We had the opportunity to talk to Diego Flórez, Director of Revenue & Sales at Roisa Hotel Group. Read what he has to say about his day-to-day experience with the RMS revbell.
Can you please introduce yourself?
My name is Diego Flórez, and after more than 10 years working in Revenue Management departments at Meliá Hotels International, Grupo SmartRental, and Palladium Hotel Group, I am currently the co-founder and Director of Revenue & Sales at Roisa Hotel Group. We are a small hotel company managing two properties in Madrid: Roisa Centro, a leisure luxury-focused tourist apartment complex, and Roisa Hostal Boutique, which caters to the middle-scale business segment due to its location and services.
What challenges led you to invest in a solution like revbell?
The main goal, which is common across companies investing in an RMS (Revenue Management System), is maximizing revenue through faster data analysis capabilities.
Back in 2011, at Meliá, we were pioneers in using the RMS IdeaS, which at that time was mostly limited to large American hotel chains. Over the years, new solutions emerged, but they remained prohibitively expensive for independent hotels or smaller chains.
After the pandemic, a “democratization” process began, with the emergence of new specialized startups like revbell, as well as the development of older PMS systems that integrated “machine learning” technology. This has made it much easier for independent hotels and smaller chains to access this technology.
What were your selection criteria? How did revbell stand out?
In Madrid’s highly dynamic market, it was important for our company to take a step forward to enhance pricing strategies, improve profitability, and simplify the analytical workflow, which until then primarily relied on Excel spreadsheets and BI tools.
In 2023, after budgeting for an RMS, I began researching both online and at various tourism fairs. I focused on price, data quality, and ease of use. I couldn’t find exactly what I was looking for until, during an informal conversation with Jordi Picón, CDO of Hotelgest, he told me about a French Consulting company called N&C that had developed revbell.
revbell stood out because it provided detailed recommendations based on artificial intelligence. Its algorithm focuses on daily pickup patterns and historical data curves by segment and room category. Additionally, the system evolves and learns from “human” decisions, making its recommendations increasingly precise over time.
How did the onboarding phase go?
The first step was integrating the system in a 2-way connection with our PMS (initially with Mews and later with Hotelgest) and the Channel Manager “Siteminder.” This process was quick and simple, as all the companies we work with have technologically capable and well-prepared teams for integration.
For training, I was guided by Idoia Herrero, who explained all the intricacies of the tool and the best ways to optimize it. For the onboarding process, Cannelle Galmiche supervised the setup and mapping of rates, segmentation, and room categories.
Overall, the process was quite straightforward thanks to the efforts of everyone involved. Unlike other companies, their commitment didn’t stop at the start of the collaboration. Nearly a year into using revbell, I still have daily follow-ups and feedback from our Customer Success Manager, Emiliano Benza.
Today, how does revbell integrate into your daily routine?
The revbell dashboard is the first thing I check every morning. It provides a quick overview of the most important KPIs, along with an in-depth analysis of on-the-books reservations, pickup, and deviations versus budget or previous years.
After a short analysis (which would take hours using Excel or BI tools), I review all the alerts generated by the AI—whether for rate adjustments or restrictions. Everything is so simple that I can accept the recommendations with a single click, and the system updates both the PMS and Channel Manager within seconds.
Recently, we integrated the Lighthouse rate shopper, so the alerts now quickly show the price range of competitors by room type for a specific day.
How has revbell helped you? Could you give us one or more concrete examples?
Today, I can’t imagine working without revbell. It has been a huge step forward in optimizing time and resources. It has also allowed me, for the first time, to get more involved in the daily operations of the hotels and to manage other areas like cost control, distribution, and marketing more effectively.
From an analytical perspective, and to give you a real example, we’ve achieved a global increase of +27.55% in ARR and +32.57% in revenue in the cumulative 2024 compared to 2023. This strengthens our financial position and opens the door to expansion opportunities in the coming year.
Would you recommend revbell to other companies in the same sector?
Not only would I recommend it, but I’d also say that using a powerful RMS like revbell is essential to “survive” in this industry. In times of political and economic uncertainty, it is more important than ever to implement the original principles of Revenue Management: offering the right rate at the right time to the right customer, thereby increasing profitability.
On top of this, new areas of evolution in Revenue Management, such as cost control and optimization of pricing in food and beverage services, meeting rooms, cross-selling, parking, or any additional services your establishment offers, make tools like revbell indispensable.
Keywords: Diego Flórez, Roisa Group Hotel, Revenue Management, Revenue Management System, RMS, hotel, hotels