Increasing product packages and exposure results in 30% revenue growth across 6 properties.
LONDON, UK – Slovenia-based LifeClass Hotels has successfully utilized the Billboard Effect to increase direct bookings by over 100% with the help of RateTiger, the integrated channel manager, pricing data and guest review monitoring tool.
The 4/5 Star hotel group of six properties has been able to introduce a substantial expansion of its product offerings from one room rate plan for four room-types to 16 rate plans for 6-7 room-types. The company achieved this across all locations in just 12 months through RateTiger channel manager, resulting in a surge in both bookings and revenue. LifeClass Hotels has also improved price positioning and rate parity through competitor benchmarking reports from RateTiger Shopper, a rate shopping tool, and thereby improved exposure in their 17 sales channels of distribution.
“LifeClass implemented RateTiger last year, which allows hotels to easily analyze the market,” said Casey Davy, VP EMEA, eRevMax. “Each property has been able to take control of its sales channels by updating rates and inventory across multiple distribution channels and travel portals in real-time. By utilizing shopper reports, the hotel can calculate better rate opportunities to improve market position.”
“RateTiger has certainly made it easy for us to set rates and update all the sales channels very quickly. We have been able to expand our online distribution channels, diversify product offerings, and reach out to a new audience. Direct bookings have also increased as a result of the enhanced visibility through different OTAs – and due to the strict maintenance of rate parity,” said Alen Milosevic, Revenue Manager, LifeClass Hotels & Spa.
LifeClass has been accessing Reservation Reports, a key module in RateTiger to monitor channel performance and map demographics of their customers. Through booking analysis, the group was able to identify the top-performing channels and offer customized packages to their key markets in Italy, Austria, Germany, Russia while continuing to cater to domestic tourists.
In recent months, LifeClass Hotels has also experienced a surge in repeat business by developing a post-stay, guest engagement through online guest review websites using RateTiger Review. This has resulted in 30% revenue growth in 2012.
Each property assesses the information and responds to guest reviews from social channels like TripAdvisor, Facebook, Yelp, etc along with those associated with sales channels (like Booking and Expedia) multiple times a day.
“We have been actively monitoring guest reviews of our properties as well as those of our competitors. RateTiger Review has helped us to respond pro-actively to negative reviews, and address our product offerings,” observed Alen Milosevic.
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
