Hotel prices tend to fluctuate constantly, even AFTER you booked a hotel for your customer. These constant price changes can complicate the job of a travel seller. Some of the reasons that cause hotel prices to fluctuate are:
Supply and Demand
Based on the occupancy level of a hotel for certain dates, a hotel might decide to lower or raise prices via their channel manager. In general, hotels prefer to increase occupancy, even at a lower rate, as opposed to having empty rooms.
Multiple Sources
As you know, the same hotel room for the same dates can appear with different prices on the wholesaler´s platform. When you use an IT platform like TravelgateX, you scan the prices of that hotel room once, at the moment of booking. You most likely will book the best available rate shown at that moment. That said, the fact that the best available rate today appeared on wholesaler X does not mean that in 3 days from now, there won´t be a better price for that exact same room on wholesaler Y.
Even though you managed to sell a hotel to your customer at the best available rate you found at that moment, you can actually use these constant price fluctuations to your advantage by doing the following:
24/7 price monitoring
Since hotel prices are changing frequently, you want to monitor the prices on your various suppliers to ensure that if a better price become available, you can re-book that exact same room for less and increase your profit margin.
Upgrade your customer´s room while increasing profit
Many times upgraded rooms will be sold for less money than the price of your original room. You can “pamper and profit” by also monitoring upgraded rooms that are being sold for less than your original price. Re-book an upgraded room that is offered for less than your original booking price and pamper your customer while increasing your net profit simultaneously.
Though cross platform price monitoring can be done manually, there are a few things to take into consideration:
Time consuming – prices fluctuate 24/7. You would need multiple team members tackling this task around the clock.
Error prone – there tend to be more errors and inconsistencies when this task is done by humans.
Expensive – how much will it cost your company to have designated people monitoring prices and re-booking reservations around the clock?
Luckily for you, Pruvo developed an automated, AI-driven solution for hotel post-booking profit optimization named Pruvo Revenue Maker. With Pruvo Revenue Maker, you will be able to:
Increase profits on ALREADY sold bookings – average increase of net profit for our partners is 36%.
Set your own rules – we will program the solution to monitor and re-book offers only based on your specific requirements and restrictions.
Save time – let us focus on profit optimization so you can focus on what you do best – selling!
Save money – reduce overhead and only pay for successfully converted reservations.
To summarize, hotels and wholesalers are modifying prices constantly in order to optimize their profits. You too are entitled to optimize your profits. Though you can do it manually, Pruvohas developed an automated solution that can do this for you at a fraction of the cost of a manual solution.
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