Customer spotlight: Eichardt's Private Hotel

Key Results:

• Direct-channel RevPAR up 27% year over year

• More than 30% direct-channel RevPAR growth during shoulder-season months

• Automated rate adjustments while keeping full commercial oversight, without adding headcount

About Eichardt's Private Hotel

Overlooking the shores of Lake Wakatipu in the heart of Queenstown, Eichardt's Private Hotel is one of New Zealand's best-known luxury boutique hotels. It offers an intimate collection of luxury hotel suites and private residences in central Queenstown where personal service and premium positioning matter far more than scale. At this size, inventory is precious. Every room carries significant revenue potential, and a single booking or cancellation can move the numbers for the day.

Eichardt's was one of three properties Jerry Feng oversaw commercially. Alongside it were The Spire Hotel, a ten-room boutique property in central Queenstown, and Fiordland Lodge, a luxury lodge on the edge of Fiordland National Park.

Together, the three properties formed a small, high-end portfolio operating across two very different markets: a busy resort town and a remote national-park gateway, both shaped by pronounced seasonal shifts in demand.

It is a familiar setup for many independent operators, where lean teams and high-value inventory often require one person to lead the commercial strategy without the support of a dedicated revenue expert.

Following an ownership transition in 2026, Jerry moved from a group-level role into the full-time position of General Manager at Eichardt's Private Hotel, while separately continuing to support The Spire and Fiordland Lodge on revenue and high-level pricing strategy.

Having worked with Lighthouse across several hotels throughout his career, he has seen first-hand how revenue management technology has evolved, and where it delivers the greatest value.

Moving beyond manual rate shopping

Jerry's revenue strategy has always been data-driven. Gathering the data was the challenge.

Competitor rates were checked by hand across multiple websites, with the front office team responsible for shopping rates and compiling information from different channels.

It consumed valuable time, and every manual step introduced another chance for error to creep into the numbers pricing decisions depend on.

Lighthouse brought competitor pricing, market demand and pricing position into one place. Instead of spending hours assembling information, Jerry could see what was happening in the market immediately and get on with the commercial decisions that actually needed him.

Making faster decisions when every room counts

A luxury boutique hotel runs on different maths to a large property. A single booking or cancellation can move occupancy materially, and a slow pricing decision usually means revenue left behind.

Jerry uses Lighthouse every day to monitor market demand, track competitor pricing and see where Eichardt's sits within its competitive set. Real-time visibility means he spots shifts as they happen and can act before the opportunity closes.

Using automation to improve performance, not replace judgment

Without a dedicated revenue manager, holding competitive pricing while carrying broader operational responsibilities put real pressure on the management team. Automation was how Jerry closed that gap, but only after doing the groundwork.

Once the automated rate setting was dialled in, it executed the pricing strategy continuously while Jerry focused on higher-level commercial calls.

Technology that supports commercial expertise

Automation runs the day-to-day pricing, but the strategy is still Jerry's. Lighthouse did not take over the thinking. It cut the time between a question and an answer. A competitor dropping its rates, or a shift in demand that once took hours to piece together, is now on his screen in seconds, ready to act on.

"I would not say it has changed the way I make decisions. It is more that I now have a better tool and faster access to the data I rely on when making decisions."

The manual work has gone. The commercial call has not.

Trust the process, then trust yourself

New tools can feel unsettling when you cannot always see how the system pulls and pushes your data, and Jerry still cross-checks it himself from time to time. The spreadsheet has not left his desk either.

"Spreadsheets are good tools. They may be old-fashioned, but they have proven reliable over time, and I still use them when needed."

What convinced him was not blind faith in automation, but learning how the technology worked and seeing the results for himself.

"A tool is only as good as how you use it," he says. "I would not simply tell someone to blindly trust Lighthouse, or any other tool. What I would say is: trust yourself. Trust your own ability to train, understand, and use a tool that has already proven to be workable; so you can save your energy, time, and resources for something bigger and more valuable."

Final reflections

For independent luxury hotels, wearing several hats comes with the territory. General managers are expected to run operations, sales, marketing and revenue at once, all while responding to a moving market.

Jerry believes technology should make that job more manageable, not more complicated. By automating routine pricing and delivering reliable market intelligence in real time, Lighthouse lets him spend less time gathering information and more time acting on it.