This page explains the difference, what each typically involves, and where Airyield fits. We work with boutique hotels, motels and short-term rental operators with 15 or more listings.
What a revenue management consultant does
A revenue management consultant looks at how you price and sell your rooms or listings and recommends changes. A typical engagement covers some or all of these:
- Audit: a review of your rates, occupancy, booking pace and channel mix against your market
- Strategy: pricing rules, segmentation, length-of-stay restrictions and distribution priorities
- Systems: choosing and setting up a revenue management system or pricing tool, and connecting it to your PMS or channel manager
- Forecasting and budgets: demand forecasts and revenue budgets for the year ahead
- Training: teaching your team to run the system and read the reports
Consultants are often engaged for a fixed project, or on a retainer with a weekly or monthly cap on hours. The consultant advises and your team carries out the work.
Consultant vs managed service
| Revenue management consultant | Managed revenue management service | |
|---|---|---|
| Who makes daily price changes | Your team | The provider |
| Typical engagement | Project or capped-hours retainer | Ongoing monthly service |
| Best for | Properties with someone in-house to do the daily work | Properties without a revenue manager, or with too much for one person |
| What you get | Recommendations, setup and training | Daily execution, monitoring and reporting |
| Risk if your staff member leaves | The knowledge leaves with them | The provider carries on |
Neither is better in general. If you have a capable manager who needs a plan and a well-configured system, a consultant is good value. If nobody has time to look at rates every day, advice alone tends to fade after a few weeks.
A starting point, not a rule. Based on our guide by portfolio size; your market and channels can change the answer.
Where Airyield fits
- Pull
Yesterday’s bookings, market data and the next 90 days of every calendar.
- Score
Each listing on RevPAR index, ADR index, MPI, pace and booking window.
- Flag
Anything that drifted from its market. Low-confidence data goes to a person, never auto.
- Approve
A revenue manager approves or holds every change before it goes live.
- Log
Change made in your pricing tool. The reason lands on your dashboard.
Call with your revenue manager. The week’s changes, why, and what moved.
Live dashboard. You against the market, every change with its reason.
Airyield is a managed service with a consultant’s level of explanation. We do the daily work and show our reasoning.
We do the work, inside your accounts
We run your PriceLabs account every day: base and minimum rates, minimum stays, gap nights, lead-time adjustments and event pricing. You keep the account and the data. See PriceLabs management.
We check every property every morning
Our software compares each listing or property with its market on RevPAR index, ADR index, MPI, booking pace and booking window, and flags anything falling behind.
A revenue manager approves every change
A person reviews each flagged change, approves it before it goes live and records the reason.
You get the advice as well
A weekly call covers what changed and what is ahead. A monthly review covers performance against the market. The live dashboard shows every change and its reason, so you learn how your market behaves as you go.
Who we work with
- Short-term and holiday rental property managers with 15 or more listings. See revenue management for property managers.
- Boutique hotels and motels without a dedicated revenue manager. See hotel revenue management and motel revenue management.
- Mixed portfolios with hotel rooms and short-term rentals side by side.
Airyield was built by an Australian operator managing around 200 listings, including motels. We built our checks and dashboard for our own portfolio first.
What to ask any revenue management consultant
Whoever you choose, these questions help you compare:
- Who does the daily work? If it is your team, check that they have the time.
- Which systems do you work in? Can you keep your accounts and data if you part ways?
- How do you report? Ask to see a sample report or dashboard.
- How do you measure results? Against the market (RevPAR index, MPI) or just against last year?
- How are you paid? Project fee, hourly cap, flat monthly or percentage of revenue, and is there a minimum term?
- Who is my contact? A named person, or a shared inbox?
- What happens to settings and history if we stop?
What it costs
Consulting fees vary widely and are rarely published. Engagements are usually priced per project or as a retainer with capped hours. Managed short-term rental services typically charge either a flat fee per listing or a percentage of revenue. PriceLabs puts the typical range at 5% to 8% of revenue for small portfolios and 1% to 3% for larger ones. Airyield charges 1.5% of booking revenue (accommodation revenue only, excluding cleaning fees and taxes), with no monthly minimum and no setup fee. The fee is published, and there is no lock-in: you can leave with 30 days’ notice. For hotels and motels the fee is 1.5% of room revenue. See pricing, and for a full comparison with hiring in-house, see the cost of a revenue manager.
Assumes A$50,000 accommodation revenue per listing a year. Software and per-listing provider prices are their published US-dollar prices. Ranged bars show the low to high end. The in-house figure includes benefits and tools, not recruiting or leave cover.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between a revenue manager and a revenue management consultant?
A revenue manager runs pricing day to day, usually as an employee or through an outsourced service. A consultant advises on strategy, systems and training, and your team carries out the work.
Do you only work with PriceLabs?
No. PriceLabs is our default, and it supports both short-term rentals and small hotels. We also work in Beyond, Wheelhouse, AirDNA (Adapt), DPGO, RoomPriceGenie, Rented (ART) and Pace (FLYR Hospitality). If you use something else, we will talk through the options during the audit.
Can you work alongside our in-house revenue manager?
It can work. Tell us during the audit how you would want to split the work, such as cover, a second opinion or one part of the portfolio, and we will say plainly whether it fits.
Which parts of Australia do you work in?
Anywhere in Australia your pricing tool has data for. We are based in Queensland.
How quickly can you start?
We aim to have you live within 14 days of signing.