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DUETTO Stepping Up Your Game


Revenue Management for the casino industry


Go beyond the comp or no-comp decision and learn how you can drive bottom-line growth through room sales


G About Duetto With solutions that address the true challenge of today’s distribution landscape,


Duetto provides unique and powerful revenue strategy tools to optimize profit and guest loyalty. Duetto delivers powerful insights on pricing and demand to hotels and casinos through a 100% cloud-based application. Utilizing new consumer-centric data sets such as web shopping regrets and denials,


social review, air traffic, weather and more, Duetto GameChanger transforms the way hotels and casinos price and sell rooms by providing better and more actionable information. Make informed distribution choices and independently yield all channels, dates and room types with open pricing to drive healthy revenue and optimize profitability.


ambling is a tricky business. Casino marketers know they’ve got to get people in the doors to spend money at games of chance, and they’re often times willing to provide complimentary beverages and


even overnight accommodations to do so. But how much does one guest have to pump into a slot machine or drop at the blackjack table before he or she receives a free ticket to the all-you-can-eat buffet? Until recently, one person’s guess was as good as another’s. Rapid advancements in technology have changed the game, and now the best casinos gather supply and demand data, analyze it and use it to make operational and pricing decisions. The practice of revenue management is helping casino managers and marketers handle their inventory better, staff the right amount of employees, market their casino to the right audience and price their product to boost bottom-line revenue. As legalized gambling spreads through more states,


casinos are faced with increasing competition and thinning revenues. It’s critical casino marketers make educated decisions on how to price rooms and look at hotel rooms less as giveaways and more as revenue generators. Casino marketers who practice basic revenue management can turn their lucrative gaming property into a profit-generating machine. A simple example: If it costs $30 for you to


maintain a hotel room and you can get $35 to rent it


out for a night, you’re making $5 profit. If you can charge $40, you’re doubling your profits. Multiply that by 1,000 rooms, 365 days a year, and that number can make a huge difference to your bottom line. Revenue management allows you to observe trends in the marketplace and determine the right price to get the most profit.


Understanding Revenue Management


Revenue management strategies apply to a variety of industries. They almost all start with segmenting, or understanding your customers and sorting them into buckets depending on how they use your service. Hoteliers segment individuals and groups as separate parts of their business; business travelers are treated differently than leisure travelers; and business obtained through third parties is viewed differently than business that comes direct. Segmenting in the casino industry can be


expanded 1,000-fold. Guests who play high-stakes games and drink high-priced alcoholic beverages should be treated differently than guests who play penny slots and drink water. Advanced managers can view table-game-oriented players differently than slot customers, which allows marketing departments to target the right business with specific promotions. Digging deeper, you can segment guests by how


they got to your property. Online travel agencies such as Expedia and Kayak charge up to 25 percent commission to secure a guest. As the cost of doing business increases, it’s important to understand the different costs to acquiring guests on various channels and then determine how much inventory you want to provide to each channel. The next key component of revenue management is


forecasting upcoming demand. A forecast can be as simple as expecting 10 percent more customers this year as compared to last year. Even if you do nothing else, you can adjust your operations as needed, perhaps adding dealers or keeping your restaurants open an hour later. Start by importing historical data into a spreadsheet and then add, tweak or manipulate


36 SEPTEMBER 2015


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