Top ten hotel franchisor in the U.S. commits to building culture of revenue management, aligning sales and marketing
MINNEAPOLIS—Nov. 13, 2018—As one of the fastest-growing hotel franchise companies in the U.S., RLH Corporation (NYSE: RLH) has prescribed a transformational goal for itself: build a culture around commercial revenue strategy and adopt technology that breaks down organizational silos across sales and marketing. But the company isn’t doing it alone. They’re working with IDeaS Revenue Solutions, the global leader in revenue management, to take a disruptive approach to proactively optimize revenue and create a competitive advantage.
The IDeaS G3 Revenue Management System (RMS) is designed to automate pricing and inventory control across room types, properties and portfolios. By tapping into SAS® analytics, artificial intelligence and deep machine-learning, IDeaS G3 RMS frees up revenue managers from arduous tactical duties, enabling them to be more strategic about growing revenue. This results in dramatically smarter pricing decisions and greater revenue over time.
- Redefining revenue strategy: RLH Corporation plans to align its revenue management, pricing and yielding insights with marketing and sales to create a more powerful overarching commercial strategy using IDeaS.
- Aligning business strategies to stay ahead of the competition: Knowing they always have an optimal pricing program in place, revenue strategists can focus on aligning business strategies across departments such as sales and marketing. With the increasing complexity of booking channels and more competition from hotel brands, this has the potential to leapfrog RLH Corporation past its competitors, even in tough markets.
Calvin Anderson, chief of revenue optimization, RLH Corporation said: “We need to blow up this idea that using legacy technology systems and following the status quo is ‘good enough.’ We wanted a business solution that looks beyond what others are doing currently in the revenue management space. IDeaS has done their homework in areas no one else has touched. As a result, both the IDeaS product and roadmap are ahead of everyone else. IDeaS automates pricing down to the individual rate code and room type, instead of centering all pricing around a single retail or BAR price point. This level of detail is crucial because true commercial optimization must consider a multiplicity of demand variables and respond to each accordingly. This level of adaptability and granularity gives us a more acute, real-time understanding of changing demand. While most revenue management platforms want to reach this level, the nearest functionality outside of IDeaS offers a manual implementation that is rules-based. IDeaS’ onboarding and training program has made this transition an extremely smooth and reassuring process. Throughout the implementation, the IDeaS team has been highly supportive, and we’ve already seen significant value in IDeaS G3 RMS.”
Dr. Ravi Mehrotra, co-founder and president, IDeaS, said: “At IDeaS, we’re helping RLH Corporation transform its complete approach to revenue management, but what’s more important is that our visions for the future of this industry are so strongly aligned. We have the right approach and capabilities to help RLH Corporation create an even more strategic, aligned culture, and we look forward to making this journey together a successful one.”
About RLH Corporation
Red Lion Hotels Corporation is an innovative hotel company doing business as RLH Corporation and focuses on the franchising, management and ownership of upscale, midscale and economy hotels. The company focuses on maximizing return on invested capital for hotel owners across North America through relevant brands, industry-leading technology and forward-thinking services. For more information, please visit the company’s website at www.rlhco.com.
About IDeaS
With more than 1.6 million rooms priced daily on its advanced systems, IDeaS Revenue Solutions leads the industry with the latest revenue management software and consulting services. Powered by SAS® and with nearly three decades of experience, IDeaS proudly supports over 10,000 clients in 124 countries and is relentless about providing hoteliers with insightful ways to manage the data behind hotel pricing.
IDeaS empowers clients to build and maintain revenue management cultures—from single entities to world-renowned estates—by focusing on a simple promise: Driving Better Revenue.
IDeaS has the knowledge, expertise and maturity to build upon proven revenue management principles with next-generation analytics for more user-friendly, insightful and profitable revenue opportunities—not just for rooms, but across the entire hotel enterprise. For more information, visit www.ideas.com.