Special RepoRt : Change MaKers
Optimizing for change
Kathleen Cullen is building bridges to the future of revenue and distribution .
by BarBara Bohn , managing editor
KaTHLEEn CuLLEn is not technically a finance person , a technology person or an operations person ( not anymore , anyway ). It ’ s closer to the truth to call her a career diplomat .
“ Almost every single position in a hotel is revenue-impacting ,” says the senior vice president of revenue and distribution at Commune Hotels & Resorts . “ Anybody who has the ability to touch the customer or touch the system — that impacts revenue . I wouldn ’ t say that I ’ m in any one of those areas , but I ’ m really good at bridging the gap between revenue and distribution and all the other departments .”
Cullen ’ s career has been built on those gaps : In the early ’ 90s , at the Sheraton Needham Hotel in Boston , she learned how to set weekly rates . “ I had no idea that it was going to travel agents around the world . I had no idea there were global distribution systems .” But it made sense to set rates within a context of demand , events and availability , and to keep setting them as those factors changed — which they did , often .
At her next job , at the Swissotel Boston , “ I applied the same logic to this 500-room hotel ,” she says . “ Our revenues were skyrocketing , and whatever I was doing was making the difference .” At the time , she was spending more time doing the work than explaining how the work worked , but it was her ability to teach it , bring people along — and most important , replicate the revenue results — that made her stand out .
She soon was taking her approach to yield management on the road to other Swissotel locations . And as web-based technology began replacing systems that required manual data input , she jumped to fill the next gap : as a liaison and interpreter to tech companies as those disparate systems , quickly becoming outdated , were integrated and adapted . “ I ’ ve never considered myself a technology person ,” she says . “ I ’ m really good at understanding how to use technology to optimize your revenues .”
That understanding developed as revenue and distribution systems , through stints in Chicago and Albuquerque , New Mexico , at Raffles International Hotels & Resorts , as a partner and founder in a hospitality consultancy and at Heritage Hotels & Resorts .
She is about to build perhaps the biggest bridge of her career , as Commune and Destination Hotels & Resorts embark on an integration that was an-
www . hotelsmag . com April 2016 HOTELS 35