30 Bookings a Day? Prospector Square Lodge Makes it Happen with Rev Mgmt

From its central location in Park City, Utah, nestled among three world-class ski resorts, Prospector Square Lodge and Conference Center offers high quality condominiums, hotel accommodations and boasts one of the area’s largest conference centers. Every year, Prospector Square is the proud host of the internationally-known independent film festival, Sundance Film Festival.

 

Even with their established group business, Prospector Square was looking for additional revenue. In 2008, Prospector Square began working with LeisureLink, a distribution and revenue management provider for specialty lodging such as timeshares, vacation rentals and boutique hotels. The LeisureLink team quickly placed the hotel in major OTA and GDS channels.

 

However with limited staff and no dedicated revenue manager, Prospector was only able to manage rates as time permitted, missing revenue opportunities and resulting in poor placement on major online travel sites. Addressing those missed opportunities became a top priority as the economic slowdown continued through 2009.

 

As a current LeisureLink client, Prospector Square was introduced to Active Revenue Management (ARM) and the “light bulb immediately went on.” ARM uses “airline style” pricing to provide real-time pricing adjustments, with minimal staff time requirements. LeisureLink provided not only ARM, but also the guidance necessary to develop and implement the hotel’s strategy. No dedicated revenue management staff was required, so Prospector Square staff would be able to stay focused on serving customers. Since ARM is delivered in a SaaS (Software as a Service) model, no further investment in hardware or software was needed.With superior technology and low overhead, LeisureLink’s ARM met the hotel’s criteria.

 

The key to success was effective collaboration between the LeisureLink and Prospector Square teams. The implementation took less than a day, but the details were critical. Strategy specifics, such as selecting competitive sets and rules for setting rates needed to be identified and detailed. After some debate, Prospector Square settled on an aggressive strategy, designed to maximize occupancy. The teams worked together closely, and ARM was ready to launch. 

 

After setting the Prospector Square strategy, ARM continuously adjusts rates in real time relative to market rates and inventory positions, following with the property’s pricing strategy. ARM’s proprietary technology evaluates millions of consumer queries and market prices in real time.

Prospector Square’s gross bookings in the LeisureLink network increased tenfold from the previous year in the first month following the launch. Prior to implementing ARM, Prospector Square averaged three to four bookings per day. With ARM, the property now books an average of 20-30 reservations per day. In less than 6 weeks on the ARM program, Prospectors Square needed to add staff—not for revenue management, but to assist with incoming reservations. 

 

Making Prospector Square more competitive with comparable properties had a dramatic effect on placement, as the hotel moved from page six on Expedia to page one. This increased visibility dramatically impacted revenue results, and brought a surge in new guests to the property.

 

ARM is an integral component in Prospector Square’s online growth and analysis of the winter results will determine their initial spring strategy. LeisureLink and its ARM product will help Prospector Square build business without adding personnel, technology maintenance headaches or sacrificing customer service.