In the following case studies we look at 5 Hotels groups and how they were able to improve pricing strategy, market positioning, guest’s willingness to pay, RevPAR growth and team efficiency.
NB: This is an article from Beonprice, one of our Expert Partners
We outline how Dante Hotels managed to improve its pricing strategy and the market positioning of each of its hotels and Casual Hotels managed to improve its competitive positioning by including quality analysis in pricing decisions
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We also see how Hotelatelier was able to identify their guests’ willingness to pay for their rebranded properties in Madrid and Barcelona, HM Hotels achieved a RevPAR growth of 11% within 6 months and Hotel Axor Barajas managed to automate its Revenue Management processes and build a more efficient team
Case Study 1: Dante Hotels
The Challenge
Dante Hoteles is a Spanish company with 3 properties in Barcelona and Tossa de Mar (Costa Brava). In July 2020, after the crisis in the tourism sector caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, they needed to automate processes to optimise results. With an urban hotel and a leisure hotel in different destinations, they were looking to simplify the data search procedures and obtain more reliable information. In addition, agility and speed in identifying long-term variations was key to being able to react efficiently and not miss opportunities to attract demand.
“Having access to forward-looking data in real time has been a turning point in the work of the Revenue Management team. The assistance of Beonprice’s support team and Revenue Managers has helped us to optimise our strategy.” – Cristian Pérez, Operations Manager at Hoteles Dante
The Solution
To streamline the search for information and automate decision-making, Dante Hotels decided to use Beopnrice’s RMS.
During the implementation process, they opened up the possibility to modify their pricing structure. They moved from a system of pre-configured price levels to working on the basis of open pricing. This change meant a greater maturity of the team and a leap towards a more advanced Revenue Management work.
The reduction of manual work, coupled with access to better business knowledge thanks to the availability of data, increased the efficiency of the team and facilitated decision making. In addition, the automatic sending of rates to the distribution channels ensures error-free information exchange.
The Results
Starting to work with Beonprice’s RMS opened up the possibility for Dante Hotels to rethink their pricing strategy, moving from a price level system to an open pricing system, which is much more dynamic and profitable. The possibility of obtaining detailed long-term information, and having alerts of demand variation with sufficient time in advance to be able to make decisions, led to an increase in revenue.
Case Study 2: Casual Hoteles
The hotel group
Casual Hoteles was founded in Valencia in 2013. It is a hotel chain that offers themed urban accommodation in luxury locations. They have 19 urban hotels in different cities in Spain and Portugal. It is a company committed to the search for maximum social and business benefit and they consider themselves to be a supportive company, through their collaborations with Save the Children, Unicef, food banks and animal shelters.
The Challenge
Casual Hoteles’ project with Beonprice began in 2021 to respond to certain needs of the hotel group:
- Pricing strategy limited to price levels, which prevents the application of free prices adjusted to the behaviour of demand and harms competitive positioning.
- Lack of automation and process optimisation in the Revenue Management department.
The solution
To solve the obstacles they were facing in their Revenue Management strategy, Casual Hoteles looked for a Revenue Management system. Beonprice convinced them with its ease of use and the support service offered by its team of experts, both at a technical level from the moment of integration and configuration, as well as in the daily work of the department. The support of their revenue managers is of great importance to improve the strategy, optimise processes and get the most out of the solution.
“The speed, clarity and simplicity with which the different KPIs are displayed are key to the agility of daily work. Even with this simplicity, Beonprice is a very complete system that helps us to make decisions for a correct pricing, forecasting and benchmarking strategy” – Pedro Pavón, Revenue Management Director at Casual Hoteles.
The Results
The day-to-day work of the Revenue Management team has improved in two fundamental areas since the introduction of Beonprice:
Saving time, taking into account the organisation of work in a centralised department, with the hotels distributed in regional clusters, where each Revenue Manager must control the data of several hotels.
The decrease of the margin of error, changing from a manual work structure to having the support of data processing technology.
“Beonprice has not only helped us in a technological way, but also in a human way. The support and understanding of the people who make up Beonprice, especially during the difficult times we have gone through in recent years, has been exceptional. The team is remarkable.” – Pedro Pavón, Revenue Management Director at Casual Hoteles.
Case Study 3: Hotelatelier
The Challenge
In summer 2018, the Hotelatelier Group re-launched three of their hotels in Madrid and Barcelona under the newly created Icon brand. This re-branding went hand in hand with a change in target group, a new competitive set and the goal to establish the new brand long-term. In order to achieve this, the revenue management team had to analyze their new offer compared to the competition and understand exactly what their target group would be willing to pay for the quality they offer. Matching guests’ expectations of quality with price was perceived to be one of the keys for creating a sustainable base of loyal guests.
“The Hotel Quality index has been key in positioning us with respect to our compset. The comparative value between our establishment and those we consider direct competitors, allows us to establish a pricing strategy in line with customer expectations. How much a client is willing to pay to stay in our hotel is a key factor to increase sales.” – Beatriz Crespo García, Pricing Operations Manager at Hotelatelier.
The Solution
The re-branding process has coincided with the implementation of Beonprice. In the process of identifying their target group’s willingness to pay for the new products, Hotelatelier’s revenue management team largely relied on Beonprice’s Hotel Quality Index.
The Hotel Quality Index, which is based on objective factors plus online reputation, allowed the team to quantify not only their own quality, but also their competitors’ quality, Going a step further, HQI combines this quality data with competitors pricing. This deeper insight into the market ensures pricing decisions coincide with guests’ expectations of quality. and enabled the team to correctly position their properties within the marketplace from the outset.
The Results
The scores on the price-quality-ratio on review platforms show to what extent guests’ expectations of quality match with the price. Let’s compare them before and after implementing Beonprice.
Hotelatelier’s team was clearly able to identify their guests’ willingness to pay for the quality they offer with the help of the Hotel Quality Index. This fair price identity will be one of the cornerstones to successfully establish the ICON brand long-term.
“Including this indicator in the RMS decisions combines demand patterns with quality data, marking a differential value with respect to other systems that do not include this variable in their decisions. For us it has been key to take quality into account, allowing a better analysis of pricing decisions.” – Beatriz Crespo García, Pricing Operations Manager at Hotelatelier.
Case Study 4: HM Hotels
The Challenge
- Time-intense competition- monitoring, leaving no time to take strategic and data-informed decisions.
- Lack of RMS that is able to integrate with Property Management Systems across the chain.
- Very rudimentary reporting functions, including only occupancy charts, price variations and predictions of only one week ahead
“For us, it has been a breakthrough. There is a before and after at the level of mentality change and hotel marketing. We needed to invest in technology and tools that would help us on a day-to-day basis and take advantage of the benefits of Big Data, and with Beonprice we have achieved it. You have to be there because if you don’t, you can’t grow.” – Estelle Lavoine, E-commerce Director at HM Hotels.
The Solution
HM Hotels has started to maximize not only time-efficiency, but also the RevPAR by using
a unique AI-driven software optimizing room rates based not only on competitor insights, but on many more factors.
Serious analysis of the software landscape and strong collaboration with Beonprice’s integrations team to ensure optimal compatibility with all relevant systems.
Provision of reports on all relevant KPI’s, customizable to the chain’s preferences and accurate price recommendations 365 days ahead.
The Results
Case Study 5: Hotel Axor Barajas
The Challenge
Hoteles Axor is a Spanish company with 500 rooms in 2 properties. In November 2018, with a one-person Revenue Management team, they realised that they needed to optimise their processes. The market intelligence tool they were using was not enough to cover all their needs. They needed to be more agile to detect variations in demand, identify days with room for improvement and guide pricing decisions based on a deeper understanding of demand. The need to optimise data collection times was key to the decision to implement new tools.
“The human approach, the team’s willingness and availability, and the fact of having a partner that shares your goals and objectives, has given us the confidence and security to implement this project, and improve our Revenue Management processes.” – Salvador Villalba, Commercial Director at Hoteles Axor
The Solution
To optimise and automate processes, Axor Hotels decided to use the Beopnrice RMS.
The agility in the implementation and the training and monitoring by Beonprice’s revenue managers allowed the Axor Hotels team to quickly and efficiently integrate the use of the RMS into their day-to-day operations. The ease of use of the solution encourages the involvement of other departments in the analysis of information, and facilitates decision making within the strategic framework of the company, including the management team and not just the revenue manager.
The confidence of having a Spanish company, which shares the values and objectives of the hotel, was also a decisive aspect in the implementation of this partnership.
The Results
The RMS allows the day-to-day work in the Revenue Management area to be optimised. Variations in demand can be detected quickly, with the possibility of correcting the strategy in an agile manner.
The efficiency of processes and the optimisation of the time dedicated to decision making, involving the management team, results in a progressive increase in ADR in all segments.
“Beonprice’s RMS contributes among other factors to the increase of ADR. It allows the Revenue Manager to focus on dates that need it, working in a simpler, more efficient and very visual way. It also facilitates the daily work of the sales management and groups when the Revenue Manager is not present.” – Salvador Villalba, Commercial Director at Hoteles Axor
