Anticipating demand and getting insights is crucial nowadays, more than ever before.

We had a recent discussion with one of our clients who informed us that his demand is currently going down a lot and this will require a price drop. So, before he acts on this decision, we took a look at the analytics available in the apps of WeYield. The conclusion was that the demand is not shifting…yet at least.

I followed a webinar about hotel current booking performance organized by Ideas and STR. They highlighted some points:

1. Hotel Revenue Per Available Room (similar to RevCar in car rental Industry and equals RPD or ADR x utilization or occupancy ratio) in Apac was hit from -17% in Australia to -100% in China; Dubai is overall -20%; Europe is from -10% in Ireland to -40% in Italy
2. Events (fairs and congresses) that were planned to take place in February and March were majorly canceled (62) or postponed (99). Most Italian cities were impacted as well as Athens and Barcelona
3. For Europe, in major cities, business on the books for the second half of March is lower but not that bad. To be continued over the upcoming weeks.

One crucial teaching the hotel industry had following 9/11 or Lehman brother collapse in 2009, and their subsequent major price reductions, is that it took hotels around 24 months to recover!

Do not start a price war.

What should you do for your Revenue Management instead?

• monitor your demand like never before. WeYield apps supply you with the key performance indicators you need.
• forecast demand shift for the upcoming weeks. Keep in mind the algorithms will take a couple of weeks to “digest” the new demand behavior. Yes, the human remains smarter than a machine in a very quick and complex environment.
• take pricing and/or inventory actions with a clear level of impact. Do not test anything now!
• use data to analyze instead of reacting with your fear and emotions
• check the prices of relevant competitors, not the ones who are panicking!
• when people do not want to travel for security or health reasons, no discount will ever stimulate that type of demand

For your marketing, you can take this health situation to strengthen your client loyalty:

• communicate on the share of new cars you have (out of the factory so totally clean).
• set new car interior cleaning procedures and make them known. Ie: all car interior equipment would be cleaned with a hygienic special procedure.
• send to the dry cleaner the baby seat covers and keep them stored in their hygienic bag till the delivery to the client (in the sealed bag)
• make available hydro-alcoholic lotion in your car rental station(s)
• propose your desk clerks not manipulate any paper nor passport or eventually wear plastic gloves

For your marketing, you can take this health situation to strengthen your client loyalty:

• communicate on the share of new cars you have (out of the factory so totally clean).
• set new car interior cleaning procedures and make them known. Ie: all car interior equipment would be cleaned with a hygienic special procedure.
• send to the dry cleaner the baby seat covers and keep them stored in their hygienic bag till the delivery to the client (in the sealed bag)
• make available hydro-alcoholic lotion in your car rental station(s)
• propose your desk clerks not manipulate any paper nor passport or eventually wear plastic gloves

Show you are concerned for your customer’s wellbeing.

For the team of decision-makers in the company, the power of WeYield web apps is fully available from anywhere, refreshed every night, and available first thing in the morning to monitor any changes.

• piloting with updated data has never been so important
• getting access to all sales and fleet dimensions give you all elements to make a decision
• you can work from your home office: it is essential to get access to all data from anywhere, no matter where you and your staff are located.

Marc Beioff, SalesForce : “It is time to change. Not only because it is the right thing to do, but also because success demands it.”

Feel free to contact James or Noémie, WeYield Customer Success Managers, if you want to know more about WeYield apps.

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