Latest / The Side Hustle Career Podcast with Fexingo: Second Income, Freelancing While Employed / How a Hotel Front Desk Clerk Built a 5000 Monthly Side Hustle in Revenue Management Consulting
Transcript
- Lucas: Last week I sat down with a woman named Priya who, until about eighteen months ago, was working the front desk at a Marriott in downtown Austin. Luna: I think I remember you mentioning her. She was the one pulling data from the property management system on her lunch break, right? Lucas: Exactly. She noticed that the hotel's pricing on third-party sites like Expedia and Booking.com was almost never aligned with what the hotel actually needed to fill rooms on a given night. And she started keeping a spreadsheet. Luna: So she turned a hunch into a side hustle. Lucas: Yeah, and it's a perfect example of something we talk about on this show: the side hustle that's hiding in plain sight in your current job. Priya is now earning about $5,000 a month doing part-time revenue management consulting for small independent hotels and motels. Luna: That's a pretty big jump from a front desk salary. Lucas: It is. And here's the thing — this show is ad-free, and we want to keep it that way. If you find these stories useful and want to support that choice, you can buy us a coffee at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. It helps us keep doing these deep dives without sponsors. Luna: Yeah, and we really appreciate it. Alright, back to Priya. Lucas: So Priya's insight was simple: most small hotels don't have a dedicated revenue manager. They might have a general manager who sets rates once a quarter, or they just let the corporate chain handle it. But independent hotels — the ones with ten to forty rooms — they're often flying blind. Luna: And she had the data to prove it. Lucas: Right. She started tracking her own hotel's occupancy rate, average daily rate, and revenue per available room — RevPAR — for about six months. She noticed that on weekends with a big event in town, the hotel would sell out at a rate that was maybe $80 below what competitors were charging. Luna: So that's lost revenue every single time. Lucas: Exactly. She brought it up to her GM, who basically said, 'That's how the system works, we can't change it.' So Priya decided to take that knowledge outside. Luna: How did she find her first client? Lucas: She started by reaching out to a boutique motel about fifteen minutes from her house — a place she'd noticed was always half-empty on weekends. She offered a free two-week trial where she would just audit their rates and suggest adjustments. No obligation. Luna: And they said yes. Lucas: They did. And after two weeks, she showed them that by raising weekend rates by $20 and dropping weekday rates by $10, they could increase RevPAR by about 12 percent. The owner was sold. Luna: That's a really low-risk way to build a portfolio. Lucas: That's the key move: she never led with 'I'm a consultant.' She led with a specific, measurable promise. And once she had that case study, she started charging a flat fee of $500 per month per property, which is way below what a traditional revenue management firm charges. Luna: So she's undercutting the big players while offering a more hands-on service. Lucas: Right. The big firms charge $2,000 to $5,000 a month, but they're working with fifty properties at once. Priya only takes on about ten clients, and she's in their property management system every morning checking the booking curve. Luna: What specific tasks is she doing for them? Lucas: She adjusts rates based on demand, monitors competitor pricing, and helps with channel management — deciding which rooms go on Expedia versus direct booking. She also sends a weekly report with three bullet points: what happened last week, what's coming up, and one rate change recommendation. Luna: That's super digestible for a busy owner. Lucas: Exactly. And she built this entirely with free tools. She uses Google Sheets for tracking, a free version of RateGain for competitor data, and the property management system's own reports. She didn't need to buy any expensive software. Luna: So the barrier to entry is pretty low if you already work in a hotel. Lucas: Right. And the skills transfer to other industries too. If you work in a rental car agency, a parking garage, even a self-storage facility — all of those have pricing that fluctuates with demand. Anyone who sees that data every day has a potential side hustle. Luna: What about the legal side? Does her employment contract allow this? Lucas: Good question. She was careful. She doesn't use her employer's data — she uses public information like occupancy rates visible on booking sites and her own observations. And she doesn't work with competing hotels in her immediate area. She focuses on properties outside her employer's market. Luna: That's smart. So she's not poaching clients from her boss. Lucas: Exactly. And she also doesn't touch any proprietary rate plans. She's really just offering strategic advice based on publicly available data and her own understanding of the industry. Luna: How did she get her first paid client after the free trial? Luna: So referrals were the growth engine. Lucas: Totally. She now has ten clients, which is about her capacity given she still works full-time at the front desk. She does the consulting work in the evenings and on weekends. The income is about $5,000 a month, and she's thinking about going part-time at the hotel to scale. Luna: That's the dream, right? Turning a side hustle into a transition. Lucas: It is. And what I love about her story is that she didn't need a certification or a degree in revenue management. She just had the curiosity to notice a gap and the discipline to document it. That's something anyone can do. Luna: So if someone listening works in a hotel or a similar role, what's the first step you'd recommend? Lucas: Start by tracking one metric for your own business — occupancy rate or average daily rate — for thirty days. Just write it down. See if you notice any patterns. Then pick one small property nearby and offer a free two-week audit. That's it. Luna: Keep it simple and specific. Lucas: Exactly. Priya's story is proof that you don't need to be a consultant to think like one. You just need to be observant and willing to share what you see.