Airlines are increasingly flooded with group booking requests, and there is every reason to believe these valuable revenue-generating opportunities are squandered.
All thanks to legacy systems that include an outdated help desk and an overburdened revenue management team.
The group revenue management process is among the last areas airlines are yet to optimize by leveraging the latest technology, and the results are telling.
Travel is returning to its pre-pandemic highs, but airlines are still struggling to find a footing by differentiating themselves from their competitors with dynamic, transparent group pricing and exceptional customer experience.
Reinventing group revenue management—the way out of the pandemic and beyond
Taking a group booking request and turning it into a source of revenue growth and customer satisfaction requires that an airline is on point with every aspect of the group booking.
Unfortunately, most airlines are in no position to pull off this feat.
This reality warrants the reinvention of group revenue management via a next-generation tool powered by AI, GroupRM.
Here is what GroupRM offers that will make you stand out from all your competitors and enable your airline to generate the best possible amount of revenue from group bookings.
GroupRM benefits for soaring airline revenue
Optimal prices delivered at the earliest and to the right groups
One of the biggest pain points of group booking customers, whether travel agents or retail customers, is the seemingly arbitrary pricing.
This misunderstanding happens because the flight prices would have changed several times before the airline came up with a quote, many days after the group booking request came in.
Doing away with all this hassle for the customer and airline, GroupRM automatically generates the best possible price for the group instantaneously and sends a quote.
The customer can then negotiate for better group rates with the revenue management team, which would provide the former with a sense of control over the pricing that wouldn’t be possible if the airline came back with random prices after wasting tons of the customer’s time.
Another striking ability of GroupRM is the capacity to identify high yield groups based on historical analysis to deliver the best possible pricing
As a direct result of the automation, the airline is guaranteed better fares, higher group conversion rates, and more revenue.
Unified platform for seamless booking, negotiating, finalizing, and tracking of group requests
Retail customers, travel agents, group desk analysts, corporate travel managers, airline salesforce—wherever the group requests come from—have a single, easy-to-use interface to request a group booking.
The booking is processed and evaluated by the airline right away, considering the historical buying behavior of the group, load factor, and competitor’s rate.
Through the same platform, customers can negotiate special rates with the airline in a transparent manner.
Supercharge helpdesk productivity
Generating quotes based on current prices, sending reminders for making payments, deciding the best pricing strategy, and checking for policy compliance in the booking are all tasks that can be automated.
GroupRM takes care of the automation so that the revenue management team can focus on more revenue-generating tasks, such as negotiating and finalizing the best group prices.
Discover new revenue streams and optimize existing ones
Using GroupRM, airlines have the unique opportunity to run sales campaigns for high yield tickets after considering industry standards and competitor pricing.
Owing to the custom offer management capabilities that GroupRM provides, airlines can also optimize revenue by cross-selling ancillaries and providing personalized discounts.
Further, airlines can prevent revenue leakage with consistent reminders to customers for payments and for updating the name lists through the customer’s preferred channel. Notably, the GroupRM tool takes convenience to another level by allowing customers to pay in the mode of choice.
No more friction between sales and revenue management
The GroupRM team conducted a poll of airline sales and revenue professionals, and we got hard evidence for something we’d already sensed was happening; there are huge conflicts regarding group pricing.
https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6848907435424542720/
With software like GroupRM, there won’t be any more friction between revenue management and sales; the group policy enforcement is automatic and centralized, meaning both sales and revenue management can rest assured that their pricing policies have been met.
Since everything is done transparently, any escalation between the customers, sales, and revenue teams can be resolved efficiently.
Conclusion
GroupRM has led the way, processing millions of group requests each year that make both the sales and revenue management teams of airlines happy, with fully booked flights of high yield passengers. Further, travel agents throng the airlines implementing our solution, thanks to how they can get the best group booking deals for clients at lightning speed.
To know how your airline can join the league of high revenue growth airlines that also delight customers, reach us for a GroupRM demo/ consultation with an airline revenue maximization expert.
