Revenue Management Strategy: Demand-Control Charts

The major use of a demand-control chart is to help determine when to change your rate based on demand. When your forecast, or estimated demand, is above a certain level, you will close (or raise) room rates. When the forecast is below a certain level, you will open up (or lower) room rates. Similar to most approaches to setting rates, this one has advantages and disadvantages.

Advantages

• easy to use and implement (a simple spreadsheet will do)
• can be applied to other parts of the business (ballrooms, restaurants, etc.)

Disadvantages

• does not consider length of stay
• lumps all demand together even though different market segments might have different demand

Steps in Creating a Demand-Control Chart

To develop a demand-control chart, we develop the forecast, determine trigger points, and then determine the minimum rates to quote.

1. Develop the Forecast

The best way to develop your forecast is based on past experience. Take a look at your reservations from the last several years. What was your demand? What was your actual occupancy? Using historical data, you can make a pretty good prediction, or forecast, for what the demand will be for the future.

For example, you may calculate the forecast for each day for the next few months based on the same days for the past five years. The demand-control chart to the left shows the forecast for a 250-room hotel for part of the month of June, in both numbers and percentages.

2. Determine the Trigger Points

Trigger points signal the opening or closing of a rate class—the hot and cold periods. If the forecast predicts that demand will be above a trigger point (a hot period), close (raise) the appropriate rate classes; if predicted demand is below a trigger point (a cold period), open (lower) the appropriate rate classes. Your firm may have multiple trigger points. For our example hotel, our trigger points are:

• Cold Period: 70% occupancy or below
• Hot Period: 100% occupancy or above

3. Determine the Minimum Rate

Determine the minimum rate to quote based on the forecast and trigger points. In this chart we have two trigger points: 70% and 100% (which makes 71%-99% occupancy our Warm Period). For each hot, warm, and cold period, you will want to determine your minimum rate.

• If our forecast is under 70%, it’s cold and we set the minimum rate at €250.
• If the forecast is hot, the minimum rate is €425.
• If the forecast is between 70% and 100%, it is a warm period, and our minimum rate is €325.

Develop Your Own Demand-Control Chart

Try your own hand at developing a demand chart for your hotel to get a better understanding of how you can easily and simply predict demand and determine the best pricing strategy for you. Click the thumbnail to the right to download the Demand-Control Chart used in Dr. Chris Anderson’s eCornell course Price and Inventory Control. It has already been filled in with example data to get you started, but you can easily plug in your hotel’s forecast, determine your own trigger points, and set your minimum rates depending on your hot and cold periods.

Note: The demand-control chart is a spreadsheet in .xls format and opens best in Microsoft Excel or OpenOffice Calc.