Customer Spotlight: Pacifica Capital K.K.

About Pacifica Capital K.K.

Based in Tokyo, Japan, Pacifica Capital K.K. has 25 years of experience managing global institutional investor capital in Japanese commercial development projects with a special focus on the hotel sector. Most recently, the company took on the role of project and asset manager at the brand new Moxy Kyoto Nijo.

During a recent chat with Takafumi Kondo, Cluster Director of Revenue Management at Pacifica Capital K.K., we learned more about how he leverages Lighthouse’s suite of integrated business and market intelligence tools to make confident strategic pricing and distribution decisions even in today’s unpredictable markets.

Comprehensive live market and demand overview

Market Insight gives me a big picture of how current and future demand is developing for hotels around us. That’s why I usually check it first thing in the morning. Since I can’t look at last year’s data to make predictions for this year, Market Insight’s forward-looking demand data is extremely helpful for forming and adjusting our pricing and distribution strategies. 

The tool also shows how hotel search behavior develops. This has been like having a sensor that alerts me of new demand shifts well in advance. I’ve been able to use these future-facing insights to evaluate my RMS’ rate suggestions and adapt them to the ever-evolving situation. This has often helped us seize opportunities our competitors missed, giving us a decisive edge.

Quick pricing and distribution decisions based on live data

After getting a live overview of overall demand via Market Insight, I check Rate Insight to see how the compset is reacting in real-time. I have to be especially sensitive to their rate changes now since competition for the remaining business is fiercer than ever. Luckily, Rate Insight immediately reveals their strategies to me. The tool allows me to drill down and compare my pricing to my compset by room type and supplement for up to 365 days in advance. This lets me pinpoint their most recent rate updates and I can react accordingly to maintain my hotels’ positioning. 

Before using Rate Insight, this process took up almost half of my workday. Past tools could check competitor rates, but it sometimes took several hours to get results. Then, I still had to manually compile all the information into a large spreadsheet before I could even begin my analysis and decision-making. By that time some data was already outdated, and our rate changes no longer reflected the current competitive landscape. 

Rate Insight solves this problem since it provides reliable live competitor data at lightning speed. With one click, the latest information is presented on the easy-to-read dashboard, and I can immediately start my analysis to determine needed actions. Fast, data-driven decisions are the key to capturing market share at good rates.

Better understanding and benchmarking of performance

Rate Insight and Market Insight show how the market is developing and how we’re positioned in it. Lighthouse Business Intelligence completes the picture by offering a comprehensive overview of our internal performance and how it compares to our past results. 

In the past, this required complex spreadsheets with static data that only provided a narrow snapshot. Thanks to Lighthouse BI’s PMS integration, I can create a booking curve to see my real-time pick-up and on-the-books business by segment, date and market code in just a few clicks. Then I can zoom in and check the performance against any date e.g., last week or month. This gives me a relevant comparison rather than limiting me to benchmarking against the same time last year.

An integrated tech stack and ease of access

Many hotel tech products are available in Japan, but the systems are fragmented, and they don’t communicate well with each other. Using them, I would need to log in to each one individually to collect the data sets I need. Then I’d still have to organize the data before even being able to analyze and use it. 

I can skip all this with Lighthouse. First, their BI and MI solutions are easy to implement. You don’t need to be an IT expert to do it. Second, the tools integrate with all our hotels’ systems, including brand-specific PMSs and RMSs. That ensures they’re always pulling the newest data. Finally, all of Lighthouse’s products connect well with each other. They bring together all types and dimensions of data into one dashboard where I can immediately get an overview of my hotels’ current situation and drill down wherever I need to. Switching back and forth between the various hotels in my portfolio is also very easy.

This makes the dashboard ideal for presenting to our general managers and the executive committees. I can quickly pull it up on my phone or laptop and discuss recent developments, suggest new strategies and offer confident, data-backed answers to questions. 

Lighthouse BI has proven especially popular among our senior management as it tells them everything about a hotel’s performance at a glance. Our GMs on the other hand like checking Market Insight for a better understanding of the market overall, our competition and emerging opportunities. In the future, I’d also like to work more closely with the marketing team to actively leverage Market Insight’s information when planning new promotions and offers.

New developments with the client in mind

Lighthouse’s development team is always eager to update their solutions to address hoteliers’ new and changing requirements. Since I began using Lighthouse’s products, the team has added many new helpful functions. For example, the ability to flexibly compare business across different time periods has been great, especially at a time where last year’s data is no indicator for the future. Given their great performance and the frequent updates, the products’ price is also very reasonable.

Excellent customer service

Apart from providing a great suite of BI and MI tools, Lighthouse also offers excellent customer service. Their team is very quick to respond to my questions and the few issues I’ve had, have always been solved quickly. This has been an issue repeatedly with other tech providers, but Lighthouse stands out to me in this regard.

A word to your peers

I recommend Lighthouse’s products to fellow revenue management professionals. They provide live market, competitor and internal data in a way that no other tool currently does on the Japanese market. In my eyes, Lighthouse is setting a global standard when it comes to business and market intelligence, and I can’t imagine going back to working without their tools. Every revenue manager who wants to seize more revenue opportunities should give these solutions a try.