Navigating The Pandemic And Recovery With Atomize

REVENUE MANAGEMENT

Navigating The Pandemic And Recovery With Atomize

Set in the heart of Brussels’ Art Nouveau district, the Made in Louise hotel offers 48 charming rooms in a classic 20th-century townhouse. Its cozy ambiance and familiar atmosphere almost make guests forget that they’re staying at a hotel. The property’s ideal location allows travelers to quickly reach key spots like Gare du Midi and the European Parliament. Throughout the pandemic, the Made in Louise hotel in Brussels had one big advantage over many competitors: its advanced tech stack – which includes the Atomize RMS. This helped it navigate the challenges of 2020/2021 as well as the recovery phase.

Why it matters: Martin Duchateau, General Manager and owner of Made in Louise shares how he got his property through the pandemic by increasing the level of automation and the core role Atomize played here, which steps he took to optimize operations and which changes are here to stay.

Martin has been taking advantage of the booming trend of new modern technology accessible and affordable also for smaller hotel operations. Atomize RMS has played an important role in this strategy to create an efficient and lean operation.

Top 3 Core Objectives: The owner of Made in Louise, Martin's main objective has always been to invest in a tech stack that supports a lean guest journey and an efficient operation that doesn't have to rely on a heavy headcount.

Efficient operation: To automate as many tasks as possible at the Made in Louise are so that the staff spends less time on tedious admin work. This means the hotel can run on a smaller team and reduce operating costs during both high- and low-demand times. This means fewer staff now handle a wider variety of tasks including sales, marketing, and revenue management responsibilities.
Seizing more revenue opportunities: Martin remembers that before using Atomize, he usually relied on his knowledge of the market and insights from his business intelligence tool when setting rates. While this worked well in general, he knew he could do even better with the use of an automated RMS. On some occasions, his property would fill up on lower rates for arrival dates outside of the usual booking window. Consequently, he missed some potential last-minute opportunities to yield and maximize his revenue. Since implementing the Atomize RMS a little over a year ago, this problem is a thing of the past.

Innovators Mentioned

Made in Louise

Atomize

Martin Duchateau

General Manager

Made in Louise

"“When I was looking for an RMS, one of my key criteria was that the tool should consider both internal and external data for price recommendations, not purely my own hotel’s performance information. This made Atomize the natural choice for me above other RMS alternatives, because it looks at live future demand data, competitor information, and my historical and on-the-books data. All this happens 24/7 and Atomize automatically, in real time adjusts my rates in time to capture emerging demand. Combined with the slowly increasing demand, this has helped us steadily increase our ADR in the past months.”"

Martin Duchateau

General Manager

👍 General Manager Martin Duchateau said that Wanted a RMS that considered both internal PMS data and external market data when setting prices,:

"“When I was looking for an RMS, one of my key criteria was that the tool should consider both internal and external data for price recommendations, not purely my own hotel’s performance information. This made Atomize the natural choice for me above other RMS alternatives, because it looks at live future demand data, competitor information, and my historical and on-the-books data. All this happens 24/7 and Atomize automatically, in real time adjusts my rates in time to capture emerging demand. Combined with the slowly increasing demand, this has helped us steadily increase our ADR in the past months.”"

⚖️ The selection process: During their research process, Martin Duchateau evaluated Atomize's product differentiators, customer support, and holistic value as a strategic partner and ultimately decided that Atomize was the best fit solution:

General Manager Martin Duchateau said, about their decision: "“As a GM, I have many different commercial and operational tasks to handle every day. I want to spend as little time as possible with each tool and still get the maximum out of it. That’s one of the things I appreciate about Atomize. It automatically adjusts my room rates and captures revenue and pricing opportunities for me. Atomize has basically removed the tedious task of manual pricesetting. If I wish, I can view the price changes that has been made in an easy-to-read format.”"

📈 The results: By the use of Atomize, Made in Louise has increased its KPIs such as ADR and RevPAR. It has also contributed to saving time by removing the manual and tedious tasks of setting prices by automating their price setting.

Steadily increased their ADR and total room revenue.
Atomize saves Made in Louise a lot of time and supports a lean and efficient operation by automatically adjusting the room rates and capturing revenue and pricing opportunities for Made in Louise. Atomize has basically removed the tedious task of manual price setting for the team.
The vast amount of time he saves with Atomize is another result. Martin no longer has to manually gather and analyze data or change rates. Instead, he can let Atomize do the heavy lifting while he and his team focus on other important tasks.