Carlson empowers employees to make revenue optimization decisions

June 25, 2009 | Hospitality Industry

New technology is allowing Carlson Hotels to push revenue management from a centralized function out to the operational levels of its properties where the company can now empower hotel employees to make data-driven revenue optimization decisions with the click of a mouse.

Carlson Hotels Worldwide has selected QL2 for the Carlson Hotels Stay Night Automated Pricing (SNAP) initiative. QL2 will provide on-demand data on competitive and market dynamics for 700 of the Carlson Hotel properties in the United States and Asia Pacific.

While traditional revenue management focuses on restricting the availability of discount products, the SNAP process optimizes pricing in order to maximize revenue through demand forecasting. This is a completely different strategy than typically used by hotels. The SNAP initiative allows Carlson to innovate its revenue management processes and address this business challenge head-on.

Although there is a wealth of competitive and market information available on the Web, much of it exists in silos and is difficult to gather and integrate with existing revenue management processes. Many optimization specialists spend valuable time collecting and aggregating information instead of strategizing. The data that hotels need to consider in their revenue optimization initiatives is incredibly dynamic so regular access to the exact data they need, when they need it, is vital for the actionable analysis that will transform vacancies into booked properties.

As one of the key technologies powering the SNAP initiative, the QL2 Data Services provides Carlson Hotels Worldwide with specific, manageable data on properties, rates, amenities and other factors that matter when making strategic pricing decisions. As a result, Carlson has the ability to move rapidly and strategically to attract, convert and keep customers while continuing to meet internal operational goals.

“Together with JDA, QL2 data takes traditional revenue management to new heights,” said Jim Rozell, senior director of revenue optimization at Carlson Hotels Worldwide. “SNAP is allowing us to push revenue management from a centralized function out to the operational levels of our properties where we can now empower hotel employees that are busy providing guest services to also make data-driven revenue optimization decisions with the click of a mouse.”

“We are honored to be selected by Carlson Hotels Worldwide to provide the high-quality, on-demand data for its SNAP initiative,” said Russ Aldrich, chief executive officer at QL2. “Carlson continues to innovate internal processes in one of the most competitive industries in the world. Their vision for SNAP of combining current competitive and market data with historical insights is an industry first.”