Customer Success Story - ibis Tallinn Center

About ibis Tallinn Center

The vibrant ibis Tallinn Center offers 190 rooms at the crossroads of Tallinn’s business, cultural, entertainment and shopping districts. From here, guests are only a few minutes away from the stunning UNESCO-listed old town with its many museums, art galleries and churches as well as shopping centres and office buildings.

In a chat with Madis Laid, General Manager at ibis Tallinn Center, we asked how the team has benefitted from using OTA Insight’s suite of business and market intelligence tools. We learned more about how the intuitive platform helps them quickly make sense of new market developments, so they can always be among the first to seize new revenue opportunities.

"Shifting from our previously static compset to a model where we monitor the most relevant competitors in real time helps us detect trends and quickly make data-driven rate changes."

Accurate positioning and in-depth market overview

Before using Rate, Revenue and Market Insight, we had to manually collect compset data to understand how our market was developing and if there were untapped opportunities. This approach took a lot of time and effort but yielded only static market snapshots that were outdated as soon as competitors changed their rates.

We missed having a complete and live market overview and often felt like we were losing out on revenue-generating opportunities.

With Rate Insight, that’s a thing of the past. Now we can see our compset’s information live, at any time and monitor their rate updates in real time. Market Insight’s smart compset function takes this a step further. It shows data from a dynamic group of competing properties and alternative accommodation providers.

Shifting from our previously static compset to a model where we monitor the most relevant competitors in real time helps us detect trends and quickly make data-driven rate changes. That way we maintain our positioning in the market and avoid outpricing ourselves or leaving money on the table.

A deeper understanding of pick-up and future demand

Traditional pick-up reports work well enough as long as you don’t face unpredictable market developments. When Covid-19 struck and cancellations started pouring in, Revenue Insight helped us understand which sub-segments were most heavily impacted. It also showed us the business sources with comparatively strong pick-up which offered revenue opportunities even in challenging times.

As we began seeing demand return in the summer of 2020, Market Insight’s future demand data proved invaluable for us. It showed us the overall demand outlook for every area of our market and let us drill down to see how hotels around us were pricing on a given date.

We could even see how flight search volume and length of stay trends among potential travellers developed in different source markets in real time. This allowed us to recognise demand surges ahead of our competition and make the most of rebounding markets over the summer.

As we look towards recovery in 2021, we use Market Insight’s 365-day rolling demand projections to monitor shifts in traveller intent, adjust our rates as needed and keep our forecasts up to date. Especially now that we cannot rely on historical patterns, Market Insight’s live future-facing data is giving us important clues that make our lives much easier.

"Market Insight’s flight and search volume data, as well as its travel intent information, allowed us to recognise demand surges ahead of our competition and make the most of rebounding markets over the summer.."

Increased efficiency of revenue management processes

Using Rate and Market Insight has increased our work’s efficiency and effectiveness. Being able to access live competitors and demand data in only a few clicks saves us countless hours every month. Since the information is accurate and up to date, we don’t have to verify it with manual research and spot checks. Instead, we can use it instantly for data-driven distribution decisions and stay a step ahead of our competition.

Revenue Insight saves us a lot of time on collating and analysing our in-house data. In only a few clicks you can check which segment is picking up for which date, how your production is shaping up overall, who’s cancelling and so much more.

Intuitive user interface and clear data presentation

For us, one of the biggest advantages of OTA Insight’s tools is the intuitive user interface. It’s easy to find your way around and staff learn how to get the most out of it in the blink of an eye.

Rate Insight has several view options which focus on different aspects. For instance, we can compare our rates with the competition based on channel, room type and rate inclusions among other things. Rate Insight also shows us our ranking on third-party sites and if there are rate disparity cases.

Revenue Insight helps us make the most of our internal and on-the-books data. Instead of having to manually collect numbers from cumbersome PMS reports, we can just click a few buttons and drill down on the segments, date ranges and distribution channels we want. The best thing is that we can export this data into reports and send share them with owners and other departments.

Finally, Market Insight’s heatmap visualises future travel demand in a whole new way. It gives us a comprehensive overview of our market and lets us zoom in on individual properties if needed.

"I wholeheartedly recommend all of OTA Insight’s tools to all revenue and general managers who want a firm understanding of their property’s performance and are keen on getting a leg up on their competition."

A word to your peers

OTA Insight’s tools are excellent by themselves but they’re most powerful when used together. I wholeheartedly recommend them to all revenue and general managers who want a firm understanding of their property’s performance and are keen on getting a leg up on their competition. OTA Insight has proven to be a valuable partner and they continue growing, evolving and improving their products to better support hoteliers. Give them a try, you’ll be happy you did.