Tarandeep: I have been a small town boy, born and brought up in the holy city of Haridwar. Did my schooling there and always dreamt of being a fighter pilot. Got through NDA but could not clear the Medicals. Was already doing my Hotel Management at IHM Bhopal and thought of giving it my best shot. Started my career at the erstwhile Hotel Oberoi Towers Mumbai (now Trident Mumbai) in 1998 in Front Office operations.
Moved to Sales and Marketing with Carlson Hospitality and spent time at their Regional Offices in Mumbai, New Delhi & Kolkata where I learnt the basics of Sales & Marketing. Following this, I was associated with IHG when I set up there Outbound Sales Office for the 4 managed hotels in South East Asia. I was called back by Carlson to be part of Radisson Noida and lead their Sales & Marketing team for a brief period. This is where I got hooked on to the Revenue Management.
Having worked with the Carlson systems earlier I was able to yield on the opportunities of GDS and Web. But I did realize that it has got a great potential considering the system productivity of that hotel increased many folds. So when I got an offer to move to Taj Hotels to lead & drive Revenue Management for their North India Leisure cluster, I decided to get into RM full time.
Thanks to my sales background I was able to add a lot of value to the cluster. Very soon I moved on to look after their flagship property, The Taj Mahal Hotel New Delhi. Got promoted to the Area role in a year’s time and was responsible for the three Taj Hotels in New Delhi However over a period of time, I wanted to explore more and learn more as hotelier.
I ventured into consulting and set up the Hospitality Vertical for Technopak Advisors. Did feasibility studies, brand partner search and a few Revenue Management assignments while I was there. I was back at IHG in 2010 and took over the dual role of driving and leading Revenue Management in South West Asia and also Revenue Management for Hire (RMH). It’s been a great experience to work with a global organization like IHG.
From the exposure to new challenges and to work life balance, it has been a great journey so far. Now I am responsible for only the RMH function that is very unique to IHG and provides remote Revenue Management solution for our hotels in Asia Middle East & Africa.
Editor: Share with us the philosophy behind Revenue Management For Hire and how does it work?
Tarandeep: RMH is a dedicated off site team of revenue specialists that supports hotels to implement, drive and deliver room revenue strategies. Our vision is to make RMH as the most effective, efficient and scalable RM support solution across the regions. And this supports the IHG’s vision or philosophy of ensuring that effective revenue management is applied at all hotels globally
Our teams are based out of Gurgaon, Dubai, Bangkok, Sydney and Cairo and are supported by a team of analysts based in Manila. Together we provide RevMan support to some of our managed and franchise hotels across Asia Middle East & Africa. The Portfolio Revenue Manager might be based in Bangkok and be handling hotels in Phuket, Phnom Penh, Hanoi and Manila While the one in Gurgaon might be involved with hotels in Middle East or South West Asia or even Japan A lot of research goes in to understanding the trends and the overall competition and market dynamics in general. Thanks to IHG’s advanced systems and tools and the merits of technology we can access the systems and reports of any hotel remotely.
These are then analyzed to provide tactical & strategic inputs to hotels on weekly basis. We also support hotels with on site Revenue Manager and have services that assist in training and hand holding a new resource on site or for someone who is stepping into RM shoes for the first time as part of his/her Personal Development Plan.
Editor: What do you think it takes to succeed in this industry? What essential skills does someone need to become a revenue manager?
Tarandeep: Continuous Hard work and Honesty are the essentials. And any book might tell you that.
What I will share are some learnings that I have had from people who made a great impact on my career and life
• “Nothing is impossible for a man of adamant faith”
• “No Job is Small or Big and secondly that this industry has no place for egos.”
• ATTITUDE + APTITUDE = ALTITUDE
• “This is service industry. Guest might not be right but Guest is God”
• DETAILING, DETAILING, DETAILING and “God is in the Detail” and you better find Him
• Championing Change and Thinking Ahead are key elements of moving ahead
• Write and prioritize what you want to do today as you might not remember or be able to complete everything
Most importantly, your own principles, values and fundamentals that are embedded into you as part of the cultural upbringing are your strength in the real sense. When you put in those extra hours of hard work, it’s important to have a great family behind you that understands the importance and helps you keep that focus going. And never be afraid of the failure, this is the way to succeed.
On the skill sets for Revenue Manager, you need to have a love for numbers and an understanding of the consumer mind. You should be able to put yourself in his shoes to anticipate the decision he might make. Revenue management utilizes intuitive as well as analytical skills; both of these skill sets improve with practice. Also the communication skills - As the great Sherri Kimes calls the ideal revenue manager to be “Geek who can Speak”. Over a period of time technology has improved and a lot of decisions are driven by systems and tools. Hence RMs need to be tech savvy.
Most importantly for me personally, I feel a RM has to be a great negotiator and a leader. There is a lot of internal selling that happens first before the sales guy goes out in the market to sell this to the end user.
Editor: Tell us a little about your average day
Tarandeep: We start our day early at 8 am in Gurgaon and that’s the best time to beat the morning traffic. Since I am a tech driven person, I have most of my day charted out in my calendar. I write on what I want to do and when and ensure they are done by end of day.
After the initial mails, we go through a team meeting to understand what has happened with the hotels that had calls yesterday and what is being planned for the ones that have calls on that day At times I am conducting interviews across the regions to get the best person for one of the roles. Reaching out to hotels that might need support, selling the services to the General Managers and Regional Teams. I personally overlook the support that we provide to New Hotel Openings as I want to make sure that the hotels are set for success as this the crucial stage of planning and positioning. Though the team is great in what it does but I can always chip in with my experience I am also part of various global projects that we do in IHG and that keeps us busy to think ahead of times and plan new things in Revenue Management.
Not just that we also have projects for example on How to have an effective On Boarding for a revenue manager. People aspect is critical to our leadership roles and we take this very seriously I also have my scheduled 1 on 1 sessions with my team members. We discuss less of business and more of life in these sessions. From personal development plans to next roles to issues that are bothering you. It’s my way of connecting with the team and ensuring that they are focused on what they are doing. I usually pack up at around 5 pm and evenings are usually spent with the family at home. Since our region is a bit stretched across different time zones, I might be taking a conference call from my home later in the evening. But overall we try and ensure that there is a Work Life Balance for the team.
Editor: With increasingly sophisticated software when can we see a full automation of the revenue management process? Or will it ever happen?
Tarandeep: It’s already here and at IHG we do have proprietary revenue management system that helps us manage and optimize our revenues effectively.
Without automation, you can still do it but it takes a lot longer and you are more likely to get lost. There are indeed different schools of thoughts on how much of automation you should be striving for. And if you ask any Revenue Guru, you will be told that decisions on pricing and inventory should be free from human emotions or gut instincts. As a human you might just be looking at your 30-60 or even 90 day window but your automated systems can look as far as the day of your last inventory available to sell. And the algorithms that are built into the systems are doing calculations beyond a good average revenue manager’s capacity and potential. So you definitely don’t want to ignore this.
The automated systems empower the revenue manager to effectively analyze the data that is thrown up by the software, may be rely on his instincts if need be and take macro decisions. By automating the process, you are freeing up a revenue manager to react more strategically to opportunities in the markets and further boost the bottom line.
Editor: How do keep abreast of all that is happening in hospitality?
Tarandeep: I subscribe to the e-newsletters or e-journals, so I keep getting regular updates on anything new in the industry – trends, new hotel openings, blogs, announcements, and movements. Technology rules us in daily life and social media websites give you ample opportunities to explore new and creative aspects of yourself.
I co authored the “Indian Hospitality Industry – Outlook 2009” during my last job and started writing blogs on topics close to my heart. I still maintain the RMH page on facebook. I write tripadvisor reviews for the restaurants and hotels that I visit. I do the same of going through the reviews when I am planning to eat out or go on vacation. And that’s my way of contributing back to the industry.