35% ADR Increase: How The Arcade Hotel Benefitted From Automated Pricing

REVENUE MANAGEMENT

While its location in downtown Amsterdam is quite a draw, the Arcade Hotel’s true USP is entirely unrelated to the city’s history or architecture. As you might have guessed from the name, this property offers guests the chance to get in some gaming even while on the road. In fact, the Arcade Hotel was the world’s first video game hotel when it opened in 2016. Here, each of the 42 rooms is equipped with gaming consoles. Depending on the room, that could be Nintendo’s first-ever entertainment system, the latest Nintendo Switch or a PlayStation. But even those who haven’t booked a stay can enjoy arcade, video and board games in the hotel’s public gaming areas. Despite this concept striking a chord with the target market from the opening, the property wasn’t immune to the difficulties of the past few years. We recently spoke with Steve Croese, the Arcade Hotel’s general manager, to learn how he navigated these challenges and achieved outstanding results from the moment recovery began.

Why it matters: Amsterdam has always been a magnet for travelers and often the supply of hotel rooms couldn’t fully match the demand. This is even more true since all restrictions were lifted in early 2022. The pandemic forced the team at the Arcade Hotel to rethink their operation. Contact restrictions and the loss of staff meant that they needed to find new ways to guarantee a great guest experience.

Prior to implementing an RMS, Steve handled market research and rate updates manually. That meant checking OTAs and competitor websites for price changes, determining new rates and adding them to his channel manager by hand. It was doable, but it wasn’t the most efficient or effective way to manage their pricing and since it led to a lot of missed revenue opportunities Steve knew it was time for a new solution.

Top 3 Core Objectives: Implement modern technology, removing manual labour and creating an effective revenue management process and

Implementing modern technology: The Arcade Hall began looking into tech solutions that would streamline the guest journey and help the now smaller team cope with the workload as for example, upselling solutions, guest communication and revenue management.
Removing manual labour: Implementing Atomize was a game-changer. The system updates their rates whenever it’s necessary so they can make the most of every demand shift. All this happens without them having to log in which saves them between four to eight hours of work per week.
Improving revenue processes: In the past they didn’t have a very structured approach to revenue management: They usually only had time to thoroughly check their positioning and update our rates once or twice a week. Sometimes they would see a new opportunity present itself and quickly make a change. But often they couldn’t react fast enough because they were also handling a lot of operational tasks.

Innovators Mentioned

The Arcade Hotel

Atomize

Steve Croese

General Manager

The Arcade Hotel

"I was checking OTAs and competitor websites for price changes, determining new rates and adding them to my channel manager by hand. This was doable, but it wasn’t the most efficient or effective way to manage our pricing. That led me to research RMS providers and eventually, I tried three solutions. Each one had its strengths but Atomize stood out to me for two reasons. First, it was so intuitive and straightforward, I could work with it right away. Second, the real-time autopilot function was exactly what I wanted. It’s reliable, updates my rates 24/7 and frees up time for other tasks."

Steve Croese

General Manager

👍 General Manager Steve Croese said that Intuitive, straightforward and reliable system.:

"I was checking OTAs and competitor websites for price changes, determining new rates and adding them to my channel manager by hand. This was doable, but it wasn’t the most efficient or effective way to manage our pricing. That led me to research RMS providers and eventually, I tried three solutions. Each one had its strengths but Atomize stood out to me for two reasons. First, it was so intuitive and straightforward, I could work with it right away. Second, the real-time autopilot function was exactly what I wanted. It’s reliable, updates my rates 24/7 and frees up time for other tasks."

⚖️ The selection process: During their research process, Steve Croese 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 Steve Croese said, about their decision: "Our results from using Atomize have been amazing. Despite the hotel still being closed in Q1 2022, our overall ADR in 2022 was 12% higher than in 2019. Our 2022 RevPAR also beat our 2019 outcome. And now in 2023, our year-to-date ADR is 25% above the same period in 2022 and 35% higher than in 2019. That’s all because Atomize helps us take full advantage of every new development in the market!"

📈 The results: 4-8 hours of work saved per week and an ADR increase of 35%.