Upgrading to a New Standard of Success
Upgrade to newest version of IDeaS Revenue Management Solution brings greater efficiency, accuracy to luxury hotel
The Mandarin Oriental San Francisco, a luxury hotel with 158 rooms, is one of 20 hotels operated under the Mandarin Oriental flag that ranges across four continents and continues to expand into new markets.
In such an aggressive luxury market, the hotel’s director of revenue management performs a diverse range of complex tasks, all while keeping an eye on the competition to offer the most optimal daily rate. Each day, the goal is to identify market demand by pulling various forms of data, monitoring and analyzing competitive rates and positioning, optimizing distribution channels and providing accurate forecasting. In anticipation of market changes, the director of revenue management is responsible for providing up-to-date information to hotel management efficiently and most importantly, accurately.
The Mandarin Oriental San Francisco revenue management division previously used IDeaS V5e to assist with its forecasting and revenue management functions. An IDeaS customer for six years, the hotel opted to upgrade its current IDeaS platform to the IDeaS V5i because of the newer version’s enhanced reporting and improved functionality.
“As market demand continued to change, I needed to be able to communicate the necessary information to the organization in the most concise, efficient way,” said Melanie Cooke-Kridech, director of revenue management for Mandarin Oriental San Francisco. “We chose to upgrade to the newest IDeaS version because it provided smart, simple technology that allowed me to generate reports and process information quickly and accurately.”
IDeaS V5i provides an intuitive user interface, providing a spectrum of valuable data, easy-to-read graphics and information on key hotel performance indicators. For reporting on a routine basis, the new system offers monthly graphical views of Estimated Room Revenue, Occupancy, Average Daily Rate (ADR) and Revenue Per Available Rate (RevPAR) – extremely beneficial for the director of revenue management to quickly communicate status reports to the organization.
“We needed something user-friendly, online, accessible, and highly viewable where I could open a case and immediately have my questions answered,” said Melanie. “With the increased pressure of being required to pull data quickly and stay ahead of the game, I needed the information at my fingertips – even to the extent of printing information right out of the system to use in my yield meetings.”
Increased Confidence and Accuracy
Since deploying IDeaS V5i, Cooke-Kridech acknowledges that she has become more efficient and produces more highly accurate forecasts.
“I was recently ranked number two in the organization for forecasting accuracy,” said Melanie. “IDeaS V5i enables me to do my job more accurately and more efficiently.”
Further supporting Mandarin Oriental’s goal of heightened efficiency, the V5i features customized reporting functionality designed to highlight industry trends and consolidate relevant information for quick exporting into presentations. The consistent, accurate and highly specific data allows Cooke-Kridech to anticipate and confidently predict competitive set information received from subscription services each day.
“Research that once took me a full day now takes about 30 minutes,” said Melanie. “The data extraction functionality is superior. I use the forecasting tools and export it directly into Excel, simply cutting and pasting data into presentations I’m already working on. This allows me to rapidly provide my colleagues with the information they need.”
Deployment and training for the IDeaS V5i hardly took time away from Melanie’s day-to-day tasks, as switching over to the upgraded technology was seamless and simple.
“We decided to stay with IDeaS because of the incredible customer support and training they provide – not only during deployment, but throughout the relationship,” added Melanie. “If I need troubleshooting assistance, I just pick up the phone and call my contact at IDeaS, and they tell me exactly what to do.”
True to IDeaS’ commitment to quick deployment and training support, the IDeaS V5i was installed within four weeks of purchase.
“Since deploying the IDeaS system, I’ve saved a significant amount of time, and my colleagues have increased confidence in my reporting due to the heightened accuracy of my work,” concluded Melanie. “Because of the increased accuracy, we are maximizing our revenue to the best of our ability.”
» Download a PDF Copy of this Case Study 
For more information on the benefits of revenue optimization in your industry, contact IDeaS