How to increase hotel revenue and stop leaving money on the table

Tracking RevPAR in hotels is a good way to see how your rooms are performing, but it doesn’t tell you how the rest of your operation is contributing. If two guests stay in the same room at the same rate, your RevPAR calculations will be identical. But if a guest used the car park, booked a spa treatment or had a dining experience, the picture is very different. That is what TRevPAR, Total Revenue per Available Room, captures. It takes into account profits across every part of your property, not just the rooms.  

Rooms, events, wellness and parking are all ancillary revenue opportunities that are worth considering. TRevPAR is on the rise, growing by 2% in 2025 and showing ancillary revenue as a supporter when room rate growth was constrained. Hotels with leisure facilities also saw a strong performance with a 4.2% increase YOY, coming in as the highest UK hotel segment according to Knight Frank’s report.  

Changing how you measure revenue doesn’t have to be a big challenge. Every department already contributes to your overall performance and TRevPAR gives you that visibility. You can then see where your missed revenue is and act on it. 

Growing your hotel revenue works best when there's a clear plan behind it. Without one, accidental upsells could happen like your teams mentioning a room upgrade on the off chance, or a guest happens to ask about an early check-in. Prepare for those moments with a clear structure behind them, starting with product knowledge and when to make the offer before guests arrive.   

Make it feel like service and not a sale 

Offering a room upgrade when guests check-in and approaching it as a comfort rather than a revenue tactic shows guests that you care. 27% of UK travellers are willing to pay a premium for luxury accommodation and a further 41% exceed their holiday budget during their time away, according to YouGov’s report. Your guests are already in a spending mindset, so finding the right approach to sell your services means guests are more likely to say yes.   

Train your front-desk teams with current product knowledge like offers and simple conversation starters. Describing your room or suite options with a personal touch and linking them to what the guest is celebrating or how long they're staying converts more often than a straightforward discount offer. 

Pre-arrival is where hotel upselling revenue is most often lost 

The excitement of a trip builds in the days leading up to it, and this is the right moment to reach out. Rather than sending a standard booking confirmation, use pre-arrival promotions in your hotel digital marketing campaigns. Room upgrade discounts, early check-in offers, room service add-ons or a wellness experience can all drive upsell conversions. It takes little effort and makes your guests feel appreciated before they even check-in.

Unlike room revenue which is fixed to what profits your rooms are making, ancillary revenue shows what the rest of your hotel is capable of generating. Here are 5 ancillary revenue opportunities most hotels overlook.  

1. Spa and wellness packages 

Leisure revenue is one of the biggest profit opportunities, with spa and wellness packages seeing a 7.3% increase per available room, according to the earlier mentioned Knight Frank report. Guests are increasingly willing to spend more on experiences rather the stay itself, so promoting your spa packages or wellness facilities are great for lifting revenue. If you don’t have leisure facilities on-site, consider asking local spa or wellness businesses to offer guests discounted packages they can redeem during their stay.  

2. Meetings and event space  

Corporate events are a reliable way to target the quieter midweek periods without depending on room occupancy. Preparing private dining packages and event room adds meaningful revenue to your F&B operation. Business travelling is always in demand as conferences and events create around £19.3 billion of direct expenditure, so if you have the space, this is an area worth investing in.  

3. Car parking 

Parking is one of the simplest revenue streams to activate if you have the spaces. UK hotels increased their revenue per occupied room by 10% when implementing parking charges, according to Knight Frank’s report. This helps you get more profit for each guest travelling by car. 

4. Early check-in and late check-out 

Most guests want to have the flexibility around arrival and departure. Giving them the option of starting their stay earlier or leaving later with the help of guest engagement tools makes little difference to your operation but allows your guests to feel appreciated. Offer these upsells in pre-arrival emails a few days before their stay to give guests the option at the right time.  

5. In-room extras, experiences and welcome packages 

If spa and wellness resources are limited, there are still plenty of ways to add value. Partner with your local community to provide guests with special discounts to restaurants or experiences during their stay. This helps support your revenue and other businesses around you.  

Smaller incentives like drinks on arrival or personalised gifts for special occasions require minimal effort and tend to land well. Ask guests if they have any requirements prior to their arrival or if they are celebrating an event to see what you can offer before they reach the check-in.

Planning is a key part of increasing hotel revenue and that starts with looking at the data. Demand patterns, booking performance, guest spend per stay and upsell conversions all factor into identifying hidden revenue and where more attention is needed. You already have the data in your hotel PMS, but the challenge is making it easy to act on.  

How to read your data and act on it 

Your data tells a story to see what areas of your hotel are creating the most and least revenue opportunities. Occupancy patterns and revenue per guest are the main signs to see what the majority of guests are investing in like early check-ins, special package offers or dining experiences. Seeing where profits are steady or dropping is the starting point in recognising missed revenue.  

If guests are staying for shorter periods, see if early check-in or late check-out incentives are being redeemed. For guests staying longer, try special discounts on set menu items or wellness experiences to lift spend in other departments without much effort.  

Disconnected systems might cost you more money  

If your data isn’t flowing across all your operational systems, you’ll lose visibility of what is working. Upsell prompts, pre-arrival offers, ancillary packages and promotional discounts all become harder to deliver when your teams are constantly switching between systems. This wastes on average 322 hours per year for hoteliers, according to our 2025 AI in Hospitality report, which could be spent with guests.  

Connected hotel technology that works in the background lets your team track all revenue data and not just room occupancy profits. When your software like your hotel booking engine and channel manager share the same data, every upsell, discount or pre-arrival offer becomes easier to manage, measure and build over time. 

Your hotel already has the foundations to increase hotel revenue without spending your entire budget on new facilities or expensive refurbishments. It’s about looking at what is already available and helping your departments work together to make the most of it. Ancillary packages, event space and upselling strategies protects your profit margins without the extra cost.   

Connecting your hotel tools enables them to share the same data, so upsell tracking, pre-arrival offers and ancillary revenue become easier to manage and measure. At Access Hospitality, we connect those systems so you gain full visibility of your entire operation and can see exactly where revenue is being left on the table. With the right systems connected across your operation, this is where you can start acting on those revenue opportunities.