Revenue Manager
- Company
- The Chicago Hotel Collection
- Location
- Chicago, Illinois
- Position
- Full-Time
- Department
- Revenue Management / Commercial Strategy
Position Overview
The Chicago Hotel Collection is seeking an experienced, highly analytical and commercially driven Revenue Manager to lead revenue strategy across our portfolio of independent Chicago hotels.
This is a hands-on position for someone who understands that revenue management goes far beyond changing room rates. The Revenue Manager will be responsible for maximizing RevPAR, ADR, occupancy, market share and total room revenue through disciplined pricing, forecasting, inventory management, distribution strategy, competitive analysis and channel optimization.
Our portfolio operates in a highly dynamic downtown Chicago market with significant fluctuations driven by citywide conventions, compression periods, major events, seasonality, transient demand, corporate travel, groups and changing competitive conditions. The successful candidate must be comfortable making fast, data-driven decisions and continuously looking for opportunities to outperform the competitive set.
Revenue Strategy & Pricing
- Develop and execute daily revenue strategies for each hotel in the portfolio.
- Review and adjust pricing, restrictions, inventory and availability based on demand, pace, pickup, market conditions, competitive pricing and compression.
- Optimize ADR, occupancy, RevPAR and RevPAR Index rather than simply maximizing occupancy.
- Identify high-demand dates early and implement strategies to maximize rate and profitability.
- Identify soft periods and develop strategies to stimulate incremental demand.
- Manage length-of-stay restrictions, minimum stays, close-to-arrival controls, room-type pricing, oversell strategies and inventory allocation.
Forecasting & Performance Analysis
- Prepare accurate daily, weekly, monthly and rolling forecasts by property.
- Monitor booking pace and pickup against prior year, budget, forecast and market expectations.
- Analyze occupancy, ADR, RevPAR, RevPAR Index, market penetration, channel mix, booking window, cancellations and other key revenue metrics.
- Maintain detailed 30-, 60-, 90-, 180- and 365-day views of demand and revenue opportunities.
- Identify emerging trends before they materially impact hotel performance.
- Provide clear explanations of performance variances and recommended corrective actions.
Distribution & Channel Management
- Actively manage inventory and pricing across direct channels, OTAs, wholesalers, bed banks, GDS, corporate channels and other distribution partners.
- Monitor channel connectivity and immediately identify rate, availability, mapping or inventory discrepancies.
- Ensure rates and inventory are accurately distributed across all active channels.
- Evaluate channel profitability, including commissions and acquisition costs.
- Increase contribution from the hotel's most profitable booking channels.
- Maintain rate-plan architecture and ensure promotions and packages are properly configured and distributed.
Direct Booking Strategy
- Work closely with Marketing and senior management to increase direct booking contribution.
- Identify opportunities to improve direct-channel conversion through pricing, packages, promotions and value propositions.
- Ensure direct rates remain strategically positioned against third-party channels.
- Analyze the true acquisition cost of direct versus OTA, wholesale and other business.
Competitive & Market Intelligence
- Continuously monitor competitive hotel pricing, availability, restrictions and positioning.
- Maintain a comprehensive Chicago demand calendar covering conventions, concerts, sporting events, festivals, holidays, corporate events and other demand generators.
- Anticipate compression periods and adjust strategy before competitors react.
- Monitor competitive-set performance and identify opportunities to gain market share.
- Understand neighborhood-level and citywide demand patterns affecting each property.
Group & Corporate Revenue Management
- Establish appropriate displacement thresholds for group opportunities.
- Work with Sales to evaluate group business based on total revenue contribution and displacement.
- Provide pricing guidance for group, corporate negotiated and consortium accounts.
- Analyze negotiated accounts based on production, ADR, seasonality, need periods and displacement.
- Recommend acceptance, rejection or repricing based on profitability and incremental value.
Revenue Meetings & Reporting
- Lead structured weekly portfolio revenue meetings.
- Provide ownership and senior management with concise, actionable revenue reporting.
- Present performance by hotel, including pace, pickup, forecast, competitive positioning, risks and opportunities.
- Clearly identify what changed, why it changed and what actions are being taken.
- Maintain accountability for established revenue strategies and measure their results.
Key Performance Indicators
Performance will be evaluated based on:
The objective is not simply to maintain rates and inventory. The expectation is measurable market-share and revenue growth.
Qualifications
- Minimum 3–5 years of hotel revenue management experience strongly preferred.
- Multi-property revenue management experience preferred.
- Independent, boutique, lifestyle or urban hotel experience highly desirable.
- Strong understanding of downtown Chicago hotel demand patterns is a major advantage.
- Demonstrated experience managing OTA, GDS, wholesale, direct, corporate and group distribution.
- Experience with hotel PMS, CRS, revenue-management, competitive-rate-shopping and business-intelligence platforms.
- Experience with Mews and/or Amadeus iHotelier is a plus.
- Strong Excel and analytical skills.
- Excellent understanding of RevPAR, ADR, occupancy, RGI, MPI, ARI, booking pace, pickup, displacement and channel profitability.
- Ability to turn large amounts of data into immediate commercial action.
- Strong communication skills and the ability to clearly explain revenue decisions to ownership, operations, sales and marketing.
The Right Candidate
We are looking for someone who is analytical but decisive, proactive, competitive, detail-oriented, commercially minded and accountable.
This is not a back-office reporting position. We want someone who is obsessed with booking pace, pickup, Chicago compression dates, channel profitability, pricing opportunities and outperforming the competitive set.
Our Revenue Manager needs to identify opportunities before they become obvious, react quickly when market conditions change and understand that incorrect rates, closed inventory, mapping problems or distribution failures can cost the hotels thousands of dollars in a matter of hours.
About The Chicago Hotel Collection
The Chicago Hotel Collection is an independent hospitality company operating a growing portfolio of distinctive hotels in some of Chicago's most desirable neighborhoods. As an independent operator, we have the ability to move quickly, make our own commercial decisions and develop strategies specifically for our properties rather than relying on a one-size-fits-all brand approach.
We are looking for a Revenue Manager who wants that same level of ownership and responsibility.
This is a high-impact position with direct visibility to senior leadership and ownership.