We caught up with the IDeaS team at HITEC 2016 to hear their views on some of the latest trends in revenue management.
Multiple pricing approaches
Automated revenue management systems have proven their value within the hotel sector by providing a more effective use of inventory, stronger shoulder night performance and fewer quiet nights. Since all hotels are not alike, it is important to offer multiple approaches to pricing that can work with every business mix and multiple distribution systems.
While most systems provide only one approach (which can limit hotels and leave money on the table) IDeaS offers flexibility and choice through multiple approaches. IDeaS offers Daily Pricing (commonly known as BAR by Day) for transient business, Pricing by Length of Stay (BAR by Length of Stay [LOS]), and new Continuous Pricing that eliminates the need for user-defined rate structures.
Group business is king – both leisure and corporate group business is on the rise and that calls for a robust, automated solution to quickly and automatically evaluate those requests. IDeaS’ Group Pricing feature evaluates and forecasts group impact and business displacement while determining the ideal price and dates to offer each group inquiry. New time-saving features include group pricing by room type to maximize efficient use of inventory; alternate date evaluation to maximize more profitable days for flexible groups; and multiple property evaluation to quickly assess many properties to determine which one can accommodate the group and deliver optimum profits to the hotel.
Going beyond guestrooms
Meetings and events business represents up to 60% of overall revenue for many hotels. To help hoteliers better assess this profitable business, IDeaS developed a solution which integrates data from sales & catering systems and property management solutions all within IDeaS’ revenue management systems.
IDeaS Function Space Revenue Management solution is the first of its kind and IDeaS is the only vendor to develop this technology. The solution optimizes profits across multiple revenue streams from guest rooms and meeting spaces, to food and beverage, catering, A/V equipment rental, ancillary spend and more. It also provides an interactive demand calendar and profit-based price evaluation capabilities that enable sales teams to understand unsold and undersold function space as well as less-than-optimal displacement for group business.
Further growth of analytics – aka the overly abused term “Big Data”
Analytics matter and hotels need to consider the importance of building a solid analytical foundation for optimal forecasting and pricing their business. Ordinary revenue management systems use only one or two forecasting methods for transient and group business, taking a general approach to analyzing data.
IDeaS solutions feature SAS’ advanced analytics that use hundreds of forecasting models to solve specific hotel challenges and produce extraordinary results. Using these powerful analytics, IDeaS solutions analytically assess guest price sensitivity while accounting for season, day-of-week, days-to-arrival, length of stay, and more, in addition to managing rate availability, optimizing stay patterns and strategic overbooking to drive the most revenue overall.
