UpStay, the first post-booking yield optimization platform for hotels, has won a major international travel industry award at the Phocuswright Conference held in Florida last month.
The Award recognizes UpStay as one of the most innovative technology platforms available to the global travel industry today.
UpStay, participating for the first time, was selected by the international panel of judges for the Phocuswright Innovation Launch 2021 – Winner: People’s Choice Award.
UpStay helps hoteliers unlock new revenue while engaging with customers, explained Maína Pietrobelli, UpStay’s Vice President of Business Development, during her presentation on the conference stage.
Hoteliers have traditionally focused most of their attention on distribution and occupancy levels, but have missed opportunities to generate new revenue from their guests during the post-booking stage, she added.
UpStay Helps Hotels Sell More Premium Rooms
“We empower hotels to unlock new revenue streams effortlessly. With only one smart pre-arrival email, UpStay increases profitability by up to 25 percent,” she said.
UpStay’s innovative Bid-For-Upgrade system drives guests to bid online for room upgrades prior to their arrival and automatically upgrades winning bids to match the hotel’s unsold premium inventory shortly before check-in.
The advantages to this approach are that UpStay lets the guest decide, in his or her own time, whether to upgrade. Furthermore, naming a price puts the guest in control of how much extra they are willing to spend. The system is five times more successful than face-to-face attempts by hotel staff to sell room upgrades or other solutions that exist on the market.
UpStay Boosts Hotel Ancillary Revenue
In addition to room upgrades, UpStay sends targeted and personalized offers to chosen segments of guests before and during their stay with smart offers to buy other in-hotel add-ons.
According to Phocuswright research, almost two-thirds of hotel guests would like to purchase extra services and products, such as in-room dining and other pre-paid meals; parking; early check-in or late check-out; in-room entertainment; golf, leisure and spa services.
Yet very few hotels offer add-on services and products to their guests in a systematic manner, the survey found.
At a time when hoteliers need to maximize all revenue opportunities, the Upstay solution works automatically, sending offers straight to guests’ smartphones before and during their stay.
“The UpStay platform deploys AI algorithms to continually analyze the hotel in real-time and to match the right products to the right guests, increasing margins, enhancing the guest experience and loyalty,” commented Pietrobelli at the 2021 Phocuswright Conference.
This dynamic approach results in much greater conversion rates than a static rule-based upselling tool could ever achieve, she added.
For the Myconian Collection of hotels and resorts on the Greek island of Mykonos, using the UpStay solution results in $220,000 in additional automated annualised revenue, with an average extra spend of $660 per guest.
UpStay Achieves Rapid International Growth
UpStay was founded in 2019 and has been growing rapidly, with offices in five countries (Israel, Greece, Italy, Mexico, Brazil), and the company is expanding fast to capture the market with a new office in NYC and another one coming soon on the West coast.
UpStay is now serving more than 120 hotel brands in 30 countries. It has reported an average increase of 5 percent in overall revenue per booking for its hotel clients, translating to a 10 to 25 percent profit increase.
UpStay easily integrates with more than 20 property management systems, channel managers and booking systems and set-up takes just a few hours. Following its seamless installation, the software automatically takes care of upselling opportunities with no intervention required by hotel personnel.
With no upfront costs, UpStay offers a risk-free business model and only takes a share of the extra revenue made from its platform.
UpStay was singled out as offering “an excellent solution” at the 2021 PhocusWright Conference and was one of only three winners selected from a total of 17 finalists who presented at the event.
Mike Coletta, Phocuswright’s Manager of Research and Innovation, said: “As the world attempts to fully reopen from the pandemic, creative solutions are more needed than ever to help travel companies optimize revenue and automate processes, to put more money in the pockets of workers, and to better help travelers with shopping for and booking their trips.”
The Phocuswright Conference has been running for 25 years and is recognized as the premier showcase of new thinking and innovation in the global travel industry.
