i-rates

Asia's leading value hotel group, Red Planet Hotels, has confirmed strong revenue growth following the adoption of the award-winning iRates revenue management system (RMS) in the fourth quarter of last year.

All 23 hotels in the Red Planet group in Indonesia, Japan, Philippines and Thailand implemented the system allowing the iRates RMS to automatically review the properties' data and instantly implement recommended changes, as often as every 15 minutes.

The result of utilizing the automated revenue management solution lead to a dramatic increase in performance, with an average growth across all hotels of 20% year-on-year growth in Revenue Per Available Room (RevPAR).

Source: Ira Vouk Hospitality 2.0 ConsultingSource: Ira Vouk Hospitality 2.0 Consulting
Source: Ira Vouk Hospitality 2.0 Consulting

"Designed for middle- and low-tier hotels, iRates takes into account the specifics of this segment, i.e. lack of dedicated resources for Revenue Management. – says Ira Vouk, Vice President of Business Development at iRates, an award-winning Revenue Manager. — Our company addressed this by developing an extremely user-friendly inexpensive Revenue Management solution with a powerful best-in-class innovative algorithm, allowing hotels of any type to dramatically increase their RevPAR without spending vast amounts of resources or hiring additional dedicated RM professionals. You no longer need to worry about Revenue Management; employee of any level can run the iRates RMS and get fantastic results".

The core engine of iRates RMS is based on a proprietary reinforcement-learning algorithm with iRates making its pricing and other revenue management decisions through a real-time analysis of demand fluctuations, unique for each hotel.

Demand is measured directly, through various metrics, using sophisticated mathematical optimization and control methods that allow it to adapt to the specifics of each hotel property, as well as learn and improve performance over time, maximizing the final yield (profit) and not just top-line revenue.

Individual demand of each specific hotel at each location is the key of iRates algorithms. Its adaptive nature is allowing the system to provide pricing and other recommendations for hotels in different locations, regions and countries.

"As soon as we hooked up the system and finalised the integration, the results were dramatic, –Tim Hansing, CEO of Red Planet Hotels comments on their recent achievements. – I have been in the hotel business for 30 years and it even surprised me. We were so impressed that I engaged the automatic pricing mechanism that looks at demand patterns every 15 minutes across my portfolio and makes changes without relying on any human participation. Our demand pattern is such that Friday and Saturdays evenings see a jump in our reservations and this was the time when our revenue managers were out of the office - without iRates we were leaving money on the table on our busiest nights. Even now, well after implementation, our RevPar is still growing. It worked well and is still producing results. We are a very happy iRates customer. You could describe us as «iContent»."

"After all, Revenue Management is about helping hoteliers to sell rooms at the best price at the right time, – added Vadim Asadov, CEO of iRates. – And once again we proved that iRates is really good at what it's made for".

About iRates

iRates is a new-generation revenue management system that was developed specifically for limited service and middle-tier hotel properties. 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 maximise the bottom line profits. The algorithm has been successfully applied to other industries but is unprecedented in hospitality.

About Red Planet Hotels

Founded in 2010, Red Planet Hotels Limited (RPHL) is the leading developer, owner, and operator of value hotels in Southeast Asia and Japan. RPHL offers a stylish value hotel offering with its properties strategically located close to major shopping, sightseeing, and business destinations in key cities. The company's cost-effective hotel design and cutting edge technology platform drives high occupancy rates and maximizes revenue.