What is market intelligence software (rate shopper)?

Defining “market intelligence” in the hotel business, or any industry for that matter, is quite simple… it’s the general understanding of any information relevant to your market and using that aggregated data to make confident business strategy decisions. For hotels, it’s about understanding your competitors’ pricing strategy and demand forecasts in real-time, being aware of local events and other seasonal occurrences along with weather conditions that impact overall market demand, and using this information to adjust your pricing and revenue management strategy accordingly.

Market intelligence tools and rate shop software help hoteliers make more informed decisions on hotel pricing and hotel revenue strategies based on the latest market trends. These tools have become increasingly important post-COVID as hotels are less able to rely on historical data even from mature channels like metasearch and GDS. Previously manual processes, such as monitoring competitors’ rates, managing your own property’s (or properties’) rate parity across multiple channels, predicting your competitors’ demand, pulling local event and weather data, etc. are now fully automated. For those who operate a broader portfolio, the time savings is multiplied for each property under management.

How can market intelligence software and hotel rate shoppers improve profitability and efficiency?

Increased RevPAR: Understanding your market allows you to make informed pricing strategy decisions.
Lowered operational costs: What used to take hours of manual process now takes minutes, even seconds. Your revenue managers can refocus that time and energy to other tasks to optimize revenue for the hotel.
Implement a set strategy: Fresh market intelligence provides a clear understanding of competitor rate strategies, clearing the way for your hotel to develop their own defined rate strategy

What makes great market intelligence software?

The best market intelligence software for hotels provides accurate data collected through real-time rate shopping capabilities. Market intelligence software should also provide an excel tool for flexible data analysis as well as an API for easy connectivity with your revenue management system, property management system, channel manager, and even external data sources like OTAs. Rate shoppers should be able to compare rates across room types at different properties to give a more holistic yet granular view of the market. The hospitality industry is extremely complex and rate intelligence requires some of the most sophisticated data, tools and strategy to be done well. Whether you're a hotel chain or independent, rate shoppers should be able to help you compare key metrics like occupancy and length of stay with your local market compset in real-time to adjust your revenue strategy on the fly.

What is the typical pricing for market intelligence software?

The pricing of market intelligence tools is based on the amount of rate shopping the hotelier would like to receive on a daily, weekly or monthly basis, the number of hotels to be compared against, and the number of channels to be shopped. Everything can be customized to meet specific needs.

A sample starter package for a set monthly price could include: A handful of comp hotels Several channels unlimited live Expedia re-shops.

Each hotel needs to evaluate what will work for them and if specific reports will need to be built to meet specific needs so that the hotel has the best opportunity to maximize revenue. They also should consider if support packages and the ability to make changes as needed are included in cost or come at an additional fee. A Premium package could include multiple daily 365-day reports at over $500 a month.

How long does it usually take for a hotel to implement new market intelligence software?

On average, it takes 2 business days to launch a hotel from the time of receiving the setup information to delivery of the first reports.

Once information is received there should be no downtime, as there is no integration required or data migrations. Ideally some form of training, whether live or through short videos, could be provided to assist in the adoption once integrated.

How do I know when it’s time for my hotel to move onto new market intelligence software?

If your hotel collects their rate shopping data via API then this is a no brainer, because it is a one-time mapping. A quality market intelligence tool will supply the data exactly where it was before, making it so there is no impact on the user. The ideal situation is that you are choosing a tool with the intelligence to quite simply switch off one tool and start the next moment with the new one – potentially even having them run at the same time for a period of time. This allows for zero risk. Prior to a switch, training and a trial are great options to get everyone accustomed to the new system before the old one goes down.

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