48% of Thai hotels miss weekly revenue from slow response, SiteMinder finds
Thailand's hotel market is moving fast. Nearly half of hoteliers (48%) say they miss revenue opportunities at least once a week because they can't react quickly enough when competitors change prices or new events hit the calendar.
That's the headline from SiteMinder's latest research, based on an August survey of 700 hoteliers worldwide, including 67 in Thailand. A striking 96% say speed of action has become more important over the past year-yet many teams still adjust rates manually.
What's slowing hotels down
The study shows 25% of respondents change prices monthly or less, and 30% review rates weekly. In a market that moves by the hour, a weekly cadence leaves money on the table.
Manual workflows, limited staff, and "wait for approval" bottlenecks are the common blockers. As Bradley Haines, SiteMinder's Asia Pacific market vice-president, put it: "Many Thai hotels don't have dedicated revenue management teams, yet they're facing increasingly complex market dynamics-from major events to rapidly shifting travel patterns."
Events are demand catalysts-act before the spike
SiteMinder's booking data tied to the Southeast Asian Games in Bangkok (9-20 December) shows a 16% jump in advance reservations versus last year and a 6% lift in room prices. Properties that moved early captured the upswing.
This is the pattern: demand signals appear first in pickup and competitor pricing. If you wait for the weekly meeting, you're already reacting late.
AI interest is real-and higher than the global average
In Thailand, 55% of participants are actively looking for AI-based solutions, ahead of the 49% global average. Another 40% are open to AI-generated suggestions.
Why? AI helps shorten the gap between signal and action-flagging rate opportunities, automating changes, and pushing updates across channels without the back-and-forth. SiteMinder also announced the global rollout of Dynamic Revenue Plus, developed with IDeaS, a mobile-first system that pairs real-time market intelligence with instant execution.
What to do this quarter (practical playbook)
- Set a daily pricing rhythm: Move from weekly to daily adjustments. Define clear windows (morning and late afternoon) to catch pickup and competitor moves.
- Create event-lane pricing: Pre-build rate sets for event periods with guardrails (min/max rates, fences, LOS rules). Activate with one click when demand triggers fire.
- Use triggers, not hunches: Establish alerts for pickup spikes, competitor undercuts, and compression in your comp set. Tie alerts to automatic or one-tap actions.
- Tighten channel execution: Sync changes to OTAs and direct within minutes. Monitor parity drift and set alerts for undercutting.
- Simplify approvals: Give on-duty managers mobile authority for defined thresholds (e.g., +/- 8% rate moves). Kill the "waiting for sign-off" lag.
- Staff for speed: If you lack a revenue team, assign a small pod: one owner, one backup, and one analyst (internal or outsourced). Clarity beats committee.
- Protect margins: Use fences (cancellation terms, min stay) before discounting. Discount last, not first.
- Track the right KPIs: Measure pickup by segment, average time-to-rate-change after a trigger, conversion on high-demand dates, and contribution of direct vs OTA.
- Keep data clean: Audit closed-out dates, room mapping, and package inclusions weekly. Bad data slows everything.
Southeast Asian Games: quick action plan
- T-6 weeks: Publish event packages, set min stays on peak nights, and align with local partners (venues, DMCs) for cross-promotions.
- T-4 weeks: Increase monitoring twice daily. Tighten availability for best-selling room types. Watch pickup from key feeder markets.
- T-2 weeks: Introduce fenced offers (non-refundable, LOS 2+). Review rate gaps vs comp set every morning.
- During event: Adjust daily (AM/PM). Protect last-room value. Push direct perks over blanket discounts.
- Post-event: Hold rates where justified-don't drop too fast. Target extended stays and bleisure with value adds.
If you're exploring AI and automation
- Start small: Automate rate updates for high-demand dates first. Expand as trust grows.
- Mobile-first control: Ensure your team can approve, push, and roll back changes from their phones.
- Human-in-the-loop: Use AI for detection and recommendations; keep humans on strategy and exception handling.
- Integrations matter: Confirm clean connections to PMS, channel manager, and BI to avoid delays or mismatches.
Common pitfalls to avoid
- Over-discounting early: Train your team to hold rate and add value first.
- Rate drift on OTAs: Parity issues erode trust and direct bookings-monitor it daily.
- Too-rigid stay rules: Aggressive min stays can block profitable short bookings on shoulder nights.
- Approval bottlenecks: Define thresholds so most changes don't need a meeting.
Bottom line
Speed wins. The data shows demand lifts around major events are real, and hotels that move first get paid.
If your team still changes prices weekly, you're playing defense. Tighten your cadence, set clear triggers, and give your staff the tools to act fast-ideally from their phones.
If you want to upskill your team on practical AI for hotel operations and revenue, this curated resource is a good starting point: AI courses by job.
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