We were delighted to partner with Duetto for their first Power of Data Revenue Lab this week in Dublin. Duetto are a fantastic partner and run regular revenue labs across major cities around the world.
An engaged audience of revenue managers and GM’s filled the room at the Ballsbridge Hotel with a desire to learn and take away best revenue practices to implement.
Michael De Jongh, Avvio’s CCO played the role of master of ceremonies and lead the conversation from speaker to panel.
Cristina Blaj, Director of Sales EMEA welcomed all the registered delegates and impressed upon the audience the importance of a cloud technology stack and how vital revenue management has become despite only 3% of hotels adopting effective strategies for success. Duetto took their lead from the casino space and bring incredible insight and knowledge to hotels.
Here are some of the highlights we took from the day:
Sarah Duignan (STR) gave us an overview of how the Irish market is looking and forecasting the months ahead, especially with Brexit looming and the uncertainty surrounding it. Really great insight drilling down to city centres and how events like the NFL play a major role in Dublin.
Sarah’s data from STR showed that 32% of European travellers are delaying making travel plans to the UK because of Brexit and 26% of UK travellers are delaying making travel plans to Europe.
Shared data
Duetto’s Isabel Eisenach shared insights on driving total revenue and profitability, with the message to hoteliers that they must get strategic!
Isabel urged the importance of shared data across the team. She reiterated the importance of having total visibility, making sure that not only is everyone looking at the same data but that everyone is making decisions based on that data.
Ancillary spend & Profitability
The afternoon was then mixed up by an engaging panel discussing on ancillary spend and profitability – moderated by Jutta Moore, Founder of Moore Hotel Consulting.
Our Panellists – Emmanuel Lacour (SACO), Sushrut Athavale (Yotel) and Nicola Rhone (GNH) provided the audience with some key takeaways and ideas to increase ancillary spend and maximise profits.
The panel agreed that we should be looking at the experts in this area, airlines! Who are at the top of their game when it comes to add-on’s and extras.
And more crucially, that personalisation is key – ancillary spend isn’t a one size fit all, it needs to be customised for each guest. They advised looking at your customers and their journey and think about how you can add value to their stay.
Taking ownership of the customer right from the very start is vital. Upselling in the final two weeks before the stay – by selling the location, for example. Nicola suggests partnering with other venues, restaurants and local businesses, in particular – for an easy win on both sides!
The panel all reiterate the beauty of trial and testing.
‘You have to be willing to fail – It’s the only way to find out what works and what doesn’t.’
Personalising guest experience
Avvio Co-Founder and CEO Frank Reeves follows on the theme of personalising the guest’s experience as he took to the stage.
Frank talks about the huge OTA challenge we’re facing – stating that it’s no longer okay for just you to get smarter, but that your software needs to get smarter too – to personalise the user journey experience.
As Avvio’s AI technology Allora turns two – Frank shares some of the key data we’ve gathered from Allora’s integration.
- Allora has seen over 56million unique visitors profiled
- 600k+ AI based trials conducted
- Over 7.6 million personalised guest journey
- 2 million guest bookings as result
Revenue best practices
We end the afternoon discussing revenue strategy best practices with panelists Jutta Moore, Founder, Moore Hotel Consulting, Andy Leung, Hyatt Centric The Liberties and Alessandra Leoni, Director of Revenue Nadler Hotels – Moderated by Sarah MacCay, Tams.
Andy Leung talked about the impact of Brexit and the challenges they’re facing because of Brexit uncertainty.
‘Once Brexit was postponed it was as if somebody turned on a tap and the bookings started flowing through.’
He predicts the same will happen again this autumn, should Brexit be granted another extension!
Post discussion we moved onto the networking session whilst being served drinks and food. A really good day and a great joint investment for both Duetto and Avvio customers alike.
