And the good news gets better with share of direct bookings growing by 40% – 60% for this luxury Indian hospitality group.
Renowned for its exceptional service standards, Sayaji Group of Hotels is a sophisticated collection of 15 individually designed hotels catering to both leisure and business travellers with stylish guest rooms and versatile meeting facilities across 11 Indian cities. A homegrown brand that is competing with global entities, the Sayaji group has been winning guests over with its world-class amenities and services.
With 1400+ keys, and growing, Sayaji operates with three brand offerings – Sayaji, Effotel by Sayaji and Enrise by Sayaji, each with its distinct offering but always retaining the hallmark Sayaji service standards.
Seeking efficiencies in distribution
Before adopting the STAAH platform, Sayaji Hotels lacked an effective and efficient distribution and booking system. Their rates, inventory, and reservations were managed manually, which was inefficient and increased the chances of errors. To achieve its ambitions to grow its pan-India presence, it was apparent that automation of its distribution and increasing its online footprint was critical. They also had strong ambitions to improve the bottom line through increasing direct bookings. Partnered with IDS PMS, they were seeking a solution that seamlessly tied in with this existing platform for optimised end-to-end returns.
STAAH came recommended by hospitality professionals and had a strong track record spanning more than a decade, supporting hospitality businesses across the world.
The power of a smart platform
From the first demo that the group had from STAAH, it became very clear how user-friendly the platform was. But what was more impressive was the platform’s smart revenue management features.
Sayaji opted for the STAAH channel manager and booking engine with the add-on RateSTalk feature that allows the group to monitor the rates for up to five competitors for its properties, ensuring it retains its competitive edge. Both the channel manager and booking engine from STAAH are based on dynamic pricing, allowing each property in the group to optimize its rates based on occupancy, seasons, and other factors, rather than relying solely on static or seasonal trends. Offering diverse rate plans, exclusive offers and having flexible cancellation policies has ensured the group is relevant to the wider market segments it could now target with the implementation of the channel manager.
STAAH’s smart features are well supported by in-depth insights and analytics that make decision-making a breeze. The dashboard is easy-to-access and understand and can be tailored to property or group level to ensure decision-makers have the right view when making crucial rate and inventory changes.
The STAAH platform works seamlessly with Sayaji’s PMS, IDS, making it easy to manage rates across channels in real time without relying on direct rate pushes from the PMS. This integration has also reduced the friction of staff having to move between multiple systems for key rate and inventory management tasks. Being very user-friendly, embedding of the STAAH platform across all 15 properties was easy. The intuitive user-experience combined with its smart revenue features has drastically reduced the staff learning curves.
A surge in all key performance metrics
- 70% – 85% increase in average occupancy rates.
- 30% increase in revenue.
- 40% – 60% increase in direct bookings.
The statistics speak for themselves when it comes to the impact STAAH has made to the performance of Sayaji Hotels. The reduced reliance on third party platforms for bookings has meant that the revenue growth has been more profitable too. Less commissions and more direct revenue banked!
What’s not measured by revenue statistics, but visible to guests and the more than 3,200 staff of Sayaji is the improvement in guest experience with reduced booking errors, attracting the right guests and staff being freed up to spend more time lifting the service experience of Sayaji.
