intentional, data-driven approach.
• The results achieved within the data-driven marketing approach.
• Other changes Jenny implemented to help the marketing program in her hospitality role.
• Jenny’s top 3 tips for revenue managers and marketers alike to embrace an integrated strategy .
• For questions or to contact Jenny:
• JennyPoff.com 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 info@thinkupenterprises.com. 

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:

• Where glamping/alternative accommodations overlap with traditional hospitality and where it stands alone
• Hotel companies are quickly moving in the direction of commercial strategy. What does that look like for
• Autocamp?
• Threats that exist as more traditional hospitality companies try their hand at glamping/alternative
• accommodations
• What strategies to deploy to maximize revenue and guest value perception when pricing accommodations in
• remote locations with little to no direct competition
• For questions or to contact Vinny:
• www.Autocamp.com Autocamp on Instagram Autocamp 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 info@thinkupenterprises.com. 

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:

• Best practice in responding to reviews that maybe aren't fair to the hotelier, and how to avoid having travelers write those reviews in the first place
• How communication will generate better encounters during the guest’s experience
• How to develop a customer journey map specifically for the hospitality industry
• How to enable everyone on staff to be Hospitality Heroes

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.

• How limited-service hotels can deliver excellent service and earn 5-star reviews, even supplanting 5-star hotels
• How to get a positive review by properly resolving an issue

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 info@thinkupenterprises.com. 

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?

• 5 typical money mindsets
• the psychological impact of those mindsets on business leaders
• why it's important for business leaders, even those who may not be company founders or
• entrepreneurs, to work through their limiting beliefs about money
• the impact of COVID and some of the emotions that might be prevalent for both business leaders and
• those who are out of a job

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 info@thinkupenterprises.com.