Customer Spotlight: Martin's Hotels

About Martin’s Hotels

With roots set deep in the past, each of the 14 Martin’s Hotels have their own character and story to tell. They combine quietness and romanticism with modern facilities, a unique atmosphere and authentic values, in the heart of ten Belgian cities. The Heritage Collection, made up of seven hotels, provides guests with a chance to stay in a historic building as elegant as it is unique, where they can indulge in a luxurious spa or dine at a gourmet restaurant. Three stunning properties make up the City Collection, where guests can discover the soul of a city from exceptional locations – delightfully urban settings with great access to the best sights and tastiest local delicacies. The Lifestyle Collection brings together four hotels that are modern, connected and dynamic places to stay. They provide perfect backdrops for guests to recharge their batteries in exceptional locations to explore. Each collection bears our distinctive hallmark, the savoir-faire that Martin’s Hotels have refined since 1985.

Samuel Deladrière, Revenue Manager at three properties in the Martin’s Hotels portfolio, shares his experience using Rate Insight and Business Intelligence, and how using the tools have transformed his decision-making window into pricing opportunities, saving him time and increasing his ADR.

A constant eye on the competition

Prior to using Rate Insight it was very difficult for us to know how to align our prices correctly with the competition. The arrival of Rate Insight has made my job easier and our positioning more appropriate. Before using Rate Insight, we would usually look at OTAs and compare our rates to our competitors. With Rate Insight, we have access to all competitor rates at the click of a button.

We also used to have to do everything manually and complete an Excel file with all our competitor’s rates. As far as Business Intelligence is concerned, this tool allows us to know exactly who is coming to the hotel, by what means, within what timeframe, with what volumes. With this information we can review our prices based on all this data and thus position ourselves correctly in relation to our occupancy and the competition.

Decisive decision-making process

Our decision-making process was much more time-consuming before we had Rate Insight as we had to analyze the data manually. This meant that a lot of time was wasted and so we were not able to react and make decisions that could capitalize on any pricing opportunities. As a result, we regularly missed these opportunities. Since using Rate and Business Intelligence, we have been able to save a huge amount of time in our decision-making, spending much more time on accurate data analysis. We easily save 45 minutes a day thanks to this tool, or almost four hours at the end of the week. This is not insignificant in a 38-hour week.

An integrated system answering all the questions

It is very important to be able to react quickly to demand. You don't want to spend hours going through reports manually because they will be out of date by the time you finish. With Rate Insight, I can perform live shopping in 2 minutes, and with Business Intelligence, I can collect all our room data in one place. Using Rate Insight, we can quickly apply comparison filters and we can also check the evolution of our pricing on any given date, over time.

The new "Strategy" module is also a great asset to have a summary of the pricing for the coming weeks in one click. Using the Business Intelligence tool, the flexibility of being able to filter all the data in a way that is most relevant to our needs is a feature that I really appreciate. On top of that, everything can be exported to Excel. The tool provides a very effective, visual way of presenting results, especially to management - the dashboard is also simple and easy to use. 

Increasing ADR even during the pandemic

These two tools allowed me to quickly analyze changes in customer behavior, such as the decrease in the booking window, more local customers, and the disappearance of the corporate segment. I was therefore able to adapt my sales strategy and resist the crisis as best I could.

In a dynamic market, we had hoped to gain time to analyze and understand our results and thus adapt our strategies much faster. Thanks to all the data available in Business Intelligence, I was able to improve my rate positioning and thus produce a better ADR than the one we had before COVID-19. In particular, I have made extensive use of the "booking window" module in order to modify my prices at the best moment. While it’s difficult to put a number on it, between 2019 and 2021, my transient ADR has increased by 25€ for example, thanks to Business Intelligence.

A word to your peers

Despite the current economic situation, it is important not to miss the boat and risk being left behind once the situation improves. The tools that Lighthouse provides cost very little money in the end for all that it brings us. They wouldn't have to think about it too long, the tool will start to benefit them after a few weeks of use and for a very attractive price.