Customer Spotlight: Park Hotels

About Park Hotels

The Park Hotels group has been steadily expanding its footprint of unique boutique hotels to include 21 properties under three brands across India. The hotels’ unique design, innovative F&B concepts, happening night clubs, and much-vaunted Aura Spa provide The Park Hotels’ signature well-rounded lifestyle experience.

Recently, we sat with Yazad Marfatia, Area Director and Head of Sales at The Park Hotels to hear about the ways he and his team have benefitted from Rate Insight. Read on to discover how the solution saves valuable time, streamlines decision-making, and helps all commercial departments to work towards common goals more effectively. 

Straightforward and comprehensive platform

Our properties are leaders in terms of RevPAR in some of India’s main metropolitan areas. However, there was room for improvement in terms of ARR. One of the main challenges in achieving that was monitoring the market and quickly reacting to changes in demand and Comp Set rates. That used to be hard for us because we relied on mostly manual processes. This was tedious for the team and despite their hard work, we couldn’t get the comprehensive market overview we needed for fast, data-driven pricing decisions.

When I first saw Rate Insight in action, I was immediately convinced to give it a try. I was impressed by the intuitive dashboard that reveals comprehensive market and competitor information in a few clicks. The platform is easy to use, and it takes over the most laborious parts of market analysis. That leaves us more time for the fun part of the job - using our data to stay ahead of the competition.

Increased efficiency and faster decision-making

Prior to using Rate Insight, we used other rate shopping tools but they were very slow and didn’t provide the data in real-time. This delayed our analysis and pricing decisions, costing us revenue opportunities. 

Thanks to Rate Insight we’ve been able to completely change this process and speed it up by 50%. A single click reveals where we can adjust our rates, capture demand, and drive more revenue. The dashboard displays all this in an easy-to-read format. 

Now, we review the data within Rate Insight in real time, decide on the rate adjustments and implement them immediately. That way we make the most of every chance to drive revenue. Especially once demand goes back to normal levels, this will lead to a noticeable lift in ARR.

Deeper understanding of market positioning

Rate Insight allows us to look at our hotels’ positioning in a whole new way. Now, we can monitor how each property compares to its Comp Set on several levels, both for the short and medium term. On top of basic room rates, we can assess factors such as length of stay restrictions, cancellation policies, room type supplements, and even rate parity. To top it off, we can explore primary and secondary Comp Sets separately. 

That opens up new opportunities for analysis which we didn’t have in the past. Consequently, we now have a much deeper understanding of how our offering measures up to the competition. This is particularly helpful during these times of low and volatile demand where every chance to generate revenue counts.

Improved communication among commercial departments

The data Rate Insight provides is relevant and accessible to our sales, marketing, and revenue teams. This has allowed us to break up silos between these departments and improve collaboration among them. As a result, everyone’s on the same page and we can work together more effectively on our commercial strategies and decisions. 

Now, one look at the dashboard is enough for our teams to understand demand and competition at any date in the future. Together they can quickly analyze incoming requests and make suitable quotes based on current trends and the results we want to achieve. This agile process allows for the quick decisions needed to be successful in our dynamic markets.

Fantastic customer support

Customer support is also one of Lighthouse’s strong suits. Assistance is available 24/7 and they always respond quickly. The team is very supportive, whatever challenge we face. As a result, we can resolve all queries promptly, move on and get the most out of the tool. 

A word to your peers

I highly recommend an intelligence solution like Rate Insight for a hotel’s commercial teams. It’s user-friendly and provides the relevant, accurate data you need to make well-informed pricing decisions. That will help you drive more revenue and enhance your organization’s overall results.