Casa-Cast

Speaker: It's caa.

caa.

They be created by caa.

It's time for the show.

Let's go

Speaker 2: today.

We're Desiree Garcia, the co-founder of
revmax, the Revenue Management System, and

we're talking about the three things that
you should do daily, weekly, and monthly

when working with a revenue manager or
working with a revenue management company.

Desire Ray, thanks for coming on today.

Speaker 3: Hey Steve.

Thank you for having me.

Speaker 2: So Desiree, we've had you on
before you started in 2006 and Destin,

you have got a long history of being
a revenue manager, growing revenue for

a multitude of companies to include
the big dogs on the block in the hotel

industry and all the way up to meeting
Carlos and becoming a co founder of

the RevMax revenue management system.

Speaker 3: Yes.

It's been quite the journey.

Speaker 2: You've come from one
market segment into a different

one and then became a leader of
the short terminal segment and

then co founded an entire revenue
management software . That's a pretty

outstanding career you've got going on.

Speaker 3: Thank you.

It's a lot of fun as a revenue manager
in the hotel space, if you will,

they kind of give everything to you.

And as revenue management evolves
and strategies evolve, they're

not so keen to give you that
flexibility and functionality.

So being the co founder, especially
in the vacation rental space with

the revenue management system and the
diversity that's needed, the complexity

with working with owners and different
companies and roles, it's important

that we have a system that gives the
flexibility and to know that we have that

control to bring that to the marketplace
is what keeps this exciting and fun.

Speaker 2: Uh, you know, I remember
years ago when we would do everything

on Excel spreadsheets before Streamline
was a thing, when you would Yahoo,

not Google, because Google wasn't a
thing yet, Yahoo property management

software, nothing would come up.

I would build these great big charts
showing the homeowners what we'd

be charging for the entire year.

And we'd send them out and have
them like on our front desk.

So that.

Guests could pick them up and
decide what time of year they

wanted to come and see everything.

And then we'd even secretly drop
them close to our competitors

offices with the wrong numbers on it.

And that's how we would get
competitive advantages on it.

Back in the old days.

Speaker 3: Yes.

Yes.

I remember those pricing sheets.

Speaker 2: They were really
valuable and they were such a thing.

And like, I remember like, we can
put it on nice paper and it was like,

Oh, you can put it on nice paper.

Like, yeah.

And I have times have changed.

Speaker 3: Yes.

They were magnets.

Speaker 2: Yeah.

Well, today we're talking about
the three things that you should be

doing daily, weekly, and monthly.

And I think this is so important because
when you bring on a revenue manager or

you hire a revenue management company.

They know what they're doing, but you
really don't often as a property manager.

I wondered sometimes asked like,
okay, I'm glad you're on board.

What should I be doing or what
questions should I be asking,

or what should I be monitoring?

I'm really excited about this
episode because I think that we're

going to answer those questions
for our partners at Costco today.

Speaker 3: I think ultimately when
you have a revenue manager, they

should be responsible for your
entire revenue management strategy

because revenue management isn't
just about setting a price, right?

A pricing tool can do that.

And they're not just sitting back changing
rates for 365 days for every home.

It's all about managing the strategy
and making sure that we're optimizing

the supply and demand for every day.

Revenue management is
an art and a science.

The science is through the system.

Let the system do a lot
of that heavy lifting.

The art is through the revenue
manager, as well as with a blend of

the property manager, because they are
the ones who are boots on the ground.

Most revenue managers are remote,
but ultimately the collaboration

of those two are what's going
to make a successful strategy.

And making sure that all the key
players that are involved know the goal,

understand the strategy so they can
execute in their respective position.

Speaker 2: I love that you said
that the people on the ground.

Along with the strategist as the
revenue manager are working together.

And in a previous episode, we talked about
how revenue management is a team sport

and making sure that the people who are
actually on the ground, picking up the

phone calls, talking to guests, talking
to homeowners, answering emails, are

giving feedback to the revenue manager.

Who's setting the strategy.

Speaker 3: Yes.

It's important that owner services,
marketing reservations, revenue

manager, we're all aligned.

And the

Speaker 2: homeowner.

Speaker 3: I'm the homeowner.

Yes.

Speaker 2: Yeah.

So we're going to start with daily.

So the three things that we should be
doing daily as a property manager, you

said number one was major bookings.

Speaker 3: Yes.

The important thing is right.

I'm going to kind of take a step
back before we jump into that is

once a revenue management strategy.

is set.

This is what you should be doing
then daily, weekly, monthly.

So if you're saying tomorrow, right, I'm
going to just hire a revenue manager,

but there's no existing strategy.

We may need to do all of these things
daily to try to get the strategy

built, get the system set up.

So you understand what's happening
once your strategy is good.

And now you're in maintenance
mode, if you will.

These are the things you want
to do daily, weekly, monthly.

We're going to start with daily
and you had said measure bookings.

Because we want to
understand our reservations.

We want to understand what reservations
are coming in because if we had

just made a price adjustment, or
we just opened up our calendars, or

we just sent out a marketing piece.

Or we just added a different
distribution channel or partner OTA.

How is that impacting the volume
of reservations coming in?

So we need to have a pulse on every
day, how many reservations are

coming in because ultimately that's
cash also, how much cash is getting

deposited into my bank account.

So that's why as a GM, you want to
have a pulse check of your bookings.

Speaker 2: And so for number two, you
said major leads, why major leads if

they haven't turned into revenue yet?

Speaker 3: Correct.

In our previous podcast, we had talked
about availability, which was opportunity.

So leads are opportunities where
people have picked up the phone

or sent an inquiry and are ready
to spend money, but haven't yet.

That's your demand.

That's how much demand is coming in.

You also want to know, okay, that's
great that I had 20 bookings.

But how much demand did I have?

If I had 20 bookings and 50 leads,
I need to convert those leads.

Why did they not book?

Was it policy?

Was it rate?

Was it availability?

Was it deposit?

Are they nervous about the cancellation?

Why did 20 of them give
me money right away?

And why did the other 50,
why were they apprehensive?

Speaker 2: So when you're
measuring leads, you're also

inside of that measuring denials.

Speaker 3: Correct.

So denials are when somebody
called in and it was a hard no,

I'm not moving forward with you.

Why did we deny that reservation?

Why did we deny their money?

That's how I look at it.

People have money, they walked
into my store, they have an intent

to buy, and we turned them away.

Why is that?

So it could be the price was too high.

It could be their house had
a certain night minimum.

They weren't flexible with their stay.

They wanted to bring their pet and they
couldn't, it could be a number of reasons.

So why would we turn those
customers away if we didn't

have existing demand to book it?

That's the conversations we need to
have with clients or reservationists

to the revenue managers and the GMs.

Marketing is doing their part with getting
the demand in, but now we're running

into hurdles because we can't convert it.

Speaker 2: So for number three on our
daily schedule, we should review pickup.

And we're not talking
about a Ford pickup here.

We're talking about something else, right?

Speaker 3: Yes.

So pickup simply just means We know
that we had bookings, but pickup

is where does that occupancy fall?

What day in the calendar,
what did we pick up?

So if I had 10 bookings, fantastic,
but where are they picking up?

Is it last minute?

Is it next week?

Is it next year?

Is it 4th of July?

When are those reservations picking up?

That helps to understand this last
Thursday, we picked up five reservations

and they're all booking for 4th of July.

Good to know.

Versus five reservations and they
all just booked for next year.

It's important to have a pulse check
of how many reservations are coming

in and what days are they falling on.

Speaker 2: That's really good advice.

You know, I look at the daily
pickup, but I'm not really

looking at when it's coming in.

I was trying to pace pickup comparatively
to the year before, but I think I'm

leaving a lot on the table by not looking
at the dates for the pickup as well.

So we've done our daily three for the
past week, and now it's coming up to our

weekly meeting or our weekly schedule,
and we have three things that we should be

doing weekly, and one is review pricing.

Speaker 3: At least once a week, you
want to have a collective meeting with

all your players at bare minimum, the
GM or the owner and the revenue manager.

It would be great if you had a director
of marketing or marketing manager, a

reservationist owner services, because
it's important to understand the,

why we're doing what we're doing.

And if we need to make adjustments,
if we're noticing certain

trends, All players are there.

They understand the goal.

So any questions anybody gets
asked, they all have the appropriate

answers in the weekly meeting.

When we're reviewing price, if we
recognize, hey, for the last seven

days, our pickup trend has been X.

We need to offer a discount, right?

We're sitting with 100 nights open.

We're going to offer a discount owner
services and reservationists need to

be aware of why we're dropping price.

So if they get calls, they can
speak confidently to the owners

about why instead of passing it off.

They can easily convert that.

So we were reviewing prices.

Number one on our weekly call, because
we need to understand based upon our

pickup, where is demand coming in?

And where is the opportunity if
demand is coming in hot and we are

pacing to sell out too fast, then I
probably need to increase my price

a little bit to slow that down.

If demand is not coming in over
certain periods of the year,

certain weeks, or even certain
days, could I adjust my price down?

Whether that's through
just a hard decrease.

Is it through a marketing
campaign or a coupon?

Is it on every house
or on a specific home?

So we're reviewing price in all of
those capacities on the weekly call.

Usually the revenue manager will
already have those answers brought

out for you to where everybody
else just needs to approve.

They do all of that prep work in advance.

Speaker 2: So they're coming to
the meeting with these reports

ready to go and sit down and
you're reviewing pricing segment.

And trying to figure out how that
applies to the strategy and whether

you're overpacing or underpacing
and where you go from there.

Correct.

Yes.

So number two for the weekly
revenue management meeting

is review nightly minimums.

Speaker 3: So we're reviewing nightly
minimums because we want to make sure

we have the correct strategy in place.

We're not displacing weeds
because if we're getting a lot of.

inquiries, but no conversion.

We're reviewing with our pickup
when we are noticing that if we

recognize, Hey, we're picking up too
fast for a specific weekend, right?

How do we increase our nightly
minimum to capture shoulder nights

or to slow down a, just a one night
sellout and on the flip side of that.

So it's looking at areas of opportunity.

If I need to adjust by reducing
nightly, men's Or areas of opportunity

where I'm pacing really fast and I
need to increase my nightly mins.

Speaker 2: You know, a lot of people
think about adjusting your strategy,

whether or not you're overpacing
or underpacing purely on price.

And what you're saying here
is it's not just price.

You can also demand more nights or
longer stays to drive higher occupancy

those times and help with either over or
underpacing just by your length of stay

and your nightly minimums in itself.

Is that correct?

That

Speaker 3: is 100 percent correct.

Yes.

Yes.

Speaker 2: I can't tell you how often
everybody I talk to in property management

starts talking about pacing and the first
thing we all go to is pricing, right?

This, we all go to, I mean,
us as property managers, we're

all going to that immediately.

First thing, like drop price, raise price.

We don't think often about like, hey,
Demand more nights or demand less nights,

you know, as the default go to for it.

So I think that's a great way to
think about pacing your inventory.

So number three for weekly
is review availability.

Speaker 3: Correct.

There is nightly minimum management.

If I'm saying two, three, seven nights.

There's the pricing strategy, but
then there is the availability piece.

So maybe I reduce my nightly
minimums or increase my nightly

minimums, but availability controls,
which also means my turn days.

Am I forcing a Saturday arrival?

Am I forcing a Saturday departure?

Reviewing that strategy as well as
my nightly minimum could be correct.

But if my availability is not
correct, we have gap nights

or air quote orphan nights.

How are we opening those up and how are
we capitalizing on those opportunities?

In some cases, if I have a three
night minimum because I can't

sell two nights, fantastic.

However, I need to review those two
night gaps because what I can do if I

can't sell it to a brand new customer.

I could always call the customers on both
sides of that gap and offer them to extend

their stay either one night later or
one night earlier, offer them an earlier

late checkout for a very aggressive
price because it doesn't matter because

nobody can come in on those days anyways.

So that's a way to capture incremental
revenue for those same customers.

Speaker 2: Once those nights are
gone, there is no shelf life on them.

They're gone forever.

So if you've got that orphan night,
even an aggressive rate, any aggressive

rate brings value to a night that
was going to be wasted and you would

have rotted on the shelf, if it were
a supermarket product, it's a way to

get value out of it before it dies.

Speaker 3: Absolutely.

Speaker 2: So we're doing our dailies.

We're doing our weekly meetings and
now the month passes by and we're

going to do three things monthly.

And number one is review
our marketing efforts.

Speaker 3: Part of the
revenue management strategy.

We got to have demand before my pricing
adjustments will have any impact.

I have to have the demand and I can
distribute my product on distribution

channels, which is your OTAs, but I
also need to be able to communicate

to either my existing customers
or a way to capture new customers.

Because I can't depend on the marketplace
and the destination to bring in demand.

I have to do my part as well.

I have to be able to get in
front of the marketplace.

Through marketing efforts, whatever
that looks like, is it social media?

Is it Tik TOK videos?

Is it snippets on Instagram?

Whatever it is.

What are the marketing efforts?

What is the company
doing to generate demand?

Because just listing it on Verbo and
Airbnb doesn't fill the calendars anymore.

Speaker 2: So should we be looking
at things like the email marketing?

Does it move the needle?

So to say, and if so,
How do we measure that

Speaker 3: in addition
to capturing new demand?

That was part one.

Part two now is to make sure that we're
communicating to the database bi weekly.

That's our existing customers.

That's any leads, anybody that stayed with
us for the past, you know, three years.

However, we're capturing our guests.

We need to communicate to them.

And we do that with email
marketing every other week.

So we're not spamming them.

We're not sending them daily emails.

You can send them daily social
media posts, but emails need to

be a bare maximum twice a month.

One email communicating the destination.

Why come to the destination, right?

What are the things to do?

Is there festivals in the area or
there are concerts in the area?

Why come to my area?

The next e blast.

Would then be a call to action.

Maybe it's a Memorial Day sale, a Mother's
Day sale, a summer sale, and you want

to be proactive with those because
you know the booking window, right?

So you want to make sure you're ahead
of them to give them ample time to

buy, to coordinate with whomever
they need to, and One e blast is

called to action in two weeks.

They'll find another one about why
they need to come to the destination.

And two weeks after that, it's another,
you know, different call to action.

You don't want to spam them that way.

You're not always seeing that
you're on sale and there is

a reason to buy with you.

It's not just information based.

Speaker 2: So one is
information and two is offer.

Speaker 3: Yes.

And

Speaker 2: you, and you
rotate back and forth.

Yes.

Speaker: Yes.

Speaker 2: And twice a month or
never more than twice a month.

Speaker 3: You got to think about
it if you were the consumer.

If you're getting constantly
a weekly email about a deal,

it's usually not good cadence.

You're like, I'm just going to get spammed
or there's no sense of urgency to buy.

Because I'm going to get
another one the next week.

And then, I may not even be
thinking about fall right now.

I don't want to see that every week.

Therefore, the more you email them, the
higher the chance of getting spammed.

So, best practice is twice
a month, every other week.

Speaker 2: And so for number three on
the monthly cadence, you said, review the

OTA performance, the clicks and reviews.

Speaker 3: Part of the demand is
we're catering to existing customers

who have stayed with us in the past.

We are trying to get new customers in the
marketplace via pay per click or whatever.

Now we need to focus on our third
lever, which is the shelves of

where our inventory resides.

The shelves, meaning
distribution channels, right?

I'm on the shelf for people to buy.

I need to make sure that I'm
optimized on those shelves.

Am I getting the exposure that I need?

Is my content good?

Do I need to make any
adjustments to my pictures?

How many clicks am I getting right?

Usually the partners will give you some
kind of report or benchmark in the portal.

of how many clicks the home is doing
and whether they're up or down.

And then always make sure you're reviewing
your reviews as well as your customers.

I think you have the ability in
almost every platform to rate

your customer and review them.

Do that.

Because the more engaged you are with each
partner, the stronger your relationship

is, and the more involved you are in that
platform, it helps in your algorithm.

Speaker 2: So, when you rate your
guests, do you think it actually boosts

your rankings inside of the OTAs?

Yes.

.
Speaker 3: It helps in the algorithm
because it shows that you are an engaged

user and your listing isn't stagnant.

So the more engaged you are
with your listing, the chances

of you having a higher position
in the sort order is greater.

And as a host, like me, that if I'm Verbo,
I want to give customers to an active

homeowner because nine times out of 10,
you're going to service them better.

If you're that involved with the
listing, how much more are you going

to be involved with that guest?

First is me going to a listing that
hasn't been touched in six months.

Now this guest is kind of
going, I hope they talk to you.

They haven't paid attention
to their listing at all.

They're not engaged with their reviews.

Good luck.

The guest isn't going to
care about that owner.

That guest is going to care about Verbo.

So it does help.

I'm not saying it's going to make
you number one, but it does help

with having a quality listing.

Speaker 2: Every little bit helps and
we've been talking recently about what

would a 10 X listing look like and it's
a combination of all these small things

that turns your listing into the 10 X
listing right 10 times better than your

competitors, which serves you serves
your homeowner serves your guest better

reviewing your guest is one of those.

Action items that you're going
to have to take seriously.

If you really want to have a 10 X listing.

Speaker 3: Yes, that is correct.

Speaker 2: Desiree, thank
you again for coming on.

It's always so much to learn.

And I have personally been curious
about what kind of rhythm should

I be having on revenue management?

What should I be reviewing on a
daily, on a weekly, on a monthly,

and this really lays it out.

Appreciate all of your time.

And as always, all the things
you do for Costco, really one

of the leaders in our industry.

Thanks for spending the time with me.

Speaker 3: Absolutely.

Thank you Steve, and looking
forward to the next podcast.

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