How Lighthouse stacks up against 5 other hospitality SaaS solutions

In the fast-paced world of revenue management that you navigate daily, operating without robust software and automation could be likened to trying to sail a ship across the ocean without a compass. You may have the knowledge and skills, but without the right tools, you'd be lost, likely trailing behind your competition in the race for success.

If would-be guests are going to base their decisions on online travel agents (OTAs), metasearch and your competitors’ websites, you’ll lose out if you don’t have access to the SaaS products that will give you that all-important advantage.

Whether it’s as simple as a real-time snapshot of the advertised prices of your compset, or as complex as setting your overarching commercial strategy, SaaS tools and the data that guides them are the difference between can and can’t.

In this quick guide, we outline what hoteliers need to know before committing to a SaaS solution.

The role of SaaS software in the hospitality industry

Pronounced ‘sass’, SaaS stands for software as a service. Commonplace in all industries where decisions based on complex datasets must be made or complicated processes must be run. SaaS can be sector-agnostic – think Salesforce and its customer relationship manager (CRM) system – or purpose-built for specific sectors.

The hospitality industry is ripe for the latter, and there are hundreds of prominent options covering a raft of areas for the modern hotel revenue manager, such as:

• Property management system (PMS)

• Central reservation system (CRS)

• Business intelligence (BI) tool

• Revenue management system (RMS)

• Channel manager

• Rate shopper

• Booking engine

The list goes on.Many of them are designed to be used in combination with each other through integrations and application programming interfaces (APIs).

Given the volume and complexity of data and workflows that hoteliers have to use day in and day out, SaaS is typically:

• Accessed through internet browsers or purpose-built apps

• Mostly a cloud solution environment

• Used on a daily, sometimes hourly basis, and usually running constantly in the background

• Supported by customer success teams that can be viewed as an extension of your staff, hence the ‘service’ element of the acronym

• Available on the basis of monthly or annual subscriptions, invoiced monthly, quarterly or yearly (pay-as-you-go options are also sometimes available)

The twin objectives of using a SaaS solution is to boost operational efficiency and improve the guest experience. Let’s look at these benefits in turn.

Boost hotel operations efficiency

SaaS platforms are essential for streamlining hotel operations, improving efficiency and increasing scalability. 

Automating many of the tasks that traditionally require manual intervention, they free up valuable time and reduce human error. Your PMS, for instance, centralizes daily operations like reservations, check-ins and housekeeping management, making it easier to handle the flow of guests and optimize room availability. 

By automating these processes, hotels can focus more on service delivery rather than administrative tasks.

Another critical tool for boosting operational efficiency is dynamic pricing software. This type of software adjusts room rates in real-time based on demand, seasonal trends and market conditions, ensuring that hotels can maximize revenue without constant manual oversight. 

Integrating dynamic pricing with channel management systems allows hoteliers to send dynamic price recommendations to all booking platforms overbooking and maintain rate parity.

Additionally, reporting and analytics tools provide actionable insights into business performance, enabling better decision-making and resource allocation. 

In short, hospitality SaaS solutions help hotels operate more smoothly and profitably by optimizing everything from pricing to day-to-day management tasks.

Improve the guest experience

Beyond operational improvements, hospitality SaaS plays a crucial role in enhancing the customer experience. Modern travelers expect seamless, personalized service from start to finish, and the right technology helps meet these expectations. 

For example, online booking tools with user-friendly interfaces make it easy for guests to reserve rooms, view availability in real-time and choose their preferred options. This convenience extends to booking with AI-powered chatbots or virtual concierges, which provide instant assistance for guest inquiries, room service orders and more – any time of day.

SaaS platforms also offer personalized guest profiles that track preferences, such as room type, dietary restrictions or preferred amenities, allowing hotels to deliver tailored experiences for repeat visits. 

Mobile check-in/check-out systems offer guests the convenience of bypassing the front desk, adding to their sense of autonomy and ease. These technologies, combined with guest feedback management tools, ensure that hotels can continually refine and improve their services to meet evolving customer expectations. 

Ultimately, hospitality SaaS enhances the entire guest journey, fostering loyalty and satisfaction through seamless, tech-driven interactions.

Choosing hospitality SaaS software

Hospitality software solutions are important investments and choosing them can take time.

You need to assess them from the perspectives of:

• Functionality – does it do what you want it to do and does it have the right features?

• Is it easy to use?

• Is it cost-effective, providing a high return on investment that will increase profitability?

• If it uses artificial intelligence (AI) – and many hospitality solutions now do in some form or another – do you trust it?

• Are you convinced by the demo?

• Is this the type of software for which you’d need a trial or paid pilot?

But don’t overlook the importance of robust customer service and support, which will ensure that you and your colleagues make the most of the software and can quickly clear hurdles when problems arise via speedy responses to customer support requests.

This can be quantified through the Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) score and Net Promoter Score (NPS). 

When last measured, Lighthouse’s scores were 98.17 and 74 respectively, meaning that 98% of our clients are satisfied with our service, and seven out of ten of our customers are more than happy to recommend it to their peers and colleagues.

What is a good NPS score? Well the global average NPS score is 32, which places Lighthouse in the very upper quartile of organizations. 

What about a good CSAT score? It varies from industry to industry, but generally falls between 75 and 85, with Lighthouse once again outperforming the market benchmark by a wide margin.

But we don’t use them to brag; these customer feedback surveys help us to identify ways to improve your experience, both of our product and our service.

Hospitality management is challenging, with many plates to spin. Hoteliers that deliver exceptional service deserve exceptional service.

So look for suppliers who publicize their scores and compare them to each other – and to us.

Lighthouse: The leading hospitality SaaS partner and 5 other platforms to consider

We believe that Lighthouse provides the most comprehensive and easy-to-use solutions for today’s successful hotel revenue manager. Along with Lighthouse we also present five other valuable options which are available to you.

1. Lighthouse

We bring travel and hospitality insights to light with our full-circle commercial platform.

Transforming complexity into confidence with actionable market insights, business intelligence, and pricing tools that maximize revenue growth, our SaaS solutions include:

• Rate Insight: HotelTechReport’s #1 rate shopping tool four years running, you can track competitor pricing to maximize revenue with over 2 billion new hotel rates collected daily

  

• Market Insight: Spot and analyze market demand and get a view on trends and pre-booking demand patterns before your competitors

• Parity Insight: The hospitality industry’s #1 ranked parity management solution, your hub for monitoring, diagnosing and managing parity issues

  

• Pricing Manager and Channel Manager: The ultimate SaaS pairing for independent hoteliers, seamlessly automate dynamic pricing across all of your connected distribution channels.

• Business Intelligence: Forecasts, reports, assessing your metrics - this is the industry's leading platform to understand your business performance and drive revenue management strategy

  

But what really sets Lighthouse apart, making it the frontrunner of hospitality SaaS companies, is its winning combination of robust data insights, intuitive tools and best-in-class customer support and service.

• We provide the most comprehensive, complete and reliable data in the travel and hospitality industry

• Our easy-to-use, real-time dashboards empower our partners to quickly identify and act on opportunities

• With the highest-rated customer satisfaction in the industry we guarantee peace of mind, with live support no matter what time of day or time zone

Our always-on service helps customers succeed both in using the platform and in maximizing their results.

By putting our tools to the test with real users in everyday scenarios, we can adjust and improve on them. 

Part of why we have been able to move so many hotels into the Lighthouse ecosystem in recent years, while still maintaining high CSAT and NPS scores, is through listening to those users.

Whether looking for more granularity in the data, new dashboards or improvements to the user interfaces, we engage in a continuous process of refinement and innovation, which means every new user has an easier journey than before.

2. Cloudbeds

Cloudbeds is a hotel management system designed to help hoteliers run their operations more efficiently. Integrating smoothly with various OTAs, the platform's intuitive interface makes it simple for staff to manage day-to-day tasks. While its reporting and mobile capabilities could be improved, it remains a powerful all-in-one solution for the hospitality industry.

Features we’d highlight include:

• A strong channel management feature, which helps reduce overbookings and improve rate control

• A wide range of tools for distribution, guest experience and analytics designed to increase direct bookings and revenue

2. Siteminder

SiteMinder is a popular hotel commerce platform - a single place with everything needed for accommodation providers to sell, market, manage and grow their business. Ranging from channel management to business intelligence and payment processing.

It gives hoteliers flexible pathways to start, upgrade or scale their business through distribution and marketing technologies and a vast ecosystem of hotel technology integrations.

SiteMinder is valued by hoteliers due to: 

• Dependable channel management

• Boosting direct bookings through its booking engine

• Enhancing operational efficiency

3. Duetto

Duetto provides a number of cloud-based revenue management solutions for the hospitality industry. Products include Scoreboard, its tracking and forecasting tool, and Duetto Advance. But we’ll focus on GaneChanger, which is designed to help boost revenue and fine-tune pricing strategies. 

Its Open Pricing model enables real-time rate changes across room types, segments, and distribution channels, ensuring every booking opportunity is maximized.

Notable features include:

• Dynamic room type pricing

• Adaptable rules that respond to demand

• Forecasting tools for strategic decision-making

4. RoomRaccoon

RoomRaccoon is a comprehensive cloud-based hotel management system tailored for small to medium-sized properties. It combines a PMS, channel manager, booking engine, and payment solutions in one platform. 

By improving operational efficiency and reducing administrative workload, RoomRaccoon enables hoteliers to capture more direct bookings and manage multiple channels more effectively, leading to better guest experiences.

Its key features include:

• Efficient channel management to minimize overbookings

• Dynamic pricing through yield management

• Automated tasks such as invoicing and guest communication

5. Hotelogix

Hotelogix is a cloud-based PMS that helps streamline hotel operations and improve the guest experience. It’s designed to simplify tasks like reservations, boost efficiency and automate room management. 

The platform integrates smoothly with major global distribution systems (GDSs), OTAs and channel managers, helping to expand market reach and increase occupancy.

Of note are:

• Daily task automation

• A good management dashboard that helps users keep on top of their key performance indicators (KPIs)

Hoteliers and revenue managers choose Lighthouse

Lighthouse’s SaaS solutions are used by 65,000 properties around the world, including all of the 10 leading chains - quite simply, Lighthouse is the number one option for hospitality professionals when it comes to SaaS products.

We consider our clients as true partners - their success is our success. But don’t just take our word for it, see what they have to say about us.

We’re there when you need us, so get in touch today and see how we put the second ‘S’ in SaaS.