Revenue Expert Insider

An Ambassador car is a beautiful piece of history. It’s sturdy, reliable, and full of memories. But you wouldn't enter it into a Formula 1 race. So why is our revenue management education still running on a legacy engine while the industry has moved to a Tesla mindset? We’ve all seen it. A student spends years studying, scores an A+ in their Revenue Management paper, and then walks into their first job. But the moment they face a real-world dilemma, like a sudden drop in occupancy or a pricing war, they feel lost.

I often think of it like this: learning Revenue Management today is like reading a recipe. You know the ingredients, you know the steps, and you can explain the process. But standing in a live kitchen during peak hours, when things are going wrong and you have to make a split-second adjustment, is a completely different world. That is where decisions are made, and that is where learning actually becomes real. In Revenue Management, that "peak hour" moment is the daily reality. When students aren't trained for this, hotels pay the price. They spend months retraining new hires who often end up following competitors blindly or over-relying on automated systems because they don't understand the underlying logic. What should be a confident entry into a commercial career becomes a steep, expensive learning curve. So, the question is not whether Revenue Management is being taught, but how it is being built. We need a structured progression that moves from basic understanding to applied thinking to actual decision-making. Students shouldn't just learn what pricing is; they should be asked to price. They should be given situations where demand is unclear and data is messy, forced to choose a direction, and allowed to make mistakes in a safe environment.

I wrote about a common problem many hotels face in my last newsletter: they have high occupancy, but they rely too much on online travel agencies (OTAs). It's simple, though: OTAs clearly help people find hotels, but fighting this reality won't help your profit. Today, I want to discuss what I see happen after a guest books a room. Last week, I watched a guest check in who had booked through an OTA. The process was fast, but it was purely transactional and offered no upsells or engagement. A few hours before that at the airport, I was offered a discounted business class upgrade, and when I declined, they offered me a better seat than the one I had. Both experiences involved routine interactions and long lines, but only one was set up to encourage upselling. Today, I want to discuss what I see happen after a guest books a room.

The Quiet Morning in Jaipur It was a regular Tuesday at a mid-scale hotel in Jaipur. The Front Office Manager walked into the GM’s office with the daily pickup report. "Another strong day, Sir. Demand is certainly back," he said. "But nearly 80% is from Booking.com and MakeMyTrip." The General Manager didn't frown. He simply nodded, a familiar, knowing pause hanging in the air. This is a moment every hotelier in India and Asia recognises. Your rooms are selling, which is a victory. But the source feels uneven, and that old, nagging question returns: Are we masters of our own business, or just managing inventory for someone else?

Direct booking engines Yet we use them like Excel on steroids, not the AI-powered, real-time pricing engines they could be. Cannot say if the problem is tech. But it definitely involves asking the wrong questions with the right tools. Let Us Call It What It Is: 🔴 Static Pricing: “One rate for all” (1990s logic). 🟡 Dynamic Pricing: “Rates change with demand” (better, but still impersonal).

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.

Think of a busy weekend in your city. A big cricket match, a wedding season, or a sudden conference has hotels buzzing with demand.

Real Revenue Horror Stories Hoteliers Don’t Talk About On Monday morning everything came crashing down. The revenue report showed a loss of almost one lakh rupees. Guests had booked suites at the price of standard rooms. The reason was simple. A wrong mapping on an OTA went unnoticed. What looked like high demand was actually a flood of underpriced bookings. The impact was immediate:

When you run a hotel, stability can feel like success. Rooms filled. Staff in place. Rates set. But sometimes what feels like stability is actually stagnation. That’s where Raj was. Comfortable, familiar, and holding tight to flat pricing because “it has always worked.” But the truth is, in 2025, it doesn’t work anymore. Not when travelers check multiple platforms.

I remember, when I first started in revenue management at The Oberoi Group, things looked a lot different than they do today. Back then, Excel was king and if you were one of the few who could navigate advanced formulas, pivot tables, and macros, you were already ahead of the game. Revenue decisions relied on spreadsheets, and every update required meticulous manual effort. It wasn't just about setting rates; it was about spotting patterns, forecasting demand, and making strategic decisions with limited tools. The ability to think analytically made all the difference.

Rahul was a revenue executive, and he was great at it. Every morning, he would log into the property management system, armed with his coffee and confidence, ready to battle fluctuating demand, OTA rate disparities, and inventory adjustments. His job was to ensure that prices were optimized, availability was managed, and reports were ready for his manager.

Just him. One man. One whistle. And the traffic? Honking, pushing, ignoring. I remember thinking: He's trying his best, but he has no control Not because he doesn't care, but because he's not equipped. Years later, that image still comes back because I see it all the time in independent hotels. Revenue management today, across independent hotels in India, Asia and many part of the world, often looks like this.

She didn't change her hotel. She changed the lens through which people saw it. If Amazon sellers can justify a higher price just because of a better experience… If customers can pick one shampoo bottle over another based purely on stars… Then hotels with so much more to offer, can absolutely use reviews to shift perception, attract better-paying guests, and build long-term trust. This isn't a tech strategy. It's a mindset shift.

At the heart of Mumbai's bustling business district stood The Orion Grand, a luxurious five-star hotel renowned for its impeccable service. Yet, behind its grand façade, the hotel's revenue management team struggled with an age-old challenge: pricing volatility.

For years, they were the biggest ticketing platform in India. But now, new-age players like Insider were gaining serious ground. With a fresher interface, deeper youth connect, and founder backing from Zerodha, Insider was slowly becoming the platform of choice, especially for indie gigs and newer experiences. BookMyShow could have responded like most legacy companies.

Many hotel operators, despite seeing their properties bustling, especially on weekends, find themselves pondering where the profits truly go. This common conundrum often stems from a lack of clear financial visibility, leading to management based on "feelings" rather than facts.

At a recent industry event in Delhi, I met the owner of a small local hotel chain. He runs three independent properties in a Tier 2 city. During our conversation, he shared a concern, he said, “With so many branded hotels entering the market like Holiday Inn, Lemon Tree, Courtyard it is getting very difficult to stay competitive. How are we expected to keep up?”

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.

You run an independent hotel. Guests should find you, book you, and hopefully come back again. But every time you look at your bookings, the same question pops up: Think of it this way. A leisure hotel near a tourist spot or pilgrimage town may find that OTAs give them 60 percent of their business because they need visibility across many source markets. The rest 40 percent can be direct bookings through packages or return guests. A business hotel in a metro may discover that 50 percent of their business should come from corporate contracts, 30 percent from direct bookings, and OTAs can fill the rest. Neither approach is wrong. What matters is that you keep checking and adjusting.

A hotel with a regular average rate of ₹10,000 is now selling at ₹55,000 during "Vibrant Gujarat". Yes, this hotel was part of a well know international brand. I wonder, Is this smart revenue management or just a short-term money grab? Can we say, It's the kind of pricing that fills rooms, grabs headlines, and gives everyone a momentary high? But once the crowds disappear, what's left? A boost in top-line revenue or long-term damage to guest trust, reviews, and loyalty?