The Zetter Group

The Zetter Group is one of London's hippest boutique brands. The Zetter Hotel first opened in Clerkenwell in 2004 and is widely regarded as London's first boutique hotel built using environmental principles.

After being acquired by specialist hospitality investor Orca Holding in 2021, Zetter is paving the way for new sites to be rolled out across the UK and internationally. We spoke to Arnold Linares, head of Revenue & Distribution, about the revenue transformation taking place.

Old-School Frustrations

"I joined Zetter earlier in the year under the new ownership team and, beforehand, there was no real RMS in place. Up until then, it was all done with basic flat rates as if it was one of those old fashioned Spanish beach hotels.

"I always felt that you could only actually make use of those old fashioned systems as long as you had been using that same system for over fifteen years. So when looking for an RMS – ease of use was so important. You need to be able to change your setup easily and adapt the system around your needs.

"We trialled three RMSs certified in the Apaleo Marketplace, including FLYR for Hospitality. We quickly discarded the others as they were either too obsolete or just too basic. One took me a few months just to extract some basic reporting information!

"FLYR for Hospitality, on the other hand, were confident that they could let the performance speak for itself. Within a few days it was all up and running and I was able to extract reports quickly.

"Now I can focus on strategy and analysis whereas back in the day I would spend four hours a day just doing price updates."

Rapid Implementation

"One of the biggest assets is how super easy it is to implement. It really links into a cloud-based PMS like Apaleo seamlessly and, most importantly, the process doesn't demand loads of historical data. We switched on automation after just a few weeks and it worked almost perfectly immediately."

Instant Results

"I really trust the engine. For example, it was running everything while I was on holiday recently and nobody needed to interfere at all.

"I'm particularly happy with the automation and pricing because of the focus on using primary data. The other RMS out there are all too focused on compsets. What is based on pure demand? It's all about primary data and FLYR for Hospitality is outstanding in their approach to this.

"This summer we have done relatively well considering the pandemic. Historically, August was always dead but this year we've been hitting over 60 percent occupancy and our ADR is not too far out from pre-pandemic levels.

"Our pricing used to be more static around £400 but now it is oscillating around the £500 mark and selling well. The algo just keeps learning so fast…"