Viaticus · Superior School of Tourism

Viaticus introduces students to Revenue Management with Revbell

From the acquisition of fundamental concepts to the implementation of Revenue Management policies, via market analysis, students discovered the key levers of this practice.

At the end of the session, we had the pleasure of chatting with Dan Coulangeon, who shared his experience and future plans for the school.

Could you please introduce yourself?

I’m Dan Coulangeon, Director of Viaticus schools in Lyon and Paris. I’ve been in the training business for many years, with over twenty years’ experience in creating and managing programs for the hotel and tourism sector.

A few weeks ago, I joined Viaticus, a school founded just before the pandemic, between late 2018 and early 2019. Viaticus offers sandwich courses for bac+3, bac+4 and bac+5 levels, with specializations in business and marketing dedicated to the tourism sector. The school emphasizes hands-on experience, thanks to work-study programs, as well as the quality of teaching, provided by lecturers who are experts in their field.

Why did you choose Revbell to train your students in Revenue Management?

For our part, we provide training in sales and marketing functions. Although we don’t have a course entirely dedicated to this theme, we felt it was essential to make our Master’s students aware of the issues involved in pricing, revenue management and related concepts such as Revenue Integrity.

Revenue management is a topic that has interested us for some time. Coming from the hotel industry myself, I’ve observed the evolution of concepts linked to pricing strategy throughout my career. What’s absolutely fascinating is that, historically, the pioneers of RM were the airlines, but today, the logic of pricing is present in a large number of business sectors!

Can you tell us about the organization of the sessions and your overall experience?

The starting point for our discussion was the content. The time available was short, and the module focused on discovery and initiation to a professional activity. This represented a real challenge: tackling the challenges of revenue management in one week instead of a year’s training.

What really caught our attention, and made us want to work with Revbell, was their comprehensive understanding of the tourism sector. We knew that revenue management would not only be dealt with from a hotel angle, but also from a camping and tourism perspective.

Revbell proposed a detailed program, based on the students’ knowledge of the discipline: what they knew about it, how they imagined it… They had the opportunity to benefit from a balance between practical and theoretical exercises. It was this aspect that particularly caught our attention: each time, theoretical enrichment was based on concrete cases.

How did you find the pace of the training?

This is a difficulty we often encounter in training: there can be varying levels of experience and skills among the students. During this week, we observed that the two groups progressed in parallel, but not necessarily at the same pace.

What was particularly revealing was that, by the end of the week, some students were asking for more revenue management courses. In my opinion, this shows the strong interest and commitment of the students. There was a great deal of satisfaction and curiosity on the part of the students.

Would it be possible to create a dedicated RM course?

We’re well aware of the importance and potential of revenue management, especially with the new practices emerging today. The practice is evolving and diversifying, with various specializations such as pricing, data analysis, strategic use of data and much more.

Nevertheless, it seems incompatible enough with our current training offer to integrate it as a subject. The real challenge would be to think about creating a complete program dedicated to this theme.

I think we have a real opportunity here. At present, a few specialized revenue management courses exist, but they often adopt a mono-sectoral approach. Our aim would be to offer a course that begins with a solid grounding in the fundamentals of the practice, then specializes in different sectors. In my opinion, there is a real opportunity for a school to develop a new two-year course at Master’s level.

Do you plan to work with Revbell again on this type of project?

Yes, we’re seriously considering repeating this seminar, which has aroused a great deal of interest among our Master 2 students. We hope to be able to repeat this type of intervention and integrate it permanently into our practices.

We are also actively considering the opening of a specialized revenue management course, for which the expertise of industry professionals is essential. Our collaboration with Revbell is fully in line with our approach, because as a work-study school, we aim first and foremost to stay in touch with industry professionals, in particular to identify work-study opportunities suited to the different levels of our students.

Would you recommend Revbell to other schools?

Yes, without hesitation and with the greatest of pleasures! Together, we managed to put together a complete module in a very short space of time, and Revbell demonstrated his mastery of the subject. Our feedback is very positive!