HSMAI MEA Insights
Our first Executive Roundtable of the year took place on 21st March 2025, at the Paramount Hotel in Dubai featuring Revenue & Sales jointly. The roundtable, which was followed by Iftar, was attended by 28 Revenue and Sales leaders from the Middle East & Africa.
The discussion was co-facilitated by Dr. Albian Albrahimi, Assistant Dean of Graduate Programs at Les Roches, and Caroline Thissen, Sr Area Director of Sales & Revenue Optimization MEA & SEAP at Radisson Hotel Group.
The four themes selected for the roundtable discussion were:
- Distribution Channel Management & Digital Transformation
- Data-driven Revenue & Pricing Strategy
- Talent Acquisition, Retention & Development
- Holistic Commercial & Marketing Strategy
The group voted on the sequence for the discussion, with Distribution Channel Management & Digital Transformation chosen as the top priority. Within this theme, discussion points included the common challenges faced related to OTAs and how enhanced direct booking strategies can help to reduce OTA dependency.
Key points that were raised included the lack of control hotels have on the whole guest journey especially when it comes to access to valuable data, as well as the challenge in securing and justifying marketing budgets for direct booking strategies. When asked about what direct booking strategies leaders are using, several initiatives were highlighted including direct booking banners on brand.com and on social media. In developing direct booking strategies, it was highlighted that it’s key to have an omnichannel marketing strategy covering on-property, digital, programmatic and enterprise level campaigns. Brand marketing needs to be enhanced to drive more direct bookings, but what is the marketing costs owners and operators are willing to pay, that’s the question.
Also emphasized was the importance of a balance between reactive marketing – trying to get people to switch from OTA bookings to direct- and proactive marketing to change a brand’s own strategy on distribution channels and marketing spend. Key challenges that were highlighted in getting travellers to make the shift from OTA to brand.com include price sensitivity and the online booking user experience.
Many travellers use multiple channels to research and book their travel, a journey that often starts by going to an OTA, followed by a price comparison on multiple sites whih may include brand.com. From a user experience perspective, it was discussed that brand and hotel websites often don’t offer the most clear and user-friendly booking journey compared to OTA websites. To encourage travellers to book direct, we need to simplify how people book on brand.com and improve the user experience.
Once guests are in-house, marketing efforts should not come to a halt. Promoting new direct bookings, access to loyalty programmes and added value and benefits are all key to converting directs bookings. Important for success here is ongoing training and skills development for guest-facing departments including front office and guest relations to successfully engage with guests while in-house and as part of pre-departure marketing. What can also be instrumental is having clear targets for direct bookings for hotel staff.
The second topic discussed at the roundtable was Talent acquisition, Retention and Development. Within this theme, leaders looked at strategies to attract and retain top commercial talent in a competitive landscape, creating clear career growth paths for revenue, sales and marketing professionals, fostering high performance teams under uncertain market conditions, and balancing organizational cost-cutting initiatives with talent retention efforts.
With hospitality being a transient industry, it’s common that people will move for a better title or even a little more money, but what do commercial leaders do to attract and retain the right talent for their teams? Participants shared some great examples of how they tackle this common challenge which included job rotations within sales, revenue and marketing that also include front office staff, so they become more commercially aware. In addition, leaders often work with HR and learning & development departments to offer tailored programmes that include for examples case studies and provider participants with certification to encourage participation. Other strategies include mentoring programmes, cross functional exposure and working on transferable skills across the commercial and marketing disciplines.
When talking about career growth paths, some participants observed that they are seeing more and more sales and marketing directors becoming commercial hotel managers and GMs and this is definitely an interesting development that offers great prospects.
Also important is a focus on succession planning to ensure there’s continuity when people leave. This is an opportunity for internal promotions, but we also see more companies use specialists in a cluster or task force capacity, filling in roles temporarily across the business and across geographies.
Effective engagement is key to talent retention too, surveys on career satisfaction can help, but also regular check-ins on development needs and growth opportunities may be helpful to motivate talent. Clear pathways for training with associated projects and KPIs are instrumental here too.
The third theme for the roundtable discussion was Data-driven Revenue & Pricing Strategy. Key topics under this theme included dynamic vs static pricing strategies, rate parity challenges, the rise in supply in the region as well as Business Intelligence integration and market trends for growth opportunities and competitive positioning.
Sentiment was expressed that we still see quite a lot of static pricing here in the region, which to some may be surprising, but that many brands and groups are moving towards dynamic pricing strategies, which as one commercial leader stated: “makes us nimbler with price and inventory changes.” With distribution platforms developing so fast and new OTAs coming to market, it’s becoming a bigger priority. Technology is also seen as a driving force in the shift from static to dynamic pricing with direct connectivity options, more potential partners and solutions.
In terms of pricing strategy, several key considerations were discussed ranging from changing traveller expectations and price sensitivity to increased supply in the market and the impact of airlines and their airlift into destinations across different seasons.
Lastly the roundtable looked at Holistic Commercial & Marketing Strategy. One of the key topics discussed under this theme was the use of data-backed engagement strategies. Driven by technology advancements, it is evident that data is becoming more and more important with one of the main objectives to have a single view of the guest across a hotel’ s different systems. This is not only vital from a commercial perspective but also from a marketing standpoint, being able to offer a tailored and personalised experience to guests. Key challenges in this area include the lack of fully implemented processes for integrated platforms, as well as training on how to use data effectively as part of the guest journey.
As part of holistic marketing roundtable participants also discussed marketing strategy development and who owns this within the organization. Leaders see the importance of having a more strategic and integrated approach, involving more stakeholders in commercial strategy development, including operational leaders.
