Hotel Business is teaming up with Kalibri Labs on the groundbreaking release of the 2023 edition of Demystifying the Digital Market & Commercial Strategy Playbook. Published five times previously with the most recent revision in 2019, the hotel industry has eagerly awaited a post-COVID update to this book, designed to educate the industry on the dynamic nature of digital disruption and how it affects the economics of hotels.

“Many industries have experienced digital disruption and struggled to survive—this publication will provide a roadmap for hoteliers to thrive,” said Armin Molavi, CEO, Hotel Business. “Many aspects of the hospitality ecosystem are affected by the dynamics in the digital market—from underwriting to loyalty programs, to performance evaluation and market selection for development—and owners, operators, brand executives and financial and commercial teams will all benefit from understanding the sea change underway by the large tech entities.”

Author Cindy Estis Green, CEO/cofounder, Kalibri Labs, captures the state of the digital market and has collaborated with co-author Mark Lomanno, partner/senior adviser, Kalibri Labs, to mine data from almost 35,000 hotels to reveal revenue performance, demand metrics and trends by segment, channel, geography and chainscale across the U.S. hotel industry. The book will identify the significant changes in the large digital technology platforms and the hotel brands, and what the implications are for hotel owners and management companies.

For the 2023 release, Green has partnered with Dave Roberts, professor, Cornell University School of Hotel Administration, and former SVP, revenue strategy and solutions, Marriott, to add a new section on the emerging discipline of commercial strategy, which paves the way for readers to understand the urgency to focus hoteliers on measuring performance based on profit contribution. It also offers a framework to evaluate how customer acquisition techniques can be leveraged to improve asset values and can be streamlined to improve efficiency in the ways hotels go to market.

This partnership opens up a new array of sponsorship opportunities for Hotel Business media partners!

“Exclusive content will be developed based on the information presented in the book and delivered on all Hotel Business platforms, including print, online and in-person with panel discussions and video interviews,” said Christina Trauthwein, VP, content & partnerships, Hotel Business. “Advertising partners will have the opportunity to support this must-read, must-keep resource across all Hotel Business channels.”

Hotel Business will generate content throughout the year, addressing topics such as:

• Underwriting hotel assets in the age of digital disruption

• Assessing composition of RevPAR in an operating hotel and the impact on profit contribution and asset value

• Optimal business mix: targeting the best performance a hotel can expect and building a plan to achieve it

• Variations by geography: underlying demand by market and submarket in the U.S.

• Loyalty: effect on flow through and asset values

• Profitability of OTA bookings: how to measure it

• Leveraging Brand.com: what you need to know to drive the highest profit contribution to your hotel

• The emerging discipline of commercial strategy: what is different than the legacy go-to-market approach for hotels?

• Taking advantage of demand shifts due to COVID recovery

• Operating extended-stay hotels in a post-COVID world

“Hotel Business is the leader in delivering insights to owners and operators, and Kalibri Labs is the foremost authority on the economics of hotels in the digital market,” said Green. “Together, we are delivering critical insights and stimulating needed thought leadership to focus the industry on how to grow asset value and operate with optimal profit contribution—truly a recipe for sustaining a healthy hotel industry.”