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Yield. It’s ensuring you're getting the best possible outcome from everything you do as a hotel marketing manager. Increasing that yield is one of the biggest issues facing the hospitality industry today.

Today’s marketing teams are expected to do more with less; it can be tough to focus on a single factor, like hotel yield management, when there are so many other priorities vying for your attention. Yet it's essential to make sure your efforts are hitting your target with precision. How can you make certain this happens?

Understand Who Stays In Your Hotel

Knowing more about the individuals who select your hotel can help as you work to track yield. If you segment the various parties into categories like leisure, corporate, or groups (you can even further segment them out if you wish), you're going to be able to get a close look at who books and why.

Keep in mind that you may need to train your reception staff to enter the information into your property management system properly to ensure you're getting the data you need when you need it.

Keep an Eye on Booking Times

Each type of traveler tends to book at a different pace. Recognizing that allows you to develop a hotel yield management strategy that holds certain rooms back for guests who are ready and willing to pay a higher rate. Thus, you increase your yield.

For example, those staying with a group may book a few months in advance. Those individuals who are traveling for leisure purposes, though, may book at the last minute - but they're willing to pay for that privilege. A deeper understanding of these numbers may mean a better overall marketing strategy and certainly better numbers in the long run.

Use The Data You Have

If you're like most marketing managers today, you have quite a bit of data on your desk already. If you haven't set aside some time to analyze those numbers, do so. Knowing what's out there will help you build sound strategy and develop the yield numbers you're looking for. Understand what the total revenue is as compared to the average rate. Look at total room nights, number of bookings, and lead times. It's information like this that will keep you moving forward and help you conquer many of the issues facing the hospitality industry.

Once you have a clearer picture of what your cycles look like, begin planning promotions based on that demand. Sure, you could offer lower rates, but that doesn't have to be your only option. Instead, offer free meals, late check-out options, or even a package that's aimed at families or couples. Don't, however, offer too many promotions at once, as you might confuse potential guests.

When you run a promotion, though, you're not done. Test and measure everything. Not every promotion will work, and having the data on hand to show what managed to increase your yield and what didn't is incredibly valuable.

When tackling challenging issues facing the hospitality industry today, you must be proactive about increasing your yield. With the right hotel yield management strategy and digital marketing partnership, you can grow your business in a stable, reliable way.