Essential hotel rate shopping features: And 10 tools that have them

That’s where hotel rate shopping and rate intelligence software comes in.

A good rate shopper helps you respond to your competitors’ prices and other factors, using high-quality data, to provide effective pricing strategies that allow you to boost hotel performance with minimal fuss.

With so many potential benefits, it’s no wonder that rate shoppers have become an essential tool for hoteliers.

In this blog post, we consider the features to look for when choosing a rate shopper for your property or properties, and provide overviews of 10 tools that collectively – and in most cases, including Rate Insight, individually – provide all of those features.

Key considerations for buying a hotel rate shopper

Evaluating features is essential when considering rate shoppers because – in a pretty crowded market – these tools vary widely in capabilities, and choosing the right one can significantly impact a hotel's competitive pricing strategy.

Here are some of the standard features that all good rate shoppers should possess:

• Freshness of data – using ‘live shops’ is the only way to stay ahead, whatever type of rate you’re analyzing

• Shopping across distribution channels – the sheer volume of channels means you can’t check manually

• Top quality data – look for data purity, automated integrity control and comparison of a wide range of channels

• Rate details – without details, you can’t compare like with like

• Parity monitoring – see which online travel agency (OTA) is undercutting your prices and quickly decide on a course of action

• Events databases – be best placed to leverage the demand opportunities that events present

• Flexible compsets – customize comparisons based on season, proximity, or aspirational competitors

• Shopping for multiple lengths of stay (LOS) – if you can only compare data for single nights, you’re only seeing half the picture, if that

• RMS and benchmarking integration – this is essential for subtlety including pricing recommendations

• A view on rate evolution – trend analysis enables you to identify rival pricing strategies and act accordingly

• Great customer support – the best tools are intuitive, so little hand-holding is needed. But it’s reassuring to know that experts can answer your questions if they ever arise

• Refined mapping capabilities – an extension of our point on rate details, this is about observing granular patterns for apple-to-apple comparisons

• Flexible access – multiple logins guarantee efficiency between team members or revenue managers at different hotels

• Source market accuracy – point-of-sale (POS) functionality provide room rates from different domains (.co.uk, .fr, .es etc) of the same channel for more accurate rate snapshots

• Tracking KPI and metrics – with this functionality, you have usable data points to prevent you from flying blind, giving you the power to get room prices right on a daily basis in a shifting landscape

This isn’t a definitive list, of course, but it covers the main ingredients of a nourishing rate shopper dish. Let’s explore the restaurants that serve it.

10 Hotel rate shopping tools that check all the boxes

These are our top ten rate shoppers. Our selection process is subjective but there’s likely to be a very high overlap with blogs elsewhere seeking to provide overviews of the platforms you should evaluate before making a decision; these are the market leaders and they generally have good write-ups on provider-neutral review sites.

1. Rate Insight by Lighthouse

Lighthouse’s Rate Insight is a robust hotel revenue management tool that equips hoteliers with detailed, real-time data on competitor pricing, rankings, reputation and occupancy trends.

This intelligence supports in-depth market trend analysis, enabling hotels to optimize their pricing strategies and monitor competitor rates for better positioning.

This tool integrates smoothly with existing systems, consolidating diverse data to streamline decision-making and support rate parity. Its intuitive reporting features provide actionable insights, helping hotels drive revenue growth and stay competitive in a dynamic market.

Its top product features include (but are in no way limited to!):

• Highly flexible compsets, so you can easily compare different variables

• Being the first platform to combine both hotel and short-term rental data, giving you a complete view of the competition

• Parity monitoring up to 12 months in advance

• World-class, multilingual customer support

• An overview of the short-term rental market in the geolocation surrounding your hotel

The platform enjoys a number of benefits, including:

• Automatic integration with multiple data providers such, meaning you can automate your process and access insights allowing you to compare performance on occupancy, RevPAR and ADR indexes

• The most granular data on the market

2. Rate Navigator by Rate Gain

Rate Navigator is designed to help hotels optimize pricing and streamline operations. It offers real-time rate shopping, parity information and dynamic pricing with data from multiple channels. With intuitive features, it simplifies rate updates across OTAs, reducing manual work and enhancing competitive pricing decisions.

Its top product features include:

• Automated rate parity checks

• Mobile rates, geo-based rates and member rates

• An intuitive UX/UI that streamlines rate updates across multiple OTAs and channels

Notable benefits include its analytics and custom dashboards, and multi-property consolidation.

3. RevenueStrategy360 by Amadeus

Amadeus’s RevenueStrategy360™ is a powerful all-in-one revenue management tool that equips hotels with centralized market data for strategic pricing decisions. Its rate shopper component offers integration of over 10 billion rates per month from 600+ sources, allowing hoteliers to optimize rates and maximize revenue effectively.

In relation to rate shopping, its top product features include:

• Daily updates

• Integration of various marketing and booking engines

• Forward-looking demand and rate data in one place

With analytics and reporting features, it integrates smoothly into existing operations, supporting revenue optimization and informed rate management.

4. Insights by SiteMinder

SiteMinder Insights is a revenue management tool for hotels, featuring a streamlined dashboard that integrates real-time rate and availability updates. It offers extensive market data and channel connectivity, reducing manual work and enhancing the guest experience. With visibility into both hotel and competitor rates, SiteMinder helps hoteliers make informed pricing decisions for greater revenue and efficiency.

Its top product features include:

• High-definition visibility of competitors’ rates and competitors' rates

• Competitor strategy monitoring

• Quick rate shopping filters

• Room and rate-type filtering

A particular benefit of this platform is its unlimited daily rate shopping.

5. Hotel Price Reporter

Hotel Price Reporter is a revenue management platform that simplifies pricing decisions by aggregating data from multiple channels. Using AI-driven insights, it offers tailored pricing recommendations and comprehensive competitor analysis. Equipped with tools like Rate Shopper and parity trackers, it’s ideal for independent hotels, chains and management companies.

Its top product features include:

• AI summary recommendations

• Local market demand data, ranking and review analytics, and an events manager

• Information being accessible in chart view, calendar view or to download as a spreadsheet

A particular benefit is its free plan, which supports up to three hotels for 180 days.

6. Rate Tiger by eRevMax

The RateTiger rate shopper by eRevMax is a business intelligence and rate-shopping tool for hotels, allowing you to compare your rates with competitors’ and analyze market trends. Hoteliers can monitor multi-night and room type rates, maintain rate parity, and access scheduled or on-demand reports. This insight enables data-driven pricing strategies to boost revenue.

Its top product features include:

• Shopping for multiple nights and room types

• Viewing rates across various date ranges and parameters

• In-app support

A benefit of note is the scheduled reports (daily, weekly, or monthly) and on-demand reports in various formats that it offers, helping hoteliers make informed decisions.

7. Cloudbeds’ Pricing Intelligence Engine

The Cloudbeds Pricing Intelligence Engine (PIE) – or rate shopper – is designed to let you compare your rates with those in your competitive set, displaying your property’s rates, occupancy and market data in detail. You can view both the highest and lowest rates at competitor properties or focus on specific accommodations within your compset.

Its top product features include:

• Choice of showing the highest or lowest prices in your property and between your competitors

• A variety of display options

• 90-day graph and calendar

8. Hotel Runner

HotelRunner is a revenue management tool that helps hotels optimize pricing with live rate data from thousands of properties across multiple channels. Providing a single dashboard for real-time rate parity and competitive analysis, it supports dynamic pricing strategies to enhance profitability and operational efficiency across all sales channels.

Its top product features include:

• In-app support

• Quick rate shopping filters

• Room and rate-type filtering

Hotel Runner is designed for simplicity, which is one of its main benefits.

9. Fornova Competitive Intelligence

FornovaCI is a competitive intelligence platform that enables hotels and chains to conduct in-depth competitive analysis with detailed compset data. This advanced rate-shopping tool supports strategic pricing and informed rate decisions, helping hotels improve market share, optimize your revenue management strategy and stay competitive.

Its top product features include:

• Compset benchmarking

• Customizable POS settings

• Identification of up to 15 competitors

With Fornova, you can refresh data on demand to access the most current and accurate information.

10. Price Monitoring by D-EDGE

D-EDGE gathers and analyzes competitor and OTA rates to provide a full view of a hotel’s market position. With real-time updates and integration with PMS and OTAs, it minimizes manual tasks, supporting quick, informed pricing decisions to boost revenue and competitiveness.

Its top product features include:

• Discrepancy alerts

• 12-month parity monitoring

• Clear and localized documentation

Its support is also localized.

Stay ahead with reliable competitor insights from Lighthouse

Quite simply, managing a modern and professional pricing regime at your hotel isn’t possible without reliable and accurate data in a rate shopping tool.

Rate Insight provides unparalleled access to competitor intelligence by aggregating over 1.7 billion data points daily across 300,000 hotels and 19+ million short-term rentals.

This rich dataset offers real-time insights into competitor rates, rankings, reputation, and occupancy trends - giving you a comprehensive market view to better inform your pricing decisions.

Rate Insight continues to set the benchmark for rate shopping tools, recognized consistently by HotelTechReport as the industry’s best rate shopper for the fourth year in a row.

If you are looking to:

• Gain competitor pricing insights

• Identify local events to set rates

• Analyze rate evolution trends

• Spot parity issues

Then look no further than Rate Insight, the hospitality industry's #1 ranked rate shopping platform.