An Exciting New Partnership with Edge Hotel School

Rajeev Dewan, Head of Operations, Wivenhoe House; Dr Adrian Martin, Head of School, Edge Hotel School; Hamza Ahmad, Student; Millie Fisher, Event Supervisor; Lisa Kerry, Right Revenue

Learning the principles of revenue management is one thing. Understanding how to actually use them in a live hotel environment is something else entirely.

Last week, our very own Lisa and Kirsten spent the day at Wivenhoe House Hotel in Colchester, where we were delighted to develop our collaboration with Edge Hotel School, University of Essex.

For anyone who doesn’t know Wivenhoe House, it’s a working hotel that sits alongside the hospitality school, giving Hotel Management students the chance to experience the realities of running a live hotel operation while they study.

And I’m thrilled to say that experience is now extending into revenue management too!

Taking revenue management beyond the theory

As part of the collaboration, Edge Hotel School students will have access to the Right Revenue platform within a dedicated practice environment.

That means they can move beyond simply learning the theory and start exploring the kind of decisions revenue managers and commercial teams make every day.

·       What happens when demand changes?

·       How should pricing respond to pace?

·       When should you hold rate, increase it or stimulate demand?

And perhaps most importantly, how do you use technology and data to support a commercial decision rather than simply accepting whatever a system tells you?

These are the questions hotel teams deal with all the time. Giving students the chance to explore them, test different approaches and understand the impact of their decisions is incredibly valuable - particularly when they can also see revenue management being applied within the live environment of Wivenhoe House.

Seeing the bigger commercial picture

Another huge benefit is that revenue management isn’t being taught in isolation.

Students can see how the decisions made within a revenue system connect with what is happening across the wider hotel - from demand and occupancy through to events, operations and the guest experience.

That broader commercial view is becoming more important all the time. Revenue management is no longer simply about changing rates. Increasingly, it is about understanding the whole business, asking the right questions and using the information available to make better-informed decisions.

Giving future hotel managers the chance to develop that way of thinking while they are still studying can only be a good thing.

Dr Adrian Martin, Head of School at Edge Hotel School, University of Essex, said:

“We are delighted Right Revenue is supporting the next generation of Hotel Managers through access to their incredible system. Our students will now learn revenue management using cutting-edge technology and see it being implemented within the Wivenhoe House Hotel.

The support from their team was exemplary and the technology is fantastic and so user-friendly. We are truly excited by this partnership!”

And from the hotel’s perspective, the partnership is already opening up some really useful conversations too.

Rajeev Dewan, Head of Operations at Wivenhoe House, also highlighted:

“Right Revenue’s visit was a great opportunity to show the team how Wivenhoe House operates day to day and to talk through some of the commercial challenges and opportunities we see within the hotel.

What has impressed us is the understanding of hotel operations that sits behind the technology. It means the conversations aren’t simply about what the system can do, but about how we can use it within our business to make better commercial decisions.”

We loved spending time with both the Wivenhoe House and Edge Hotel School teams and seeing the partnership begin to take shape.

This is about so much more than giving students access to a piece of technology.

For us, it’s about giving the next generation of hotel leaders the chance to practice making real commercial decisions, see the impact those decisions can have and gain confidence using the technology that will increasingly form part of their working lives.

We are delighted to be part of it.