Maria Govyazina
Revenue Manager, Ararat Park
Hyatt Moscow
Interviewing Successful Revenue Managers is a series of
interviews with the hotel industry’s most prominent or promising revenue
managers. Dialogues with these
individuals will help to inspire current students, graduates and hotel
employees who are interested in the RM career path. It also helps RM educators as well as
researchers to acquire a better understanding of the perspectives of successful
practitioners, who obviously exert considerable influences in their business on
both day-to-day decision-making and strategic thinking. Hopefully, it will contribute to the
industry’s understanding of how different revenue managers think about and deal
with various RM issues as well.
Maria Govyazina is an alumnus of Hotelschool the Hague in the Maria’s interview is the second of the “Interviewing Successful Revenue Managers series”. She is of Russian nationality and her career path so far has been on the fast track.
To make the interview more interesting and give it a personal touch, the interview questions are a mixture of RM-related business questions and questions that project the human side of the interviewee. Questions are divided into five categories:
- Education Background & Career Path
- Perspectives on the Hotel Industry’s RM Development
- Perspectives on the Company’s RM Development
- Management Advice from the Interviewee
- Personal Reflection & Aspiration
Actually, I had five years of university education in
As a student, what do you remember
the most at the school; i.e., events, teachers, fellow students, classes, etc.
Well, I remember Mr. Lam
Which aspect of the Dutch
culture did you find, as a Russian, most challenging to adjust?
Compared to
Russians, the Dutch are more straight-forward.
However, while I was in the
Your
career path so far is on fast track. Can
you tell us how you arrive at your current position?
Before I took the RM course at the
Hotelschool The Hague, whenever I attended RM meetings at the Ararat Park
Hyatt, I could only listen because I did not understand everything that was
said. After I took the RM course, I
began to ask the then Director of RM many questions. When I was about to graduate from the
Hotelschool The Hague, he was promoted to a different position. He suggested that I apply for his job. I was very lucky that my GM and colleagues were willing to give me the chance despite my inexperience. Shortly after I took over the position of revenue management, Hyatt changed its organization structure corporate-wide. It made the RM position more strategic, reporting directly to the GM. However, I also work closely with the Marketing and Sales Department.
Your Company selected you to be the
Revenue Manager; there must be something about you that excels others. What do you think it is?
I had quite
a few years of hotel management experience in operations management before I
took over the current position. I
started in 2003 working in the Actually, my former GM’s initial decision was to keep me in operations after I graduated from the Hotelschool The Hague. He thought that one cannot be equally good in operations and with numbers. I’m happy I could prove him wrong.
I think the management was willing to give me a chance because in
What are the most
challenging aspects of your job?
Because I
am the only person in charge of the revenue management in the hotel, I do a
variety of work, large and small. This
makes it difficult for me to find time to do something new or extra. The responsibility of this position is, at
times, hard to carry. People sometimes
expect me to tell them exactly what is going to happen on a particular day, and
what would be the right decision to make.
I have to explain that I have a lot of tools to support my decisions but
I don’t have a crystal ball in my tool bag.In general, I am trying to educate other departments in order to help to create revenue management culture in our hotel as we have some challenging goals to meet.
What are the most important lessons you have learned from your
current position?
Mistakes
will always happen but you have to learn from your mistakes. You must have the confidence to move to a new
level, to challenge yourself. There is
no limit for perfection. Secondly, don’t
take what you hear at face value. Always
ask why and run tests to see whether the numbers make sense. Thirdly, you must think like a revenue
manager and be able to convince others to check the facts before making
managerial decisions.
Which other departments do you rely on the most for their
cooperation?
Besides Marketing and Sales Department, I also work with
Reservation, which is now a part of Rooms Department.
What are the differences between the Russian hotel market and
the European hotel market?
The hotel market in International travelers are primarily from the
What is your market
forecast in 2011 and 2012?
We see that in 2011,
As for 2012, of course, it depends on the world economy. The Euro crisis will affect our market because
Do you think that
revenue management concepts are widely implemented in Russia
Major four and five-star international chain hotels in
It is an interesting statement that RM is about managing
demand. Let’s suppose you drop the room
rate, is it a RM’s decision or Marketing and Sales’ decision?
It’s difficult to answer this question. Analytically, it is not such a difficult task
to estimate the effects
RM is about “maximizing revenue”. Demand increase does not necessarily lead to
revenue maximization --- and revenue maximization does not necessarily
guarantee profit maximization. In fact,
it is entirely possible that at one point, the more revenue you generate, the
less profit you make. Have you had the
opportunities to observe demand, revenue and profit relationship?
Yes and I agree. But the challenge is to find the
balance. We are focusing more on this
problem now. Hyatt is more ADR driven
than Occupancy driven.
What do you think of the concept of product development/improvement
and revenue maximization? Why aren’t
revenue management and/or marketing heavily involved in product development?
To
be honest, the role of the revenue manger is evolving and only recently the
position has been elevated and understood fully. As we come to grasp that revenue management
should be more strategic than tactical, product development as part of revenue
maximization concept, in time, could be possible.
What about the development of using social media to book a room
--- and eventually with a mobile device?
It definitely will be the future. In Our target group is business corporate clients who prefer to use travel agencies. Therefore, in comparison, our online booking is still low. But, all of the five-star hotels would like to increase online booking.
What about implementation of automated revenue management system
in which most of the routine tasks and decision-makings are taken over by
computer? What kind of effect do you
foresee on revenue management job performance?
Revenue management systems are very helpful but they don’t do
everything. They need monitoring because
a computer is still a computer. It keeps
me from spending my time doing mathematical exercises. Instead, it affords me the time to perform
other tasks and to make strategic decisions.
What about the competitive sets?
I understand that you often use two sets of competitive set?
Yes. We use more than one
competitive set. The forming of each
competitive set requires different criteria.
We then make the performance measurement comparisons between the
competitive sets and try to draw conclusions.
Internet allows travelers to compare room rates worldwide. On the other hand, we know that discounting
may or may not maximize revenue. Even if
it does, at one point, more revenue will lead to less profit. Is discounting an effective competitive tool
used in your hotel?
First of all, Hyatt applies a rate parity rule for all hotels at
all markets --- meaning public rates from all channels have to be the
same. Discounts are given only to
corporate accounts and preferred travel agents.
We do not believe that discounting is the answer.
Despite the fact that in general, total amount of overbooking is
less than 1% of room revenue, many hotels in Europe
consider it an important issue in a disproportional way. What is your opinion on this issue?
It depends on the markets --- not all
guests are able to keep their reservation.
We see a lot of no-shows and wash
What about “walking” the guests?
It depends on the guests. We don’t do it often. We do a lot for the guest
What are the most
important performance measurements for your hotel?
The most important performance measurements is Room
Revenue Market Share Index or RevPAR Index Hyatt’s goal is to reach number one or number two position on this index within the competitive sets. In addition to comparing our performance to the competitive sets, we also compare our performance with the budgeted numbers as well as with the previous year’s performance.
What about using the concept
of CM (contribution margin) as a performance measurement, in which you deduct
the variable cost?
Currently we don’t have the opportunity to compare our CM
to the CM of the competitive set. More
and more, people talk about GOPPAR
What about other types of
indicators, such as RevPAC (revenue per available customer), RevPSM (revenue
per square meter), and TotalRPAR (total revenue per available room)?
We measure our restaurant performance with RevPAC
What is your thought on
forecasting accuracy, especially group forecasting?
If our forecasting accuracy is around 80%, we have no problem. Usually, quite high percentage of forecasted
group room nights sold materializes.
If you were to hire a new
revenue manager, what are the most important qualifications, such as knowledge
and skills, education, work experience, personality, work ethic, etc., that
this person must possess?
There are a number of qualifications that are really important:- Analytical
skill is a must. There are so
many issues that need to be analyzed from different perspectives in order to
come up with the right conclusions.
-
Be able
to work independently. I don’t want to
tell him/her to take a look of these reports.
I want him/her to come up with the appropriate data and back it up with,
for example, the relevant sales reports.
-
A
complex-thinking person who is able to deal with all sorts of data showing
different indications at the same time and still be able to see the whole
picture.
-
Be able
to think in terms of the bottom-line.
-
Hotel
school education --- it is not so much about “information” you learn at the
school but the “mental skills” acquired; for example, analytical skill and the
ability to support your decisions.
-
It is
good to know a lot about hotel operations.
So, hospitality-related work experience is helpful.
-
Be able
to create the RM culture
-
Logical,
self-confident and convincing
-
Devoted
and able to produce “excellent” output
-
Willing
to challenge oneself
-
Motivated
and committed
I am 200 percent sure that it will!
What advice would you give to
our students who are interested in pursuing the career path in revenue
management?
- Willingness to work hard!
- Read, listen and get as much knowledge as possible in revenue management.
- Acquire analytical thinking skill!
- Know your market current development
- Know something or acquire experience in Sales, Reservations, and Front Office
- It is important to be outspoken and not afraid of the bosses!
- Make your intention known
I don’t think I will change anything --- except that I probably would start working in the Sales Department earlier. If nothing else, it would have helped me to realize that it is not my thing!
What were your proudest or the most satisfying moments in your
career life?
I am proud of myself in general. My career is my biggest achievement. My decision to go into the field of RM -
although it was very hard initially - but I am very proud that my GM values my
opinion and asks for my approval on many RM-related issues.
Finally, what will be your next career move?
I may go back to Operations and one day I would like to become a
GM. I may also want to work in RM at
corporate level. 
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