Hotel 53 lives out RateTiger’s philosophy of saving time while making money.

Awarding winning Hotel 53, which has successfully combined style and comfort with first rate service, has managed to position itself as a leading European hotel, since it first opened its doors in 2002. However, behind the scenes Hotel 53 was still employing a dated method of updating its third party distribution channels until very recently.

“I would log on every day to each website and update each of our four distribution channels individually. It was extremely time consuming and took up about eight hours every week,” says Sarah Culshaw, who has been working at the hotel since 2004.

“It was simply taking too much time, so when on the off chance RateTiger contacted me, I was keen to learn about their products and hear how they might speed up what was one of my most tedious and longest tasks,” continues Sarah.

With an increasing percentage of hotel reservations coming from third party websites, hoteliers are forced to participate in a variety of websites, which require continuous maintenance and monitoring if room rates are to remain competitive and up-to-date. When Sarah explained Hotel 53’s requirements to RateTiger, it was obvious that the most suitable tool would be RTAllocator Lite, which allows users to update rates and room availabilities in multiple distribution channels in moments. The product’s ability to store and maintain complex rate structures, mark-up/margins, deductions or minimum and maximum rates, means that updates can be achieved in a few minutes which otherwise, if done manually, takes up many hours. In January 2008 Hotel 53 took the plunge and signed up to receive software that would transform how Sarah managed distribution channels. 

“I had looked at revenue management tools by different companies, but RateTiger’s were by far the most user-friendly, which was important as I had no previous knowledge of this type of software and was looking for something easy to use,” remarks Sarah.

“Because all our rates can be updated almost instantly, it not only frees up a lot more of my time, but it means that Hotel 53 can react more quickly to the market. We have four different room types, and thanks to RTAllocator Lite, I can now make 16 daily rate updates very quickly and very accurately. It literally takes five minutes a day to make the updates, which means a time saving of at least 75%, if not more,” says Sarah.
As part of its customer service, RateTiger maintains contact with clients over the course of their contract and provides 24/7 support from an assigned market manager and a product support team.

“Even though RTAllocator Lite is easy to use, even for a virtual novice, it is reassuring to know that there is round-the-clock help so that any difficulties can be resolved straight away,” concludes Sarah.

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.