A revenue management consultant with a wealth of experience drawn from working across a diverse portfolio of hotels, Nicola Trew has achieved exceptional results for her clients, using her skills in events, sales and marketing to optimise performance and revenue.

Nicola works for ESA Risk as part of the MONT Hospitality Management team, offering services alongside Mario Ovsenjak, Hotel and Leisure Management Consultant.

She is a co-founder of VROOM, a hotel management consultancy that was set up to “turbo-charge” clients’ revenue and sales functions to deliver consistent, high-level performance.

Ethical and compassionate, VROOM specialises in revenue and sales management, and also provides bespoke training to an extensive list of clients. As one of its three directors, Nicola works closely with hotel teams to explore opportunities to maximise revenue generation, introducing improvements that achieve sustainable and tangible results across all hotel departments.

Nicola’s professional insights can help clients put their business on a firm financial footing, maximising revenue returns, especially at this challenging time.

Whether hotel operators are looking to outsource their revenue management function or simply require strategic advice to support the in-house teams, Nicola can provide personalised and tailored services to meet the individual requirements of each client and their budget.

Nicola has a wealth of experience in managing different client profiles, having worked extensively with hotels that range from budget to luxury, independents to big brands, busy city centres and rural retreats, and small to large operations. Her extensive client list includes Home House in London; Cameron House in Loch Lomond; the Hotel Gotham in Manchester; the Life House Spa and Hotel in Essex and Staying Cool Apartments in Birmingham.

Nicola’s impressive pedigree means she can step in at short notice and assist clients that have little or no on-site expertise, producing tangible results in a short space of time.

Developing a comprehensive rate strategy to optimise revenue, she can advise on the importance of offering flexible rates that reflect competitor rates, current demand, occupancy levels and events that influence future pricing.

She can also set a client’s budget to ensure costs are effectively managed and kept under control; put together an effective rate strategy that maximises bookings and guarantees an effective customer journey; and arm the client with detailed forecasting and reporting.

Working with the in-house team, Nicola can identify potential weaknesses in the business and offer recommendations, such as installing effective systems and procedures to boost performance and revenue.

She can also mastermind effective promotional strategies, for instance, working with agents for events business and rooms business.

Distribution is critical to a hotel’s long-term success and Nicola can advise on the most effective routes to market. She can develop a third party strategy to ensure the hotel is distributed to the most effective channels with the most exposure as well as create strategies for direct and repeat bookings.

A creative thinker whose achievements speak for themselves, one of Nicola’s many outstanding projects is the multi-award winning Hotel Gotham where she continues to play a critical role in its day-to-day running and its commercial success.

Brought in six months before the five-star boutique property opened in Manchester city centre, she was tasked with filling occupancy prior to and immediately from its launch in 2015.

Nicola applied a suite of revenue management tools, including the installation of a property management system (and other required systems), a strategy for pricing, budgeting and forecasting, and recruitment and training of the reservation team, to optimise performance and revenue.

Thanks to her oversight of the management structure, she enabled the hotel to surpass its stated objectives – its first year results beat the initial budget across all key variables such as occupancy, average daily rate and revenue per available room (RevPAR).

To increase market share in what is traditionally an intensely competitive industry, it is critical that hotel operators achieve the best RevPAR. Hotel Gotham continues to achieve the highest RevPAR figures in the city.

On top of developing effective strategies, VROOM also offers bespoke training, which covers critical areas of operation such as reception and reservations.

She has a strong record in assisting distressed hotels. Whether she is advising banks on a struggling operation or supporting the new owners to improve performance and profitability, she can provide detailed feasibility reports.

Her extensive hands-on experience means she can make a positive difference to the revenue of a new hotel project in a very short space of time.