Resort hotel owners and managers are often under the impression that they can’t do much to boost revenue. Yes, your guests are already on vacation, and they are ready to spend their hard-earned cash. The forecasts told us that only US travelers were bound to spend $153.7 billion on summer vacation.
In order to set your resort hotel for success, you shouldn’t let the game play out without you interfering. There is substantial cash flowing into the market, and you should find a way to capture some of it.
Here are 5 ways to increase revenue at a resort hotel and some real-life examples of how they did it to inspire you.
📋 Table of Contents
1. Market Penetration: Sani Resort, Halkidiki, Greece
Sani Resort is an integrated resort in Halkidiki, Greece. These mix-use investments are becoming more and more attractive to investors worldwide because they can leverage them to generate additional revenue streams.
Sani Resort has a 1.7% market share and gross profit of almost €7 million. The integrated resort consists of a beach hotel, beach club, Porto Sani Village, Sani Asterias Suites.
It is a family-owned integrated resort offering guests access to a spa, fitness center, shopping piazza, conference facilities, bars, restaurants, and marina.
How did they do it
To increase revenue, managers have opted to focus on market penetration and guest-center philosophy. Sani Resort offers special offers, discounts, and packages to their potential guests when it comes to pricing strategies. They also took an active part in many tourism exhibitions, increasing financial efficiency.
Result
The turnover went to almost €39 million.
2. New Guest Packages: Resort Hotel, Taormina, Sicily
Next, we have a 5-star luxury resort hotel located in Taormina, Sicily. It is one of the most reputable resort hotels in Europe and the world. The resort has 102 rooms and dozens of ancillary services it offers to guests. To increase the financial performance and hotel bookings, the new owner implemented various strategies.
How did they do it
First, they addressed the current pricing strategies putting more focus on dynamic pricing for resorts. They also reviewed room-type structures and made all rooms searchable through various distribution channels. Due to the scope of work, new owners had to outsource the review of digital hotel market positioning, CRS content, and rate structure. They also offered brand new packages to potential guests, such as gourmet activities and beach clubs.
Result
The results had to follow. The resort hotel increased RevPar year-over-year by 39%. The occupancy also increased from 66.19% to 74.33%. The ADR followed, growing from €307.67 to €381.16. Finally, the resort hotel room revenue increased by 0.655 million dollars year after year, even though the resort was open two months shorter than the previous year.
3. Personalized Experience: Curator Hotel & Resort Collection
Curator Hotel & Resort Collection is a collection of small and independent lifestyle resorts and hotels set up around the world. It was founded by Pebblebrook Hotel Trust with the goal to enable unique and family-owned resorts and hotels to join their efforts to compete against big brands in the market. However, they experienced some problems when it came to offering personalized guest experiences and driving guest engagement.
How did they do it
Hotels and resorts in the collection recognized these two as the main objectives to increasing revenue and profitability opportunities. To drive and optimize guest booking, they decided to optimize their distribution channels. To achieve this, they needed a partner that could offer them the technology to increase bookings, offer a personalized experience, and drive engagement.
Finally, Curator Hotel & Resort decided to enter a partnership with Sabre. This company offers a cutting-edge reservation solution and manages $260 billion worth of global travel spent every year.
Result
The results were as follows – RevPAR rose sequentially by 111% from Q1 2021 to Q2 2021 and positive Same-Property Hotel EBITDA of $28.3 million in Q2.
4. Upselling Upgrades and Ancillaries: Myconian Collection Hotels & Resorts Kyma
Myconian Collection Hotels & Resorts Kyma is famous for its hallmark service. It’s a 5-star hotel located high above Mykonos town in Greece. So far, Kyma has done a great job optimizing pricing strategies and stepping up hotel revenue management. However, the managers notice that there are still opportunities to increase profit. Their ancillary revenue and upselling strategies were lagging behind.
How did they do it
Given that it is a luxury resort hotel, Kyma needed a subtle solution to boost room upgrades and ancillary services and products sales. The hotel found it with UpStay, a technology platform built to enhance guest experience and increase guests’ value.
The best thing about implementing UpStay is that the resort didn’t have to change anything in its tech stack. They started using UpStay immediately. It uses big data and machine learning to identify the best upselling upgrades to offer to every guest.
Result
It helped the resort automatically convert up to 20% of the guests to buy additional ancillaries and room upgrades.
5. Drive Direct Bookings: Bellstar Hotels & Resorts
Bellstar Hotels & Resorts is based in Canada. It is in charge of managing 712 rooms spread across six destination resorts throughout West Canada. The management team is focused on increasing operational efficiencies while providing personalized and memorable guest experiences.
How did they do it
The main obstacles between increased profits and the resort were OTAs. The resort didn’t want to lose revenue to high commission rates. Instead, they decided to drive direct bookings, which in return should deliver increased revenue. But to do it, they needed a CRS and booking engine. They partnered with Travel Tripper and started using RezTrip, a platform with dynamic pricing, geo-targeting, and best rate guarantee capabilities.
Result
After implementing RezTrip in the workflow, Bellstar’s overall revenue increased by 48%, and direct bookings through their website increased by 37%. They also got access to valuable data to make informed marketing decisions and developed better campaigns targeting specific segments of travelers.
Conclusion
There are plenty of ways to increase revenue at resort hotels. These 5 case studies showcase that every strategy is viable if you back it up with research and appropriate technology solutions. Every resort is unique. Each strategy addresses one particular aspect of the business. To choose the appropriate one, you will first need to analyze your resort.
Graduated from Standford University, Arielle has over 5 years of experience in the Hospitality industry. She holds an MBA in business administration from the IDC Herzliya, Israel. She currently works as Account Manager at UpStay, building and maintaining strong, long-lasting customer relationships. She is deeply passionate about helping hoteliers unlock significant new revenue streams from unsold premium inventory.
