By SABRE Hospitality
In the search for new revenue streams, hoteliers must think beyond traditional room bookings and diversify their offerings. By expanding their offerings and experiences throughout each stage of the guest journey, hoteliers can capitalize on numerous spending opportunities. Below is a look at how hoteliers can utilize e-commerce solutions like Sabre's SynXis Retailing to maximize profitability through their own space and services.
*Expanding income horizons
Previously, hotels were limited solely to room bookings. Now, with innovative technologies, hotels have a wealth of opportunities to improve their revenue streams and adapt to the diverse needs of travelers. By leveraging personalization, we have developed industry-leading retail solutions that enable hotels to drive profitability through complementary services that enrich guest stays. We can now decouple offers from room bookings. Hotels can sell offers not just to guests, but to anyone, opening up new revenue streams to a broader audience. This multifaceted approach enriches the unique guest experience and is a critical strategy for driving profitability in a competitive hotel landscape.
Imagine the potential of transforming something as simple as your hotel's parking spaces into a significant source of revenue. Where these spaces are typically underutilized, especially during off-season, these empty parking spaces can be monetized by offering them to non-guests. Even with just 50 spaces, a hotel can generate an additional USD $182,500 per year (figuratively if a daily rate of USD $10 is charged for 365 days a year). This is a substantial increase in revenue from an asset that might otherwise go underutilized.
This retail strategy optimizes your existing resources and provides non-guests with convenient services, enhancing your hotel's presence and brand in the community. This innovative approach demonstrates how rethinking and repurposing existing assets can generate significant financial gains and a more diversified revenue stream.
Hoteliers must think beyond traditional models, evolving from mere room providers to retail-minded innovators. To maximize revenue, they need to leverage the latest technology and explore retail offerings for both guests and non-guests. Below is a look at how today's leading hotels are adopting revenue-generating solutions like SynXis Retailing to monetize their spaces and services, thereby expanding their overall offering.
49% hoteliers emphasize the importance of unique services and upselling in their overall revenue strategy.
*Monetize underutilized spaces
The modern hotel landscape demands innovative thinking. Diversifying revenue streams is crucial to mitigate the risks of market fluctuations and offset the impact of varying travel seasons. The possibilities are endless once hoteliers recognize the opportunities hidden in plain sight. According to a Skift report, more than 85% of hoteliers expect ancillary revenue to play a larger role in their annual revenue by 2025. By offering a variety of services and experiences even beyond the guestbook, hoteliers can create multiple revenue streams, making their business more resilient and sustainable.
Today, every part of a hotel can be a revenue generator. In the same Skift research report, 49% of hoteliers emphasize the importance of unique amenities and upsells in their overall revenue strategy. From parking lots to rooftops, every space presents a valuable commercial opportunity waiting to be tapped. By viewing these areas as valuable real estate, hoteliers can unlock new avenues for monetization. Hoteliers can optimize their inventory by offering different services and products at different times, thereby maximizing space utilization and revenue potential. For example:

- Spa Day Pass: Hotels with spas, gyms, and pools may offer day passes to the public, providing access to spa facilities with additional add-ons such as massages and facials.
- Dining Experiences: Hoteliers with renowned dining establishments can sell unique dining experiences, such as a private romantic dinner on the beach.
- Meeting Rooms: Hoteliers equipped with conference rooms can rent these spaces with time slots and additional services such as additional catering options.
- Coworking spaces: Hoteliers can offer flexible workspaces with amenities such as high-speed internet and printing facilities.
- Rooftops: Hoteliers can leverage rooftop space for unique experiences like outdoor yoga classes or movie nights to attract a crowd.
- Hotels are no longer just places to stay; they are becoming vibrant lifestyle hubs. SynXis Retailing enables hoteliers to sell a wide range of travel-related experiences by leveraging their existing space and amenities. This expands the hotel's offerings for both travelers and non-resident guests, enhancing the overall experience and significantly increasing revenue opportunities.
*Sales through every touchpoint

In today's fast-paced digital age, guests expect instant access to information and services at their fingertips. The outdated process of calling or emailing to book services has now been seamlessly replaced by SynXis Retailing.
A streamlined booking process is essential to improving the customer experience and simplifying the process of searching for and booking services. A quarter of travelers are frustrated by not being able to book multiple options in one place. By consolidating services and experiences within their booking system, hoteliers can eliminate the need for guests to spend additional time researching third-party providers.
SynXis Retailing allows guests to add offers at the time of booking, throughout their stay, and beyond. All offers, whether room-related or not, can be added to a single itinerary, giving hoteliers complete visibility into their guests' experiences and creating opportunities for more personalized service. Guests should have the freedom to make purchases anytime, anywhere, so SynXis Retailing can be integrated with other platforms used across the industry, such as booking engines and call center tools.
* Task automation and efficiency optimization
While many hoteliers have centralized reservation systems for room bookings, they often lack integrated management for other facilities. 45% of hoteliers report that the fragmented nature of technology and data prevents them from achieving a single, comprehensive view of their customers and operations.
Adding complementary services and standalone offerings to the mix can be an additional challenge for some. Therefore, it's essential to have a comprehensive reservation system that helps centralize all reservations and inventory management, improve communication between departments, and provide a seamless guest experience.
Thanks to technological advancements, hotel operations have become much more efficient and guest-centric. Intelligent task management solutions, like Nuvola, address concerns about order fulfillment and the manual tasks involved. The combination of task management and e-commerce enables automated fulfillment, helping hotels focus on strengthening their daily operations and optimizing their services. The integration of both solutions boosts efficiency by automating order creation, scheduling, and notifications to ensure efficient fulfillment of all orders, facilitating communication across all teams and departments.
With compatible solutions, hoteliers can optimize resource allocation, reduce human error, and focus on delivering what they do best: personalizing guest experiences.
Next steps:
Hotels must make the most of their guests and prepare to anticipate their needs in advance. Delivering exceptional experiences that exceed guest expectations is the key to unlocking new revenue streams. Here's how to get started:
- Be proactive in reviewing your spaces
- Embrace creative ideas about what you can monetize
- Think about your current range of offerings and how you can expand them
- Find the right tools to help you digitize your revenue generation, like SynXis Retailing
More than 851% of hoteliers expect ancillary revenue to play a larger role in annual revenue by 2025.
INSIGHTS:
- Expand your business beyond traditional room bookings by offering complementary services to increase profitability.
- Transform underutilized spaces, such as parking lots and rooftops, into revenue-generating assets with creative offerings.
- Leverage e-commerce solutions like SynXis Retailing to sell experiences and services independently of room bookings.
- Personalize offers and streamline booking processes to improve guest satisfaction and boost sales
- Centralize bid management and automate order fulfillment to improve operational efficiency and service quality.