Obvio Hotels + IDeaS: A Revenue Management Powerhouse

The Story

Obvio Hotels, a longstanding franchisee of Accor, manages 44 properties mainly under Accor brands including Ibis, Mercure, Novotel, MGallery, Pullman, and Adagio. With 25 properties in Paris and the remainder in dynamic cities across France and Switzerland, Obvio Hotels’ operations are vast and varied. Arnaud Fougeront, Director of Commercial and Revenue Management at Obvio Hotels, oversees this extensive portfolio and has led the implementation of IDeaS G3 Revenue Management System (RMS) to enhance their revenue strategies and operational efficiency.

Obvio Hotels currently employs IDeaS’ suite of tailored revenue management solutions across their property portfolio. With plans to add these revenue management solutions to new hotels, Obvio Hotels are invested in driving top- tier revenue performance through advanced analytics and smart pricing.

Importance of Smart Pricing

For Obvio Hotels, revenue optimization is essential for precise and effective revenue management.

“Data analytics facilitate decision making and allow us to define a more precise revenue management strategy on each occupancy date,” Fougeront explains.

This precision is crucial, especially on days with high revenue potential. Tailor-made recommendations enable revenue managers to focus on the most important dates while the system handles the broader data processing.
It also helps to significantly increase ADR, especially on dates with high demand because the RMS can often be more ambitious than the revenue manager, leading to pricing at rates previously thought to be unachievable.

“The real strength of the tool for me is the forecast accuracy. I’ve worked with several revenue management systems and IDeaS is clearly the best.”

Fougeront further elaborates, “With system alerts, the system tells me which dates I need
to focus on.” This functionality enhances productivity, allowing the team to effectively manage more properties and achieve significant cost savings. The ability to optimize the entire year daily while focusing on immediate, high- impact dates has markedly improved Obvio Hotels’ revenue management efficiency.

Prior to using IDeaS, Fougeront would review and optimize the upcoming three-month period on a daily basis. Twice a week he optimized the next six months, and once a week he reviewed the full year. While this effort was commendable, the process was extremely time consuming.

“With IDeaS revenue recommendations, the entire year is processed daily, allowing me to concentrate on the dynamic next three months and high-revenue, high-risk special event dates. IDeaS significantly reduces the time needed for optimization, and it does it in a more precise way because I’m not able to calculate the models of pace for each and every day.” shared Fougeront.

User-friendly Features

For the Obvio Hotels team, several features of IDeaS G3 RMS stand out for their user- friendliness and utility. Fougeront highlights, “The real strength of the tool for me is the forecast accuracy. I’ve worked with several revenue management systems and IDeaS is clearly the best.” The overbooking tool aids in managing overbookings effectively, while the ability to view property groups as a whole provides a comprehensive view of individual markets, enhancing decision-making and improving performance across the portfolio. This allows the team to identify where they can have ambitious strategies and where they need to be cautious.

Client Support

The IDeaS client support teams provide Obvio Hotels with in-depth analysis and informative responses to their questions, providing valuable insights and guidance. Fougeront notes, “The responses we receive from IDeaS’ client care team are very precise. We have a lot of data that can be hard for us to go through, and the support teams go into depth to give clear advice on what actions need to be taken.”

Data And Analytics

Data and analytics are the backbone of revenue management at Obvio Hotels. Fougeront emphasizes, “Having the right KPIs helps us
to make better decisions.” The system’s ability to forecast unconstrained demand and other critical metrics allows Obvio Hotels to adjust their strategies effectively. The dashboards and machine learning capabilities of IDeaS provide insights that would be challenging at best to achieve with traditional methods like spreadsheets.

Fougeront further states, “If I was still only using Excel sheets, I wouldn’t be able to easily see several days at a time like I can with IDeaS’ dashboards.”

Efficiency And Strategic Benefits

IDeaS G3 RMS enhances daily operational efficiencies, enabling revenue managers to oversee more properties. Strategically, it allows for comprehensive reporting and analysis across all properties, regardless of what property management system (PMS) they have. Fougeront explains, “Our hotels use different property management systems. Thanks to IDeaS, we can get data from all our hotels under the same format and create consolidated reports.”

Fougeront advises that while IDeaS is an excellent tool, it should complement, not replace, a revenue manager.

Positive Results*

The implementation of IDeaS has driven remarkable achievements for Obvio Hotels. According to Fougeront, “IDeaS helped us to increase our ADR by 14% last year, and our market share grew by 9.5% RGI from 2019 to 2023, excluding hotel refurbishments. During that time we changed a lot of things, but one of the biggest things was bringing in the revenue management system”.

Conclusion

IDeaS has become an integral part of Obvio Hotels’ revenue management strategy, providing precise forecasting, enhancing productivity, and significantly improving financial performance. The system’s reliability, combined with strong client support and advanced analytics, has positioned Obvio Hotels to continue thriving in a highly competitive market. Fougeront concludes, “Revenue management systems are the future, and the sooner you work with it, the better off you will be in the long run.”

* This testimonial and data are provided by the individual client and reflect their personal opinions and experiences. This testimonial and data are not representative of all users’ experiences and should not be considered a guarantee of similar results.