Domaine de la Forêt d’Orient: how a 4★ hotel runs its pricing strategy on autopilot

Could you introduce yourself and your property?

My name is David Wiss. I have been the owner of the Domaine de la Forêt d’Orient for nearly four years. The property features 80 4★ rooms. We also offer seven meeting rooms, a spa, a restaurant and a golf course.

What challenges led you to invest in an RMS?

We had been looking for an RMS for several years, especially after the employee who was manually handling all our pricing left. We suddenly found ourselves with additional workload at the front desk. Implementing an RMS allowed us to continue developing the business without necessarily hiring another person.

How did the onboarding phase go?

With Revbell, we had a one-hour presentation and the connectivity was seamless. We use it in autopilot mode. We do regular check-ins every three to six months and otherwise we let the tool run independently. That was exactly what we were looking for: a fully autonomous system.

How does the Revbell RMS fit into your daily operations?

The RMS has become fully integrated and is essentially absorbed by the revenue increase it generates. We don’t perceive it as an additional cost, as the software effectively pays for itself.

At what point did you feel the need for an additional RM diagnostic beyond the RMS?

Initially, we had an entry-level package, but over time we wanted to go further. We requested more in-depth studies on pricing, including minimum and maximum rate thresholds. We realized we wanted to go further in our analysis, to develop the business and improve occupancy and revenue.

The only solution was to conduct a full audit. The analysis involved reviewing our existing tools and assessing whether we could further leverage them. In our view, the diagnostic was complementary. We had reached a point where we could no longer grow revenue on our own. The diagnostic helped us identify new opportunities. We would not have considered targeting certain tour operators or taking specific actions without it.

What is your view on the integration of technology in the hospitality industry?

No hotel today has the time to constantly analyze competitors’ pricing while also checking occupancy forecasts six months ahead or year-over-year trends. It is an extremely complex task, even with artificial intelligence. Even if systems are connected, they are not specialized enough for our industry. We simply could not achieve this level of analysis manually.