Jennifer Axness
Revenue doubled at Dinah’s Garden Hotel in 2022 over the prior year, primarily due to its use of the iHotelier® booking engine. In Q1 2023, bookings continued to increase despite a string of severe weather events adversely affecting hotels throughout the area.
Maricela Gamboa, Revenue Manager, Dinah’s Garden Hotel: “One thing about Amadeus products is that they are very user friendly. I use iHotelier, Demand360®, and RevenueStrategy360™ on a daily basis, and maneuvering through them is very self-explanatory. With iHotelier, the ease of linking and deriving rate plans from a base plan makes my job easier.”
Setting the Scene –
Family-run Dinah’s Garden Hotel, in Palo Alto, California, an oasis of koi ponds and gazebos, lagoons and tropical gardens, offers a relaxed colonial feel in an atmosphere of comfort and sophistication. The hotel’s rich architecture and distinctive artwork make it one of the most unique hotels in the area.
The property has been partnering with Amadeus since 2010 and currently subscribes to a fully integrated suite of solutions: media, web solutions, Guest Management System™ (GMS), business intelligence (BI) solutions, and iHotelier.
Challenge –
Recently, the hotel has faced two distinct challenges: low revenue expectations in 2022, and unexpectedly harsh weather at the start of the following year. The spring of 2023 brought heavy rains to the northern part of the state, causing power outages, flooding and other severe damage to several local hotels.
Solution –
Despite dire industry predictions, in 2022 the hotel turned what might have been a mediocre year into an outstanding one, doubling revenue over the prior year by staying on top of ongoing promotions, taking advantage of a robust digital media campaign, and using the full functionality of the iHotelier booking engine. The hotel captured incremental revenue through marketing and room upgrade emails, and by increasing efforts to tackle cart abandonment through the Amadeus Guest Management System.
Early in 2023, unforeseen weather challenges affected the entire market; however, against the odds, results remained strong at Dinah’s Garden. Hotel staff, including its Revenue Manager – herself an important resource due to her total knowledge of and dedication to Amadeus’ solutions – did everything possible to survive this challenging period, including answering phone calls remotely and at all hours, continuing to promote discounted rates, and offering additional amenities to returning guests, who made up a significant portion of total booked guests. By using RevenueStrategy360 data, the property has maximized rate parity to ensure an optimal market mix.
Results –
In 2022 alone, Dinah’s Garden Hotel increased GDS bookings by 367% over 2021 by following best practices to maintain visibility on the GDS.
And in Q1 2023, despite turbulent weather, bookings increased by an impressive 21% over the same time period in the prior year, with the number of booked room nights increasing by 25%. Finally, by leveraging Amadeus’ consortia rate plans – packages designed for hotels to sell inventory through certain travel agencies on the GDS – the property consistently sees high performance from consortia agencies.
