Pricepoint helps small hotels offer competitive prices

This article was originally published on Infobref.

Unlike large hotel chains, most small hoteliers don’t have access to software that adjusts their prices according to supply and demand. Montreal-based start-up Pricepoint has developed software designed to help small hotels optimize their room rates in real time.

The problem the company is tackling is the high cost of using dynamic pricing software. “Large hotel chains can afford to invest in the development of optimization software tailored to their business model,” explains Mateusz Sznir, Pricepoint’s founder and CEO. Large hotels use this software to constantly adjust room rates according to factors such as seasonality, supply and demand. This puts smaller hotels at a disadvantage compared to the big hotel chains.

Pricepoint’s solution is dynamic pricing software designed specifically for small hoteliers. “Our software analyzes various data, then generates adapted prices in real time,” explains Mateusz Sznir. The software connects to the management system used by the hotelier and analyzes various data, such as demand, seasonality and competitor prices. Using artificial intelligence functions, the software calculates competitive prices from this data, which the hotelier can then apply.

“The advantage is that everything is done automatically. Our customers don’t need to intervene for the prices to adjust,” says Pricepoint’s CEO. “This allows them to improve their revenues and save time, which they can invest elsewhere,” he adds.

Pricepoint’s business model is to sell hotels access to its software on a subscription basis. The software is currently used by several hundred hotels in Canada, the United States and some twenty other countries. The company employs a dozen people – half of whom work in the company’s Montreal offices, the other half telecommuting.
Pricepoint is one of 20 start-ups selected this year in Startup Montréal’s Bourse+ program.

Next steps: Mateusz Sznir aims to double the number of employees by the end of the year and increase the number of customers by a factor of 6.