Exclusive Interview: Leah Rankin on SiteMinder’s Dynamic Revenue Plus empowering hoteliers
SiteMinder partners with IDeaS to make dynamic revenue management accessible to all hotels
At an exclusive event held in Sydney last week, SiteMinder officially launched its game-changing platform, Dynamic Revenue Plus, set to revolutionise how hotels of all sizes manage their revenue strategies.
The sold-out event, attended by hoteliers, industry partners, and associates, underscored the growing demand for accessible, dynamic revenue management solutions in an ever-evolving market. Leah Rankin, Chief Product Officer at SiteMinder, led the unveiling and emphasised the platform’s potential to simplify revenue management, even for smaller hotels.
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Speaking with AccomNews at NoVacancy 2024, where SiteMinder was exhibiting, Ms Rankin shared her excitement about the platform, which she believes will usher in a new era of hotel revenue management.
She explained that the launch comes at a time of rising international travel and a booming events industry, both boosting hotel economies worldwide. SiteMinder’s data shows that events like the upcoming Coldplay tour in Australia are projected to increase hotel bookings by 168 percent in Melbourne and 125 percent in Sydney. In response, the platform provides users with the most comprehensive event data available in the market.
“We’ve seen major shifts in our fast-paced industry, with surges, dips, and cancelled events becoming the norm. Real-time data is no longer a luxury—it’s essential,” Ms Rankin said. “The ability to wrangle all this data and simplify it for hoteliers, even those without sophisticated systems, is what Dynamic Revenue Plus is all about.”
“While market intelligence is not new, Dynamic Revenue Plus is unique among existing solutions because it allows hoteliers to not only consume insights but take multiple actions, beyond pricing changes, within minutes. Its mobile-first approach and ability to provide insight into future demand fluctuations mean hoteliers can stay agile and adapt to market trends.”
A revolutionary partnership with IDeaS
Central to the platform’s success is SiteMinder’s deepened partnership with IDeaS, a global leader in revenue management software. This collaboration integrates dynamic pricing recommendations directly into the platform, providing hotels with continuous ‘on mode’ functionality for revenue optimisation.
“Dynamic Revenue Plus is the first of its kind,” Ms Rankin said. “Together with the team at IDeaS, we are thrilled to offer all hotels the chance to shift towards dynamic revenue management and drive significant growth.”
“By incorporating IDeaS’ dynamic pricing recommendations, Dynamic Revenue Plus will deliver unparalleled value to all hotels, even those with limited resources. It allows them to respond to real-time market changes, which is critical in today’s competitive landscape.”
Empowering all hoteliers
Dynamic Revenue Plus is designed with accessibility in mind, ensuring that it benefits all types of accommodation providers, from large hotel chains to small, independent properties. The platform enables hotels to make real-time adjustments to room rates, inventory, and promotions, allowing them to stay flexible in response to market demand.
“The technology is sophisticated, but it’s designed so that any hotel, regardless of its size or resources, can use it effectively,” Ms Rankin explained. “We are empowering hoteliers with the tools they need to remain competitive, without the need for complex systems or large revenue management teams.”
Real-time data for an enhanced guest experience
When asked how Dynamic Revenue Plus impacts the guest experience, Ms Rankin said: “By leveraging real-time data, hotels can connect with the right guests at the right time. This leads to more competitive pricing, personalised offers, and greater availability during peak periods. For guests, this results in more tailored experiences, and for hotels, it means maximising revenue opportunities.”
With the launch of Dynamic Revenue Plus, SiteMinder is set to redefine how hotels manage revenue, offering powerful real-time tools that make sophisticated revenue management accessible to all. As Ms Rankin aptly put it, “This is just the beginning.”
Advice for women in the industry
As a trailblazer in the tech and hospitality sectors, Ms Rankin shared advice for women looking to make their mark in the industry. “The accommodation industry is incredibly diverse, and there’s a need for more women in leadership roles. I encourage women to step forward and embrace the opportunities in this dynamic field.”
More about Dynamic Revenue Plus
Powered by SiteMinder’s platform, which processes more than 120 million hotel reservations annually, Dynamic Revenue Plus provides users with comprehensive data, including insights into top source markets. Soon, the platform will be enhanced with dynamic pricing recommendations from IDeaS.
By using this unified solution, hotels can move away from outdated, static revenue management practices—characterised by slow and irregular adjustments—to a more dynamic approach that allows frequent changes in response to market fluctuations. These changes include bulk room rate updates, new minimum base rates and stay lengths, sale restrictions, inventory adjustments, and marketing promotions, all of which can be executed via mobile or desktop.
Democratising Revenue Management
Klaus Kohlmayr, Chief Evangelist and Development Officer at IDeaS, highlighted the significance of the partnership: “We’re committed to democratising revenue management and bringing the benefits of dynamic, demand-based pricing to hotels worldwide. This partnership provides hotels of all sizes with a viable option to stop leaving money on the table due to outdated manual revenue management practices.”
The platform is currently available to hotels in Australia and New Zealand, with plans to expand into other markets by 2025. As a key pillar of SiteMinder’s Smart Platform strategy, Dynamic Revenue Plus embodies SiteMinder’s mission of making sophisticated revenue management accessible to every hotel around the world.
Capitalising on travel trends and events
Dynamic Revenue Plus enables hotels to capitalise on shifting travel patterns, events, and other key revenue opportunities at unprecedented speeds.
Fready Goenawan, Revenue and Distribution Manager AU at Ovolo Hotels, shared his experience: “The notifications we receive through Dynamic Revenue Plus mean we no longer need to search for information online—it’s provided to us. The platform replaces the holidays calendar we manually manage, saving our team a lot of time. Additionally, the insights we’re using for our studies on geographical markets are incredible. They don’t exist in other systems.”
“Using SiteMinder’s platform, we can see which countries are returning to our hotels and break down the data to see metrics like length of stay. This allows us to roll out new promotions more effectively. Knowing the destination markets that drive our revenue helps us avoid wasting our marketing budget. SiteMinder’s solution is incredibly powerful in this way.”
