Customer Spotlight: Mid-Continent Hospitality
The fast-growing hotel management company saves time and creates extra value for partners and owners with the help of powerful hotel business intelligence technology
80% of time saved on daily RevPAK report creation
Consistent, streamlined reporting process for the entire hotel portfolio
Easy access to data improves interdepartmental communication and decision-making
About Mid-Continent Hospitality
Mid-Continent Hospitality offers a broad range of hotel management and development services to property owners and investors. Their dedication to creating innovative, customized and efficient processes is what has attracted big-name partners such as Marriott International, Hilton Worldwide and InterContinental Hotel Group. Their portfolio currently includes over twenty properties around the United States, with several more slated to be added soon.
Recently, the company decided to handle all revenue management tasks internally. The goal was to create a streamlined reporting and data analysis process that would ensure each property reached its revenue potential. For this, they needed a way to unify reliable real-time data from different hotels and their respective systems, and present it in an actionable format.
We recently had a chat with Donna Paraliticci, Regional Director of Sales and Revenue Management at Mid-Continent Hospitality, to see how Business Intelligence helped her in this situation
Business Intelligence dramatically increases efficiency
Challenge
When the recovery phase began, Mid-Continent’s portfolio quickly tripled in size as more owners were keen to maximize their properties’ ROI. While the team gladly took on new hotels, this also brought challenges. For example, creating the daily RevPAK email was a time-consuming process. It often took the revenue staff until the afternoon to complete this overview for all properties, which meant that we lost critical time for making changes.
Solution
Business Intelligence provides a clean, comprehensive overview of all relevant property data in a well-arranged dashboard. That includes internal performance overviews as well as live market and competitor insights. This makes it much easier for the revenue team to create the RevPAK as well as other reports.
Results
Preparation time for RevPAK goes from 30 minutes down to 5 minutes
Daily overview reaches hotels in the early morning, allowing for immediate decision-making
More time available for deeper performance analysis and strategising
"Business Intelligence already pays for itself just in terms of saved labor hours. And here we’re not even talking about the many new revenue opportunities it helps us seize. That still comes on top because now we can spend more time on refining our commercial strategies."
Unifying data across brands and properties
Challenge
Each of the brands Mid-Continent works with has its own standards, reporting processes and revenue management tools. This made it difficult for Donna and her team to access the same depth and quality of data from all hotels they were working with. On top of that, bringing the information from different systems into a standardized and actionable format was a time-consuming and error-prone task.
Solution
Business Intelligence integrates with the managed properties’ PMS, RMS, CRS and BI systems to pull all relevant data in real-time. Among others, that includes pick-up and cancellation rates, OTB data as well as insights into lead time evolution and source market trends. Business Intelligence then consolidates this information in a standardized, user-friendly format.
Results
Live access to the latest performance data and market developments for all properties
Chance to compare and analyze results and opportunities across brands
Ability to make well-informed revenue, sales and marketing decisions
"It’s fantastic to have data from all properties cohesively organized in a single platform. No matter which brand or hotel we’re looking at, the information is ready in our standard format."
Business Intelligence’s user-friendliness makes data easily accessible for all stakeholders
Challenge
In the past, many reports were complex and cumbersome. That often made it hard for sales, senior management and other teams outside the revenue management department to get the insights they needed from the data sets.
Solution
Business Intelligence is extremely easy to use and allows commercial and operations departments as well as regional management to get actionable insights in just a few clicks. It’s also flexible in the level of detail and depth it provides. This means users can choose a high-level overview of an entire brand or zoom in on a certain region or hotel. If needed, they can even drill all the way down to see a single reservation.
The property level data helps local commercial and operations teams plan their staffing, promotions and purchasing. At the same time, higher level management benefit from a broader view in order to understand performance, develop company-wide strategies and communicate with owners and investors.
Results
Previously intimidating reports have become actionable and easy to understand
The team digs deeper into the data because it’s fast, straightforward and provides valuable insights
Communication between departments and with owners is more effective thanks to comprehensive yet visually appealing reports
"The level of detail you can extract from Business Intelligence without having to know Opera is impressive. With the help of a few filters, you can get the data you need and no longer need to rely on guesswork. On top of that, there’s no risk of ‘messing something up’ like when you’re using complicated Excel reports."
A reliable partner in volatile times
After the pandemic, many previously accepted best practices no longer apply in the same way. That makes it all the more important to have a dependable revenue management tool to lean on:
“You lose money if you don’t use a tool like Business Intelligence, both in terms of labor hours and revenue opportunities. I encourage every hotelier to try it. It’s easy to learn and the support team is always quick to respond if you have questions. In short, Business Intelligence is the partner you need to make your hotel successful in these unpredictable times."