Hotel Scalinata Di Spagna

Tell us about your property

Hotel Scalinata di Spagna is named after its location inside an early 19th-century building situated right at the top of one of Italy’s most beautiful and famous staircases, the Spanish Steps (Trinità dei Monti) in Rome.

My brother and I took over the business in 2013, and in just seven years, we expanded it from 16 to 36 rooms. Today, it’s a well-established enterprise with a proven organizational system.

Smartpricing has streamlined communication with our guests: you can clearly justify the price by pointing to specific variables. The entire market works like this now. As a result, customers accept the price more readily, and we no longer find ourselves in arguments.

How did you calculate rates before Smartpricing?

First, let me note that I’ve been a hotelier for about ten years, but I come from a completely different background. I studied statistics at university, worked in international IT and telecommunications, and even ran a solar energy company in its early days.

So, for me, numbers and statistics have always been fundamental—I’ve always loved them. When we started the hotel, instead of relying on Booking.com, I instructed my night porter to analyze the activities of the twenty most prominent hotels in Rome that we considered our benchmarks. This helped us learn not just their numbers but also how they approached and operated in the market.

Every morning, we entered the data collected into Excel, which we used to generate dynamic pricing. Then we uploaded the prices to the channel manager and made necessary adjustments based on the booking channels.

We achieved decent results, but it was an exhausting process that required hours of work.

How did you come across Smartpricing?

As I mentioned, we were performing well, but at some point, I realized we needed more expertise in pricing strategies.

In revenue management, pricing is the most crucial element. Everything else can be managed, but pricing is the deciding factor. I couldn’t afford to hire a full-time revenue manager. We did try working with an external revenue manager on a part-time basis, but the results were no better than what we could achieve on our own.

I was already on the lookout for a solution when I discovered Smartpricing, and I didn’t let the opportunity pass. From my career in telecommunications, I’ve experienced the shift from analog to digital and can easily recognize dynamic, innovative companies like yours—run by sharp people who are game-changers in their industries.

Why did you decide to adopt Smartpricing?

Because I recognized my limitations.

We set rates with an analog system based on benchmarks from only twenty hotels. I lacked a broader market perspective, didn’t know the average rates in Rome, and couldn’t react quickly to changes. If I had a fever one day, the rates wouldn’t be updated.

Smartpricing gave me a comprehensive view of the market and made my work more efficient. It removed the mental burden of constantly questioning whether my rates were optimal.

How has your work changed with Smartpricing?

Smartpricing gives me a market overview I never had before, which is crucial.

For example, in September, there’s a major golf event in Rome that I wasn’t aware of since I don’t follow the sport. Smartpricing detected the event and adjusted the prices accordingly, sparing me from missing a key revenue opportunity.

This allows me to focus on what matters most while knowing that the system is taking care of everything else.

Has Smartpricing helped you improve your hotel?

Smartpricing has been a growth engine for our hotel. It allowed us to better position the property, enhance its value, and make it more appealing.

The additional revenue we earned wasn’t used for personal indulgences; instead, it was reinvested to improve the hotel. We renovated rooms with the help of top architects, commissioned professional photography, and created an extraordinary website. Smartpricing enabled us to approach the market in a more structured way and stay competitively positioned.

What results have you achieved with Smartpricing?

Despite the challenges of comparing data across recent years, I know with mathematical precision that in 2022, with Smartpricing, we achieved the same number of guests as in 2019 but with a 17% increase in revenue. This result is entirely thanks to Smartpricing.

Would you recommend Smartpricing?

Yes, and I already have. Smartpricing has filled a gap in the industry and would greatly benefit hoteliers by improving their sales knowledge.