Hoteliers bridge revenue management and function space sales & marketing with dynamic data analysis
Blog Soundbites:
- Smart Space by IDeaS(TM) equips organizations with a holistic approach to a combined hotel strategy
- Innovative technology creates solid connection between revenue & event sales managers
- Improved meeting & events strategy will awaken a new dimension in driving total revenue and profit in the hospitality industry
IDeaS recently announced the acquisition of Smart Space Strategy Limited, a company that pioneered a cloud-based, visual strategy management solution that analyzes the business trends and performance of meeting and event space. This is an exciting acquisition for IDeaS, since it allows our company to further support hotels in developing a holistic and profitable revenue strategy across their entire organization.
Heather Hart, director at Smart Space, and I recently had an opportunity to talk about Smart Space and its ability to establish a firm connection between revenue managers and event sales managers.
MC: What is Smart Space?
HH: Smart Space was designed as an interactive application to help meetings managers better understand the demand for their space, and make more informed decisions in order to sell it more effectively. It is a holistic approach to managing this undervalued part of the hospitality business, providing data on demand trends, effective selling strategies and performance measures, such as attendee density and conversion of opportunities. Smart Space is an intuitive and simple way to access useful data related to the meetings and events business management and to support revenue optimization.
MC: What excites you most about bringing Smart Space into the IDeaS family?
HH: What excites me most is the opportunity to bring the unique benefits of a meetings strategy tool to a more global audience with the support and expertise of a highly respected brand. There are greater resources now available that will enhance the functionality of Smart Space more quickly. I think the most exciting aspect is the prospect of developing a truly groundbreaking solution that combines the analytical genius of IDeaS in the Function Space module with the simple and intuitive strategy tools and data displays of Smart Space.
MC: What makes Smart Space unique in the market?
HH: Whilst analytical tools have been widely available for managing guestrooms for many years now, there are simply no industry-wide solutions for optimizing revenue from meetings and event space. Smart Space is unique in that it encompasses the disciplines of sales, marketing, revenue management and catering management; it brings these areas together to improve strategy and sales focus by providing a simple application that puts the information necessary for better business management right at the user’s fingertips.
MC: Is Smart Space just for hotels, or are you helping other types of meetings & events spaces build a revenue strategy?
HH: Smart Space has been adopted at sporting venues in the UK with no bedroom accommodations. It was designed to focus entirely on the meeting and event space, so it is equally useful for any venue with event space – with or without bedrooms.
MC: What do you see as the greatest opportunity for meetings & events revenue strategy in the future?
HH: Access to data that was previously difficult or impossible to get to will revolutionize the understanding of business opportunities and allow for a much more sophisticated selling strategy. It will raise the focus on meetings management and enable smarter decision making. Meetings space can provide a significant contribution to total revenue, but it is often sacrificed in the drive for improved metrics of guest room sales. Meetings and events strategy will awaken a new dimension in driving total revenue and profit in the hospitality industry.
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