“I always dreamed of owning my own business…”

I was an accountant for many years but always dreamed of owning my own business. I started off with Parkstone Guesthouse in Weymouth, part time, before eventually taking the plunge and buying the Alexandra Hotel nearby; a 19 room hotel in need of a lot of work, but that was large enough to make a living from.
Being next to the seaside in England, we tend to get a lot of families in summer and a combination of midweek pensioners and weekend couples in the winter.
I love being a hotelier and the freedom it gives. I like to position my hotel on quality rather than low-price and I feel we reap the rewards of this.

“I still wasn’t on top of everything.”

Being an accountant, I know a reasonable amount about pricing and am very comfortable with numbers. Doing the pricing started off as a fun game, but eventually the amount of work required on a daily basis (half an hour to an hour) combined with the fact that I knew I still wasn’t on top of everything, became a drag. My strategy was to start off high, and then lower prices closer to the time if I wasn’t getting full, using RateIntelligence from booking to work out what to charge.

The problem was that I was missing out on all the early bookings because I was too expensive. But also I always felt like I was playing catch-up. The prices always needed doing, which weighed on me. And by the time I did them, it was usually already too late.

“I had 4 or 5 demos of different revenue management systems, before choosing RoomPriceGenie.”

I looked into various solutions on the Siteminder platform and I had demos from 4 or 5 providers. For our size of hotel, RoomPriceGenie was the best fit. And not just the best; they stood out leaps and bounds as a low-risk option for me.
As soon as I saw the prices, I ran them through several scenarios and I could immediately see that they were clearly much better than what I was currently doing. I switched onto the autopilot immediately.

“I find the system very clean, simple to control and intuitive.”

Marvin, Adnane and Mimi helped me at various times and they were fantastic. Really helpful, very responsive and went above and beyond for me.
I find the system very clean, simple to control and intuitive. I feel very confident about the prices I am producing.

And the results? “Hugely positive!”

Overall the results I’ve found have been hugely positive. In terms of time saving, I now have an extra hour a day. But this is inconsequential to me compared to the increase in revenue that I’ve had. I started using the system in January and in February my revenue was almost double the previous year.
But what really surprised me the most was that I always considered my pricing to be aggressive on the high side. But this August I increased my ADR by 11% compared to last year whilst still being full. I would never have had the confidence to do this without RoomPriceGenie. It was a bonus I hadn’t considered.

Last thoughts?

For me, it has been a great investment. As is says on the website, it gives me more time, more revenue and peace of mind. I would recommend it to any smaller hotels.