Introducing Virgin Hotels
Virgin Hotels opened its first European property, Virgin Hotels Edinburgh, in June 2022. Duetto proved vital in helping the hotel find its place in the market and optimize rates through the busy summer and festival period.
Situated in the historic India Buildings, Virgin Hotels Edinburgh is reimagining the Old Town, marrying its iconic Victorian architecture with distinctive, contemporary design. The hotel has 222 Chambers, Grand Chamber Suites, and an ultra-opulent suite of rooms known as Sir Richard’s Flat. In addition, there are numerous drinking, dining, and entertainment options available for residents and locals to come and enjoy.
Seamless onboarding, efficient go-live
PMS and RMS integration was seamless, with the Duetto Onboarding Project Manager taking the Virgin Hotels Edinburgh revenue leadership team through Duetto’s distribution set-up with the PMS, in addition to training. After a smooth configuration and integration of systems came the Data Quality Evaluation, which was carried out comprehensively.
“I love the fact that Duetto looks at forward demand to provide rate recommendations.”
Now, the Virgin Hotels Edinburgh team is working directly with its Customer Success Manager, who provides ongoing recommendations and training on new and relevant features for GameChanger and BlockBuster.
Amrita Makkar, Regional Director of Revenue at Virgin Hotels Scotland, said:
“We have the continued support of our Customer Success Manager, who I see as a trusted advisor. He listens to our requirements as a business and always provides us with recommendations that align with our needs, along with introducing us to any new and relevant features we can take advantage of. Every team member at Duetto is very knowledgeable in their field and their passion for hospitality, technology, and customer success comes across at every interaction.”
How Virgin Hotels Edinburgh is using Duetto
Room-type pricing rules
Virgin Hotels Edinburgh has 10+ room types. The revenue team uses Duetto to automate room-type pricing rules based on demand. This enables the hotel to yield each segment, channel, and room type independently to optimize revenue.
Short-term forecasting
The team used short lead market demand data and pick-up data to be able to price and forecast more accurately.
New-to-market boost
As a newcomer to the busy Edinburgh hotel market, the revenue team found access to forward-looking demand and short lead booking patterns very important in identifying small market trends that can make all the difference.
Amrita added:
“I love the fact that Duetto looks at forward demand to provide rate recommendations. In our post-pandemic world, historic data is almost obsolete, and hence it is very important to look forward. GameChanger has the ability to gather all market data, analyze forward-looking customer demand, and predict the changes in the market much more quickly than we can.”
