Exclusive Interview | Vishwas Saxena, Head- Revenue, Neemrana Hotels
/“How well you engage and communicate with the customer while ensuring the organization’s values and vision are upheld all the time is the key here.”
Tell us about your journey. How did it all start?
Graduated from IHM Lucknow in 2007 and started the journey from the back office operations in Reservations. Back in those days when the internet penetration was not that high, majority of the bookings were made by the Reservations. I remember, the GDS segment share used to dominate compared to the OTAs.
I have closely seen the emergence of OTAs in our industry and the business shift from offline to online. During the course of my career I switched from Reservations to Revenue as I have been a very hands on system person who have worked from the ground up on various systems and technologies. So, in terms of adaptability and flexibility for different and complex setups I am more confident of handling them as I stand right now in my professional capacity.
What do you think it takes to succeed in this industry?
See, hotel industry is all about customer service. How well you engage and communicate with the customer while ensuring the organization’s values and vision are upheld all the time is the key here. Also, Teamwork and Problem Solving skills are important to ensure guest issues are addressed and resolved in a timely manner and as per the guest satisfaction while the operational capabilities are enhanced by working together for better guest experience at the hotel.
What does the future look like? For the industry, you, your project / initiative.
One of the key things we have to understand that Hospitality Industry in India is very fragmented. Sometimes, there are multiple stakeholders working on a project as well. One of the major pain points we see is the adaptation of Technology across the board which will not only help hoteliers to increase Revenues for them but also help in increasing staff efficiencies and customer’s overall experience for the property.
Take a simple example of a small domestic chain setup which doesn’t have a common pool of data. Now, the team members will never have an idea which all properties the guest have stayed or how many stays he has already done in the same property. Again a technological deterrent which can be rectified by having a CRM solution on the Corporate level to manage the data centrally and working on the insights generated – pattern of stays, Length of Stay etc, for Business Development.
I see many more hotels adapting technology to have better operational capabilities and guest experience thereby working towards stronger Revenue Generation.
What is the one app / tech solution you would love to see?
I would really want the technology companies who develop the PMS solutions for the hotels to work towards central data management and to make systems capable to recognizing and matching the profiles of the guests every time the Reservations / Front Office staff feed the booking in the system. This will help hotels to deliver far better guest experience.
Take a example of a gust who is a loyal / returning guest and even after 10 – 12 stays, the staff members are not able to recognise them as the system did not able to pick up the same guest profile while the reservation was made. This will create an impression that the hotel doesn’t recognises / values their guests.
What should General Managers & HODs know about Revenue Management?
I would really want senior management people to understand that Revenue Management is a complex department. Its not only about managing inventory and rates on various channels. Pricing and Inventory management is a part of the Revenue Management which also has various other functions as well like Auditing, Data Analytics, Yield Management, Forecasting, Budgeting – to name a few. I somehow feel that on a broader level the basic understanding of Revenue Management is only limited to Data Distribution. The expectation of the ownerships / higher management also centred along the Distribution majorly.
However, there are domestic and global brands which have embraced the true essence of the Revenue Management across their product offerings which have helped them to not only have increased Revenues but also better data management and reporting structures at place which is essential to work towards Business Development strategies by various teams at the hotel level.
