PERSPECTIVE
Meeting the Moment
HOW TO BUILD GUEST REVENUE UP IN DOWN TIMES.
By NORMA BERRY, PRESIDENT, VERIDIAN
E
arly in my hotel operations career, I kept a sign over my desk that read,“ Paralysis is the result of too many choices.” With U. S. RevPAR flat-to-negative in 2025, with 2026 prospects not all that much better, that aphorism rushes back to me.
When times are good, the path is easy: Keep doing what’ s already working. When times are down, direction becomes muddled: Where do we go? But wrong choices risk making a bad situation worse and paralysis will guarantee it.
The hotel industry has been here before. It can learn from experience.
Diminished RevPAR breaks a five-year streak of recovery from the global pandemic. The lesson of that recovery was simple: adapt. When it rains, you move the wedding inside; when a pandemic shuts overseas travel down, target local guests. It’ s even possible to increase revenue in down times
38 hotelsmag. com Mar / Apr 2026