Limited Downside, Unlimited Upside – The Revenue Manager’s Holy Grail — Photo by Infinito
In case this is our 1st time: I’m Fabian Bartnick aka Fabi – The Commercial Growth Leader. I help companies bridge data, marketing, sales, revenue management and communication to drive future-proof revenue. Each week, I share real stories and strategies you can use to grow faster and work smarter.
In revenue management, we’re trained to play defense: protect occupancy, hedge against cancellations, react to market shifts. But the real magic?
Designing strategies where your downside is capped, and your upside is limitless.
What Does Limited Downside Even Look Like?
It’s about protecting your floor, your minimum acceptable revenue. Think of:
- Setting fences for your discounts so you don’t spiral into margin suicide.
- Using base group business to cover fixed costs without giving away the house.
- Leveraging early demand signals so you never find yourself slashing rates at the last minute.
This is your safety net: no matter what happens, you’re not crashing.
Kinda like your secret chocolate stash for dark days 🙂
And Unlimited Upside?
That’s where the fun starts. Unlimited upside is giving your strategy room to breathe when the market explodes:
- Dynamic pricing that actually moves with demand.
- Upsell frameworks that make every booking a revenue opportunity.
- Packages and experiences that guests happily pay more for because they see the value.
When your floor is safe, you can swing big.
How to build it like a pro?
Here’s the playbook:
1️⃣ Start with a floor– Know your breakeven, your no-go rates, your cost of sale.
2️⃣ Layer flexibility– Don’t lock into static contracts that kill your upside.
3️⃣ Upsell everything– Room types, F&B, experiences. Every touchpoint counts.
4️⃣ Leverage data & AI– Systems (and yes, AI) can spot spikes you’d miss. Let them.
5️⃣ Remove ego – Don’t hold rates out of pride or drop them out of fear. Trust the math.
Why This Matters (More Than Ever)
In 2025, markets swing faster than a DJ set at 3 a.m. The hotels winning aren’t the ones with the lowest rates or the flashiest promos. They’re the ones who set up strategies where:
- The risk is protected.
- The upside is unlimited.
- The game is theirs to win.
That’s how you stop firefighting and start playing offense.
So, ask yourself: Are you capping your own upside because you’re too busy protecting the downside?
Because the best revenue managers? They do both and sleep just fine at night.
Love, Fabi
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