2025 did not bring a sharp increase in hotel prices. Quite the opposite: the market entered a period of stabilisation, which for many properties may prove more challenging than the years of rapid growth. According to market data from a Profitroom report, the average accommodation rate in Poland increased by just 1.6%, reaching PLN 882 gross per night, while the number of bookings rose by more than 27% year on year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This may indicate not only stronger demand, but also a shift in guest behaviour, with travellers booking further in advance to avoid higher last-minute prices. The question, then, is how to make the most of this situation \u2013 filling the hotel without sacrificing margin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite limited price growth, domestic tourism in Poland remains in very good shape. Coastal regions are seeing particularly strong demand, with Western Pomerania up 33% and Central Pomerania up 16%. The Sudetes are also attracting more visitors, demonstrating that mountain hotels can successfully generate demand outside the traditional winter season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Behind these positive results, however, there are challenges. If, while analysing competitors’ rates, we notice a pattern of price evolution that is hardly unusual in hospitality, we need to consider what it means for our own pricing strategy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There can be many reasons why prices decrease as the season approaches. It may be a deliberate strategy designed to respond flexibly to current demand. It could result from new promotional activity or from additional offers or apartments being released after first-minute inventory has been sold. But it may also be a reactive decision triggered by weak booking pickup or by watching competitors lower their rates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If the property’s performance remains consistent with the adopted strategy and both average rate and revenue are growing as expected, there may be no reason to change course. The situation should simply be monitored carefully, with the hotel remaining ready to respond if conditions change. If, however, pickup begins to slow and the average rate starts following the downward trend visible across the market, it is worth asking three questions after the season:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Even before those answers are available, hotels should be protecting their margins, reviewing their sales strategy and, perhaps even more importantly, monitoring and controlling costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Summer 2025 shows that success is no longer simply about increasing prices. It is about managing availability, value and communication with the guest. If demand does not justify high rates, maintaining them at all costs makes little sense. But if the offer is strong and its value is communicated effectively, there is no reason to reduce them either. Stabilisation does not mean stagnation. It is a time for precise, flexible and deliberate sales strategies, combined with equally thoughtful cost management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Without the right tools and systems, however, this can be extremely difficult, and sometimes virtually impossible. Revenue strategy is not only about sales and marketing structures; it is also about pricing. And pricing requires collecting and analysing large volumes of data, making decisions quickly and implementing changes manually. Automating this process makes it possible to forecast demand more effectively and maximise revenue through dynamic pricing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
An automated system can also detect changes in guest behaviour or market conditions almost immediately. This applies not only to Revenue Management Systems (RMS), but also to benchmarking platforms and tools that track competitor behaviour \u2013 both in terms of actual performance and future business on the books.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A balanced pricing strategy must also take costs into account when determining the rate for a room. The key question is simple: what price allows the hotel to cover its costs while maintaining an appropriate margin?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Which costs should be considered when building a room rate?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fixed costs \u2013 independent of the number of guests, including:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Variable costs \u2013 dependent on the number of occupied rooms, such as:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Indirect and marketing costs:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Labour costs:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The published room rate should not only cover these costs but also generate a margin that enables the property to develop and invest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is why detailed break-even analysis and continuous monitoring of operating costs are so important. In simplified terms, expenditure should be divided between fixed commitments incurred regardless of season or occupancy and costs that change according to guest numbers, workload and staffing requirements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When analysing operating expenses, it is useful to move from the general picture to increasingly detailed cost categories. By monitoring profitability continuously, it becomes much easier to see how changes in room rates affect profit. Once again, automation can make a significant difference. Current revenue and cost data can be collected automatically and used to support business decisions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Instead of discovering the property’s actual financial position at the end of the month, managers gain access to it here and now. Fixed costs, however, should not determine the minimum selling price on their own. Their contribution to the cost of an individual room varies considerably depending on occupancy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When considering whether to sell below the level of “full cost,” variable and fixed costs combined, hotels should pay particular attention to variable costs in order to avoid marginal losses. Fixed costs are more useful in the broader context of strategy and overall profitability analysis than as a rigid basis for everyday pricing decisions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After several years of sharp cost increases, the pace of change has slowed somewhat. Nevertheless, new pressures continue to emerge. Since 1 January 2025, businesses in Poland have no longer been covered by the energy price freeze mechanism. Depending on the energy contract in place, this can have a significant, and sometimes unexpected, effect on operating costs and, consequently, on the economics of each occupied room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Electricity consumption also increases during the summer months because of air conditioning, hot water production and laundry operations. These additional expenses should be anticipated when developing seasonal pricing strategies. The minimum wage continues to rise as well, affecting not only payroll structures but potentially employee turnover, including at the beginning of peak season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Inflation is still putting pressure on the food and beverage sector. Regular monitoring of supplier prices is therefore essential for maintaining the profitability of hotel breakfasts and restaurant operations. Upcoming regulatory changes may also affect parts of the HoReCa industry. These include requirements to make websites accessible to people with disabilities under the Polish Accessibility Act, effective from 28 June 2025, as well as possible changes relating to tourist taxes and waste segregation requirements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The latter in particular may materially affect operating costs during the summer season, when guest numbers increase significantly, regardless of the exact regulatory framework in force. Higher occupancy also means higher OTA commission costs. At the same time, hotels need to consider possible changes in promotional strategy and the use of preferential rates. It is equally important to recognise hidden costs: expenses that do not immediately appear in the form of an invoice but can have a substantial impact on profitability and operational performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Examples of hidden costs include staff turnover, low productivity, inefficient energy management, equipment failures and excessive dependence on intermediaries<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A lack of pricing automation also limits the hotel’s ability to react dynamically to shifts in demand. Even a small missed rate adjustment, for example, failing to increase the price by PLN 10 at the right moment, can accumulate over time. On an annual basis, such missed opportunities may translate into revenue losses of around PLN 100,000, directly affecting the property’s profitability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Profit is the key word around which every sales and cost strategy should ultimately be built. Even a season that appears stable at first can quickly turn into an unpredictable period of sudden falls and increases in demand. To paraphrase Peter Drucker, one of the most influential thinkers in modern management, the greatest danger in turbulent times is not the turbulence itself, but acting according to yesterday’s logic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In an environment of rapid change and rising operating costs, maintaining hotel profitability requires more than good service and an attractive location. Automation, data analysis and the ability to respond quickly to changes in the market are becoming essential tools. They help hotels not only optimise costs, but also anticipate trends more accurately and compete more effectively in an increasingly crowded market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The objective is therefore not simply to sell more rooms or achieve the highest possible rate. It is to understand how every pricing, distribution and operational decision ultimately affects the hotel’s profit.<\/p>\n\n\n Hotels can improve profitability by managing their business mix, distribution costs, availability and operating expenses more effectively. Increasing direct bookings, reducing unnecessary OTA dependency, improving upselling and automating pricing decisions can all strengthen margins without requiring a general increase in room rates.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Not automatically. Competitor pricing is an important source of market information, but it should not dictate a hotel’s strategy. Before reducing rates, hotels should consider their own pickup, demand, conversion, positioning, perceived value and profitability. A competitor’s price reduction may reflect circumstances that do not apply to your property.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Hotels should monitor fixed, variable, labour, distribution and marketing costs. Variable costs are particularly important when making short-term pricing decisions, while fixed costs are better considered as part of broader profitability and strategic planning.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Every additional occupied room generates additional costs, including housekeeping, utilities, laundry, amenities and potentially OTA commission. If rooms are sold at rates that produce insufficient contribution, higher occupancy may increase revenue without improving \u2013 and in some cases may even reduce \u2013 overall profitability.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Automated revenue management systems continuously analyse booking pace, demand, competitor behaviour and other market signals. This allows hotels to identify pricing opportunities earlier and make smaller, more frequent adjustments that would be difficult to manage manually. Over time, even relatively small rate changes can have a significant effect on total revenue and margin.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Hidden costs are expenses that may not immediately appear as a specific invoice but still reduce profitability. Examples include high employee turnover, inefficient working practices, excessive energy consumption, equipment downtime and overdependence on high-commission distribution channels.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Benchmarking helps hotels understand their performance in the context of the wider market rather than looking only at their own results. By comparing rates, occupancy, revenue performance and forward-looking demand with relevant competitors, hotels can identify whether changes in their performance reflect their own strategy or broader market conditions.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" How can hotels increase profit without raising prices?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":3293,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finanse","category-revenue-management"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qualpro.co\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qualpro.co\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qualpro.co\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qualpro.co\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qualpro.co\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3292"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/qualpro.co\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3292\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3299,"href":"https:\/\/qualpro.co\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3292\/revisions\/3299"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qualpro.co\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qualpro.co\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qualpro.co\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qualpro.co\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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<\/span>Changes in hotel operating costs<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/span>Profit as the primary objective<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
How can a hotel increase profit without raising room rates?<\/h3>\n
Should hotels lower their rates when competitors reduce theirs?<\/h3>\n
Which costs should be considered when setting hotel room rates?<\/h3>\n
Why is high occupancy not always the same as high profitability?<\/h3>\n
How does pricing automation help protect hotel margins?<\/h3>\n
What are hidden costs in hotel operations?<\/h3>\n
What is the role of benchmarking in hotel pricing?<\/h3>\n