Dynamic pricing software for small hotels: Lighthouse vs. RoomPriceGenie

Most independent hoteliers don’t have time left in their busy schedule to deep-dive into comprehensive revenue management. Manually checking Booking.com or Airbnb, updating spreadsheets and adjusting rates regularly is simply too time-consuming. Hiring a full-time revenue manager? Out of budget for most small properties.

That’s where dynamic pricing software can help. Think of it as a revenue manager that works 24/7 in the background, helping you stay competitive and capture more revenue, but at a fraction of the cost.

In this guide, we compare two well-known pricing automation tools for small to medium accommodations: Lighthouse and RoomPriceGenie. Before diving into the comparison, let’s quickly clarify what dynamic pricing software does and why it matters.

What is hotel dynamic pricing software?

Dynamic pricing software helps you adjust room rates automatically based on key factors: demand, occupancy, booking behavior, competitor pricing and local market changes. Instead of having to adjust prices manually, the tool automatically updates your rates for every day of the year.

Good hotel pricing software helps you:

• Understand the market and strategic decisions

• React instantly to spikes in demand

• Avoid underselling when your competitors increase their rates

• Stay competitive during low season

• Detect and react to demand trends or local events

• Save hours each week on manual work

For small properties with limited time and no revenue manager on staff, this type of automation can be a game changer.

Large hotel chains adjust prices multiple times a day because they have dedicated revenue staff monitoring the market and optimizing prices at least daily. Small hotels don’t have that luxury, but do face the same pressures – sudden market shifts and potential guests who are comparing hotel prices online. Many independent hoteliers still rely on:

• Spreadsheets and manual data collection

• Guesswork and gut feeling

• Time-consuming searches on OTAs

• Fixed pricing or occasional price adjustments

This creates three common problems for independents:

1. Missed revenue: Rooms priced too low on high-demand days.

2. Lost visibility: Rates that don’t stay competitive and aligned with the market

3. Wasted time: Manual data analysis and updates taking hours every week

Smart pricing automation keeps your rates competitive around the clock, without adding more work to your day.

What to look for in pricing software for your small hotel?

Independent hoteliers often tell us they’re short on time, stretched thin and not full-time revenue managers. Sounds familiar? When comparing tools, focus on the three areas that have the most impact.

1. Quality of the data and price recommendations

Your recommendations are only as good as the data powering them. You want a system that:

• Monitors competitor prices in real time

• Scans demand patterns and sudden market shifts caused by events

• Updates recommendations multiple times a day

• Works with accurate, comprehensive data

2. Transparent automation you can trust

Reliable pricing automation needs to be transparent and give you peace of mind that everything is running smoothly, without requiring your constant attention or fully compromising your autonomy. Your pricing tool should:

• Clearly explain why each recommendation is made

• Give you flexible settings to suit your strategy

• Allow a balance of control and automation

• Push updates to all channels seamlessly

3. Simplicity and ease of use

A small team needs tools that work without a long learning curve. Your pricing software should feel intuitive from day one and reduce your workload, not add to it. That means giving you only the information you need, presented clearly, so you can act fast. Look for pricing software that offers:

• A clean, easy-to-interpret interface without unnecessary complex details

• Visual feedback that highlights important changes at a glance

• Reliable integrations with your Channel Manager and/or PMS

• Fast setup and minimal training required to start optimizing your pricing

Comparison: Lighthouse vs. RoomPriceGenie hotel pricing software

In this part, we’re comparing Lighthouse’s Core, Plus and Complete plans with RoomPriceGenie’s Advanced and Professional plans, because these solutions offer dynamic pricing automation.

We aren’t including RoomPriceGenie’s Starter plan, because the pricing automation capabilities are very limited and therefore not comparable to Lighthouse.

Used terminology and abbreviations:

• Competitive set or compset: Selection of most important direct competitors of your hotel

• Lead time: Days left before the arrival date

• Booking window: How many days in advance the booking is made

• OTB (occupancy): On the books (current occupancy rate of your own hotel, the percentage of rooms booked)

• Market OTB: Occupancy rate of the market (average of all hotels)

• ROI: Return on investment (returns minus costs)

• Algorithm: The collection of data-based smart rules behind automated price recommendations

• User interface: What the tool looks like for users

• Forecast: Prediction for future demand, occupancy, …

• Offsets: Automatic price calculations that are added or subtracted from the base rate for different room types, channels, …

• KPIs (Key Performance Indicators): The main metrics used to measure performance

Price comparison

Lighthouse plans

• Core: Automated pricing via external channel manager/PMS

• Plus: Automated pricing + channel distribution + direct bookings + payments

• Complete: All-in-one platform to manage your property

RoomPriceGenie plans

• Advanced: Automated pricing via external channel manager/PMS, limited RMS features

• Professional: Automated pricing via external channel manager/PMS, all RMS features

Conclusion: Which hotel pricing software should you choose?

Lighthouse's pricing software stands out as the best pick for small hotels based on four key differentiators:

• Full automation, maximum time savings and ease of use

• Quality recommendations based on the industry’s best and most comprehensive dataset

• All the essential dynamic pricing features at an affordable price

• Full platform to maximize revenue: Optimized prices, distribution and operations in one tool

RoomPriceGenie and Lighthouse both help small accommodations increase revenue by around 19% on average. The main differences between both providers lie in capabilities, ease of use and value for money.

RoomPriceGenie provides a strong revenue management tool with quality price recommendations. The Professional plan includes solid functionality, but it comes at a high price point for a stand-alone tool that needs to be combined with third-party tools for essential areas like channel management or direct bookings. Their more affordable Advanced plan, which is comparable to Lighthouse in pricing, is significantly more limited.

In order to maximize use of all RoomPriceGenie’s features and get your money’s worth, you may need to spend more time getting to know the tool, regularly analyzing the various dashboards and learning about revenue management strategies to optimize settings for your property. This can reduce efficiency and flexibility for users. Because of the vast number of options available to modify the algorithm, it will be harder for you to find and adjust the responsible setting if the tool isn’t producing the desired price recommendations.

Lighthouse takes a different approach, focusing on:

• Maximum ease of use

• Minimal time investment

• Fully transparent recommendations

• All essential automation in one place

• Minimizing your workload

• Keeping you in control

The Core, Plus and Complete subscription plans from Lighthouse include the same pricing intelligence to achieve 19.25% more revenue on average, so there’s no need to upgrade to a higher-paying plan to receive better price recommendations. The platform (Plus & Complete plans) also encompasses other essential hotel tech to further maximize revenue and efficiency, giving you a far more complete solution and a higher return on investment (ROI).

Below, we’ll lay out the key differences between Lighthouse and RoomPriceGenie in more detail.

Lighthouse platform for independents: Best value for money

Full automation, maximum ease of use

Lighthouse is built specifically for small teams and property owners that don’t have hours to analyze spreadsheets and tweak settings. The intuitive pricing calendar, prioritized recommendation feed and quick override function let you manage pricing in minutes. See at a glance which changes and data points are worth your attention, so you don’t get overwhelmed. Instead of drowning in different dashboards, all the key information you need comes to you and we take care of the rest.

The tool is designed to run quietly in the background to maximize time savings and minimize effort on your part. Rather than overloading you with additional options and settings, Lighthouse’s pricing solution has these capabilities built into the algorithm, so everything is fully automated. That way, you don’t have to think about sudden event-driven demand surges, potential orphan gaps or adjusting your strategy for shoulder days, for example. The price recommendations already take these factors into account for you.

Aside from ease of use, transparency is another top priority for Lighthouse. In contrast to RoomPriceGenie, we show you exactly how every recommendation is calculated to keep you well-informed and in control. This feature makes it easy to override a recommendation when you know something the system doesn’t.

Quality recommendations based on the industry’s best data

Data quality – one of the most important requirements for a robust dynamic pricing solution – is where Lighthouse truly outshines other providers. Ever heard of ‘garbage in, garbage out’? It comes down to this: Your price recommendations are only as accurate as the data that goes into them.

Lighthouse works with the most comprehensive dataset in hospitality, trusted by big chains and revenue managers worldwide. We process billions of data points per day and automatically validate them in real time, ensuring your recommendations are always based on the freshest, most accurate insights. Our system takes into account supply and pricing of alternative lodging options – not just hotels or competitors – to get a complete view of the market. Many software providers actually buy Lighthouse data for their tools, causing a delay that our own users don’t experience.

All the dynamic pricing features you need at an affordable price

With RoomPriceGenie, you still need a separate channel manager and/or PMS to fully automate pricing. With Lighthouse, you can get everything in one platform – pricing, distribution, direct bookings, payments and reception tasks – keeping things as simple and cost-efficient as possible.

If you want to keep your current distribution tool, Lighthouse still offers a more affordable pricing solution (Core, from €99/month) compared to RoomPriceGenie (from €189/month). However, most small properties get the best value from Lighthouse’s Plus and Complete plans, which include all core tech without relying on extra vendors. A fragmented tech stack typically leads to higher total costs, higher risk of errors and lower efficiency.

The full revenue picture: Optimized prices, distribution and operations in one tool

Revenue management is about much more than just setting prices. Revenue experts are moving away from metrics like ADR and RevPAR, but increasingly focusing on Total Revenue management. While RoomPriceGenie provides detailed insights into your room rates (ADR) and occupancy, this only makes up half of the revenue puzzle. Your overall profitability also depends on:

• OTAs vs. direct bookings

• OTA commission costs

• Average guest value

• Room turnover

• Operational efficiency and staffing costs

• Guaranteed payments

Rather than focusing solely on pricing, Lighthouse goes further by optimizing your distribution as a whole. Are you filling most of your rooms with budget-conscious guests who book through high-commission channels? Or are you successfully attracting high-value guests through your own website? That makes a huge difference in your bottom line. Thanks to Smart Distribution, you get the right price on the right channel, with automated recommendations for availability and strategic length-of-day restrictions. This improves visibility, reduces commission and ensures you capture the most profitable bookings.

Aside from total revenue management, efficiency and integrated systems are also becoming more crucial than ever. The last thing busy hoteliers need is a more fragmented tack stack to add to their already complex day-to-day. Together with the booking engine, payment solution and reservation manager, Lighthouse helps you streamline and optimize everything from pre-booking to post-check-out in one user-friendly platform.

Become more competitive and profitable, starting today

In today’s competitive and unpredictable market, dynamic pricing is no longer optional but essential for long-term profitability. Adopting the right pricing automation tool for your hotel will help you succeed in an increasingly challenging market.

If you want to optimize your pricing and distribution strategy but don’t have the right expertise or time to spare, then Lighthouse is the solution built for you. Lighthouse brings you the same powerful data trusted by chains, but tailored to your unique needs as an independent hotelier or B&B owner.

Our all-in-one platform gives you:

• Hourly-updated price recommendations

• AI-powered distribution across 200+ channels

• A commission-free website booking module

• Automated payment processing

• Streamlined front-desk tasks

• Avoid the cost and complexity of juggling multiple tools. Choose maximum profitability while keeping things simple.

Want to see Lighthouse's dynamic pricing software in action? Start your free trial or request a quick walkthrough of our platform today. We’re here to make your day-to-day easier, help you stay ahead of competitors and give you back time to focus on what really matters: hospitality.