IDeaS Revenue Solutions announced the industry's first tool for analyzing how social media ratings and sentiment should impact hotel room pricing.

Developed with Brand Karma and ReviewPro, the solution will enable hotels to make more reputation-aware pricing decisions by factoring social media sentiment into IDeaS Revenue Management System (RMS) pricing analysis.

"Most hoteliers understand that social media ratings impact their ability to attract and retain customers, but they don't have the tools to calculate how it impacts pricing," said Sanjay Nagalia, Chief Operating Officer and Co-founder, IDeaS Revenue Solutions. "This is the industry's first integrated solution that draws the correlation between how a hotel is reviewed and perceived online and how much it should influence pricing. By creating this within IDeaS RMS, we can help hoteliers make much more informed pricing decisions."

The Reputation Management Pricing is an additional feature within the Best Available Rate (BAR) module for IDeaS RMS.  The feature will combine IDeaS' industry-leading pricing data with Brand Karma and ReviewPro's online reputation and social media analytics—bringing greater depth and functionality to IDeaS RMS.

The feature will provide joint clients and future prospects with a fast, automated way to evaluate their online reputations and that of their competitors in context of the competitive pricing landscape in order to more effectively price rooms and drive revenue performance.  

"As the impact of online reputation continues to grow, more hotels are seeking ways to calculate the return on investment of having an excellent reputation," said Morris Sim, CEO and Co-founder, Brand Karma. "We are pleased to partner with IDeaS and help develop a tool that automatically assesses a hotel's online reputation so that hoteliers can use this intelligence to price more competitively."

In addition to producing the Best-Available-Rate (BAR) pricing decision based on arrival date, length of stay and competitor rate information, the Reputation Management Pricing feature enables IDeaS RMS to factor in reputation management data from hundreds of online travel agencies, review sites and social media platforms, including TripAdvisor, Expedia and Booking.com.

According to RJ Friedlander, CEO of ReviewPro, "The hospitality industry has experienced a surge in the incorporation of social analytics into revenue management decisions as online guest feedback's impact for hoteliers continues to grow. Our collaboration with IDeaS arrives hot on the heels of a landmark study by Cornell University that proves that hotels can effectively drive financial performance through improving their online guest satisfaction."

According to Cornell's research, a 1-point increase in ReviewPro's 100-point online reputation score, the Global Review Index™, can lead up to a 0.89% increase in price, a 0.54% increase in occupancy, and a 1.42% increase in RevPar.

The Reputation Management Pricing feature is currently in beta status and scheduled for general availability in mid-2014. 

About IDeaS
Founded in 1989, IDeaS Revenue Solutions - a SAS Company, offers industry-leading pricing and revenue management Software, Services, and Consulting to the hospitality and travel industries. Headquartered in Minneapolis, MN with a global technology center located in Pune, India, IDeaS maintains sales, support and distribution offices in North & South America, the United Kingdom, Europe, Middle East, Africa, Greater China, Australia and Asia. For more information, visit www.ideas.com.