How Exely Revenue Management Support Improved Pricing and Sales at a 250+ Room Hotel

About

Located in Almaty, Kazakhstan, this 250+ room city business hotel was previously part of an international hotel franchise. The property caters to business travelers with numerous meeting and conference rooms, while on-site dining, spa, and wellness facilities also make it attractive to independent leisure travelers.

Challenges

• Group and low-rate B2B bookings left fewer rooms for more profitable online sales
• Static pricing limited opportunities to increase ADR as demand changed
• Price disparity discouraged guests from website bookings

Large group blocks and B2B bookings took up much of the hotel's room inventory. Low-yield B2B rates remained available even during peak demand, leaving few rooms for more profitable individual online bookings.

At the same time, room rates were not adjusted dynamically to occupancy, booking pace, market demand, or competitor prices. This limited opportunities to increase ADR. Direct website sales also had room for growth: despite lower booking acquisition costs, the website often offered the same rooms at higher prices than on OTAs.

Together with Exely Revenue Management Support, the hotel set a goal to increase total room revenue and direct sales by introducing a systematic approach to pricing, segment management, and room availability.

Solution

Exely Revenue Management Support is an outsourced service that helps hotels build and implement a systematic approach to pricing and inventory management. Exely specialists audit the hotel's pricing, segments, and distribution costs, then develop a revenue strategy and help implement it.

For the Almaty hotel, Exely's Revenue Management team focused on four areas:

Improve profitability across segments and channels. The team reviewed the hotel's rate structure, taking into account acquisition costs and the profitability of different sales segments. The goal was to increase net revenue per booking and give guests a stronger reason to book directly.

Adjust room rates to actual demand. Instead of keeping static prices throughout the season, the team introduced dynamic pricing rules to increase ADR during high demand and stimulate bookings when demand was lower.

Protect room availability for more profitable sales. The team reviewed how group and B2B bookings affected online inventory, especially during peak dates. New availability rules helped the hotel avoid selling too many rooms at low contracted rates when higher-paying individual guests were likely to book.

Protect occupancy from cancellations and no-shows. To reduce the risk of unsold rooms during peak demand, the team introduced controlled overbooking for standard room categories. This allowed the hotel to account for expected cancellations and no-shows when managing inventory.

Result

From January to September 2026, the hotel improved its revenue performance across online and offline sales:

• +10.7% total room revenue and +$13 overall ADR year over year
• +25.1% website revenue and +9.1% total online revenue year over year
• +7 percentage points in website share of online sales.

The new pricing and inventory strategy helped the hotel grow total room revenue by 10.7% while increasing ADR by $13 compared to the same period in 2025. Website revenue grew even faster, by 25.1% year over year, outperforming the 9.1% growth in total online revenue.

Direct sales also became a stronger part of the hotel's channel mix. The website's share of online sales increased from 10% at the beginning of 2026 to 14% in August–September and reached 17% in October. Targeted low-season and early-booking rates now generate around 30% of website bookings without reducing base rates. Early-booking demand also improved: reservations made 15–60 days in advance increased by 28%, while the average length of stay grew by 0.5 nights.

The hotel's competitive position improved as well. According to STR benchmarking data, its Market Penetration Index (occupancy performance relative to competitors) increased by 5 points, Average Rate Index (relative ADR) by 5 points, and Revenue Generation Index (relative RevPAR) by 8 points. This indicates that the hotel improved its performance not only against its own previous results, but also compared to competing properties.

Ongoing Support and 2027 Plans. The cooperation began with online sales, but the hotel later gave Exely Revenue Management Support team access to internal analytics to extend the strategy to corporate, group, and other offline segments. The teams now hold regular revenue sessions to review performance and adjust pricing and availability. Exely is also helping plan the 2027 budget and develop a unified rate structure, with a focus on ADR, RevPAR, direct sales, and more profitable individual bookings.