Knowing Your Own Position: How Benchmarking Strengthens the Pricing Strategy at the Stubaierhof

How can hotels keep track in the highly competitive tourism market? An overview of trends and developments at the destination level is often based on intuition or time-consuming manual research. But what if there was a better, simpler solution?

We spoke with Daniel Egger from Hotel Der Stubaierhof in Neustift. The family-run 4-star hotel recently started using RateBoard's new benchmarking feature to better understand its market position. In this interview, he shares his experiences from the first few weeks.

Daniel Egger - Host, Hotel Der Stubaierhof

The Challenge: Manual Research was Time-Consuming

Before Daniel Egger discovered RateBoard’s benchmarking feature, comparing prices with the competition was a tedious task. "Our employees repeatedly had to manually research via OTAs and anonymous email addresses," he explains. A laborious process that took up a lot of time. "Pricing shouldn't only depend on the competitor. Nevertheless, reliable benchmarking is very important."

RateBoard's new benchmarking feature was the solution to the search for a more efficient method. "The simple structure and, above all, the reliable data quality convinced me to try it out," says Egger.

The Solution: Easy Use and Clear Insights

The introduction of the new feature went smoothly. "As expected from RateBoard: simple and clear," reports Egger. He finds the pre-set regional filters particularly valuable. This allows the team to quickly and easily see how the hotel is positioned compared to the district, all of Tyrol, or even South Tyrol.

These clear insights have already had an initial impact on daily work. "In short-term marketing, the occupancy in the regional average helps us assess whether a short-term promotional campaign makes sense or not," Egger gives an example. The team was "very positively surprised" by the new possibilities, according to Egger.

The Added Value: KPIs Always in View

The advantages are noticeable after just one month. "The regular simple overview of the most important KPIs means you have a better grasp of your own numbers," explains Egger. He describes the added value as follows: "Often you get lost in the jungle of numbers, then again you are kept away from the numbers for too long. The benchmarking tool makes it easy to keep an ongoing overview of the most important KPIs."

He had a particular "aha moment" when he saw the numbers: "Aha, our region and we as a business aren't doing so badly after all..." and "Wow, we have a great increase in RevPar and ADR... but we need to work on occupancy."

Outlook: Benchmarking as a Strategic Tool

For the future, Egger sees benchmarking as a permanent part of the hotel strategy. "I think that benchmarking is playing an increasingly important role in strategic planning." He would unreservedly recommend the feature to other hoteliers because he "doesn't know of an easier and more user-friendly tool with reliable figures" until now.

If you also want to compare your hotel's performance with reliable data to strengthen your strategy, our benchmarking feature could be the right solution for you.