Hotel rate shoppers: What are they and how do you pick one?

Why a rate shopper is an invaluable tool for hoteliers

Hotel revenue management has never been more challenging. The markets are unpredictable, margins are thin, and competition is fierce from both traditional hotels and short-term rentals.

Guests are also savvier than ever, looking for unique experiences and the best value.

How do you keep up?

By aligning your room rates with guest expectations and market trends.

To run a profitable hotel, you must now know exactly what your competitors are doing and what’s happening across your distribution channels at all times.

Given the complex market conditions and the sheer volume of data that’s needed to optimize room pricing, the only way for hoteliers to keep informed is with the help of a rate shopping tool.

What is a hotel rate shopper?

A rate shopper is a tool that automates the collection of hotel pricing data, showing how your hotel’s rates compare to competitors.

It allows revenue managers and commercial decision-makers to monitor and benchmark their rates across all key channels, including OTAs, brand.com and GDS - eliminating the need for manual data collection - so that they can maximize their hotel’s revenue and overall profitability.

This will help you to implement an effective pricing strategy that is in line with market conditions and your compset.

Often hoteliers use this as part of a broader revenue management strategy or targeted towards specific periods - such as high season or low season - to ensure they always competitively price their inventory.

During local events with high demand, such as a summit or major conference, a rate shopper would help you to keep track of competitor rates and market trends, enabling you to adjust your room rates upwards quickly to meet current market conditions.

How a rate shopper helps hotels drive revenue

Using a rate shopper in hotel revenue management brings you four key benefits:

1. The tools to implement the right strategy at the right time to maximize profitability
   Knowing how your hotel fits into your market’s competitive landscape helps you make informed, effective pricing decisions that will help you seize more revenue opportunities.

   By using a hotel rate shopping tool, you have all the right data at your fingertips meaning that you can implement pricing strategies that reflect current market conditions, allowing for more responsive and effective yield management that maximizes revenue opportunities.

2. A complete overview of your market and your competition
   Rate shoppers present market data and competitor rates in a clear, easy-to-understand format, eliminating the need for complex Excel spreadsheets. This comprehensive view allows you to track competitors' prices and ensure rate parity across distribution channels which, in turn, protects your brand’s reputation and prevents unnecessary revenue leakage.

3. Agility so you can be ahead of the pack
   Instead of manually checking competitors' rates, a rate shopper provides all the market intelligence for you, freeing up time for strategy, forecasting, and analysis.
   

   This agility helps you identify and react to demand changes faster than your competitors, meaning you can be more dynamic with your pricing strategies and minimize the risk of unsold or underpriced rooms that stem from a pricing position that is out of sync with demand and market conditions.

4. Saved time on data collection
   By automating the data collection process, rate shoppers save you significant time and effort. A consolidated view of critical data on a single platform allows you to focus on improving customer satisfaction and making informed strategic decisions.
   

   In short, rate shoppers help you better understand your competitors, identify market trends early, and maximize revenue year-round.

   

Key boxes your hotel rate shopper should check

When selecting a rate shopper, there are several critical features and capabilities to consider to ensure you choose a tool that meets your needs.

1) Data quality, quantity and diversity

The goal of using a rate shopper is to provide more and higher quality data than you could collect manually. No good decisions can come from second-rate data, so prioritizing the quality, quantity, and diversity of the data your tool offers is essential.

• Continuous access to live data
  
  Today’s market is fast-paced.
  
  Having continuous access to real-time data is crucial. Many rate shoppers still only offer market snapshots once or twice a day, which isn't sufficient to stay competitive.
  
  The best rate shoppers provide real-time data updates, allowing hoteliers to adjust their room prices promptly.

• Broad data sets covering the whole market
  Effective rate shoppers pull data from a wide array of booking sources, including OTAs, GDS, direct booking channels, and even short-term rental platforms like Airbnb. This ensures you get a full picture of market demand and rate evolution. The best tools integrate this diverse data into a single interface, making it easy to compare and analyze information.

• High-quality, accurate information
  Even vast amounts of data are useless if the information is inaccurate. High-quality rate shoppers employ advanced anomaly detection and integrity controls to ensure the data is accurate and reliable. When evaluating a rate shopper, inquire about their data validation processes.

Specific features to look for:

1. Real-time data updates: Ensure the rate shopper offers continuous data refreshes.

2. Comprehensive coverage: Look for tools that gather data from OTAs, GDS, short-term rentals, and direct booking channels.

3. Data accuracy measures: Check if the tool has robust data validation processes, including anomaly detection and integrity controls.

4. User-friendly interface: The interface should allow easy access to and comparison of diverse data sets.

5. Historical data analysis: Ability to analyze past data trends for better forecasting.

2) Advanced market monitoring

Always knowing where your hotel stands in the market, where your rooms are selling, and if all partners are adhering to agreements is crucial. The right rate shopper can help you do this effectively.

• Shopping across distribution channels
  Manually monitoring numerous distribution channels is impossible. The best rate shoppers offer extensive global connectivity, pulling data from various OTAs, GDS, and regional channels. This includes major platforms like Ctrip in China and Rakuten in Japan, as well as short-term rental sites like Airbnb. Including these diverse sources ensures you get a complete market picture.

• Parity checks
  Rate disparity can lead to lost revenue and customer trust. Effective rate shoppers highlight rate discrepancies across channels, allowing you to maintain rate parity and avoid losses from undercutting partners.

Specific features to look for:

1. Multi-channel monitoring: Ability to track rates across OTAs, GDS, regional channels, and short-term rental sites.

2. Rate parity alerts: Notifications for rate discrepancies to maintain pricing consistency.

3. Comprehensive connectivity: Access to both global and regional distribution channels.

3) Precise rate comparison

Gathering competitor rates helps ensure your hotel is positioned optimally and lets you understand competitor strategies. To do this effectively, your rate shopper needs to offer granular comparisons.

• Refined room mapping
  Apples-to-apples comparisons require refined mapping so that you’re evaluating equivalent room types and rate parameters. Your rate shopper should:
  
  a) Map comparable room types: Match true equivalents despite different naming conventions
  
  b) Consider rate parameters: Account for length of stay (LOS) restrictions, inclusions (e.g., breakfast, airport pickup), meal plans, and room types.

• Length of stay comparison
  Many rate shoppers only compare one-night stays. For a better understanding, gather data for multiple stay lengths.
  
  This reveals strategies like long-stay offers during low seasons or minimum LOS during events, allowing you to tailor your offers.

• Tracking rate evolution
  To understand competitors’ rate strategies, track their pricing over specific dates or ranges. Analyzing pricing throughout the booking window helps determine if they’re winning business.

• Flexible compsets
  Markets change quickly, and your compset may not remain the same year-round. The best rate shoppers allow you to update your compset as needed, whether by season, proximity, or targeted competitors. This flexibility ensures you stay competitive in dynamic markets.

Specific features to look for:

1. Accurate room mapping: Precise room type comparisons.

2. Comprehensive rate parameters: Include LOS, inclusions, and meal plans.

3. Multiple LOS comparisons: Data for various stay lengths.

4. Rate evolution tracking: Analyze competitor pricing over time.

5. Flexible comp sets: Update as market conditions change.
   

   

4) Access and integrations

Breaking down silos in the hotel industry is crucial for fostering communication and collaboration across departments. The right rate shopper can facilitate this, leading to more effective promotions, increased sales, and boosted revenue.

• Logins for all commercial teams

Rate shoppers are primarily used by the revenue team, but sales and marketing also benefit from access to market data and booking trends. The best tools present information clearly, making it valuable for all teams. Shared access enables collaboration on strategies.

• Integration with other revenue tools

A rate shopper's effectiveness is limited if it functions in isolation. Top-quality rate shoppers integrate with other systems by pushing data from your Revenue Management System (RMS) and pulling data from your PMS. This ensures smooth data flow, reducing manual data extraction and report formatting.

5) Customer support

Even with the best tech tool, you’ll occasionally need assistance. Quick, helpful responses from your provider are essential since revenue management is time-sensitive and delays can cost money. You are in the hotel industry, renowned for extraordinary guest service. You should expect no different from your tech provider.

Key aspects of quality customer support

1. Fast response times: Look for providers that offer rapid support to resolve issues quickly.

2. Proactive assistance: The best providers proactively monitor for issues and reach out to prevent downtime.

3. Comprehensive support: Ensure access to a knowledgeable support team available whenever you need them.

4. Training and resources: Providers should offer training and resources to help you make the most of their tools.

3 top hotel rate shoppers to kickstart your search

With more and more rate shopping solutions to choose from, finding a solution that suits the needs of your hotel can be overwhelming. To help get you started, here are three options to consider.

1) Rate Insight by Lighthouse

Serving over 65,000 hotels across 185 countries, Lighthouse (formerly OTA Insight) is the leading commercial platform in the hospitality industry. It stands out as the sole provider of real-time hotel and short-term rental data on a single platform.

Through its suite of market intelligence, business intelligence, and pricing tools, Lighthouse simplifies complex datasets, enabling commercial teams to make quick, confident decisions that boost revenue.

For the fourth consecutive year, Lighthouse’s rate shopper, Rate Insight, has been ranked the number one Rate Shopping and Market Intelligence solution in the Hotel Tech Report Awards.

Key features that distinguish Rate Insight from other rate shopping solutions include:

• 360-degree competitor visibility: Collects 2 billion daily data points from 300,000 hotels and 19+ million short-term rentals. The data is presented through an easy-to-use dashboard, significantly reducing the time needed to arrive at a decision.

• Data accuracy: Advanced anomaly detection and automated integrity control ensure access to accurate, complete, and reliable data, all in one place without switching systems.

• Comprehensive market monitoring: Provides global channel coverage, including OTAs, GDS, and short-term rentals, providing a complete market view. It includes event and holiday calendars, online reputation data, and highlights rate disparities.

• Detailed rate comparison: To fully understand your pricing competitiveness, Rate Insight provides granular comparisons by room type and rate parameters, multiple stay lengths, and updates competitive sets as needed to offer a comprehensive overview of long-term pricing and promotional strategies.

• Exceptional customer support: Fast, proactive customer service with an industry-leading CSAT score ensures users can manage and optimize pricing strategies confidently.

2) Rate Navigator by RateGain

RateGain provides SaaS solutions for the travel and hospitality sectors, serving over 3,200 customers and 700 partners in more than 100 countries.

It processes large volumes of transactions, price points, and travel intent data to support revenue management, distribution, and marketing across various travel industries. Rate Navigator helps hoteliers analyze rate trends, identify pricing strategies, and gain insights into the competitive landscape.

3) RevenueStrategy360 by Amadeus

Amadeus is a global travel technology firm operating in over 190 countries, supplying software solutions for airlines, hotels, airports, and travel agencies.

It offers search, booking, and payment processing services and operates a global distribution system. RevenueStrategy360 is Amadeus's business intelligence solution, and provides forward-looking, on-the-books business data alongside real-time pricing data to support hoteliers in their pricing and revenue management efforts.

Compare leading rate shoppers to ensure you invest in the right tool for your hotel

Choosing the right rate shopper for your hotel is crucial for optimizing your pricing strategy. Focus on your specific needs and the features that matter most. Compare capabilities and customer support, and read customer stories for real-world insights.

While many rate shoppers promise reliable information, they often lack live data and real-time competitor insights vital for making the best decisions. For genuine user experiences, check reviews on Hotel Tech Report.

Rate Insight, the industry's leading rate shopping tool, stands out with its real-time data. It allows you to see competitors’ current, past, and future rates, helping you spot trends, parity issues, and pricing strategies.

With detailed room type mapping and insights into hidden competitors like short-term rentals, Rate Insight provides a comprehensive view of your rates and market, enabling you to make smarter pricing decisions quickly and confidently.

Ready to take control of your pricing strategy? Start with a free trial of Rate Insight and discover why it’s consistently the top choice for hoteliers.