Commercial Leadership
Aligning sales, marketing and revenue around one P&L instead of three separate targets.
The Anatomy of a Revenue Meeting That Actually Drives Decisions
A revenue meeting drives decisions when it has three things in place before anyone sits down, a focused agenda tied to one commercial goal, pre-shared data so the room debates decisions instead of numbers, and cross-departmental input so no single team optimizes at the expense of total hotel revenue. Meetings that skip any of these three become status updates, not decision-making forums. The numbers are usually right there, pace reports, pickup, comp set data, forecast variance. What's missing is a structure that turns that data into a decision, an owner, and a deadline before everyone gets back to their desks. Without that structure, revenue meetings quietly become recap sessions: everyone reports what happened, nobody commits to what happens next, and the same issues resurface a month later. Most hotels don't have a revenue problem. They have a revenue meeting problem.
Commercial Unit or Commercial Chaos? A Hotel's Self-Diagnosis Guide
Most hotels don't have a commercial strategy problem. They have a commercial translation problem, three departments technically rowing toward the same P&L, quietly rowing in three different directions. Nobody sabotages anybody on purpose. Sales isn't trying to undercut revenue's rate strategy, and marketing isn't trying to promote dates revenue is protecting. But intent doesn't show up on a balance sheet , outcomes do. And the outcome, more often than not, is a hotel that hit every departmental target and still missed budget. So before you reach for a new dashboard or a stricter KPI, it's worth asking a more uncomfortable question: is this actually a unit, or just a very well-organized case of chaos?
Franchise Hotels: Brand Power or Brand Burden?
You open your hotel under a well-known brand. The logo shines, the CRS connects, and bookings begin to flow. It feels like you have bought both security and demand. But soon questions begin to surface.
Are Revenue Managers Really Managing Revenue… or Just Managing Systems?
Hi Revenue Readers! I met Anika (not her real name) last week at a gathering. She is a revenue manager at a well-known global hotel brand. I got really excited to meet her as I found her to be one of those rare, truly talented revenue professionals that are sharp, to the point, and completely in tune with what actually drives revenue. But I really felt bad for her (while I could fully relate to her myself) when she told me that instead of focusing on revenue strategy, she’s stuck fighting with technology and rigid processes every single day.