How to apply yield management to your event spaces?

Have you ever heard of yield management?
No? The principle of yield management is to make your prices fluctuate according to availability or demand. The aim is to optimize filling (be as complete as possible) and revenue (sell at the best possible price). It is a widely used practice for the sale of hotel rooms or seats in air and rail transport.
But this practice can be perfectly adapted to your event spaces. I am explaining to you how...

If this is your first year of activity it is not necessarily easy to set up but after some time you will be able to analyze:

• the number of incoming requests received,
• your booking sources,
• your occupancy rates (confirmed requests),
• how much time in advance do your customers book,
• your turnover and your margin,

and draw the conclusions necessary for a filling strategy.

With all this information, you will be able to identify your business trends.
You need to know your highlights and your quiet times (most requested day (s) of the week, the most requested months, the most requested schedule (s),...).
And knowing how long before the date, on average, your customers book will allow you to adjust your strategy if necessary.
Of course you can set goals: improve your confirmation rate, increase your CA/margin by X%, increase the number of direct bookings...

You will no longer simply be a receiver of requests but you can take control = fill in at the best price compared to the reservation date.

You can play on 3 axes to improve this filling and your income:

1. Your prices
During off-peak periods you can plan for special offers or discounts while during peak periods your customers will be ready to pay full price.

2. Your booking channels
On the same principle, during off-peak periods you can more easily accept requests from third parties (provider, agency, event planner,... who are paid by commission and lower your margin) while in strong periods you need them less to fill your venue.

3. Your filling
If you have several rooms and the most important or the majority are rented, you may be more demanding on the others.
On the same principle, if you use the booking options (as we talked about last week), when you see that certain periods are in high demand, you can also increase your level of requirement.

It is rare to find places that officially fluctuate their prices according to the requested period (in August I rent my room at 500€ while in June I rent it 1500€). But if you have a seasonality that can be justified during your commercial speech to your customer, it is entirely possible to implement it.

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