Doyield says full hotels can still leave money on the table

Doyield has released a new white paper arguing that hotel occupancy does not equal profitability, drawing on 300,000 pricing decisions, 15 million price changes and work with 220 hotels. The guide highlights how pricing, distribution and operations can separate full rooms from stronger margins.

Why it matters: - High occupancy does not guarantee stronger margins for hotels. - Doyield’s findings point to a gap between filling rooms and maximizing net revenue. - The white paper is aimed at hotel operators trying to improve profitability, not just occupancy.

What happened: - Doyield published a white paper titled Pourquoi certains hôtels affichent complet… et gagnent pourtant moins que leurs voisins. - The guide was written with RevMate, En Suite Gestion and GHP. - Doyield based the report on more than 300,000 pricing decisions, 15 million price changes, 9,000 group quotes and support for 220 hotels. - The company says the portfolio covers more than 3% of Paris intramuros hotel inventory and 850,000 rented rooms.

The details: - The white paper says hotel performance depends on pricing, distribution, organization, data and day-to-day execution, not occupancy alone. - Doyield said one Paris hotel reached 100% occupancy, 50% direct bookings, strong online ratings of 8.9/10 on Booking, 4.8/5 on Tripadvisor and 4.9/5 on Google, plus an EBE margin of 48%. - Doyield found that OTA prices were lower than the hotel’s official website in 21% of cases studied. - A separate case covering 20 hotels showed that uncontrolled rate gaps can cut direct sales by as much as 30%. - The report argues the real question is not whether to use OTA channels, but how each channel contributes to volume, price and net margin. - Chedi Chaari, cofounder of Doyield, said hotels need to know who bought the room, at what price, through which channel and with what net value. - Raphaël Batko, cofounder of Doyield, said OTAs are essential, but performance suffers when hotels lose track of reservation cost or when direct channels become less competitive than third-party platforms.

Between the lines: - The white paper reframes revenue management as an operating system problem, not just a pricing exercise. - The message is that leakage can come from late decisions, weak coordination, poor data use and operational friction. - Doyield is positioning profitability as the outcome of repeated good decisions across the business, not a single occupancy target.

What's next: - The guide is available for download. - Doyield is likely using the report to deepen its positioning around revenue optimization and hotel marketing in Paris and major French cities. - Hotel operators can use the report’s findings to review direct booking strategy, channel mix and pricing discipline.

The bottom line: - Full rooms can still hide weak economics. - For hotels, the bigger test is turning demand into durable profit. More information