In conversation with Sophie von Finck, revenue manager for the entire Smartments business group

Please introduce yourself briefly and tell us what makes your hotel or host role stand out.
My name is Sophie and I am revenue manager for the entire SMARTments business group in Germany and Austria. Our serviced apartments offer fully equipped studios for short and long stays, including a kitchenette with ceramic hob, dishwasher, kettle, coffee machine, toaster and microwave with grill function, cleaning service, free WiFi and therefore everything you need. In other words, moving to a new city requires only the clothes and not the right piece of furniture.

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Did you or how did you do revenue management before you switched to happyhotel?
We already operated revenue management before happyhotel, but the price control was carried out manually in a very time-consuming manner.

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What were the decision criteria for Happyhotel?
I have of course also compared Happyhotel with other providers, but Happyhotel finally convinced us/me completely, in particular because of the speed and flexibility in the setup and the very intuitive operation.

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How does Happyhotel make everyday life easier for you?
Since our employees in the houses, who are also responsible for price control and monitoring, are free at the weekend (me too, by the way; -)), the autopilot in price management is of course the biggest relief for us at happyhotel.

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Which feature do you like best?
The price control is very intuitive, so that you are familiar with the topic without complicated and lengthy training and can easily get started. When I'm on vacation, I don't have to worry about missing something because EVERYONE with us can quickly operate the system on the side 😉

The ability to use the installment plans, which consist of Apaleo to be able to segment price or market segments spontaneously and myself individually for my analysis purposes.

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What does the dynamic pricing process look like for you NOW?
In short: relaxed and fast.

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How has your average working day changed since the integration of happyhotel?
A significant time saving in yielding, so that I can go more into analyses and you have time to react for the future.

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What do you like best about Happyhotel? Which function feels like saving you the most time?
I particularly like the demand setting for events. Thanks to them, I was able to “teach” the algorithm how to react very easily, especially after the last two years of pandemic.

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What are your personal tips for future users of happyhotel?
Be open to new paths. The market is moving at such short notice that happyhotel's flexibility should be actively used in the setup.

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What do you want for Happyhotel's future?

That you stay the way you are! Flexible, fast and individual in terms of options for individual customers, as, despite various possible standards, individual options and spontaneous adjustments for short-term market reactions are very helpful and necessary.

I would also like to see even more reporting options and further options for additional “sub-segments”.

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Name three things that you would share with other hoteliers.
Get away from the old structures, be open to new dynamic systems, motivate and, above all, involve your own employees in all ranks for new things, in the hope that they will in turn attract new employees to our cool industry!

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