Your hotel's revenue manager, without the full-time hire.I take over the revenue manager role for Columbus hotels, resorts and serviced apartments: daily rates, restrictions, forecasting and distribution, with a monthly report you can check. Plans start from $650 a month by hotel size, month to month, remote in Eastern Time (UTC-5).
Outsourced Hotel Revenue Manager in Columbus at a glance
Alaa Elhadi, an independent revenue management consultant, provides outsourced hotel revenue management for hotels, resorts and serviced apartments in Columbus, United States, one to one, remotely and in Eastern Time (UTC-5). In Columbus, I price September to November as the peak and January to February as the quiet time, and I build the work around that calendar. Hotel revenue management plans are priced monthly by hotel size, with Core from $650 a month, Plus adding channel and segment optimization and Pro adding forecasting and a monthly strategy call. They run month to month and are never a percentage of revenue.
What is outsourced hotel revenue management in Columbus?
Outsourced hotel revenue management means I do the job of the revenue manager for you: I watch the comp set and pace every day, move rates and restrictions, manage the OTAs, forecast demand and report each month. You keep control of the hotel and see every decision.
What I plan around in Columbus: Ohio State football and university calendars; Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Cedar Point; Bengals, Browns and Guardians seasons; Conventions and medical travel. Guests I price for: Regional event travellers on 2 night stays, medical and corporate guests. Where I start: Game-day premiums, medical-stay weekly rates, and winter floors.
For Ohio hotels I focus on the mix of university, medical, sports and corporate demand. I help define displacement rules for football weekends, set negotiated rates for hospitals and businesses, and build a comp set that reflects the specific district rather than the whole metro.
The service in general is described on my outsourced revenue management page; this page covers how I apply it in Columbus.
Included
What I run for a hotel on a monthly plan in Columbus
Daily rates and restrictions
I monitor your comp set and booking pace every day and move rates, rate plans and restrictions as demand shifts, room type by room type.
BAR and rate-plan strategy by room type
Seasonal, event and day-of-week rules
Length-of-stay and minimum-stay restrictions
Closed-to-arrival and stop-sell logic
Distribution and OTAs
I manage the channel mix, parity and promotions together across Booking.com, Expedia, Agoda, Google and your own site, so cost of sale does not eat the gain.
OTA and metasearch optimization
Rate-parity checks and promotions
Segmentation across OTA, direct and corporate
Channel manager and PMS mapping
Forecasts and budgets
On the higher plans I forecast demand by month and segment, build the annual budget and keep a 12-month pricing calendar tied to the market's real dates.
12-month demand forecast
Annual budget and re-forecast
Group, corporate and event rate strategy
Pace and displacement analysis
Reporting and strategy calls
You get a monthly performance summary, a full ADR, occupancy and RevPAR report on Plus and Pro, and on Pro a monthly strategy call and a quarterly review.
“Columbus, Cleveland and Cincinnati are three event-driven cities with medical and university demand. Ohio State football weekends in Columbus are some of the strongest nights in the state, Cedar Point shapes summer near Sandusky, and major hospitals support weekly stays. I price each city on its own calendar.”
Alaa Elhadi, revenue management consultant. Cornell certified, 18 years in hotel and short-term rental revenue.
Columbus at a glance
Busiest
Ohio State and Bengals game weekends, summer concerts, and Cedar Point season from May to October.
Quietest
January to February.
Dates to price first
Ohio State football and university calendars
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Cedar Point
Bengals, Browns and Guardians seasons
Conventions and medical travel
How I price it
My Columbus calendar, and what I do in each period
January to FebruaryLow
Hospital and corporate stays carry these months, so I lean on weekly and monthly pricing and accept softer weekends rather than chasing leisure guests who rarely come in an Ohio winter.
MarchShoulder
The Arnold Sports Festival fills Columbus for a long weekend, and March basketball tournaments add dates; I price those individually while leaving Cleveland and Cincinnati on winter floors.
April to JuneHigh
Commencements, the Memorial Tournament in Dublin and early concert season lift weekends, so I raise those dates and keep minimums at two nights for event travellers.
July to AugustHigh
Summer concerts and baseball in all three cities, plus Cedar Point near Sandusky, keep weekends full; I watch weekday pricing more closely than weekends during these months.
September to NovemberPeak
Football Saturdays drive the season, so I set each home game date separately, with the biggest rivalry and night games highest, and lift Cincinnati and Cleveland dates around NFL home games.
DecemberShoulder
Holiday visitors and bowl game travel give some weekends a lift, but I keep weekday floors modest and use longer-stay discounts to cover the quiet stretch before New Year.
Where I price differently in Columbus
Short North and German Village, Columbus
Walkable neighbourhoods near downtown and campus traffic; I price game weekends highest here and keep weekdays competitive for convention and state business visitors.
Ohio City and Tremont, Cleveland
Close to downtown stadiums and a short drive to University Circle; I balance Browns and Guardians weekends with weekly pricing for hospital families.
Over-the-Rhine, Cincinnati
Historic and walkable to the riverfront stadiums and FC Cincinnati; I price event nights carefully and use midweek rates for corporate and medical guests from out of town.
What I check first in Columbus
Whether the listing is registered with the city where required, since Columbus, Cleveland and Cincinnati each have their own short-term rental rules, taxes and registration process.
How close the home really is to the stadium, arena or hospital it markets, because guests in these cities judge a listing by walk or drive time to one destination.
Whether weekly and monthly rates exist at all, since medical families and project workers often want ten to sixty nights and the calendar only shows nightly pricing.
Pricing playbook
5 pricing moves, and 3 mistakes, in Columbus
1
Price Ohio State home football weekends as top premiums in Columbus.
2
Add Browns, Bengals and Guardians home dates for nearby homes.
3
Build weekly rates near the Cleveland Clinic and other medical centers.
4
Price Cedar Point season from May to October for homes near Sandusky.
5
Lower January and February floors.
Mistakes I fix in Columbus
All three cities priced from one comp set.
Ohio State weekends priced too low.
Medical demand ignored.
Who it is for
When outsourced hotel revenue management makes sense in Columbus
No revenue manager
The role left or was never hired, and rooms are priced between other duties.
Results have plateaued
RevPAR has stopped moving while the comp set keeps learning.
More than one property
You want one consistent method across a small group without building a department.
An owner or asset manager
You want decisions made by a specialist and reported in numbers you can check.
How it works
From first message to results in Columbus
01
Tell me about the hotel
Room count, room types, channels and the systems you use. I confirm the plan level and the monthly price for your size.
02
I build the strategy
I study your market, comp set and current rates, set up the strategy and connect your PMS or channel manager and pricing tool.
03
I price it every day
I adjust rates, restrictions and promotions as demand moves, and manage your OTAs on Plus and Pro.
Step 4
We review each month
You get the report against budget and last year, and on Pro we meet monthly, so nothing I do is hidden.
Pricing
Hotel plans and prices
Priced monthly by your hotel's size, not per room. Core, Plus and Pro, month to month, never a percentage of revenue. Hotels of 200 or more rooms, luxury properties and groups are quoted individually.
Option
What you get
Price
Core, up to 20 rooms
Managed pricing, run for you every day
From $650/mo
Plus
Pricing plus OTA, channel and segment optimization
By hotel size
Pro
Full revenue management with forecasting and a monthly strategy call
Real feedback from PriceLabs pricing strategy sessions with Alaa.
★★★★★
Savvy adjustments to my dynamic pricing
Alaa is a consummate professional! Patient, thorough, efficient and effective in communicating. He not only made savvy adjustments to my dynamic pricing strategy, but also helped me to understand the reasoning behind his methods, granting me a better understanding of the PriceLabs platform. Strong work!
Airbnb host
★★★★★
Great PriceLabs advice for every property
Alaa was fantastic, going through each of the properties I had and gave great advice and actioned a great game plan. Would highly recommend for anyone looking to enhance their pricing strategy on PriceLabs. Alaa's experience goes beyond this which makes it very beneficial to have this holistic approach.
Property manager
★★★★★
Helped me optimize my PriceLabs
Alaa helped me optimize my PriceLabs settings for my Airbnb listing and was very helpful and patient with answering any questions I had. He was also able to clearly explain why he made the changes he made, and it was obvious that he had a lot of experience in this field. I will definitely be back!
Airbnb host
FAQ
11 questions about outsourced hotel revenue management in Columbus
When is Columbus busiest, and how do you price outsourced hotel revenue management around it?
Busiest in Columbus: Ohio State and Bengals game weekends, summer concerts, and Cedar Point season from May to October. April to June: Commencements, the Memorial Tournament in Dublin and early concert season lift weekends, so I raise those dates and keep minimums at two nights for event travellers. July to August: Summer concerts and baseball in all three cities, plus Cedar Point near Sandusky, keep weekends full; I watch weekday pricing more closely than weekends during these months. For outsourced hotel revenue management, i raise floors and tighten minimum stays ahead of these windows and review pace every week, so the strongest dates never sell early at a shoulder rate.
What do you check first on a Columbus property when it comes to outsourced hotel revenue management?
For outsourced hotel revenue management, that is the first thing I check before taking on the pricing, because everything else sits on top of it. How close the home really is to the stadium, arena or hospital it markets, because guests in these cities judge a listing by walk or drive time to one destination.
What is the first pricing move you would make in Columbus?
Build weekly rates near the Cleveland Clinic and other medical centers. Next: lower January and February floors. For outsourced hotel revenue management, i start with base rates, the seasonal calendar and restrictions, because that is where a Columbus property usually leaks the most.
What do you do in Columbus's quiet months?
For outsourced hotel revenue management, in the quiet months my job is to protect the floor, close gaps with length-of-stay and last-minute rules, and keep the property visible on every channel. Quietest in Columbus: January to February. January to February: Hospital and corporate stays carry these months, so I lean on weekly and monthly pricing and accept softer weekends rather than chasing leisure guests who rarely come in an Ohio winter. March: The Arnold Sports Festival fills Columbus for a long weekend, and March basketball tournaments add dates; I price those individually while leaving Cleveland and Cincinnati on winter floors.
What mistakes do you see most often in Columbus?
Ohio State weekends priced too low and medical demand ignored. I look for these first when I review outsourced hotel revenue management in Columbus, and fixing them is usually the quickest gain.
Which booking channels matter most in Columbus?
For outsourced hotel revenue management in Columbus, i manage channel mix, parity and promotions together, so the cheapest route to a booking is not the most expensive one for you. Columbus sells mostly through Airbnb, Vrbo and Booking.com. January to February: Hospital and corporate stays carry these months, so I lean on weekly and monthly pricing and accept softer weekends rather than chasing leisure guests who rarely come in an Ohio winter.
Which parts of Columbus do you treat differently for outsourced hotel revenue management?
Short North and German Village, Columbus: Walkable neighbourhoods near downtown and campus traffic; I price game weekends highest here and keep weekdays competitive for convention and state business visitors. Ohio City and Tremont, Cleveland and Over-the-Rhine, Cincinnati get their own treatment. For outsourced hotel revenue management, i set rates, comp sets and restrictions per area and per room or listing type, not as one citywide number.
Which dates and events in Columbus do you price first?
Conventions and medical travel, Ohio State football and university calendars and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Cedar Point are the dates I price first for outsourced hotel revenue management in Columbus. July to August: Summer concerts and baseball in all three cities, plus Cedar Point near Sandusky, keep weekends full; I watch weekday pricing more closely than weekends during these months.
Why hire a consultant for outsourced hotel revenue management in Columbus instead of an agency or an in-house hire?
For outsourced hotel revenue management, you get one experienced person who knows your numbers, with a small team and a tool stack behind me, and no account-manager layer in between. I have optimized 100+ properties in and around Columbus and work remotely in Eastern Time (UTC-5). Locally, that shows up in decisions like this: add Browns, Bengals and Guardians home dates for nearby homes.
How much does outsourced hotel revenue management in Columbus cost, and how do I start?
Hotel revenue management plans are priced monthly by hotel size, with Core from $650 a month, Plus adding channel and segment optimization and Pro adding forecasting and a monthly strategy call. They run month to month and are never a percentage of revenue. The scope of outsourced hotel revenue management is the same in every market, but the plan is not: in Columbus I would start from July to August: Summer concerts and baseball in all three cities, plus Cedar Point near Sandusky, keep weekends full; I watch weekday pricing more closely than weekends during these months. To start, open the chat or email me with your property type and size in Columbus.
Can you work with a Columbus property remotely, in my time zone?
Yes. Outsourced Hotel Revenue Manager in Columbus is delivered remotely and scheduled in Eastern Time (UTC-5), and 100+ properties in and around Columbus have been optimized, including in areas such as Ohio City and Tremont, Cleveland. I work in your time zone, report monthly, and the engagement runs month to month with no long-term lock-in. Start in the chat or by email and tell me what you run in Columbus.
More in this market
Everything else I do in Columbus
The other services I offer in Columbus, for hotels and for Airbnb and short-term rentals. Each has its own page for this market.