SouthSwedish

Just curious !

When does Hilton hotels change their posted rates on the Hilton online booking system ?
Every night at 12 ? Once a week ? Or is it an ongoing process ?

Regards :-)

writerguyfl

Rates are controlled by each individual property. More accurately, it's the revenue management software that determines which rates are available.

While never at a Hilton, I did work for many years as a Revenue Manager. Rates were set once each year and the computer did the rest. A single rate plan could have multiple rates and the software would select the most applicable rate based on anticipated demand.

I worked at hotels that catered to business-people in a major metropolitan area. Weekends were usually much slower than the week. As an example, our weekend leisure rates could be $79/night in the dead of winter when no events were happening Downtown. Conversely, if there was an NFL game, major concert, or other big event, the same weekend leisure rate could be as high as $209/night. If multiple events were happening and the software believed people would pay more than the highest rate within that weekend leisure rate, it wouldn't be offered and guests would only see "rack" rates.

Due to the complexity of the software, rates are not calculated in real time. Instead, the system will run in batches. Once complete, the results are uploaded to the chain's systems to be distributed to the various booking channels. If necessary, I could re-run the calculations between the scheduled batches. That only happened when an extraordinary event happened (like the airport closing due to weather or the announcement of the dates of major regional event like the NCAA Final Four).

So, to answer your question, there really isn't a set time because it varies based on individual hotel.

SouthSwedish

Very interesting ! It's even more complex than what I initially thought.

Thank you for your answer.

SouthSwedish :-)

Sisosig

Do you happen to have any hints on applying for such a job?

hi55us

Same here, would absolutely love to do this every day.

Miesque

I don't have as educated a response as writerguyfl, but what I have noticed strictly by observation is that I will see a fair amount of price changes (for those properties that have a price change) mid to late afternoon/early evening especially for the NYC properties which is an area with arguably the greatest price volatility. This seems especially true if the date is approaching quickly. There also are some price changes that come through late evening/overnight. I rarely see changes in price from early morning to mid afternoon. I am one of those who anal retentively runs searches for various trips I have on the horizon with high frequency (I know that sounds odd, but I actually like doing it)

writerguyfl

Know about computers, math, and logic.

Revenue management is all done via complicated software these days. For the most part, you just let it work. But, the systems I used spit out an exceptions report daily. That report detailed times when the software couldn't make sense of the data. I had to research each incident to see if a manual override was warranted. That research involved calculating the potential results of setting different rate and stay controls. It wasn't necessarily difficult math...just simple calculations with different probabilities. The ability to see patterns in the data was very important. But, the key to success is being able to explain why you are overriding the computer to your Director of Sales and/or General Manager (who may not have any background in math).

Only larger hotels have a dedicated Revenue Manager. Smaller properties will have the revenue management tasks folded into another position. For example, at a 357-room hotel with a decent amount of meeting space, my position was 100% revenue management. Later, I moved to a small 150ish room hotel that only had a small ballroom and two small meeting rooms. There, I was Night Manager/Revenue Manager.

Revenue Managers are directly responsible for big budgets. In that larger hotel, revenue goals between $1 and $2 million each month. Due to that fact, the interview process is going to be extensive. If you don't have a degree in computer science, statistics, math, or a similar field, you probably won't get interviewed as an outside hire. Your best bet is to start at a smaller hotel in a hybrid position where revenue management is just one aspect of your job. The hospitality industry naturally attracts individuals who consider themselves to be a "people" person. To get into revenue management, you need to be a "computer" person with some people skills.

sdsearch

It also depends what you mean by rate.

Ie, some hotels have a zillion types of rooms, some very similar to others, each with a different rate. Once the lowest rate for the cheapest type of room sells out, the next higher rate is what is shown, but you may not always notice that it's for a slightly different room type than was previously the lowest rate. So in cases what seems like a rate going up is just cheaper rooms selling out.

Some hotels have different rates well outside of business hours (overnight, weekends, etc) than during business hours, on the assumption that business people will mostly book during business hours and you'll get mostly leisure travelers well outside of business hours (and so that's the only way the can present different rates to business vs leisure travelers).

By, the way, as the existence of Best Rate Guarantees* shows, it's even more complicated in that the rate changes on third-party websites may be different than the rate changes on the hotel's own, or the hotel program's own, website. In fact, I've seen the "business hours" thing more on third-party websites than hotel program websites, which led me to a pattern of doing BRG requests at the start of the weekend, because that's when such a rate was most likely to last for a couple days (as opposed to overnight on a weekday the rate may last only for a handful of hours at a time, as so harder to file a successful BRG against that).

* Best Rate Guarantees, in some hotel programs, are a claim that you'll find the best prices on the hotel program's own website, and if you find a better price somewhere else, submit a claim and get some sort of reward (matching the lower price and/or offering some other discount and/or offering bonus points and/or offering a gift card). I don't know these are as common in Sweden as they are in the USA, though.

wolfie52

I am an "anal" room price checker via the app. I have booked rooms months in advance and have re booked the same room a dozen times due to falling rates. Occasionally the rate will go up and then fall again. This has happened worldwide for me. I find the rates usually fall the closer one gets to the date of stay.Worst case is it never falls and I already have the lowest rate. The exception would be a high demand event, such as Super Bowl, New Years eve, etc.

One example is I travel to NFL games and when possible I try to stay close to the stadium. As soon as I know the date of a game I WANT to go to, I book a room even if I am not sure I WILL go.(That way I guarantee my rate and can cancel anytime before should I decide not to go). I tried this in DC this year and they beat me to it and already had a the rate set at 2-2 1/2 times "normal" since they knew they would sell out that day...but usually when the schedule is released in April the hotel isn't thinking about the upcoming games yet, so I have mostly been successful with this strategy. In this case I booked a next door Holiday Inn before they did the same thing . But normally I can "cruise" the rates and often lower my cost by 25-50% just by continually checking until 1-2 days before the stay.