The Washington Jefferson Hotel has more effective revenue management thanks to the quick and easy to use RateTiger Revenue Management tool!

Located in the heart of New York’s Theatre District, The Washington Jefferson Hotel has successfully carved its position as a weekday accommodation provider for business customers and a sanctuary for those visiting the city recreationally on weekends.

“The Washington Jefferson is a boutique hotel and part of the Triumph Hospitality Chain,” says General Manager, Kate Martin. “It’s a different hotel than the standard chain hotels in New York in that it feels like a real home away from home.”

When Kate, who has a strong background in Revenue Management, first joined the group nearly 10 years ago, the internet was still being treated with a degree of suspicion by users, who mistrusted this new method of communication as a means of making transactions and purchases.

“We mainly focused on 2 distribution channels back then, although these were not updated very regularly as everything had to be done manually, but that was 10 years ago,” continues Kate. “Within the last 5 years things have changed dramatically and it is now essential to distribute via the internet in order to remain competitive. We currently have about 50% business from the internet”

Recognising the need for The Washington Jefferson to adapt its approach, Kate Martin thought an investment in revenue management software was vital if the hotel was to have greater control over on-line sales by altering its rates to reflect competition and demand.  Several suppliers were considered but in September 2006 The Washington Jefferson decided to go with RateTiger Allocator. This particular tool allows complete visibility into the hotel’s current rate and availability situation within third party distribution channels before making informed decisions on any complex updates. In October 2007 the hotel was updated to RateTiger Allocator Pro, a newer version of RateTiger Allocator.

“Our hotel works with 9 distribution channels, which include Expedia and Travelocity. We chose RTAllocator Pro because, as well as being a very detailed and specialised product, it is still very quick and easy to use,” enthuses Kate. “It was also important for us to have access to reliable customer support so that problems could be quickly resolved to save us losing out on potential revenue.”

Aside from being able to have a more effective influence over on-line sales, Allocator Pro means that the process of updating channels is less time consuming and allows The Washington Jefferson to change their rates whenever they need to.

“On average we make about 20 changes a day which now takes just 5 minutes. In the weekly yield meeting, the new strategy for the coming months is decided. This means that since the introduction of Allocator Pro, we are able to change the rates very quickly after the meeting without any further delay because of workload. The amount of time and manpower needed to make these changes has definitely decreased.” 

“This revenue management tool also allows for hotels to review changes and make any alterations immediately. The confusion and stress we had before has also vanished,” says Kate.

When asked if there is a particular time of year when RateTiger Allocator is most useful, Kate’s answer is simple. “Every day! I can’t imagine not using the software anymore. The tools are of daily importance!”

RateTiger Products:

• RTShopper Pro/Lite
• RTAllocator Pro/Lite
• RTChannel Manager
• RTChannel Manager Plus
• RTWeb
• RTConnect
• RTCorp

About RateTiger
RateTiger has been a leader in Online Distribution Management tools since 2001 and continues to pioneer new technologies for the hospitality industry. RateTiger, by eRevMax, now operates in 60 countries and 415 cities across the world and has become the industry-wide benchmark for managing online distribution. The RateTiger product portfolio enables hoteliers to switch from a time-consuming and complicated multi-channel process to a single point of entry to the market, hence allowing for easy update of distribution channels and travel portals, and rate comparison with competitors, in real-time.

RateTiger is headquartered in the US, with a second office in London (UK) and a technical development centre in India. eRevMax employs over 150 people across the globe. RateTiger is rapidly expanding across the European and American markets.