This Tech Firm Is Using The Pandemic Pause to Help Hotels Be Smarter About Setting Room Rates
Photo Credit: IDeaS, a maker of revenue management software for travel operators, has a new product called Optix. IDeaS
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 pandem
