Customer spotlight: Hotel Royal Group, Taiwan
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How Hotel Royal Group improves efficiency and targets new markets with Lighthouse
Key Results:
Reduced manual research time and improved daily workflow efficiency
Captured demand shifts from new source markets such as South Korea
Improved competitive positioning during major trade shows and peak holidays
About Hotel Royal Group
Hotel Royal Group is one of Taiwan’s most established hospitality groups, renowned for its warm service, elegant spaces, and deep integration of local culture. The group operates three distinct brands: Hotel Royal (international star-rated resort hotels), The Place (design-focused boutique hotels), and Royal Inn (urban business hotels), offering diverse accommodation experiences to different traveler segments, especially catering to serve corporate travelers.
We spoke with Mark Chen, from the Hotel Royal Group Revenue Management Team, who is responsible for pricing strategies, OTA and channel management, and budgeting across the portfolio.
With a lean team managing multiple hotels in a highly competitive city market, Mark relies on real-time intelligence to make confident decisions. His work sits at the intersection of strategy and execution, ensuring the hotels remain agile during trade shows, holiday peaks, and shifting inbound travel demand.
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Smarter pricing decisions with Rate Insight
Challenge:
Previously, competitor rate checks were done manually through Google and OTAs. This was slow, repetitive work, and the team could only complete it once a week. By the time results were compiled, competitor moves had often already shifted, leaving the hotels at risk of reacting too late.
Solution:
With Rate Insight, the revenue team now monitors competitor rate changes daily, comparing against yesterday’s, last week’s, and historical periods.
Results:
Quicker adjustments to pricing strategies in response to competitor moves
Better alignment of rates with demand windows
Improved accuracy around major city events and trade shows
“When competitors make noticeable price adjustments, we can respond with corresponding pricing strategy changes a set number of days in advance.”
Capturing international demand with Market Insight
Challenge:
The team previously relied on rate changes and past booking trends to estimate demand. This made it difficult to anticipate new source markets or shifts in international travel patterns, leaving opportunities undiscovered until it was too late.
Solution:
Market Insight provides visibility into which countries are searching for Taipei hotels, helping the team forecast demand and adjust strategies in advance.
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Results:
Identified South Korea overtaking Japan as Taiwan’s top inbound market
Reallocated advertising budget to target Korean travelers
Strengthened relationships with overseas travel agencies
“Earlier this year, South Korea surpassed Japan for the first time to become Taiwan’s largest inbound market. This has had a major impact on us at Royal Inn Taipei, a hotel that traditionally focuses on Japanese travelers. With Market Insight, we can analyze search demand from South Korea and adjust our pricing and marketing focus in real time.”
Efficiency gains and faster decision-making
Challenge:
Manual rate checks and fragmented processes slowed the team down. Competitor monitoring could only be done once per week, and even after adopting Lighthouse, the lack of PMS integration meant data had to be exported into Excel before it could be analyzed. This created delays and extra work at the very moment when speed mattered most.
Solution:
By combining Rate Insight and Market Insight, the team now begins each day with a clear sequence: review market demand signals, check competitor price changes, and then decide whether to adjust their own pricing or launch sales and marketing actions.
Results:
Replaced weekly manual checks with daily reviews in minutes
Reduced reliance on time-consuming Excel exports
Faster, more confident pricing and marketing decisions
“The most tangible changes are increased work efficiency and a reduction in the time it takes to make strategic decisions.”
Using event data to protect rates
Challenge:
During large international trade shows, the team often struggled to assess whether their prices matched true market demand. Without forward-looking insights, there was a risk of underpricing rooms and missing revenue opportunities.
Solution:
With Rate Insight, the team benchmarks current booking window prices against historical patterns and competitor positioning. This allows them to see if their pricing is consistent with the market-driven range during high-demand events.
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Results:
More confidence in pricing decisions during citywide trade shows
Avoided underpricing in peak demand windows
Increased ability to align rates with both history and live competitor trends
"Using Taiwan’s international trade shows as an example, we can analyze whether current booking window prices reflect market trends and measure demand by comparing them with historical data.”
Final thoughts
For Mark and the Hotel Royal Group team, Lighthouse has become an essential part of their workflow. Beyond time savings and data accuracy, the biggest advantage is the ability to respond quickly and strategically in a fast-moving market.
“Revenue maximization is based on using sufficient information to set a pricing strategy and to respond to changes in real-time,” Mark explains.
“The real value Lighthouse brings comes from a clearer view of market trends, allowing us to be more proactive with our pricing. This enables us to react faster to market shifts and optimize our rates in real time, ultimately leading to stronger performance against our budget.”
