This is blog #3 of our ongoing series of talking to the PriceLabs team about their experience of using PriceLabs to manage pricing for their or their client’s properties. To provide you with a revenue management perspective, we spoke with Fausto Viera De Silva. We asked for his insights on how PriceLabs helped him optimize revenue for the apartments he managed in Colombia and Puerto Rico.
About Fausto Vieira da Silva
Fausto has been with PriceLabs for over 3 years. In his role as Strategic Partnerships Lead at PriceLabs, he handles strategic partnerships, account management for larger accounts, and revenue management and provides valuable insights to customers. He attends regional, national, and global conferences, seminars, and events.
Before joining PriceLabs, Fausto was a revenue manager handling over 300 listings. He was responsible for revenue management, distribution, growth strategies, implementation, and partnerships.
Features that an expert user, Fausto, swears by
Customizations
We recommend the best data-driven prices for your listings. However, sometimes, you might want to customize certain pricing aspects based on your preferences or market observations. For last-minute bookings, you can change and customize your last-minute settings to ensure you control your pricing. Read how to use our pricing customizations here.
Orphan gaps
An orphan gap occurs when some nights are left unbookable due to minimum requirements for the length of stay. For example, if you require a 7-night minimum and bookings leave less than 7 nights open between the last checkout and the next check-in. By default, the PriceLabs algorithm applies a 20% discount to gaps of 1 or 2 open nights between bookings. There are two options – a percentage-based adjustment or a fixed price for orphan gaps. This can either be a premium or a discount. Read more about setting this customization here.
Last-minute prices
Last-minute adjustments are added to help get bookings for dates with a reduced chance of getting booked. This can either be a premium or a discount. You are in full control of your last-minute prices. Read more about last-minute discounts here. Read more about setting last-minute discounts in PriceLabs here.
Day-of-week pricing adjustments
Our dynamic pricing recommendations already account for the day-of-week trends; any adjustments made with this customization will be used on top of our defaults and are not replaced as with the two previous customizations. Read more about setting the customization in PriceLabs here.
Using an automated data-driven pricing strategy helped Fausto earn more during peak season
Before PriceLabs, Fausto used a combination of PMS and manual pricing to manage the revenue of the properties he was managing. He also briefly used Outswitch to manage to price. Pricing was based on his market knowledge and the data the PMS provided. He started thinking about base price and Dynamic Pricing in general with PriceLabs.
PriceLabs, seasonality, and demand analysis helped Fausto analyze and identify a surge in bookings due to a demand hike in the locality. The algorithm incorporates a demand-detection factor to adjust prices in response to increased demand. By default, a far-out premium factor is also enabled to safeguard your property against low-priced bookings made far in advance.
PriceLabs’ Market Dashboard and Neighborhood Data provide valuable market & property pricing insights and a deep dive into potential guests’ booking patterns. Property managers can use this data to make informed decisions on where to invest their money and evaluate the effectiveness of their past investments. Property managers can also use this information to support their strategies and demonstrate the performance of the properties they are managing to their clients, the property owners.
Onboarding and managing a large portfolio is easy
Previously in his role as a Revenue Manager, Fausto handled over 300 listings. He could onboard his entire portfolio within a month or a month and a half. Grouping listings in PriceLabs helped him make bulk changes to a set of listings that perform similarly. This saved him hours on operational tasks.
He also mentioned that the support was amazing. Sana and Anurag, our co-founders, answered all of his queries. Shifting to PriceLabs is a learning curve. PriceLabs has a lot of customizations and features that require a little training.
He comments that in the long run, the PriceLabs Basics and the other training sessions help property managers, revenue managers, and property owners understand how to leverage PriceLabs to implement their pricing strategy.
PriceLabs helped Fausto increase revenue by 20%
In the second year of using PriceLabs, Fausto saw a 20% revenue jump in the properties he managed. Understanding the various customizations available on PriceLabs helped him dynamically price his listings.
With PriceLabs’s Dynamic Pricing solutions, he could get pricing recommendations based on historical and current booking data, market supply and demand, seasonal and day-of-week trends, special events and holiday predictions, and days left to book their property. It can efficiently help them with all their requirements by providing a space combining automation, strategy, and market intelligence.
PriceLabs helped him reduce gaps and increase occupancy
Fausto’s team did not manage their calendar manually. They could not manage and/or prevent the orphan gaps that would occur with 1 or 2-night stays. This is where orphan gaps came in; they could easily and dynamically avoid and fill gaps. This increased their occupancy, ensuring they were still meeting their revenue goals.
Managing a large inventory can be overwhelming, especially when reviewing daily calendar gaps to avoid missing potential sales. PriceLabs offered a convenient solution by automatically addressing these gaps.
About PriceLabs
Established in 2014 and headquartered in Chicago, PriceLabs is a leading provider of innovative and easy-to-use Dynamic Pricing and revenue management solutions for the rental industry. PriceLabs provides a data-driven approach, automation rules, and customizations to manage pricing and stay restrictions that help property owners and managers increase revenues efficiently and easily. With over 90 integrations and a growing list of channels and property management systems, PriceLabs’ automated revenue management solution is built to serve the needs of large property managers to single-property owners.
Conclusion
How PriceLabs helped Fausto
- Onboarding and managing a large portfolio is easy
- PriceLabs helped increase revenue by 20%
- PriceLabs helped reduce orphan gaps and increase occupancy
PriceLabs’ features that Fausto swears by:
- Customizations
- Orphan gaps
- Last-minute discounts
- Day-of-week pricing
Plan a demo call with us here: https://bit.ly/42NNvMJ
