Revenue Management & Channel Opt

As we dive into the busy year ahead, it’s a great time to revisit your hotel’s group sales solution stack and verify that it has everything necessary to elevate your event and meeting revenue possibilities.

Let’s Talk About the One Thing Hotels Keep Ignoring

Hotel operators know how to manage tight margins. We optimize labor. We track guest satisfaction. We adopt systems that help us stay agile across brands, properties, and markets. But there’s one area most hotels still manage like it’s 1995 — and it’s quietly costing the industry millions.

In the modern hospitality tech stack, hotel booking engines and reservations systems are often bundled together—but functionally, they serve different roles, interface with different users, and offer different strategic value. For hoteliers evaluating solutions or optimizing operations, understanding these differences isn’t just academic—it impacts how you drive direct revenue, integrate your systems, and manage your guest journey end to end.

There have been a lot of headlines that traditional Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is dead due to the rise of AI Search via the generative AI platforms. Some experts herald the end of Google’s monopoly on search and claim that traditional SEO practices are obsolete. Others believe that SEO based on best practices is required not only for increased revenues from the direct online channel, but to ensure good positioning of the hotel website in AI search results as well.

By now, hoteliers aren’t just talking about personalization—they’re actively rolling out new strategies to make it happen. In 2025, personalization is the baseline. Guests expect experiences tailored to them—and the hotels that deliver are already seeing the payoff.

“In a rapidly evolving landscape…” - This Chat-GPT siren seems to be the most frequently used phrase of the past year and immediately makes me question the content that follows. However, we can all reluctantly relate to the statement and the Communications function is no exception. While the AI wave has flooded our daily lives, changing how we work and what we communicate, other societal trends and consumer behaviors continue to prompt (pun intended) fundamental changes within corporate communications.

For hoteliers looking to Find customers, convert them to Book, and Grow revenue amid stiff competition, smarter data insights are necessary. But if more isn’t done to bring system data together in a cohesive, intelligent and integrated way, commercial teams will flounder, unable to deliver hard fast ROI cannot.

Ask any revenue manager, “Do reviews matter?” and you’ll get a quick “Of course!”. If your hotel is a great product with fantastic reviews, you have pricing power- just like someone with a perfect credit score gets better loan rates. But if your product is weak and reviews are bad, you know where you stand - like having maxed-out credit cards and a terrible FICO score.

Through the generosity of the AHLA Foundation, five students and I had the opportunity to attend the Hunter Hotel Investment Conference in Atlanta last week. I love attending conferences because they’re fun, you make friends, and they often get me thinking in a new direction or about something new in general. And that’s just what happened in Atlanta.