A Demand Calendar is a hotel revenue management tool that shows multiple demand indicators. It helps managers more accurately evaluate market situations in order to make decisions on prices, promotions, and more. Common metrics used to create an accurate Demand Calendar include the previous year’s RevPAR, groups or events booked in the past year, demand level indicators (from current and past year), bank and school holidays, and any additional demand indicators deemed “exceptional.”
What is Demand Calendar For?
Creating a Demand Calendar is a recommended step for revenue managers to take even before creating a hotel budget. It creates a picture of how past events have impacted hotel demand and allows forecasting for how future events will have similar or different impacts on demand. A Demand Calendar can help identify how much revenue each pertinent event brings to a hotel or property.
Benefits of Demand Calendar
A hotel’s Demand Calendar can be integrated with its current on-the-books and pick-up reports. By doing so, revenue managers can obtain a much broader picture of how hotel or property demand is trending. It is also a useful tool to identify how specific school or bank holidays (both domestically and internationally) affect hotel demand. This information gives a hotel the ability to specifically target these holidays with special offers or promotional packages.
Limitations of Demand Calendar
A Demand Calendar must be updated regularly in order to provide accurate insights. Ideally, the calendar is updated each time an event that impacts demand is identified. Many hotels update their demand calendars at least once every week. A Demand Calendar must also account for demand exceptions. These exceptions can be considered outliers until the event is repeated and can be reasonably counted on as having a significant impact on demand.
How is a Demand Calendar Created
A Demand Calendar is organized by months and days. Pertinent data is plotted on the calendar for managers to see a visual representation of all the factors that impact hotel demand. There are a number of layouts that can be used to create a demand calendar. The visual layout that works best for a given hotel depends on the specific factors used to create the calendar.