The Tahir Group already has seven “bestprice hotels” and “besttime hotels”. They would like to open further locations in North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland in the near future.
While the “bestprice hotels” stand for inexpensive accommodations, the “besttime hotels” also meet higher demands – but also guarantee an excellent price-performance ratio.
Interview with Revenue Manager Nauman Tahir
Please introduce yourself briefly and tell us what makes your hotel or hosting role special.
Tahir Investments GmbH has been operating on the German hotel market since 2018 with its “bestprice Hotel Eschweiler”. Since then, the company has successfully expanded and taken over further houses. The properties will first be thoroughly renovated and brought up to a uniform standard: all rooms will be upgraded with comfortable box spring beds. For information and to pass the time, guests have access to at least 32-inch flat-screen TVs and widespread WLAN that can be used free of charge. Our goal is to offer our guests excellent value for money without skimping on service.
Did you or how did you do revenue management before you switched to happyhotel?
Before happyhotel once a year prepared a list of event dates. General manager and manager together agreed on the prices. The occupancy figures of the past years/months were analyzed and new prices were set. As soon as this was done, all were put online and released. After that, the price was only changed selectively on certain days, with upward price changes rarely taking place.
Only in the case of low booking volume was a last minute discount given. In the process, however, one or the other day was certainly overlooked.
What were the decision criteria for happyhotel?
Effective room pricing was too time-consuming. Due to our strong expansion in recent years, there was also simply not enough time to adjust prices manually. The result: losses due to too low prices on popular event days. And also losses due to too high prices on “unpopular” travel days.
How does happyhotel make your everyday life easier?
happyhotel helps us to adjust the prices automatically based on the occupancy and booking volume in the region. I only define for each season which minimum and maximum price should be used, as well as the corresponding base price. Everything else is done by happyhotel for us.
Which features of happyhotel do you not want to miss anymore?
Definitely the autopilot. It saves us a lot of time. The response and sensitivity (conservative, aggressive, etc.) can be set and changed. Adjust the bulk update over period of time. I have worked with many systems, channel manager etc. However, it has never been as clear and simple as with happyhotel.
What does the dynamic pricing process look like NOW for you guys?
Actually, only random checks are currently made to ensure that happyhotel is working correctly. If necessary, we manually adjust the prices up and down, but this happens only in rare cases. Normally, the autopilot regulates everything on its own.
How has your average workday changed since integrating happyhotel?
We now have more time to optimize the hotels in other areas. Housekeeping and maintenance, for example, have improved significantly. As the respective managers no longer have to keep an eye on the prices, they can devote more of their time to the guests and thus make their stay as pleasant as possible.
Have you already made a recognizable additional turnover and if so, by what percentage have you been able to increase your turnover through happyhotel?
Currently, every month is a record month. This is due to the setbacks caused by the pandemic and the growth we have experienced. I say just under 8-10% from a gut feeling, without looking at the numbers. You can see really big differences at the weekend, so that a double room, which normally costs 65 € p.p. with us, is also bought for 87 € p.p., for example.
Nauman Tahir
Revenue Manager at Tahir Group
You also want to increase your sales through dynamic prices? Test our hotel software now 14 days free of charge and convince yourself of our advantages!
✓ Up to 25% increase in sales
✓ Clear data analysis
✓ Fully automated room rate optimization
Try happyhotel now for free