Frasers Hospitality is collaborating with Duetto to design new features within an app that will yield room rates on long stays, a traditionally underserved segment.
This is part of a larger initiative that the global hospitality company is embarking on to gain more insights into demand and boost its pricing and distribution strategies.
The new extended-stay features that Frasers Hospitality is co-developing will be available in Duetto’s cloud-based GameChanger app, which is being implemented across the company’s global portfolio.
It is the first revenue management system that uses a revolutionary approach called open pricing to optimise rates for contracted extended stays in addition to traditional short stays.
The app will help Frasers Hospitality to more efficiently find the right balance between long and short stays, and account for variable costs by room type, customer segment and length of stay.
Having such a system would overcome manual analysis of data as well as allow for better prediction of demand that goes beyond historical guest records by leveraging third-party data such as web shopping behaviour, air traffic and weather to gauge price sensitivities and recommend optimal room rates.
“Having expanded from two properties to more than 150 properties over 80 cities, we now not only have a global footprint but also serve segments as diverse as luxury serviced residences and boutique lifestyle hotels.
“This requires us to have a revenue strategy solution that is capable of handling increasing complexity as we continue to scale,” said Joanne Ang, head of global marketing and sales, Frasers Hospitality.
“Our enhanced capabilities will help us in pricing inventory, forecasting demand and improving distribution.
“This will enable us to make data-driven decisions to ensure we are achieving the best mix of business.”
Instead of traditional fixed-tier pricing where rates for different sales channels are derived from a single best available rate, open pricing allows accommodation providers to price all room types, channels and dates independently of each other based on actual demand.
By offering more flexibility in rate adjustments, this also means that guests are not turned away during peak periods when operators would normally close channels or add length-of-stay restrictions rather than sell discounted rooms.
Rates for the extended stay segment are typically inflexible and fail to account for the displacement of transient business and longer, more profitable longer-staying guests.
Currently in beta stage, the new app module will be able to recommend an optimised rate and negotiation range for extended stay contracts after factoring in various costs.