Can you tell us a little bit about your hotel, your story and your future plans?

I was brought in as a revenue management consultant for the 22 room Portland Hotel in Buxton. It’s a lovely, elegant but homely hotel, in a picturesque part of the country. 

How did you do your pricing before using RoomPriceGenie? How long did it take you?

Managing operations for several hotels and consulting others means that I don’t have much time to do detailed revenue management manually. I used to have to work with excel files and go through many manual data-gathering steps; this is where RoomPriceGenie has been a godsend. As I was rate-managing several accounts, I was finding it difficult to spend the time I needed gathering information. 

RoomPriceGenie drastically reduced the time spent comparing competitors, rates and market trends. Now I spend less than 30 minutes a week checking the rates – which makes a big difference to me.

Also, trying to manage 12 months of rates without the help of RPG takes up so much time, you sometimes find yourself neglecting rates until they are last minute. Now, I know they are being taken care of.

How has RoomPriceGenie changed your business?

Unlike the revenue management solutions for larger hotels, this was very easy-to-use software. The 2-way integration into iBex PMS allows us to automatically update our website and sales channels giving us a competitive advantage. Combined with the data analysis happening in iBex, I know that I am way ahead of my peers.

The transparent pricing calculations help me understand how RoomPriceGenie thinks. And if I ever do not agree or would like a slight change in strategy, the solution gives me the perfect options to take over control. I like the ability to override rates if we need. I can make the adjustments I need then leave the system to run.

If you are going to leave software to run on its own, you need to know the rates will be good. After a couple of weeks playing around with RPG I now leave it set to Auto-update completely trusting the software with our rates. I expected that the process of building trust with a software solution would be more difficult. But as RoomPriceGenie always gives me great breakdowns of the price calculations it does, I feel like I always understand what’s going on and know I am still in the driver seat.

What is it that you like about RoomPriceGenie?

To me, great customer support is key. I always receive excellent support, especially during the setup process where I had quite a few questions. They are friendly and always there when I need them.

Since starting, I have been seeing a higher yield than expected. RPG allowed us to adapt our Summer rates quickly during the COVID-19 crisis giving us more competitive rates during times where festivals and events have been cancelled. And the ability to work 12 months in advance will help us increase forward bookings.