Hospitality revenue management software (RMS) company IDeaS has launched IDeaS Spotlight, a solution to help hotel marketers
identify ideal timing for marketing campaigns.

In an interview with PhocusWire, Mike Chuma, vice president of
global marketing for IDeaS, explained that the team at IDeaS “worked backwards,”
and determined that, as an RMS company, it can use forecast data and price sensitivity capabilities
to inform strategies. The Spotlight tool uses analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) to do so. 

“The core problem that we’re solving at its most elemental level is: Are you actually spending the money in your
marketing program on the appropriate time to be able to drive a better occupancy or a better mix of
business?” Chuma said.

According to Chuma, the software addresses a “disconnect” between revenue managers, who see the need for future demand, and marketing teams, who are often running seasonality-based promotions with a set budget.

“What we’ve been able to do is say, ‘Where do I need to actually target—do I need to target suites,
do I need to target business guests?’ And then what this does is it gives you
the opportunity impact of an area—forward-looking—to know whether you should
shift your marketing strategies.”

“It’s a proactive way to identify opportunities
for marketing campaigns and plannings, and then you have the closed loop to
say, ‘It actually did drive bookings,’” Chuma said.

The IDeaS revenue management system is “born on AI,”
running an ongoing analysis of forecast data to identify what hoteliers should
be charging and whether they’re on booking pace, among other variables, Chuma said. Spotlight
then uses that information and generates an opportunity impact score for promotions.

“I’m super excited about this
because it’s the first time that a revenue management system has been
able to give you proactive opportunity identification and be used jointly in a
collaborative way to align the sales and marketing and revenue management
teams. It tells you how your property is doing, gives you opportunities [and] it looks at how you can impact those opportunities,” Chuma said.

The new solution is in limited release until mid-summer
this year.