IDeaS Advantage Improves Competitive Positioning for Thon Hotel Brussels City Centre
Thon Hotel Brussels City Centre, a 454-room property in the heart of the European capital, caters for both business travelers and tourists alike. As one of Norway’s largest hotel chains, with over 50 properties located in Norway, Sweden, Belgium and Holland, Thon Hotels currently operates four premiere hotel locations in Brussels and two serviced residences.
As a result of the economic crisis, the Thon Hotel Brussels City Centre, like others in the industry experienced a downturn in demand. In June 2008, the hotel lost a crew contract of approximately 80 rooms which impacted on the hotel’s market share. The Revenue Manager was able to recover some of the loss; however the effect of his sudden departure later that year reflected on subsequent performance figures. The hotel’s RevPAR (Revenue per Available Room) Index dropped from 91.0 in December 2008 to 66.3 by February 2009.
Thon Hotels contracted IDeaS Advantage for Hospitality from March 2009 to May 2009 to provide Short-Term Revenue Management Support for the Thon Hotel Brussels City Centre. The objective of the assignment was to ensure that a high standard of revenue management processes and procedures were maintained, thus allowing the hotel the freedom to pursue the search for a qualified new permanent revenue manager. In addition, the revenue generating potential of the hotel needed to be optimized as effectively as possible within the timeframe of the assignment.
In the initial stage of assessment, the IDeaS Advantage Consultants conducted a thorough review and clean-up of existing tools and processes. Throughout the assignment, daily, weekly and monthly revenue meetings were conducted and situational analysis, strategies, tactics and action points were discussed with the hotel management team. These then resulted in the implementation of approved strategies by the IDeaS Advantage Consultant. During this time, the Consultant utilized the IDeaS V5i revenue management solution to recommend, analyze, review and implement the different revenue strategies.
As a result of the support provided by IDeaS Advantage, the Thon Hotel Brussels City Centre witnessed a significant increase in RevPAR. A comparison between the period of engagement and the three months prior to this, showed a marked improvement in RevPAR of 39.7%. The hotel also reaped additional intangible benefits such as enhanced revenue management understanding, training and best practice, as well as improved processes and procedures. Thon Hotels was also able to improve the understanding of their competitive set and pricing strategies and improved full usage by the hotel of revenue management tools such as IDeaS V5i, competitive rate shopping reports and competitive set performance reports. “The Short-Term Revenue Management Support by IDeaS Advantage resulted in a significant improvement of our competitive positioning" said Alain Vanbinst, General Manager, Thon Hotel Brussels City Centre. “With quick, visible results, we signed up a second hotel within 3 weeks and we are looking forward to continuing the great relationship we have established with the IDeaS Advantage Consultant."
The engagement was successfully completed with a detailed handover conducted by the Consultant with the new Revenue Manager, who has taken over full responsibility of all revenue management functions of the Thon Hotel Brussels City Centre. Showing their satisfaction with the results achieved by IDeaS Advantage, Thon Hotels extended the engagement from one hotel to include all four Thon Hotels in Brussels. Together with IDeaS Advantage, Thon also initiated a larger strategic project to streamline revenue management processes for the hotels as a group.
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