Priyanka Kapoor, Senior Regional Director of Sales & Marketing EMEA & India; and Group Director of Sales, Marketing, Branding and Communications for Swiss-Belhotel International spoke about the group’s strategies for ‘Future of Revenue Management’ at the annual ROC Middle East 2020 – Revenue Optimisation Conference. It was the first of its kind, ‘Hybrid’ conference – with virtual and in-person audience, organised by HSMAI ME in Dubai and she participated as an on-stage panelist. Other participants on the panel which was moderated by Tarandeep Singh, Senior Revenue Director - IMEA, Intercontinental Hotel Group; included Professor Sherri Kimes, an emeritus professor of operations management at the School of Hotel Administration, Cornell University; Klaus Kohlmayr, Chief Evangelist, Ideas Solutions; and Niels Mekenkamp, Director of Business Solutions, EMEA, Cendyn.
Speaking on convergence of roles at property level, Priyanka stated, “At Swiss-Belhotel International we have tested merging revenue, sales, marketing and e-commerce roles by letting one leader lead the hotel in revenue. It has worked seamlessly, just like the function of the Chief Commercial Officer works well at the senior management level in hotel chains.”
Priyanka further stressed, “Centralisation is key for Swiss-Belhotel because it is now treading into franchise and manchise arrangements with hotel owners. With the business shifting towards the digital space, Swiss-Belhotel believes in supporting its hotels with the best technological foundation and network while understanding the need for customisation as per the peculiarities of each market it operates in.”
As a closing remark, the panelists agreed it is important to strategize key attributes for the role of future revenue managers and in support of the same, Priyanka added how at Swiss-Belhotel, they believe in holding on to their internal talent, especially now that their team has been through the pandemic period, learnt from it and has shown the competencies to help their hotels survive in such challenging times.