Skift Take
IDeaS, which makes software to help hotel owners set their room rates, boosted its financial performance in 2020 without layoffs. But this year brings unique market conditions for its hotel customers. So a lot depends on the launch of its new service, Optix.
The coronavirus pandemic prompted many hotel companies to smarten up how they set their room rates — a practice called revenue management. Several hotels turned to software to help with this, and one company that benefited from the trend is IDeaS, the Minnesota-based unit of analytics firm SAS.
A case in point is Scandic Hotels Group. Scandic CEO Jens Mathiesen last week told analysts that hotel groups have become better at setting room rates.
"I'm old enough to have been part of many crises before, and if you look back to the financial downturn we had in '08, '09, and even in [2000] crisis we had before that, that market has changed quite a lot," Mathiesen said during an earnings call. "Today, all hotel chains do work with revenue management. We have a lot of support from international systems like IDeaS, et cetera, which we all use."
IDeaS (formerly called Integrated Decisions and Systems) is one of the largest revenue management software makers for hotels. When the pandemic struck, it decimated hotel revenue.
"It could have been very bad for us in 2020," said Sanjay Nagalia, co-founder and chief operating officer. "We could have been singing a very different song. But fortunately for us, all the metrics went up."
IDeaS grew its revenue in 2020, year-over-year, executives said, though they declined to disclose specifics because parent company SAS is private. The brand increased its profit while it increased its investment in technology and sales in 2020, too, compared with the previous years, executives said.
"We didn't lay off or reduce the salaries or hours of any of our employees," Nagalia said.
IDeaS is one of the onl
