Hotel price monitoring is a vital practice in which many hotel owners engage. In this article, we are going to talk about what it is and some reasons why you’ll want to implement it. We’ll also mention a few tools that will help you monitor hotel prices if you’ve never done it before.
Let’s begin with a definition of hotel price monitoring. This is a process by which hotel owners track the price of hotel rooms. They will ordinarily do so both within their own portfolio and across those of their closest competitors.
This is a data-driven approach that makes sense in the modern era. The intention of it is to enable you to make informed pricing decisions. When you do so, you will hopefully remain competitive in the market. You can attempt to maximize your revenue at the same time.
There’s an additional element to this methodology that’s worth talking about. The key to properly measuring the results of each hotel’s business model is to compare it to its competitors. It is the only way to know whether your hotel is really doing things well or not.
The main KPIs for hotel benchmarking are RGI, which is related to RevPAR, ARI, which is related to ADR, and MPI, which relates to occupancy.
You can regard pricing as a foundational centerpiece that plays a huge part in attracting guests. It also ensures your establishment’s financial viability. A successful hotelier will always invest capital, effort, energy, and time into mastering it.
Installing a hotel price tracker offers many potential benefits. When you have one in place, you can aim for a future with projections of long-term growth. You can invest in improvements and other projects that you feel will have value for your business model. In short, you can make informed decisions and better understand the market as well.
With hotel price monitoring in place, you will have a handle on the details and data that are so crucial for remaining competitive. You should be able to stay ahead of your competitors and not sacrifice your own revenue while you do it. Armed with the knowledge a hotel price tracker gives you, you can make the smartest decisions about pricing your rooms and services.
Now, let’s go over some of the specific benefits you can expect when you set up hotel price monitoring.
Let’s say you set up consistent hotel price monitoring. When you do, you’ll get a steady stream of subsequent insights.
This is what you’ll use to lay the groundwork for sustainable growth. This knowledge will let you understand emerging market trends. It will allow you to know what your guest preferences are as well. It will let you know the effectiveness of your pricing strategies.
When you consider all of these perks, it becomes obvious how inexorably linked long-term strategic decisions and hotel pricing monitoring are.
Allocation of resources come into play with hotel price monitoring as well. When you set up a way to monitor hotel prices, you derive various insights. You can then allocate resources more efficiently with those in mind.
For instance, maybe you run into a high-demand period. During such a time, you can channel your available resources to ensure optimal guest experiences. If this is followed by a time of low demand, you can then direct more of your efforts toward the marketing and promotion that’s necessary to keep your business afloat till things pick up again.
You can manage your revenue when you have a hotel price tracker in place. Since effective revenue management can’t be overlooked if you want to run a profitable business, there’s no overemphasizing how much this matters.
You can analyze and monitor pricing trends with a hotel price tracker. You can devise a strategy that’s perfect for maximizing your revenue during peak periods. You can also keep your cash flow steady when you hit those off-peak times, though. This can offset your hotel’s costs so that you can remain profitable year-round.
You can never stay at the top of your niche without data, and there are few methods of gathering it that are as effective as implementing a hotel price monitoring system. You can get a robust, accurate stream of data with the right hotel price tracker.
With that data, you can make real-time decisions. You might set your room rates with that data. You can also devise special offers. When you have a clear understanding of the pricing landscape that always surrounds you in this particular niche, the data-driven decisions you make can be the main reason your hotel keeps making money.
You can also improve guest satisfaction with the right hotel price monitoring tool. Offering competitive prices will always attract guests. It can also augment a room’s perceived value, not to mention any add-ons you’re also offering.
A satisfied guest is one who is much more likely to return. They will also recommend your hotel to others. They might very well leave you some positive feedback online, which works as a form of marketing. These are invaluable components of building your brand’s reputation, with hotel price monitoring serving as their basis.
Competitive benchmarking refers to staying relevant while in an ultra-competitive industry. At all times, remember that the market is teaming with choices, all of them clamouring for a potential guest’s attention. If you have hotel price monitoring in place, you can do a real-time comparison of your prices with those of your closest competitors.
You can quickly change your prices if you sense that’s the right move. This is how you stay an attractive option for potential guests during peak times of the year.
It’s a delicate balancing act to find your ideal price point. If your room’s price is too high, either from hotel fees or directly from a room’s cost, you will probably alienate your possible guests. However, if you price a room too low, that can hurt you as well, since you’re leaving money on the table.
With hotel price monitoring in place, you’ll have access to the necessary data to identify the sweet spot. This is the place you live in as a business if you hope to maximize revenue while keeping your customer base satisfied as well.
Hotel price monitoring can help you out in one additional way that’s worth mentioning. The pricing landscape to which your hotel belongs is in a constant state of flux, not just day to day, but sometimes hour by hour. Competitor pricing strategies certainly play a part in this, but so does seasonality. Local events often enter into this equation as well.
If you monitor hotel prices, you will be able to study these market dynamics and get back a treasure trove of information that you can apply not just in the moment, but in the future. You can adjust your booking strategies accordingly, whether you’re relying more on direct bookings or OTAs via a channel manager. You can also go back to this data later if you’re ever uncertain of the best path forward with your room pricing or marketing efforts.
Now that you have an idea of some of the uses of hotel price monitoring, let’s talk about some of the specific tools for independent hotels that can help you in this regard.
Just like virtually any other aspect of the hotel industry, there is no shortage of competition when it comes to hotel price monitoring tools. You will need to consider several features of these trackers to decide which one will work best for you. If you’re an independent hotel owner, and you’re not using any tool yet, the Google Hotel Price Tracker should be on your radar.
First, you’ll need the Google app on your mobile device. When you navigate to Google, you can type in a phrase like “Google hotels Los Angeles” or “Google hotels New York.” You’ll be prompted to enter the exact dates for which you’re searching for hotel accommodations. You should also make sure you have no filters on for the best results.
The search engine will come up with a comprehensive hotel list for you with rooms available for those dates. When you scroll down the first Google Hotels page that comes up, you should see a “Turn on Price Alerts” button. Turn this on.
You have now set up your alerts. As you can see, it’s about as straightforward to use as it gets. It’s also free, which obviously is great for you as a business owner. However, keep just a few details in mind if this is the tool you elect to use.
One drawback of this particular price tracker is that if you set up at least one filter, the price tracker won’t work the same way as it will without any filters on. This is obviously pretty limiting for you.
If you’re in some countries, the hotel pricing toggle won’t work. For instance, if you’re in some parts of Europe, you will need to activate a VPN if you want the toggle to work for you.
This tracker also does not work on flexible dates. You must have specific dates selected. Finally, when you use this tracker, you can’t monitor prices for any specific hotel. You can only track all of the hotel pricing changes for the destination that you have chosen.
Despite these limitations, many hotel owners find this simple monitoring tool highly useful. Now, let’s take a quick look at a few of the other options that are out there.
If you’re thinking you want a hotel price monitoring tool that provides you even more insight, you might go with something like eZee Mint. It’s revenue management software. Many hotels view it as a comprehensive solution if they want both data-driven insights and a way of streamlining their pricing process.
There’s also SiteMinder, one of the better-known names in the industry. It features real-time price monitoring, intelligent revenue analytics, and dynamic pricing automation.
PriceIntelGuru is another option. It comes with in-depth competitor analysis, historical data analysis, and many customizable alerts.
Most hotel owners will agree they need a hotel price monitoring tool. Whether they’re okay with a free option or they pay for one, they will most likely want to see a few specific things from the one they pick.
Customer support will certainly be something hotel owners will look for, especially if they’re paying for one of these tools. You will also want one with a user-friendly interface.
Comprehensive reporting is a must-have, as is automation. You will want one that comes with real-time data. The solution you choose should also have easy customization and integration with your existing hotel management system.
You and the rest of your hotel’s decision-making team can take some time to look at the available hotel price monitoring tools and choose the one that seems like the best fit for you. The one you choose will probably be as impactful as your hotel reservation system or your hotel channel manager in determining whether your business remains profitable and competitive.
While some hotels get along fine with a free hotel price monitoring tool like Google’s, you might feel that it’s worth it to pay for one. Either way, using these tools for data and insights should give you a competitive edge. Ignore these tools, and it’s highly likely you’ll fall behind your closest competitors in the cutthroat game of hotel relevance.
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