Is it time to standardize hotel revenues?

Hoteliers around the world have come full circle in the last two decades, from guarding hotel information and data as if their lives depended on it, to understanding the benefits of participating in area or competitive set averages and comparisons that accrue to their benefit and enable them to critique there performance.

Like their accounting counterparts, who largely standardized hotel expenses through the use of a "Chart of Accounts" (Uniform System of Accounts) that is used by the majority of hotels around the world, perhaps now with so much focus on revenue management and optimization it's a good time to do the same with regard to hotel revenues through a standardized "Revenue Chart of Accounts".

I have attached a proposed "Revenue Chart of Accounts" to provoke thought and stimulate conversation. It was prepared with a number of factors in mind. The cost of the channel, of course is important in grouping "like-kind" reservation sources. But other considerations in this chart include channel groupings based on last minute sales, typical channel "fill" days of the week that some sources provide, sources who sell directly to the consumer as opposed to those who sell to distributors, average daily rate, typical booking windows and average length of stays.

By creating an accepted Revenue Chart of Accounts, revenue managers like hotel accountants, can compare their results, channel mix and channel cost to that of their competitive set or area set.

I have written, and will provide an article and White Paper on the standardization of hotel revenues next week. The subject matter will include the many benefits that can be derived through revenue standardization in better optimizing revenues. The article will also discuss identifying characteristics or attributes of different sources of reservation (vendors) that would create a benefit in separating them from those vendors that, at face value, appear to be "like-kind" in nature, into separate channels.

Kindly click on the chart below to expand the screen.