How Virgin Hotels Automated Room-Type Pricing Based on Demand with Duetto

REVENUE MANAGEMENT

Virgin Hotels opened its first European property, Virgin Hotels Edinburgh, in June 2022. Duetto proved vital in helping the hotel find its place in the market and optimize rates through the busy summer and Edinburgh Festival period.

Why it matters: Virgin Hotels Edinburgh has 10+ room types. The revenue team wanted to automate room-type pricing based on demand. This enables the hotel to yield each segment, channel independently, and room type to optimize revenue.

Virgin Hotels was making its Edinburgh debut in the middle of the summer season and just before the world-famous Edinburgh Festival. It was vital for the hotel to make its mark and attract its fair share of the market during this compressed period. Without historical data, the revenue team relied on Duetto to pick up on demand triggers within the market.

Top 3 Core Objectives: Opening in peak season, the main objective was to get on board and optimizing rates as soon as possible. Any delay could result in lost revenue.

Seamless Onboarding: PMS and RMS integration was seamless, with the Duetto onboarding project manager taking the Virgin Hotels Edinburgh revenue leadership team through Duetto’s distribution set-up with the PMS, as well as conducting training with the team.
Efficient Go-Live: After a smooth configuration and integration of systems came the Data Quality Evaluation, which was carried out comprehensively. Now, the Virgin Hotels Edinburgh team is working directly with its Customer Success Manager, who provides ongoing recommendations and training on new and relevant features.

Innovators Mentioned

Virgin Hotels

Duetto

Amrita Makkar

Regional Director of Revenue, Virgin Hotels Scotland

Virgin Hotels

"We have the continued support of our customer success manager, who I see as a trusted advisor. He listens to our requirements as a business and always provides us with recommendations that align with our needs, along with introducing us to any new and relevant features we can take advantage of. Every team member at Duetto is very knowledgeable in their field and their passion for hospitality, technology, and customer success comes across at every interaction."

Amrita Makkar

Regional Director of Revenue, Virgin Hotels Scotland

👍 Regional Director of Revenue, Virgin Hotels Scotland Amrita Makkar said that Continued support helps Virgin Hotels Edinburgh get the most from its revenue strategy.:

"We have the continued support of our customer success manager, who I see as a trusted advisor. He listens to our requirements as a business and always provides us with recommendations that align with our needs, along with introducing us to any new and relevant features we can take advantage of. Every team member at Duetto is very knowledgeable in their field and their passion for hospitality, technology, and customer success comes across at every interaction."

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

Regional Director of Revenue, Virgin Hotels Scotland Amrita Makkar said, about their decision: "I love the fact that Duetto looks at forward demand to provide rate recommendations. In our post-pandemic world, historic data is almost obsolete, and hence it is very important to look forward. GameChanger has the ability to gather all market data, analyze forward-looking customer demand, and predict the changes in the market much more quickly than we can."

📈 The results: Forward-looking data and short-term forecasting enabled the revenue team at Virgin Hotels Edinburgh to hit the floor running, with competitive rates priced to sell.

The team used short lead market demand data and pick-up data to be able to price and forecast more accurately.
As a newcomer to the busy Edinburgh hotel market, the revenue team found access to forward-looking demand and short lead booking patterns very important in identifying small market trends that can make all the difference.
With more than 10 different room types, the revenue team uses Duetto to automate room-type pricing rules based on demand. This enables the hotel to yield each segment, channel independently, and room type to optimize revenue.