An estimated 30%–45% of hotel operators are likely dissatisfied with their revenue management performance, particularly in economy, midscale, older branded, and independent hotels, or in properties facing heavy labor, insurance, debt-service, franchise, OTA, or renovation pressures.

Weaknesses of Standardized Revenue Management

Many revenue management operations suffer from cookie-cutter, standardized strategies, often led by revenue managers who are not deeply familiar with the local market. In many cases, there is little or no meaningful collaboration with the hotel’s sales team, general manager, or operations staff.

Cookie-cutter strategies: Standardized RMs often apply the same pricing and inventory approach across many hotels, even when each property has different demand patterns, location challenges, guest segments, and competitive pressures.
Limited local market knowledge: Many RMs are not close enough to the hotel’s actual market, local events, corporate demand, seasonality, or competitor behavior to make fully informed decisions.
Weak collaboration with hotel teams: Standardized RM often operates separately from sales, front desk, and operations, causing missed opportunities in group business, local accounts, extended stays, and special market conditions.
Overreliance on systems and reports: Brand tools and dashboards are useful, but they cannot replace human judgment, property-level knowledge, and real-time feedback from the hotel team.

Strengths of Custom Revenue Managers

Revenue management should be customized to each hotel’s market conditions, demand patterns, business mix, competitive set, and operational realities. It should also be closely aligned with sales and operations at the property level.

Hotel-specific strategy: Custom revenue managers build pricing, inventory, and channel strategies around the actual hotel, not a generic brand template.
Stronger market awareness: They pay closer attention to local demand, competitor behavior, market shifts, area events, and the hotel’s true position in the market.
Closer sales and operations alignment: Custom RMs work directly with sales, the GM, and operations to connect revenue strategy with what is happening inside the hotel every day.
Better practical decision-making: They combine data, brand tools, market knowledge, and hotel realities to make revenue decisions that are more flexible, timely, and property-specific.

Better Approach

We generally recommend that hotels continue using brand revenue managers when available, since they often have stronger access to the technical side of brand revenue management systems and tools. However, hotels can benefit greatly from an additional revenue management consultant or manager who understands the local market and works closely with hotel sales and operations.

The strongest results usually come from combining brand system expertise with local market knowledge, practical hotel experience, and direct collaboration with the people actually operating and selling the hotel.

Use brand revenue managers when available because they often have stronger access to brand revenue management systems, tools, reports, and technical resources.
Do not rely on brand RM alone because system access does not always equal local market knowledge or property-level strategy.
Add local revenue management support through a consultant or manager who understands the market and collaborates closely with hotel sales and operations.
Combine both strengths for better results: brand system expertise, local market knowledge, practical hotel experience, and direct teamwork with the people selling and operating the hotel.

Brand RM Strategy Call

Strategic review with the brand RM to align pricing, restrictions, and market opportunities.

Biweekly Revenue Pulse

Twice-monthly performance review covering revenue trends, pickup, comp set, and OTA positioning.

Revenue Accelerator

Weekly analysis of revenue performance, demand shifts, OTA results, and recommended strategy adjustments.

Total Revenue Engine

Complete RM oversight, OTA strategy, pricing, reporting, AI search, and SEO performance evaluation.