Revenue management in the hotel industry

Mr. Stan Josephi successfully defended his Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) thesis on “The Phenomenology of Revenue Management: Explorations in the Hotel Industry” at Maastricht School of Management (MSM) on 8 June 2015.

Mr. Josephi explains that successfully completing his DBA was something he believed was impossible 10 years ago. “Nevertheless, the last 5 years have been an enriching experience that I would most certainly recommend to people who want to further explore their area of expertise and make a contribution to the development and application of new knowledge. It is a highly demanding, but ultimately very rewarding journey that has contributed significantly to my professional development”.

In his research Mr. Josephi describes that revenue management has become an important andindispensable management tool for the optimization of revenue potential in the hotel industry. Over the years, technological advancements have significantly transformed its application, yet its definition has remained virtually unchanged. This phenomenological dissertation has explored and identified the critical areas underlying revenue management as experienced by leading academics and industry practitioners. From the analysis of the interview data, it became clear that revenue management should (continue to) form an integral part of any hospitality organization, regardless of the scale and complexity of that organization. Its underlying process pivots on the availability of large volumes of external customer data, which increasingly turns revenue management into a data-driven discipline.

As a result, the balance between the art and science of revenue management has gradually inclined towards science. Therefore, the intuition of the revenue manager is no longer used for filling blanks in data, but instead should be employed to integrate different data sources for enhanced decision-making that incorporate all of the revenue streams of a hospitality organization.