Customer Spotlight: HRI Properties

About HRI Properties

HRI Properties is a fully integrated owner, operator and developer of premium branded hotels and upscale apartments in top urban U.S. markets. Thanks to its in-house architectural design and construction management capabilities, HRI has established itself as a national leader in the redevelopment of historic structures. The company’s hospitality division currently owns and/or manages a diverse portfolio of over 30 properties across the country.

In a chat with Lior Sekler, Senior Vice President of Revenue Management at HRI Properties, we learned how he and his team benefit from Lighthouse’s suite of business intelligence (BI) tools. Lior outlined how they leverage the integrated BI platform to make well-informed pricing decisions and continuously improve overall business results.

Cutting-edge business intelligence for improved decision-making

In the past, we used a BI platform that had many challenges in terms of innovation, reliability, cost and customer service. This inspired us to look for a new solution that would better fit our needs and expectations.

In Lighthouse’s suite of BI tools, we found exactly what we were looking for: an intuitive, innovative and cost-effective platform that gathers and collates reliable up-to-the-minute hotel and market information from multiple sources.

Now, we can access on-the-books data, competitor rates, demand insights and calendars with all important upcoming events in our markets in one place. This helps us make better-informed pricing and distribution decisions because we have instant access to a broad range of data points.

On top of that, Market Insight’s forward-looking demand information opens up a dialogue about activities in the market. It encourages our teams to check their information against the tool’s predictions and helps them uncover angles they may not have found otherwise.

Finally, Lighthouse’s data feeds directly into our revenue management platform at many of our hotels. This provides the system with current information and educates its algorithm on market nuances. As a result, we get more refined rate suggestions and can make better choices faster.

Successfully navigating a complex distribution landscape

The distribution landscape has evolved considerably over the past few years and is still becoming increasingly complex. Today, weather, events, seasonality, social media trends, and many other variables impact consumer decisions and demand fluctuations. If you want to stay on top of them all and react quickly to sudden changes, a fully integrated BI solution is essential.

Lighthouse’s Market Insight product is especially helpful here. Its live and forward-looking demand data reveals trends and critical developments as they arise. Having this real-time information at our fingertips has led to a more efficient and effective decision-making process. This, in turn, has helped us improve our overall business performance.

As Lighthouse’s platform continues to evolve, I’m sure it will continue to create new opportunities for commercial teams to make strategic choices that will benefit their properties.

Improved cross-departmental communication

At HRI Properties, all our commercial leaders have access to the platform. Our revenue teams are the power users. They leverage Rate, Revenue and Market Insight to streamline day-to-day tasks and optimize their rates and distribution strategies. Being able to toggle back and forth between hotels, makes it easy for them to look after multiple properties.

We also encourage our sales and marketing departments as well as our general managers to use Lighthouse. They benefit from the information it provides when planning sales initiatives and daily operations. The platform’s new overview function is especially useful for them as it offers valuable data nuggets at a glance and reduces time spent going through long reports.

On top of that, broad access to demand and OTB data fosters communication between these departments. This allows them to align their efforts and work more effectively toward their goals.

Accessibility and ease-of-use

Lighthouse’s tools are accessible on any device and from anywhere, whether you’re on the road or in the office. The platform is also very intuitive and presents data in an appealing and easy-to-read way. This means new users quickly get the hang of it and can easily find the information they need, even with minimal training.

Excellent customer service

Since the beginning of our partnership, Lighthouse has been great at providing in-depth onboarding and responsive support. They always react quickly to our questions and support tickets. And to ensure we keep up with their frequent updates and new feature releases, they even offer quarterly refresher training. This helps us get the most out of their tools and makes the collaboration very smooth.

A word to your peers

The goal should always be to provide your team with the best possible tools, so they can reach their full potential and achieve great results. Today that’s easier than ever because of the wealth of innovative options in the marketplace.

I encourage every hotelier to explore what’s out there, test new solutions and find what works for them and their property. The ideal tech set-up will look slightly different for every hotel, but the benefits are the same: more efficient processes, better communication and improved results.