Part of the Hoteles Soleil group, Hotel Soleil Pacífico is an all-inclusive beachfront resort in Puerto San José, Guatemala, with 106 rooms and 22 bungalows, set amongst tropical gardens. Restaurants, pools, clubs, event spaces and a full program of entertainment make it suitable for families, couples and groups alike.
Today the resort earns roughly 62% of its room revenue through its own website and booking engine. Achieving this took a joint effort between SwissHotelier and SiteMinder, optimising technical capabilities and efficiency.
Manual rate updates were too challenging to sustain
Without a channel manager, the team updated availability and rates manually across every channel every day, resulting in delays that caused rate disparity and limited visibility for the resort’s offers.
It was obvious that the business needed a number of key fixes:
- Less labour-intensive way to distribute inventory
- Wider visibility, with more rooms and rate options in front of potential guests
- A simpler, more appealing way to book direct, with less reliance on online travel agencies (OTAs) over time
- A website that could show what a resort of this scale really offers
“We needed to simplify how we updated rates and availability across our different channels, improve our visibility and make it easier for guests to book directly with us,” says Kelly Mendoza, Revenue Manager, Hotel Soleil Pacífico.
Centralised property management through a streamlined partnership
Hotel Soleil Pacífico found its solution through SwissHotelier, which helped bring distribution, direct booking, and website experience into a single place. At the centre of the distribution side sits SiteMinder’s channel manager, which seamlessly connects the resort to OTAs and its property management system (PMS), allowing reservations flow through accurately and inventory to be managed automatically.
This combination answered each need in turn:
- Channel manager and PMS integration cut manual distribution
- Easy connection to OTAs widened visibility
- Direct bookings became simpler
- A new website showcased the resort’s brand perfectly
“At SwissHotelier, we supported the hotel with an end-to-end strategy, connecting its distribution through SiteMinder and strengthening the direct channel with Simple Booking and a new website,” explains Daniela Parra, Senior Reservation Technology Consultant, SwissHotelier.
Swap daily manual updates for channels that stay in sync
SiteMinder's channel manager connects your OTAs and PMS so rates, availability and reservations update automatically, giving your team more time to grow direct bookings like Hotel Soleil Pacífico.
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Less manual admin, more time for guests and a greater online reach
Day to day, SiteMinder’s channel manager centralises availability, rates and inventory in one place, and its integration with property management systems enables automatic inventory updates in real-time. The team handles fewer manual tasks, and there are fewer errors that come with slow, manual, work.
“Centralising our channels and connecting them to the PMS lets us reduce manual updates and manage reservations in a faster, more organised way,” says Kelly.
Because rates, availability and reservations stay synchronised across channels and the PMS, the resort can now run a diversified distribution strategy without overloading staff. On top of traditional third-party distribution, SiteMinder’s GDS also generates bookings from global travel agents.
Around that core, each layer of the stack contributes to the overall goal:
- Simple Booking: SwissHotelier’s booking engine integrates with the hotel’s distribution system, giving guests a simpler and more consistent booking experience.
- A new website: Designed to communicate the resort’s value proposition and steer visitors towards booking direct, with tracking and digital advertising integrations that show how potential guests behave and help refine the hotel’s marketing.
- SiteMinder’s Channels Plus: Connecting and distributing the resort’s inventory across additional channels through a single integration.
SwissHotelier supports the resort completely, from implementation and configuration to everyday use, so the team can get more from each tool and resolve questions as they arise.
Direct bookings deliver 62% of room revenue at a rate 19% above the property’s average
Since implementing SiteMinder, Hotel Soleil Pacífico has seen measurable results over a 12 month period across its most important metrics:
- Room revenue: US$370,260 across 1,015 reservations and 1,792 room nights, at an average daily rate (ADR) of US$207.
- Direct channel: More than US$229,000 in revenue from 524 reservations and 931 room nights through Simple Booking, roughly 62% of room revenue and 52% of reservations.
- Rate maximisation: A direct ADR of US$246.06, which is 18.9% above the hotel’s overall average and roughly US$80 to US$85 above the rates achieved through Expedia and Booking.com.
- Monthly trend: Direct was the largest single source of room revenue in every month for the past nine months
- Other channels: Expedia contributed roughly US$93,000 and Booking.com roughly US$47,500, with the first bookings through SiteMinder’s GDS beginning to arrive.
- Mobile bookings: Roughly two in three direct reservations were made on a mobile device, at an ADR of around US$264 to US$271 compared with US$221 on desktop, according to Simple Booking’s reporting.
- Booking behaviour: The typical direct booking was a short break of about 1.6 nights made about 17 days ahead, and the flexible all-inclusive rate plan accounted for 885 of the 931 direct room nights at an ADR of nearly US$250.
Together, these results have given the resort a more balanced revenue mix, with its own website now doing most of the selling and the OTAs adding reach rather than carrying the business.
Channels Plus and the tracking tools on the new website build on this to expand reach and provide a clearer view of how potential guests move from discovery to booking.
“Having direct bookings make up nearly 62% of our room revenue is a very valuable result. We want to keep strengthening this channel, making the most of the tools we’ve implemented and the support of SwissHotelier,” mentions Kelly.
For a resort whose promise to guests is that everything is taken care of, it is fitting that more of what happens behind the scenes is now taken care of too.
Thank you, Kelly, for the amazing feedback. It’s a pleasure for SiteMinder and SwissHotelier to support Hotel Soleil Pacífico’s continued growth, and we wish you all the best in the future.