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DirectWithHotels Inc. President and CEO Emiliano Zulberti is to become a plenary speaker in a Hospitality and Tourism Seminar organized by the Malaysian Association of Hotels Training and Education Centre (MAHTEC) today at the Sheraton Subang Hotel and Towers.

In his discussion entitled, “Beyond Occupancy to Revenue Optimization: A Simple Approach to Making More Money,” Zulberti takes the seemingly complex discipline of revenue optimization and makes a straightforward recommendation on two simple habits that can easily be adopted as part of any revenue optimization operation to improve results, even in the current financial and economic crisis that is gripping the globe.

Revenue optimization is of course, not new to the hotel industry but while many accommodation providers do some things that lead to increasing gross profit (the ultimate goal of revenue optimization from the sales & marketing perspective), initiatives are often ad hoc, poorly monitored and therefore inconsistent in their ability to deliver maximum gross profit.

To place the two simple habits into a larger context, Zulberti will also speak about DirectWithHotels’ proprietary ROS3p revenue optimization methodology; a prescriptive yet practical framework used by his team of revenue managers when working hand-in-hand with their customers to deploy a revenue optimization operation that works.

Established in 1974, the Malaysian Association of Hotels now has over 500 member hotels, situated all over Malaysia. The association’s goal is to provide an all-encompassing body among Malaysian hotels in order to promote and maintain good hospitality practice throughout hotels in Malaysia.

Tourism is reportedly, the 2nd highest source of revenue for Malaysia. According to Tourism Malaysia, there were approximately 20.9 million arrivals in the country in 2007. This number is expected to continue growing this year. In fact, Malaysia has already experienced an increase in arrivals of 3.5% during the months of January to July this year.

”As with most other industries, the travel sector is feeling the pressure of the ongoing financial and economic crisis, with travel demand on the decline. That is a brutal fact. And yet, there are certain revenue optimization principles, processes and rules that should remain non-negotiable, particularly in a crisis. The biggest challenge right now is that forecasting carries a much larger than usual element of uncertainty, simply because there are too many unknowns lingering. Ultimately, it is anyone’s guess how far consumer and business sentiment will fall and when we will turn the corner. Nonetheless, a mature revenue optimization operation with the right principles, sound processes and A-level people can and will still deliver on realistic goals.” argues Zulberti.

DirectWithHotels Inc. currently services over 500 customers in 15 countries (89 in Malaysia), always keeping to the brand promise of making it simple for any accommodation provider to strike the right balance between selling direct via their own website and selling indirect via online and offline intermediary channels, in view of maximizing occupancy, revenue and gross profit.