Sun International Streamlines Hotel Operations and Effectively Sets Rates with Automated Revenue Management

The Story

With 36 resorts, hotels and casinos in some of the most spectacular locations in Southern Africa, Sun International is a globally recognised leisure group offering superior hotel experiences. With a specific focus on development, operation and management of hotels, resorts and casinos, Sun International strives to achieve a strong market position benefiting from its use of innovative technologies and depth of personnel experience.

Traditionally, Sun International relied heavily on a manual revenue management system for assistance in setting rates, overbooking levels and length-of-stay restrictions. Increasingly complex booking behaviours from their guests, changes in demand, and advanced system developments created the need for Sun International to find an automated solution that could focus on controlling rate decisions across the company. To automate their revenue management operations, Sun International chose IDeaS Revenue Solutions.

Sun International deployed IDeaS Revenue Management System (RMS) with Best Available Rate (BAR) and Group Pricing modules in five of its key properties; four hotels at the Sun City Resort and Table Bay Hotel in Cape Town, totaling 1,600 rooms

A system giving business direction

IDeaS BAR module sets the best rate for unqualified customers based on availability and demand. The module standardises and automates forecasting and pricing decisions, the simplicity and effectiveness of the BAR module provides the perfect solution for both the organisation and the consumer, while the group pricing module ensures revenue opportunities are maximised for one of Sun International’s most important client markets.

“We are receiving a positive return on the system. IDeaS RMS is really vetted to make us more efficient and more effective as we spend significantly less time on manual interventions and subsequently more time making effective decisions,” said Anton van Wyk, central inventory and revenue manager, Sun International. “That’s a win-win situation: the system is empowering for the consumers because they get one set rate regardless of their length of stay and at the same time it gives the reservations agents the ability to sell with confidence because they know that the rates they’re selling are actually the best available rates.

“As South Africa is often a long-haul destination, group bookings are very important, and the IDeaS RMS Group Pricing module has given us confidence in knowing that we are simultaneously looking after this market as well.”

IDeaS RMS has enabled Sun International to better understand how to expand and manage its business, especially in the current economic climate, allowing the hotel group to create a dynamic strategy. They benefit from global best practice and benchmarking. “Thanks to IDeaS, we can have access to and draw upon the very vast knowledge of key industry players. That is an amazing benefit because it really enabled our business direction,” said van Wyk.

Quick & outstanding results

Despite the current market conditions, IDeaS RMS provides evidence of a noticeable growth in revenue. Within eight months of implementation, Sun International witnessed a real increase in revenue from the BAR module on its budgeted revenue.

“We’ve definitely seen a return on the capital we invested,” said van Wyk. “We expected to return most of it over a period of 12 months, but we’ve actually achieved that within about eight months time. That was quite a pleasant surprise!”

What’s next?

The success Sun City and Table Bay Resort experienced as a result of installing IDeaS RMS led the company to implement the system in properties based in more remote territories, like Swaziland and Zambia. Sun International is confident that together with IDeaS they will continue to see revenue growth.

We are receiving a positive return on the system. IDeaS RMS is really vetted to make us more efficient and more effective as we spend significantly less time on manual interventions and subsequently more time making effective decisions.