How to get a “WTF” from your Revenue Manager 🙂 — Photo by Infinito
Let’s play a game.
It’s called: “How many times can one person say WTF in a single workday without combusting?”
Welcome to the naughty-but-nice edition of Revenue Management 🙂 Here are the top annoyances that make even the most zen revenue manager fantasize about throwing their laptop out the window:
- “Can you just send me the report urgently?” Sure, §%§&%”$. Which one? The pace report, the pickup, the segmentation, the comp set, the forecast, or the last shred of my sanity?
- Data That Lies PMS says one thing, the rate shopper says another, and your gut is telling you it’s all bullsh*t….and you have to explain why 🙂
- The Daily Rate Change Request Sales: “Hey, can we drop prices for this weekend?” You: “Occupancy is at 92%.” Sales: “Right, but I feel like it’s too high.” F U ….. You…in capitals!
- Forecast Reviews That Turn Into Therapy Sessions You came with numbers. They came with feelings. “Don’t you think we should do better?” grrrrrr “Oh and we called over “this” number to HQ. can you adjust please!”
- Systems That Don’t Talk to Each Other It’s 2025. My fridge knows when I’m out of milk. But the CRS and the PMS? Nah, still ghosting each other…and then the finger pointing.
- Group Requests With No Info “We have a group request for 20 rooms.” Cool. When? What kind of rooms? Do they want food? A soul-reading? “We’ll get back to you.” You never do.
- The “Gut Feeling” Override You built a model, ran 14 scenarios, checked seasonality, competitor moves, and history. GM: “I just feel like we should price lower. What do you think?”
- The Love/Hate Relationship with the Budget Set it 9 months ago based on 3-year-old data. Now you’re shackled to it like an outdated prenup. Nothing says “strategy” like being told to “make budget” during a surprise city-wide construction project and a train strike.
- The Channel Mix Tug-of-War OTA bookings flooding in? “Why aren’t we getting more direct?” Directs finally picking up? “Why did we stop pushing OTAs?” PS: That is actually my favorite 🙂
- Being Told You’re Not “Commercial” Enough Because obviously, the person who understands demand, price elasticity, channels, behavior patterns, and profit margins just isn’t thinking big picture. But sure—let’s let the guy who asked if we can “just raise the BAR” run things.
The truth:
Revenue Management isn’t hard because of the numbers. It’s hard because of the noise. The random inputs. The missing context. The well-meaning colleagues with the commercial equivalent of horoscopes.
But hey… we do it anyway. Because when it does work, and you beat budget, win market share, and pull off the unthinkable? That moment feels better than any spreadsheet should legally be allowed to.
Love, Fabi
View source
Revenue Management 
Please visit:
Our Sponsor