Trust and misappropriation
Michael Ziemann, COO at Clipper Boardinghouse, looks back on a long and successful hotel career - for a good decade he has also been an HQ revenue power user - and we didn't make that up! This is what he has to say about himself!
How did that happen? What else does he have to say to us?
In the beginning there was ... Rateshopping
The relationship between HQ revenue and Clipper Boardinghouse has not yet reached biblical age - but by industry standards, we are close.
Ziemann has been using HQ revenue since 2013. Initially as a rateshopping tool for the four properties at the time. Later, the IDeaS connection in particular became interesting. With five properties (Hotel Elbflorenz, Dresden / Hotel Schillerhof, Weimar / 3 x Boardinghouse Serviced Apartments in Berlin and Hamburg) using the IDeaS RMS, the data interface quickly became indispensable.
Game Changer: Performance Board
"A great highlight," says Ziemann, was the Performance Board: "This was a logical further development, because you could also observe your own OTB levels in relation to the pickup and the development for the entire next year in advance. That made HQ revenue by far the most powerful tool in revenue management."
The time savings were an interesting point; four of them use the HQ revenue tools as a team to handle revenue management for the good 500 rooms of the two hotels and three boarding houses: "We have completely got rid of the Excel sheets. The complete reporting runs directly on the tool - not only because we can rely on the figures. On top of that, they are perfectly processed. And always fresh. I can even do board reporting ad-hoc."
About Clipper Boardinghouses
"... less but more than a hotel" - that is the principle of Clipper Boardinghouses. The hospitality brand of the Hamburg-based project developer and asset manager B&L Group operates three serviced apartment buildings in prime locations in Hamburg and Berlin as well as two classic hotels, the Hotel Elbflorenz in Dresden and the Hotel Schillerhof in Weimar. In total, Clipper Boardinghouses has a good 500 rooms. The B&L Group, which is behind Clipper Boardinghouses, designs buildings where sustainable profitability and the highest standards of workmanship lead to long-term market prospects.
Write your own success story
Perfectly misappropriated?
Crisis controlling and hotel project planning
No, let's call it something else: Other use cases have emerged: For example, HQ revenue was successfully used for hotel project planning and in crisis controlling during the pandemic.
Ziemann: "With the onset of the Covid pandemic, we had to react at a pace that even we in the hotel industry were not familiar with before. We maneuvered with charge-offs and rebookings to keep the general chaos from affecting our books. HQ revenue enabled us to control the operational business on an hourly basis - this was indispensable for crisis management!"
And HQ revenue was also used in hotel project planning, albeit in a roundabout way, as Michael Ziemann explains: "For the development of the Hotel Schillerhof - as is customary - a profitability study was prepared in advance, which we commissioned externally during planning. But the demand data from HQ revenue painted a completely different picture."
And then that was also closer to the truth. A diplomatically hairy situation? Ziemann weighs in: "In the end, it's the result that counts, right? The data from the City Demand and Area Demand tools in HQ revenue were better, more native, less speculative, than the external appraisal. The Schillerhof is a complete success. And it was predictable because we had reliable data on which to base our plan."
A good night's sleep is important
That sounds quite satisfactory, we would say.
What software would Michael Ziemann actually use if HQ revenue didn't exist? "To monitor our properties and rooms in a meaningful way, there is no better tool!"
Too bad "alternativlos" has an inglorious history as the Unword of the Year 2010. Otherwise, we'd put it on here.
But as it is, we'll just add a little button here: Get to know HQ revenue and test it out personally for alternativlos?
Michael Ziemann, COO, Clipper BoardingHouse
Michael Ziemann learned the hotel business from scratch - his hotel career took him from the front desk to various positions in hotel sales and revenue management to general management for several locations of a high-quality boardinghouse and hotel concept and into the position of COO at Clipper Boardinghouse.
His focus is on building new processes through digital transformation and, last but not least, on the entire digital guest journey in the company.
... and your challenges ...
... we can do it too, pretty sure! With over 30 OTAs, 60 Brand.com and almost 100 tech integrations, HQ revenue has everything on board that you need in revenue management.