manic monday

Not too much to report for today; I thought I was going to be working with the accounting department but actually spent the entire day with James in revenue management. He and I spent almost the whole day updating the latest spreadsheets of data that he has to prepare weekly for all of the different department managers. It was neat to finally be working more on revenue management stuff and seeing the kind of stuff that I would be typically doing. In fact, as sad as it may sound, I actually enjoyed updating all of the reports. It was neat to be able to see the changes currently take place and be able to compare them to where we should be and/or want to be. Then you can start to use strategy to take you where you're revenue should go. Should you raise or lower your current prices? Oversell the hotel? And by how much? Should you open up different channels, like a new Internet distribution site? Should you create a promotion or a new package? The possibilities could be endless and revenue managers just need to decide which ones to use in order to zero in on the specific goal that they have. All very interesting stuff and I could be learning more about it this week or be placed in the accounting department. Guess we'll find out tomorrow :)