How to capture more revenue with automated pricing
This guide – written explicitly for the independent hotelier – will explain the concept, strategies and benefits of automated hotel pricing. We’ll show you why automated pricing is the secret to capturing more bookings, higher room rates, and more revenue every day, even while you sleep. That is if you have time for sleep.
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Contents
1. Earn More Revenue While You Sleep
2. How Competitive Is Your Pricing?
3. Dynamic Pricing: Aligning Rates with Market Demand
4. Obstacles to Dynamic Pricing
5. Automated Pricing: A Game Changer
6. How Does Automated Pricing Work?
7. Benefits of Automated Pricing
8. Pricing Strategies to Boost Performance
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Features to Prioritize in Pricing Software
When shopping for pricing software, it’s important to do your research. You don’t want to pay for complex features you will never use, nor do you want to compromise on a cheap solution with limited capabilities.
For small, independent properties, here are the features to prioritize.
Ease of use: If the solution is complicated, staff may avoid it. A small property needs software that is quick to install, simple to learn, and easy to operate.
Algorithmic pricing: Be wary of simple rules-based tools that automate pricing based on occupancy or competitor rates. An algorithmic pricing model factors in a range of internal and external data sources to make better pricing decisions.
Transparency: The dashboard should provide a calendar of daily hotel performance, including occupancy, ADR, revenue, and rooms left to sell, along with a breakdown of factors to explain pricing decisions.
Smart automation: Many tools provide recommendations only, requiring the user to approve rates and manually upload them to the PMS. To truly save time, find a solution that automates pricing decisions and uploads them to the PMS for you.
Control: You should always maintain control of your pricing. This means being able to choose between decision and recommendation mode, set pricing aggressiveness and target occupancy, and implement fixed rates and overrides.
Forward-looking data: Rather than rely on historical data and risk repeating past mistakes, the solution should make pricing decisions based on current conditions, adjusting rates as demand patterns change.
Two-way connectivity: The solution should be cloud-based to allow user access from anywhere and feature a
two-way integration with your PMS or channel manager to enable automatic updates several times a day.
Support: To avoid upfront costs, ask about a monthly subscription model and free onboarding, as well as a free
trial, fast setup, and flexible cancellation. Also important are customer support, advisory services, and learning opportunities.
“When we started, our goals were to drive more revenue plus save time on the manual pricing work. And the results speak for themselves. Our occupancy is up by 10% compared to last year and revenue by about 15%”
– Emma Browning & Tony Reid
The Hanmer Springs Scenic View Motel, New Zealand
Contents
1. Earn More Revenue While You Sleep
2. How Competitive Is Your Pricing?
3. Dynamic Pricing: Aligning Rates with Market Demand
4. Obstacles to Dynamic Pricing
5. Automated Pricing: A Game Changer
6. How Does Automated Pricing Work?
7. Benefits of Automated Pricing
8. Pricing Strategies to Boost Performance
