Grand America Hotels & Resorts is a private, family-owned organization operating eight hotels and resorts in the western United States. Each property is unique, with the company’s portfolio including large convention hotels and ski resorts—from midscale to luxury—located in city centers and across the roadside of the adventurous American West. The organization operates a lean revenue management structure for all properties from one central location.
As post-Covid travel demand returned, it was critical for the central revenue management team to quickly spot trends and react to changes in each unique market. But the team did not have a solution for rolling up data for multiple properties over large time windows or analyzing data across various dimensions. They were bogged down with the assembly of instantly outdated spreadsheets and scrolling back and forth between different instances of IDeaS G3 Revenue Management System (RMS). They set out to find a technology tool that would enable them to quickly roll up data across all properties and empower agile decision-making in real time.
Using IDeaS’ Optix to See the Bigger Picture
Grand America selected IDeaS Optix, a revenue intelligence module for G3 RMS that leverages Amazon Web Services (AWS) to provide game-changing insights into each of their hotels’ evolving business conditions. The module enables users to see the big picture with estate-level dashboards quickly, easily slice and dice more granular data with powerful, multi-dimensional filtering, and explore, investigate, and analyze performance drivers on a guided path. After adopting Optix, Grand America was able to do more with less—streamlining its central revenue management operations, developing smarter strategies, and optimizing revenue across its entire hotel portfolio.
Andy Grinsfelder, VP of revenue, sales, and marketing at Grand America Hotels & Resorts, said, “With IDeaS Optix, we have a much clearer picture of our business and trends. We can easily see pacing trends changing across many of our properties, and we’re much quicker to react.”
Grand America Hotels & Resorts was already using Tableau to visualize other business data and considered the tool when evaluating technology solutions. When weighing development and maintenance costs and time, Optix was the clear winner since the data integrations were already in place with G3 RMS, and users could adapt to its use quickly. According to Grinsfelder, “Optix has helped shed further insight into how to use G3 RMS better. It helps us understand why the system makes its decisions and where we can further drive action with strategic pricing and marketing.”
Supporting Revenue Management Across Multiple Properties Using AWS
Breaking down data from eight unique hotels and resorts into actionable insights takes heavy lifting behind the scenes. Amazon Simple Storage Service delivers the technology needed to help IDeaS create a data lake where its clients’ relevant touchpoints are grouped into individual buckets. For Grand America, each of its properties is given unique identifiers to match its bespoke operations and commercial strategies, which can be accessed on an Estate Dashboard capable of powerful filtering across properties, segments, and rate codes.
IDeaS Optix then collates this information and delivers it in simplified, visual components, enabling hospitality revenue leaders to immediately answer the tough questions they are confronted with daily. “With Optix and AWS, I am armed with answers to questions that arise in revenue meetings, plan meetings, and P&L reviews. I keep it open for all those critical discussions and have the data I need at my fingertips,” said Grinsfelder.
Results and Benefits
After implementing IDeaS Optix, built on AWS, Grand America Hotels & Resorts gained efficiencies for its lean, centralized revenue management team. The technology delivered a clear picture of market trends impacting Grand America’s revenue and helped the company build a smarter, more agile business strategy during uncertain times. Using Optix, Grand America reached a greater understanding of the factors impacting its business and the cause and effect at work behind shifts in the broader hospitality industry.
