Can revenue management be integrated with customer relationship management?

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this study is to understand how and to what extent Hong Kong hotels have integrated customer relationship management (CRM) into their revenue management (RM) practices at individual customer level. Method Semi-structured interviews were used to gather information from experienced interviewees holding hotel RM- and marketing-related executive positions. In total, 11 revenue and 9 marketing executives were interviewed in 2016-2017 over a period of 13 weeks. The data were transcribed and then Nvivo was used for data organization and analysis. Findings The hotels do not systematically segment customers by value because of restraints on the RM systems’ capabilities and the industry’s conventional segmentations. The revenue and marketing executives’ attitudes toward integration, IT system infrastructure support to enable integration, loyalty and membership programs as a means for integration and executive management level support for integration influence the hotel’s potential for RM and CRM integration. Research Limitations/implications Only the perspectives of revenue and marketing executives were considered. Incorporating the insights of different parties may achieve a more comprehensive result. In addition, because it seems that there is no systematic RM and CRM integration within the Hong Kong hotel industry, relevant decision-makers’ opinions toward the practice may change once they evaluate the performance of the pioneering practitioner. Originality This study reveals what has been done in practice to integrate RM and CRM compared with the theoretical approach, proposes an integration framework and discusses the potential for further development together with the challenges to integration.

Perceived unfairness of revenue management pricing: developing a measurement scale in the context of hospitality

“…It is therefore preferable to conceptually define perceived unfairness as a multi-dimensional construct. Adopting a multi-dimensional approach enables us to comprehend perceived unfairness both in its entirety and diversity with reference to different consumer profiles (Denizci Guillet and Shi, 2019) and the different contexts of transactional exchanges.…”

Social CRM: linking the dots of customer service and customer loyalty during COVID-19 in the hotel industry

“…The research by Denizci Guillet and Shi (2019) investigated the extent to which Hong Kong hotels have merged their CRM and revenue management systems. The findings revealed that integrating revenue management systems and CRM can improve customer relationships.…”

Revenue management and CRM via online media: The effect of their simultaneous implementation on hospitality firm performance

“…Similarly, CRM can leverage the possibilities offered by Revenue Management to identify the market segments in which to prioritize marketing actions and establish long-term relationships. Hence, the simultaneous implementation of CRM and Revenue Management will be a key success factor for firms (Denizci Guillet & Shi, 2019).…”

“…Hendler & Hendler, 2004;Vaeztehrani, Modarres, & Aref, 2015;Vinod, 2008). One very recent study, by Denizci Guillet and Shi (2019), offers a theoretical framework and a qualitative study that identifies the key factors in the effective strategic integration of Revenue Management and CRM. However, to date, the literature has not provided empirical evidence of the effects of this strategic combined approach on hospitality firm performance (Wang et al, 2015).…”

“…However, to date, the literature has not provided empirical evidence of the effects of this strategic combined approach on hospitality firm performance (Wang et al, 2015). Hence, an important step in this direction is to analyze the internal mechanisms that enable hospitality firms to simultaneously employ Revenue Management and CRM, to better understand their effect on performance, and to study the firm's capacity to realize this simultaneous approach (Noone et al, 2003;Denizci Guillet & Shi, 2019). This capacity relies on a business culture that facilitates the implementation of marketing processes aimed at creating value for the market over the long term.…”