|
|
|
Home::Reference & Education
Call Yield Management Within The Hotel Industry
Author : Dominic Martin
Call Yield Management:
A call yield management system is one that
enables hoteliers to predict and understand their telephony
usage in order to optimise their revenue and create more guest
loyalty.
Why use Call Yield Management?
Telephone calls are an ideal service to optimise with yield
management. The setup of a private telephone network is
expensive, both in terms of installation and configuration,
therefore it is capital intensive. There is no revenue to be
gained from a telephone network unless calls are made, therefore
the service is perishable. A telephone network has a stable and
average variability of both value (intensive competition has
reduced price gaps between local, national and international
calls) and demand (tariff reductions mean that people don't wait
until particular hours of the day to make calls).
For hotels, a call accounting, sometimes called a call logging
system, is a vital part of call yield management. Historically,
a hotel could rely on guests making direct dial phone calls from
their rooms. The telephone department operated at around an 80%
profit margin and phone revenue could account for around 3% of
the total annual revenue for the hotel. It is a fact that over
the past few years telephone revenues have been dropping
dramatically. There are many reasons for this but the most
prevalent are alternatives such as charge cards and mobile
phones that have increased their market penetration, while
rapidly decreasing their costs. Wireless hotspots and in room
HSIA (High Speed Internet Access) have also increased the ease
with which people can use alternative forms of communication,
other than simple dial up, to access email and instant messaging
applications.
The benefits of a call logging system are widely known and the
reports from a hotel's call accounting system can be used to
determine the calling patterns of their guests, such as:
==> on/off peak calling periods
==> calls to specific numbers (e.g. Internet providers)
==> calls to particular regions/countries
==> whether guests are making short or long duration calls
==> are guests receiving more calls than they are making (if so,
why?)
A call accounting/call logging system can also alert hoteliers
to evidence of misuse or telephone fraud by both guests and
staff. Telephone bills can be reconciled against the call
accounting/call logging reports to ensure that carrier bills are
correct. The hotel call accounting reports can identify
out-of-service trunks, equipment and lines that the hotel is
paying for that are either under utilised or not being utilised
at all. These are all areas that, left unmonitored, could very
easily erode profit for a hotel.
Call yield management combines these call accounting/call
logging reports, along with the guest data, to profile the
different types of guests and how they use the phone. Future
demand can then be forecasted and the hotel can assign calling
rates based upon the check-in status of each guest. VIP's,
loyalty guests and international visitors, can all receive
different calling rates. If most of the international visitors
to a hotel came from a handful of countries, then the hotel
would maximise revenue by negotiating good long distance rates
to those countries beforehand and offer attractive call packages
to those visitors. Loyal guests would receive lower calling
rates and/or special rates to their top 5 frequently dialled
numbers. A standard guest may receive a different set of calling
rates that vary depending on if their occupancy period falls
within a time when telephony usage at the hotel is either high
or low. By utilising such guest centric charging (i.e. charges
that are individual to a guest rather than the room they stay
in), call yield management can help stimulate room yield through
the loyalty enhanced experience that guests receive.
Good call yield management solutions will increase revenue by
providing hoteliers with cost management that aids decision
making. It enables them to understand the diverse purchase
drivers of their guests and forecast the high demand and low
demand periods, enabling guests to self-sort based on their
price sensitivity. The cheaper calls in the low demand periods
are balanced by the increased call charges in the high demand
periods, so the hotel benefits from a smoother revenue flow.
Call pricing also needs to be harmonious with other
communications services like fixed and wireless HSIA. Imbalances
cause migration between services and the associated dilution of
overall yield. In most cases, organisations that have used yield
management effectively find that they achieve greater
profitability and a clearer understanding of the yield achieved
across telephony, HSIA and rooms.
Related articles
|
|
|
