Chris Anderson is a professor at the Cornell School of Hotel Administration. Prior to his appointment in 2006, he was on the faculty at the Ivey School of Business in London, Ontario, Canada. Professor Anderson’s main research focus is on revenue management and service pricing. He actively works in the application and development of revenue management across numerous industry types, including hotels, airlines, and rental car and tour companies, as well as numerous consumer packaged goods and financial services firms. Professor Anderson’s research has been funded by numerous governmental agencies and industrial partners. He serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management and is the regional editor for the International Journal of Revenue Management. At the School of Hotel Administration, Professor Anderson teaches courses in revenue management and service operations management.
Advanced Hospitality Revenue Management: Pricing and Demand Strategies
Overview and Courses
Increasing sales and profits entails a comprehensive revenue -management strategy that includes creating and managing customer demand and establishing a marketing strategy built around rigorous control systems. Doing this better than the other players in the market will produce a clear, competitive yield advantage.
This certificate program consists of five two-week courses. The series builds on the fundamental principles of pricing and revenue management to give you advanced tools and techniques to make strategic hotel pricing decisions, set inventory controls, and encourage demand manipulation to drive profits and overall organizational performance. You can complete all five courses and earn your certificate in as little as three months, spending three to five hours per week.
This program was developed with revenue-management expert Christopher Anderson, PhD, associate professor in the School of Hotel Administration at Cornell University. Professor Anderson’s research focuses on revenue management and service pricing, and he advises world-renowned hospitality, service, and consumer-goods firms on optimizing and executing their revenue-management strategies.
The courses in this certificate program are required to be completed in the order that they appear.
Technology- and Internet-savvy consumer behaviors have fundamentally changed the way in which revenue is managed. This online course encourages those schooled or experienced in traditional revenue management to elevate and fine-tune their approach to price manipulation, length of stay, and demand and availability control. This curriculum will prepare students to succeed in this new, highly competitive hospitality landscape.
You'll investigate individual cases and strategies used by the world's top airlines, casinos, hotels and car rental businesses. Learn how these top companies optimize their price setting and inventory control measures to generate maximum profit and minimize systematic inefficiencies.
Whether you're preparing to create a proprietary revenue management system or use a commercially available revenue management system, the principles and techniques learned in this course will serve as a foundation.
Pricing strategy is the central component in your overall profit performance. This online course prepares you to anticipate the impact certain pricing decisions will have on consumer demand and thrive in a highly competitive environment.
You'll learn to measure demand sensitivity to your price changes, measure the overall impact and even analyze and improve upon your competitors' strategies. See how pricing strategies in economic declines can bring volatility and bring about a "price war" situation, like that of the airline industry. This course also provides the tools to conduct a break-even analysis, which is used to determine a baseline volume and price that will generate positive revenue.
Closely aligned with the break-even analysis is the concept of price elasticity, which is the measurement of change in demand as it relates to a change in price. By measuring demand sensitivity, running a break-even analyses and forecasting price elasticity you'll be able to develop a measured, data-driven approach to pricing strategy geared toward positive revenue generation and sustained profitability for your operation.
The course Price and Inventory Controls is required to be completed prior to starting this course.Segmenting your customer base is critical to developing a variable pricing scheme. By identifying core groups of customers and their purchasing habits, you can target them accordingly by setting prices that will help you win their business over your competition. Without proper segmentation, however, dynamic pricing can backfire, which can alienate consumers and turn them into perpetual deal-seekers.
This course expands upon the central concepts in revenue management—RevPAR (Revenue Per Available Room) and RevPASH (Revenue Per Available Seat Hour)—with the goal of selling the right room or reserving the right table for the right person at the right time. Get your organization properly managing inventory and using market-based pricing to maximize revenue.
If you can achieve a workable segmentation and variable pricing scheme, you won't need to adjust prices as often. Many hotels and hospitality organizations have used stable prices to create a marketing advantage, by providing stable rates for customers who appreciate consistency. Finding the right mix in variability and stability in pricing, and setting upgrade policies, are what generate repeat business from happy customers and create an environment for sustained profitability.
Group events, conferences and negotiated business bookings frequently account for over 50% of hotel room reservations. This course will prepare you to develop your own data-driven, systematic approach to group pricing.
You'll also learn how to anticipate displacement—specifically how a property estimates the number of future arrivals that will have to be turned away when at capacity. Predicting transient business (non-group, individual business travelers) amid negotiated bookings is also a component when considering the effects of displacement on customer satisfaction.
Forecasting displacements and setting parameters for negotiating price will help you determine the number of rooms to allocate to each customer segment. Another key metric is win rate—the probability that a group will accept the quoted price—and the trade-offs to be made around profit margins.
Today's consumers rely less upon traditional travel agents and more on web-based research when booking travel. In this online course you'll learn to develop online strategies designed to improve your standing in Internet search results, called Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and increase your visibility to target customers.
Learn how to optimize your position on Internet search results and increase conversions: the moment when a search becomes a purchase. Online travel agencies are especially popular because they provide one-stop convenience and notifications for consumers searching for deals and promotional opportunities. The success of online travel agency is largely attributable to their marriage of leading-edge technology and a keen insight into consumer behavior patterns.
How It Works
Faculty Author
Download a Brochure
Not ready to enroll but want to learn more? Download the certificate brochure to review program details.
- Advanced Hospitality Revenue Management: Pricing and Demand Strategies Certificate from Cornell Hotel School
- 40 Professional Development Hours (4 CEUs)
Who Should Enroll
- General managers
- Revenue managers
- Marketing managers
- Hospitality professionals responsible for their organization's financial performance
“Many of the topics discussed and reviewed have affected my job, and we are currently putting into practice. I found that the quality content was good and related to everyday strategy decisions that we take into account when running our business. I would recommend this course to anyone that is interested in developing their skills as a Revenue Manager / Reservations Manager. ”
“The Advance Hospitality Revenue Management course is immensely educational. I learned vast amounts of knowledge which can be directly applied to the work I do….The course is intensive and goes into the finer details of Revenue Management. Overall it was a very fulfilling experience. ”
“This was a very good course that allowed me the opportunity to interact with other revenue managers in my field on a variety of different subject matter. I enjoyed the collaboration amongst the participants and the different viewpoints and strategies. ”
Advanced Hospitality Revenue Management: Pricing and Demand Strategies
| Select Payment Method | Cost |
|---|---|
| $3,600 | |