i-rates

iRates LLC introduced a new Last-Minute Market feature, which gives limited service and middle tier hotels an ability to manage rates for last-minute business more efficiently. The new upgraded version of the iRates Revenue Management System is now capable of reviewing and automatically updating prices and availability for the next number of days as often as every 15 minutes. All other functionality is still kept in the new iRates where the rest of the year can be reviewed and updated on an hourly or daily basis.

The share of mobile and same-day bookings has been steadily increasing in the travel industry over the last few years. Proliferation of smart phones, tablets and various last-minute booking apps is transforming the way customers reserve their accommodations. With this in mind, hotels must consider being more proactive in managing their same-day rates and availability.

"We wanted to help our current and potential customers take advantage of the growing last-minute segment and offered an ability to recalculate and update prices as often as every 15 minutes," - said Ira Vouk, Vice President of Business Development at iRates, LLC – "They no longer need to worry about constantly checking their availability and rates for the same-day reservations throughout the day – iRates will switch to the Last-Minute mode automatically and will make all necessary changes in order to maximize revenue for the property".

All the users need to do is turn on the new feature in the iRates GUI, everything else is done automatically by the system: necessary data will automatically flow into iRates from the Property Management System, the program will analyze the incoming data and make a decision whether any changes need to be made for the upcoming days. Updates will then be pushed back into the PMS and distributed to all corresponding channels.

"Increasing number of travelers are now booking same-day reservations via their mobile apps, while driving by the hotel" – added Vadim Asadov, CEO of iRates. – "So hotel properties need to react quicker on all aspects, including price and inventory management. They just have to be always ready with real-time optimal pricing!"

About iRates

iRates is a new-generation software-as-a-solution Revenue Management system that was developed specifically for limited service and middle-tier hotel properties. The tool was designed with these types of properties in mind. It addresses unique characteristics and requirements of this segment, based on years of experience in this segment.

The extremely user friendly interface along with complete automation of the most important revenue management decisions allow even a junior level employee with no experience to drastically increase production and improve RevPAR. iRates employs the newest adaptive algorithm based on the theory of reinforcement learning that automatically adapts to each hotel's local market conditions and re-adjusts the strategy according to the demand fluctuations, with the goal to maximize the bottom line profits.The algorithm has been successfully applied to other industries but is unprecedented in hospitality.