Lauren Bucherie, Senior Director of Brand and Experience at Limelight Hotels, Donny Samora, Director of Marketing at Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills, and returning guest Andrew Wintner, Founder and CEO at Cassette join A HOTEL PODCAST for the Curating Culture in Hospitality panel.

The hospitality experts speak on authenticity in initiatives across hotels and restaurants, share how music curation, luxury transportation, and market-specific partnerships elevate the guest experience, and emphasize working with industry icons to instill world-class aesthetics and ambiance onsite.

DEEP DIVE

For years, hotel operators have focused on filling guest rooms, securing group bookings and maintaining strong occupancy throughout the year. But a full hotel doesn’t necessarily mean its revenue potential is being maximised. Every season presents different opportunities to generate additional value from existing guests, group bookings and underutilised spaces, with summer offering particularly strong potential for leisure travel, weddings, family gatherings, corporate retreats and local events. Rather than concentrating solely on room nights, hotels should consider the broader guest experience, from welcome receptions and private dining to upgraded accommodation, extended stays and partnerships with nearby attractions. Whether it’s a full-service property with extensive event facilities or a select-service hotel offering smaller meeting spaces and convenient accommodation, the goal is to make better use of existing assets while creating experiences that encourage guests to spend more and stay longer.

Summer is an especially important period for hotels to look beyond traditional room revenue. Longer days, school holidays, seasonal celebrations and increased leisure travel can create opportunities for outdoor gatherings, poolside experiences where facilities permit, family packages, wedding weekends and local community events. Hotels can also attract corporate groups seeking end-of-financial-year gatherings, team-building activities or informal summer celebrations, depending on their market. However, strong seasonal demand doesn’t mean discounting is always the right strategy. Packages that combine accommodation with breakfast, parking, late checkout, dining or local experiences may deliver greater perceived value while protecting room rates. Across autumn, winter and spring, operators can adapt their approach to seasonal demand, targeting conferences, indoor events, weekend escapes and local partnerships as appropriate. Every offer should be assessed against its delivery costs, operational requirements and potential contribution to profitability.

Maximising revenue across all seasons requires sales, revenue management, operations, marketing and food and beverage teams to work together. Sales may secure the room block, but the broader opportunity lies in understanding what else the customer needs and how the property can deliver it profitably. At Newport Hospitality Group, this commercial mindset means evaluating each hotel’s capabilities, identifying opportunities to generate incremental business and ensuring teams collaborate to deliver a consistent guest experience. Summer may lend itself to weddings, leisure packages and outdoor gatherings, while cooler months may create opportunities for conferences, private dining and indoor celebrations. Local residents and businesses can also provide a valuable source of year-round demand, using hotel restaurants, meeting rooms and event spaces for everything from networking sessions to family celebrations. The key is to recognise that hotels can serve as community gathering places, not just accommodation providers.

The most successful revenue strategies are those that adapt to seasonal demand while maintaining a year-round focus on total guest value and profitability. Beyond occupancy and revenue per available room (RevPAR), operators should track relevant measures such as total revenue per occupied room, food and beverage spending, event revenue, room upgrades, ancillary purchases, extended stays and package performance. Summer campaigns can reveal which experiences encourage longer stays and higher spending, while results from autumn, winter and spring can help identify opportunities to strengthen demand during quieter periods. These insights should inform pricing, marketing, staffing and commercial planning for the year ahead. Rather than relying exclusively on the next group booking or a strategy to fill every available room, hotels should focus on making the most of every guest, gathering and revenue opportunity. A full house is always encouraging, but a hotel that maximises the value of its business in every season has a much stronger foundation for sustainable profitability.

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