The Challenge
In his first days on the job in 2014, CEO Greg Mount made clear his goal: make Red Lions Hotels Corporation (RLHC) a company known for having leading technology and being best at e-commerce. By doing so, and implementing a new Revenue Strategy, Mount felt RLHC could regain market share and make it a viable option to developers and owners beyond the Pacific Northwest.
Considering Red Lion and its 55 properties were utilizing legacy systems and didn’t even have an RMS in place, Mount’s goals were quite ambitious.
The Solution
Enter CMO Bill Linehan and his vision for stitching together 12 cloud-based systems to create an integrated guest delivery platform. At the heart of what he called RevPak is GameChanger, Duetto’s Revenue Strategy application that combines Big Data with a powerful pricing engine.
RLHC now benefits from more visibility into future demand through new data like web shopping regrets and denials and the ability to yield all channels, segments, room types and offers independently in real time with Open Pricing.
Jason Thielbahr, SVP of Revenue and Distribution at RLHC, said:
“If you look across our landscape, there are a lot of hotels that have a lot of different systems. We didn’t want to catch up; we wanted to leapfrog. That’s why I call this disruptive technology. Duetto has allowed us to beat a market we hadn’t been competing in.”
The Results
Greg Mount set an audacious goal, but in less than two years, RLHC has doubled in size, grown beyond the Pacific Northwest and is now known as an innovator with industry-leading technology. With RevPak and Duetto’s GameChanger, RLHC hotels are outperforming their street-corner competitors and brands that had never considered Red Lion serious competition. Developers have taken notice as Red Lion has launched a new brand and is now expanding up and down the East Coast.
“The onboarding, integrations, training and ongoing support are truly best in class.”
Q3 2015 vs. Q3 2014
- +12.3% RevPAR
- +5% RevPAR Index
RevPAR results are system-wide, while Index is the average per-property lift.
Top Properties by RevPAR Index
- +12.3% Red Lion Hotel on the River Jantzen Beach, OR
- +10.8% Red Lion Hotel Kalispell, MT
- +8.9% Red Lion Inn & Suites Kennewick, WA
How it Happened
- Better insight into unconstrained demand with new data like web shopping.
- Ability to capture all demand with Open Pricing and yielding by segment, channel.
- Real-time automation and alerts make it easy to get rates to market.
- Comprehensive training and certification from Duetto for all revenue managers.
- Revenue managers now have confidence and tools to make better decisions.
- Attracted and now retaining top RM talent because of innovative approach.
Reflecting on the partnership, Bill Linehan, Chief Marketing Officer at RLHC, said:
“Having selected various PMS, RMS, CRO, CRM and many other systems, my team and I have found the Duetto team to be first rate. Not only is their Revenue Strategy application light years ahead of other revenue management systems, but the onboarding, integrations, training and ongoing support are truly best in class.”