Revenue management system (RMS)

A revenue management system (RMS) is software hotels, airlines, and other travel businesses use to optimize pricing, inventory, and profitability. It analyzes large volumes of data to forecast demand, recommend pricing strategies, and adjust availability in real time.

In hospitality, an RMS helps set room rates based on factors like booking trends, market conditions, competitor pricing, and seasonality. It integrates with property management systems (PMS), central reservation systems (CRS), and channel managers to ensure prices and availability are synced throughout online travel agencies (OTAs), direct websites, and other distribution channels.

RMSs help airlines manage fares, seat inventory control, and strategies like married segment logic and penalty excursion fares.

With the rollout of New Distribution Capability (NDC) standards, RMSs are becoming more dynamic by accessing richer, real-time data on customer preferences.

By using machine learning and historical data, an RMS allows businesses to respond quickly to market changes, boost metrics like RevPAR (Revenue per Available Room) or RASK (Revenue per Available Seat Kilometer), and boost profitability.