Pricing for hotel revenue management: Evolution in an era of price transparency

Abstract

The recession of the early 2000s, the emergence of online booking channels and the price transparency afforded by the Internet, coupled with challenges to the basic assumptions underlying traditional revenue management (RM) systems, have fueled significant change in how the hotel RM problem is approached. This article charters the evolution in pricing for hotel RM, from inventory management-based approaches to rate availability, to the emergence of price optimization solutions. It also provides an overview of recent research that explores how consumers use price and non-price information in hotel choice and highlights the impact this may have on pricing for hotel RM.