Franco Grasso
THE ITALIAN HOTEL REVENUE MANAGEMENT PIONEERS
Back in 2005
Franco Grasso became the first Italian company to offer consultancy and training in Hotel Revenue Management and the company specialises in pricing for independent accommodation facilities, both in Italy and abroad.
Franco Grasso's vision brought Hotel Revenue Management to Italy
Study and research from the 1990s to today
Franco Grasso and Franco Laico started out in the hospitality industry working at luxury hotels in Italy and abroad.
As the 1990s came to an end, Franco Grasso returned to Italy and began working on a theory of how to best apply the Yield Management theories that everyone was talking about at the time. He dedicated several years to training others and began an important partnership with the Domina hotel chain, which saw him frequently touring their hotels in Europe and Northern Africa. Over time, Franco Laico joined him in offering professional training services in Italy.
In 2005, the pair provided their first Revenue Management consultancy service to Hotel Da Vinci in Sovigliana, near Florence. The Da Vinci success story is told in detail in Franco Grasso's first book, Il Revenue Management Alberghiero (Hotel Revenue Management) published by Hoepli in late 2006. It was the first book on Revenue Management in the hospitality industry to be published in Italy.
From 2005 onwards, Franco Grasso and Franco Laico combined training and consultancy, progressively increasing the number of properties on their portfolio and establishing the beginnings of a working group made up of young and enthusiastic entrepreneurs which would go on to became the Revenue Team by Franco Grasso.
The year 2015 saw the launch of the Revenue Academy: the training course based on our Revenue Management application methodology, developed in collaboration with Francesco Mongiello.
The Revenue Team by Franco Grasso: the specialist Revenue Management team working with accommodation facilities all over Italy and abroad.
Since 2005, the number of accommodation facilities we help has grown every year, as has our staff, which led to the creation of the Revenue Team by Franco Grasso: a group of passionate Revenue Management experts trained internally on Revenue Management by Franco Grasso.
Before becoming Forecast Managers and operating autonomously, all members of the Revenue Team by Franco Grasso follow a year-long internal training programme until they know Revenue Management by Franco Grasso inside out.
Each Forecast Manager follows a variable number of properties and may have other responsibilities within the company. These range from handling our Revenue Management Revolution Plus software to communication and accounting. Knowledge of Revenue Management makes it easier to perform other tasks since everything is strictly related to our consultancy services.
Our periodic meetings also act as internal training sessions because it is essential to discuss our individual experiences as well as any new technological solutions: we keep up-to-date at all times in order to improve our work, support our clients and propose solutions to everyday problems.
We try to accommodate personal interests and requests from our Revenue Team as much as possible because we believe that this is the key to finding satisfaction at work.
One example is that we have always had a smart working policy in place because we believe that everyone should be free to work at their own rhythm. We also organise initiatives to encourage wellbeing at work, such as lectures on themes such as sports and nutrition or an in-depth mindfulness course.
Our philosophy of free and flexible working is something that we are all very proud of. Technology keeps us connected, no matter the distance. Conference calls, WhatsApp groups, Discord and countless other solutions make interaction so easy that it's almost like being in the same room.
Our experience in Hotel Revenue Management
Since 2005, we have worked with more than 2,500 accommodation facilities of all types and sizes, from guest houses to 5-star hotels and resorts all over Italy.
Hotel Revenue Management consultancy services in Italy and abroad
Since every case is different, we start by familiarising ourselves with a property's specific needs in order to develop an ad hoc sales strategy that we then share with the client. Our objective is to find the optimum balance between the property's features and needs and market trends.
Some of the factors that we take into consideration are:
- location and features, for in-depth understanding of the context;
- internal organisation, equally important for identifying the optimum sales strategy;
- client needs, in order to guide and assist in achieving their goal to maximise sales.
Our experience was consolidated on the Italian market but over the years, our clients have expanded to include hotels abroad too.
We have worked with clients in Sri Lanka, Hungary, Russia, Bulgaria, Liberia, Kenya, Mexico, France, Spain, Uruguay and Argentina, where the Spanish edition of Franco Grasso’s first book from 2006 is used as a textbook at the National University of Quilmes in Buenos Aires.
In Russia, we managed two large hotels that had just left the Hilton group. Managing the transition from a chain to an independent structure in terms of sale strategy was an exciting challenge and a great success that yielded excellent results in a very short time.