By implementing Duetto’s Open Pricing methodology, full-service hotels can maximize their profits and remain competitive in the industry by dynamically adjusting room rates based on real-time demand and market conditions.
With more than just rooms to price, it is crucial for full-service properties to constantly monitor and analyze market trends alongside business KPIs to make informed pricing decisions. This is made quick and easy through Duetto’s CommandCenter, which provides visualization and actionability on revenue performance data.
For example, Palladium Hotel Group, which has been using Duetto since 2016, uses Open Pricing to create segments and room types set up to convert at the best possible price point. What’s more, this strategy is continually evolving.
“Through careful analysis and continuous monitoring of our performance, we have identified the segments and room types that consistently yield the highest returns,” said Diego Fernandez Perez De Ponga, Global Senior Director of Revenue & Distribution, Palladium Hotel Group.
Based on this insight, De Ponga and his team adjust their pricing and distribution strategy to optimize revenue from these segments. This may involve:
- Allocating more inventory
- Offering competitive pricing
- Employing targeted marketing initiatives
This has enabled the team to get more creative with their packages.
“Open Pricing has significantly enhanced our ability to get creative with our revenue strategy and the packages we offer. With the flexibility to set different prices for various segments, room types, and channels, we can design tailored packages that cater to specific customer needs and preferences. This has allowed us to differentiate our offerings, target niche markets, and capture additional revenue streams that were previously untapped,” De Ponga said.
Discover more in our blog: Palladium Hotel Group Targets Niche Markets With Open Pricing.
How Open Pricing Boosts Revenue for Full-Service Hotels
Using controlled automation, full-service hotel revenue teams can decide what parts of their revenue strategy to automate and what needs a more strategic, hands-on approach.
Duetto’s Open Pricing methodology is at the heart of Minor Hotels’ revenue strategy in Europe and the Americas. The company operates revenue for 350 properties on Duetto.
“Open Pricing gives us the ability to have unlimited price points that allow you to optimize your full demand curve. This technique allows us to fluctuate prices based on demand, supported by defined pricing rules. Open Pricing also allows us to dynamically change discounts for referenced rates. This way, yielding and optimizing can be easily achieved, without closing availability across channels,” said Cori Galindo, VP Commercial Growth, Minor Hotels Europe and Americas.
Minor Hotels uses Duetto’s controlled automation to deliver the best revenue results, combining human expertise with machine learning.
Early adopters of AutoPilot, Minor Hotels Europe and Americas has been optimizing its entire rate structure with dynamic rates since 2017, adopting Open Pricing for all segments, including corporates, groups, and employee rates.
Duetto AutoPilot enables revenue teams to automate tactical rate changes so that revenue managers can focus more on higher-level, strategic decisions. AutoPilot works by automatically updating rates in GameChanger for up to 364 days before arrival, ensuring rates are updated in response to changes happening in the market, 24/7
Discover more in our blog: Minor Hotels Uses Duetto to Optimize the Full Demand Curve.
How Full-Service Hotels Focus on Total Profitability
Full-service hotels also benefit from ingesting folio data into their revenue strategy, enabling them to measure total guest value and work towards boosting total profitability across the property.
Being able to focus on Total Profitability was a deciding factor in Gruppo Una contracting with Duetto in 2022.
The iconic Italian chain has 52 properties located across Italy, from city center destinations to rural retreats and coastal idylls.
“We chose Duetto because it is the most dynamic in the market and the most user-friendly. It is a solution that helps you dynamically manage your room pricing but also helps with total profit management,” said Luca Vallasciani, Director of Revenue, Gruppo UNA.
Offering a wide selection of properties - from conference center hotels to luxury resorts - the group also has a wide guest demographic. Business hotels attract a more domestic market, while tourist hot spots such as Venice and Rome attract more international demand.
As such, the commercial strategies vary depending on the hotel type.
“When looking at our commercial and marketing strategies, we take into account the peculiarities of each hotel. So, strategies are clustered by group or type of hotel,” Vallasciani explained.
“In some properties, non-room revenue reaches almost 40% of the total revenue. If we are just looking at room revenue, we are missing a big part of the cake. We love that BlockBuster lets us compare displacement using the total revenue and not just rooms. This will help us a lot in driving total profitability.”
Before adopting Duetto’s Open Pricing methodology, Vallasciani and his team were using spreadsheets for their analysis and working manually in the PMS to select and set rates. The hotels had only two or three different discounts that they were offering, and the revenue manager had to go in and choose these daily. Once the hotels were onboard with Duetto this process became dynamic and automated, with Vallasciani now expanding this out to all rate codes and segments.
“As soon as we saw the potential of Duetto we expanded Open Pricing to all our other rates that were not dynamic. We want all rate codes and all segments to be completely dynamic now,” said Vallascian
Discover more in our blog: Gruppo UNA Refocuses Revenue on Total Profitability and Open Pricing
With the right pricing strategy in place, full-service hotels can attract higher-value guests and increase their bottom line.
This blog is an excerpt from our latest special report, How Hotels Use Open Pricing to Optimize Revenue. Download your free copy here: https://www.duettocloud.com/special-reports/how-hotels-use-open-pricing-to-optimize-revenue