What do hotel strategy and football have in common?

In both cases, a good strategy doesn’t guarantee success forever. A game plan can bring plenty of victories — but sooner or later, rivals learn, analyse, and find ways to counter it. The same happens in business: a hotel strategy that worked yesterday might not be effective tomorrow.

Competition never stops. It adapts, evolves, and finds its own way to beat what once seemed unbeatable.

And here’s a key parallel: in football, the coach designs the strategy — but they don’t play the match. Their role isn’t to chase the ball, but to anticipate, read the game, and make the decisions that truly make a difference.

Standing out in hotel strategy management

It should be the same in revenue management. A revenue manager shouldn’t spend their time on repetitive tasks — updating spreadsheets, gathering prices, or hunting for KPIs — but on what truly creates value: defining and fine-tuning the strategy.

Because the real question isn’t whether your strategy works today, but: are you ready for when it doesn’t?

About Revenue Stratech

A column that looks beyond the technology itself—into what lies behind it. Articles on technology strategy, business development and hotel transformation, designed to offer hoteliers and revenue managers fresh perspectives and food for thought.

Erik Kjorstad

With over 17 years’ experience in business development and management, he is now Strategy Director at Dataria, where he leads software initiatives that support Revenue Management. Before joining Dataria, he grew Telsome from the ground up until it became part of the multinational Enreach. At Dataria, his focus is on shaping strategies that help the company continue to grow.