Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International (#HSMAI) is a global organisation founded in the US in the year 1927. HSMAI is committed to growing business for the hotels, events, travel industry, and their partners.
@HSMAI Region Europe is the industry’s leading advocate for intelligent and sustainable revenue growth on a local, national, and European level. The association offers practical tools, insights, and expert knowledge to enhance professional development as well as boost sales, encourage marketing, optimize revenue, and transform businesses digitally.
RateGain, a leader in hospitality and travel technology, has been awarded the Best Technology Innovation of the Year by HSMAI Region Europe during their annual ROC and Awards in London on January 28th, 2020. The tech company won this award due to its excellent innovation in building OPTIMA MarketDRONE, an artificial intelligence product, which is first of its kind.
It is a cloud-based solution that tracks intraday rates and rate plan changes by hotels in real-time. The product pushes real-time updated rates in an automated fashion to revenue managers on a device of their choice. It is the only product in the market that provides instant alerts to revenue managers for a real-time rate change, thus allowing them to respond to changes as they occur to maximize their revenue. The product comes with an easy-to-navigate user interface that saves time and effort for revenue managers.
RateGain is a leading provider of SaaS products, which help hospitality and travel technology companies with revenue management, smart distribution, and brand engagement to enhance their revenue every day. The tech company supports 125,000+ hotel properties globally by analysing over 240 billion data points to provide intelligence & power over 30 Million bookings.
RateGain is trusted by 25 out of the top 30 OTAs, the world’s fastest-growing airlines, 23 of the top 30 hotel chains, tour operators, all leading car rental companies, largest cruise lines, and the largest travel management companies. Few years back, RateGain acquired DHISCO, which made RateGain the only company in the world to offer end-to-end smart distribution. Some of their other innovative products are:
- Competitive Pricing Intelligence for OTAs & Metas, Airlines, Hotels, Package Providers, Car Rentals, and Cruise & Ferries.
- Rate Parity for OTAs & Metas, Airlines, and Hotels.
- Revenue Maximisation for Hotels, Package Providers, Cruise & Ferries, and Car Rentals.
- Hotel Distribution Software
- Distribution for Travel Sellers.
- Guest Experience Cloud Platform.
The judging panel for the award consisted of industry veterans, namely- Carl Weldon (COO Europe #HFTP), Kai Holmberg (Partner Unfold), Amanda Elder (CCO, Kempinski Hotels), and Matthew Stephens (MD eHotelier). The panel unanimously agreed while issuing a statement that “OPTIMA #MarketDRONE provides the hotel industry with a unique solution to a constant problem of staying ahead of competition. The product is built upon the new-age technologies such as artificial intelligence and cloud. It is a good example of hotel technology innovation.”
The award is handed to those that show a real change in the hotel landscape, with a genuinely innovative application of technology. Other winners at the awards ceremony include:
- The Red Carnation Hotel Collection won the best use of brand award
- Mark Beverlo, director regional sales at Preferred Hotels & Resorts received sales professional of the year award
- Philip Steiner, director of accommodations and serviced apartments, Cycas Hospitality Group, received young talent of the year award
- Thomas Goval, deputy general manager at Katara Hospitality, received young hotelier of the year award
Storify News‘ Mike Bravo contributed to this event.
