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On Your Marks, Get Set: Maximize Special Events – By Rikki Cavanagh – Image Credit Unsplash+
The Formula 1 Montreal Grand Prix means a lot to me. When I was a little girl it meant I would be able to return all of the bottles and cans I found strewn about the campground my grandfather owned. I would make a killing on Grand Prix weekend. When I was older but still too young to work reception, I set up a table and sold souvenirs to customers, including a checkered bandana for the occasion. The weekend paid for my summer wardrobe. As a teenager, the weekend meant extra hours and more tips. When I started working at Expedia Group and I was the market manager for Montreal, the weekend could make or break my KPIs for the quarter. Grand Prix means a lot to me, but mostly it means money. And I know it means the same for a lot of Montrealers.
We are officially within 12 months of two F1 Grand Prixs in Montreal. The race has changed its date for 2026 which will result in the biggest weekend of the year for hotels shifting from one month to the other. In this new reality, I am curious to see how legacy revenue management systems will price the second weekend of June, which has been impacted by the Grand Prix in 11 of the last 20 years. Rate Yield, designed to focus on current market dynamics rather than historical trends, is ready to adapt to the new reality. While this specific case may seem like a local issue, our features can be adapted to any high demand event, anywhere in the world.
First and foremost, it’s important to bring back my first point. Grand Prix means money to a lot of Montrealers and there aren’t a lot of hoteliers that won’t have strong opinions on their pricing for the event. Grand Prix also means stress. So let’s look at five stress-free ways hoteliers can control their pricing strategy for high demand events in Rate Yield:
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Override for a minimum price:
First things first, you can set a minimum price level for your entire property that reflects the impact of the event. You could also set a fixed rate override, by why should you limit yourself if the market pricing increases?
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Create a Season for your competitive set:
Some events draw demand to a different location than the typical downtown core. In the example of the Grand Prix, the event takes place on an island between Montreal proper and the South Shore. As such, hotels located on the South Shore near the Metro can see more demand for this event than they typically do, and as such, should consider more downtown properties in their competitive set than would be recommended in typical periods.
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Create a Season for your Room Types:
In the Room Types section you can set a minimum and maximum for each room. One way to ensure you are maximizing your profit on high impact dates is to increase the minimums on each room type, understanding the clientele attending the event and their willingness to pay for each category.
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Create a Season for your Strategies:
Maybe you really want to micromanage your pricing and you want to remove any impact of the compset on your rates. By carving out a specific season for the event, you can go back to old fashioned fixed prices, but ones that vary based on the booking window and occupancy levels of the property. This would allow you to have a more practical approach to your pricing, all while remaining dynamic in a hands-off manner.
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Set Your Restrictions Using Smart Restrictions:
Back when I was a market manager, as we approached the Grand Prix my colleagues and I would check out the inventory grids of every hotel in our market to make sure their room types balanced and their restrictions wouldn’t hinder their ability to sell. Rate Yield will do that for you by alerting you if your restrictions are negatively impacting your ability to fill your rooms. I also remember calling hotels on the Thursday to let them know that having a 4-night minimum still in place on their Thursday & Friday would likely cause them issues if they hoped to sell out. Rate Yield’s Smart Restrictions will automatically release your restrictions once you reach a particular booking window.
At Rate Yield we know that YOU know your market better than anyone and we want to empower you to make your own informed decisions. You can trust that our system will have your strategies at heart when it comes to these high impact events that increase our revenues, but also our stress levels.
Reach out today to see how we can adapt our algorithm to your market’s needs!
Rikki Cavanagh is the Director of Business Development at Rate Yield. Connect with Rikki on LinkedIn.
About Rate Yield
Rate Yield was created in 2019 by seasoned Revenue Management consultants with over 30 years of experience within the field. Rate Yield RMS was designed to adapt to small hotels, inns, and resorts as well as large hotels in city centers. With settings and thresholds that can be modified against a hotel’s unique market trends, Rate Yield makes it more accessible than ever to implement AI in revenue management strategies. With real-time insights, agile strategy development, modules for budgets and forecasts, as well as a tool for displacement analyses, Rate Yield provides a complete software that will help your hotel to yield more revenue, period! To learn more, visit us at www.rateyield.com
