Market Groups & Segments

Owned by Julie Leake (Unlicensed)
Last updated: Jun 08, 2018 by Carissa Warnock (Unlicensed)
4 min read

Market Groups

Market groups are used as a reporting mechanism to help you track and forecast categories of rooms and guests. Market groups are defined by the market segment types you associate with them.

Most properties create market groups to define every part of their room and guest business. Your property probably has an established set of market groups that are used to report and forecast rooms sold. It is important to understand your property's structure prior to completing this task in LMS. Once created, you will associate these market groups with market segment types.

Accessing market groups

  1. In the toolbar, click the System Setup icon ( 

     ).
  2. From the drop-down list, select Forecast Structure.
    The Forecast Structure screen appears.
  3. Click the arrow (  ) next to All KBIs.
  4. From the drop-down list, select Market Groups.

Market Segments

A market segment is a category of rooms and guests. You decide which type(s) of market segment(s) to use and how you want to use it (them). Within each of the market segment types you can create multiple segments which helps you more accurately track reservations and actual occupied rooms.

For example, you want to track how much of the Group market segment comes from Conventions vs. MotorCoach vs. Junket. To do this you create three market segments, with Group as the type, and you would name the segments accordingly.

Terms and Definitions

Add (icon)

Allows you to create new market groups. Market groups are used as reporting mechanisms to help you track and forecast categories of rooms and guests.

  • Name. Identifies the market group.
  • Show In. Allows you to determine where you want the market groups to be used.
    • All. Displays the Market Groups in both Labor and Budgeting.
    • Budgeting only. Displays the Market Group in Budgeting module only.
    • Labor only. Displays the Market Group in the Labor module only.

Market Segments

  • Name. Identifies the market segment.
  • Type. Select the category you want to associate with the market segment. There are two main categories: Rooms, which represent market segments that are room-related, are categorized into several market segment types (Contract, Group, Transient, and Non-Revenue), and Casino. The casino type is a unique entity.
    • Contract. Represents rooms that are held each day for an organization at an agreed-upon rate. For example, rooms held for airline personnel.
      If you have several contracts and rates, and need to see the different rates associated with the number of people per each rate, you may want to create market segments for each, and choose the same Type.
    • Group. Represents rooms used by organizations or associations. Your Sales Department usually books this segment type.
      If you have certain groups with special needs, or other issues that require more resources than normal, you may want to create other segments. For example, you may have a group that routinely requires more time to clean their rooms which means that you would need to staff differently when they are in residence
    • Transient. Represents guests who made their own reservations (through a travel agent or your reservations department) and are not associated with a group or contract. Typically, business or commercial travelers and tourists comprise the transient market segment.
      If you need to know the different types of guests in this group, you may want to create separate market segments for each. For example, for marketing purposes you may want to know how many guests are AAA, AARP, etc.
    • Casino. Represents the Casino type of market segment that is used to forecast Casino Admissions, Players, or Guests. This segment type is not included on any market segment reports that are associated with an occupied hotel room.
    • Non-Revenue. Denotes rooms which are provided on a complimentary basis for any of a variety of reasons.  Many properties do not use this category as they prefer to associate complimentary rooms with the group or transient segments.  For example, some group contracts call for one complimentary room for a certain number of rooms bought by a group.  Thus, the complimentary group rooms would appropriately be associated with the Group segment as is impacts occupancy in that segment and, in some organizations, are incorporated in the ADR calculation.
  • Arrivals Calculated. Allows you to denote whether you want the Arrivals KBI for the market segment to be calculated rather than forecasted. If so, the KBI will be read-only in the Edit Rooms Forecast and Enter Actual KBIs screens.
  • Guests Calculated. Allows you to denote whether you want the Guests KBI for the market segment to be calculated rather than forecasted. If so, the KBI will be read-only in the Edit Rooms Forecast and Enter Actual KBIs screens.

KBI        

Lists the KBIs that were created for the market segment. This area is read-only. If you are creating a new market segment, this area will not  be populated until you have clicked the Save button.

Creating Market Groups

To create Market Groups:

  1. Click the arrow next to All KBIs and select Market Groups.
  2. Click the Add icon (green plus sign) at the bottom of the Market Groups column.
  3. Enter a Name.
  4. Select the appropriate Show In information.
  5. Click Add.
  6. Repeat Steps 3-5 for any additional Market Groups you want to create.
  7. Click Close.

Creating Market Segments

To create Market Segments:

  1. Click the Add icon (green plus sign) at the bottom of the Market Segments column.
  2. Enter a Name.
  3. Select a Type.
  4. Select Arrivals Calculated and/or Guests Calculated if desired.
  5. Click Add.
  6. Repeat Steps 3-5 for any additional Market Segments you want to create.
  7. Click Close.

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