Skift Take
Too many hotel companies try to put heads in beds without clear thinking. They need a more nuanced commercial strategy, figuring out which customers will be the most profitable to pursue after accounting for all costs.
Early Check-In
Editor’s Note: Skift Senior Hospitality Editor Sean O’Neill brings readers exclusive reporting and insights into hotel deals and development, and how those trends are making an impact across the travel industry.
Since 2016, I've considered Cindy Estis Green to be one of the brightest minds in the hotel sector. Her key insight is that hotel commercial strategy directors have to become more sophisticated about which customers will be the most profitable after accounting for all costs.
Green is CEO and co-founder of Kalibri Labs, a consultancy and data benchmarking service. I've enjoyed listening to her presentations on hotel strategy at conferences since 2016. She just published a new book in late May summarizing these views — Demystifying the Digital Market & Guide to Commercial Strategy — along with two co-authors.Here's my paraphrase of one of Green's core insights: Too many hotel companies try to put heads in their beds without keeping an eye on maximizing total profit.
Like many insights in life, Green's insight almost sounds too simple. After all, anyone can pay lip service to being thoughtful about their commercial strategy. The reality is that many hotel sector leaders have been stuck in their ways. "Everybody has sort of gone after any demand they could get and figured that if it was more than