How Lighthouse Pricing Optimization streamlines pricing and saves time for independent hotels

Time is your most valuable resource as an independent hotelier. There are only a certain number of hours in the working day, and it’s important to dedicate them wisely. When your daily to-do list is as long as yours inevitably is, you simply have to compromise somewhere, right?

You're juggling guest check-ins, managing breakfast, and overseeing housekeeping all while ensuring every guest has a memorable experience. Amidst these critical tasks, finding the time to monitor and adjust room prices can feel impossible.

The reality is that setting the right price requires constant monitoring, deep market insights, and timely adjustments – tasks that can easily consume your entire day, unless you hire a full-time revenue manager.

But what if you didn't have to compromise? What if there was a way to manage your hotel’s pricing strategy efficiently without sacrificing other important aspects of your hotel operations?

Well, there is!

Pricing Optimization is a powerful solution designed to minimize the time and effort needed to set the right price for your small hotel – giving you time back in your day to focus on other priorities.

As your hotel pricing co-pilot, Pricing Optimization lets you easily automate pricing. It provides transparent pricing recommendations tailored to the unique characteristics of your property, while still giving you complete control of this critical aspect of running a hotel, by letting you set the rules and level of automation.

Pricing Optimization:

• independently generates 365 days of optimal rates for your hotel based on market demand, competition and more, saving you 10 hours a day (or about 15 minutes per updated price)

• can automatically send these rates directly to your booking channels

• allows you to easily tweak your recommendations and strategy, or review prices, without having to adjust day by day

• get started quickly and easily, no revenue management expertise needed

• even offers a free trial so you can understand the benefits before you commit

The importance of data in pricing your hotel room

At the heart of all decision-making in hotel revenue management, is data and analytics. But, how long would it actually take you to make data-driven pricing decisions manually every day?

For most hoteliers, the answer is 'far too long'!

You’re already stretched thin, balancing all sorts of responsibilities that crop up each day. Keeping an eye on market trends, assessing competitor rates, and adjusting your pricing strategy can often seem like a luxury. Yet these tasks are critical for staying competitive and maximizing revenue.

The daily struggles of independent hoteliers

Consider your daily routine: your attention is constantly pulled in different directions from the moment you start your day; there’s meeting and greeting guests, check-ins, check-outs, room turnovers, walkthroughs, and that’s before you’ve had a chance to tackle the mountain of administrative tasks that come with running a small hotel.

Bombarded with so many priorities, the thought of dedicating precious time to monitor and tweak room prices seems almost laughable.

Yet, that’s what it takes to ensure your hotel's profitability.

Why dynamic pricing matters in the hotel industry

Why does this matter so much though?

Take your peak season. Perhaps in times gone by, you have stuck to a static, seasonally-based pricing strategy.

It’s worked before, why change it?

But what if you moved beyond just high versus low seasons and weekdays versus weekends? Continuously adjusting your hotel room rates to match demand means:

• you could make more from every available room during high-demand periods

• you avoid underpricing your rooms during those peak periods

• you don't miss out on bookings during lower demand due to overpricing compared to competitors

Moreover, during low-demand periods, when your priority might be to simply cover costs, you can be more strategic with your discount rates and promotional strategy which will help to stimulate demand.

By always pricing correctly, relative to the available demand, you can ensure your hotel is competitive and profitable all year round, without leaving money or bookings on the table.

The complexity of setting the right price

Setting the right price is more complex than just keeping an eye on your competitors. It requires a thorough understanding of market conditions, seasonal trends, booking trends, occupancy and specific factors affecting your property.

This complexity can be overwhelming, especially when, in all likelihood, you don’t have the resources that those larger hotels enjoy – like a dedicated revenue manager, focused solely on setting and managing rates to maximize occupancy and revenue, aided by advanced analytical tools to make data-driven decisions and employ a dynamic pricing strategy.

Independent hoteliers, on the other hand, often face the daunting task of doing it all themselves. And manually.

As if it wasn’t challenging enough, maintaining competitive dynamic pricing in today’s market requires real-time access to the freshest pricing data.

According to Lighthouse research, the global rate of price changes has jumped by 20% since 2019, and hoteliers are employing more than double the rate codes they used to in 2019!

Running a hotel, no matter how big, has become not only more time-consuming, it’s become a whole lot more complex.

Embracing automated solutions in the hospitality industry

That’s why an increasing number of accommodation owners are turning to automated solutions.

Thanks to advancements in technology and automation, implementing a data-driven pricing strategy is now universally accessible (and affordable) for properties that, historically, haven’t had the resources or know-how to handle this task. This completely changes the game for independent hoteliers by leveling the playing field.

How much time pricing automation really saves you? We did the math! Our customers save 16 minutes per automated rate calculation and price update. With users typically performing 35 price pushes per day, they gain 10 hours of revenue management daily – done in seconds and at a fraction of the cost of hiring someone full time to do the job.

The overarching aim of hotel revenue management – which is to sell the right room, to the right customer, at the right price, and at the right time, through the right distribution channels – hasn’t changed.

With a tool like Lighthouse Pricing Optimization as your trusted in-house revenue expert, you can now ensure it’s done the right way: effortlessly and efficiently.

Quick and easy onboarding with Pricing Optimization

The transition to automated pricing might seem daunting, but with Pricing Optimization, it’s a breeze.

At Lighthouse, our focus is on making the onboarding process as smooth and straightforward as possible, so you can start reaping the benefits right away.

From the moment you log in, you’ll be able to start automating your pricing strategy for every single day in the next 365 days.

You'll be greeted by the calendar view (showing the whole month), displaying your current prices, recommended rates, and the prices of your competitors, as well as other key information, such as upcoming events, and holidays.

The calendar is color-coded for ease of use, allowing you to quickly identify misaligned rates and effortlessly hone in on opportunities.

Your hotel, your rules

Instead of digging through rates data, your hotel data, your competitor pricing and market data, and historical data to try and figure out whether you are selling at the right rate, Pricing Optimization brings all these data points together into a recommended ideal price point that you can either act on, by adjusting or accepting the recommendations, or automatically push to your booking channels using Autopilot.

Your hotel, your rules.

When it comes to pricing your inventory, you should have clear insights into how and why a pricing recommendation was made, much like you would from a colleague handling your room rates.

Pricing Optimization lets you spot, control and automate the optimal price point for your hotel, effortlessly and efficiently.

Detailed insights with Pricing Optimization

When you hover over any date on the calendar with the Pricing Optimization tooltip, you can instantly see why that pricing recommendation was made.

This includes occupancy, performance against forecast, competitor prices, booking pick-up, and additional context like local events and holidays – all the variables that skilled revenue managers use when changing a price.

Perhaps your on-the-books (occupancy) for that particular date is lower than forecasted, for example. Or other properties in your compset are pricing lower than usual in an effort to drive pickup to their property, rather than yours. These factors, along with the rules you have set for recommendations (such as specific thresholds for weekdays or weekends) help to recommend the optimal price point for any given date in the future.

Autopilot mode to save you time and manual work

Once integrated with your PMS, Pricing Optimization ensures your room rates are always in sync with current market conditions so that your pricing becomes more dynamic, responsive, and aligned with your business goals.

To make optimizing your pricing even more efficient, by switching on Autopilot, Pricing Optimization automatically pushes its recommendations to your booking channels (provided they're integrated).

This automation ensures your prices are always up-to-date without you having to lift a finger, allowing you to focus on other important aspects of your hotel operations.

Every hotel is unique, and so are its pricing needs. Need to keep control over specific days? No problem.

Autopilot can be customized to skip Fridays and Saturdays, or any other times you choose, ensuring that you remain in control of your pricing strategy.

This flexibility means you can manage your rates effortlessly, tailoring them to your specific needs.

You can set specific conditions for when prices should be updated. You might want Autopilot to only send new prices through if the recommended rate differs by at least 10% from the current one, or if your occupancy (OTB) is at a certain threshold.

This ensures that price changes are meaningful and impactful, helping you maintain competitive rates without constant manual intervention.

By leveraging Autopilot’s customizable settings, you can optimize your pricing strategy effortlessly and efficiently, yet still retain full control with a simple click of a button when quick adjustments are needed. You can also disable Autopilot for specific dates directly from your calendar, giving you the freedom to adapt quickly and efficiently.

Future-proofing your hotel with ease

Transitioning to a more efficient and effective pricing strategy doesn’t have to be daunting. With Pricing Optimization, the process is simple, and the benefits are immediate.

With minimal training required, it’s never been easier for small independent hotels to turn guesswork into revenue growth. Whether you’re a tech-savvy professional or someone who prefers straightforward solutions, you’ll find that Pricing Optimization meets your needs.

Our comprehensive tutorials and best-in-class support team ensure that you can confidently manage your pricing strategy from day one, freeing up your time to focus on delivering exceptional guest experiences and driving your hotel’s success.

Whether you’re dealing with market fluctuations, seasonal demand, or varying booking patterns, Pricing Optimization helps you make data-driven decisions, and automate the mundane task of implementing a pricing strategy that adapts to market conditions. This proactive approach ensures that your hotel remains competitive, profitable, and ready to meet the demands of today’s guests.

Ready to take control of your pricing strategy? Get started with a free trial of Pricing Optimization today and discover how effortless and efficient hotel revenue management can be.