IDeaS unveils new metric to target hotel promo spend

IDeaS has expanded Spotlight, its hospitality marketing optimisation product, with a new metric aimed at showing when hotel demand is most likely to respond to promotions.

The update adds a "Potential to Influence" score, which IDeaS describes as an industry first. The score is designed to quantify how likely demand is to shift in response to marketing actions across specific dates, segments and room types.

Spotlight sits alongside IDeaS' revenue management software and draws on forecasting analytics. It identifies demand patterns and price-sensitivity signals and turns them into guidance for marketing and commercial teams. The update shifts the focus toward pinpointing periods when promotions can change outcomes, rather than simply indicating when demand is high.

Market pressures

The release comes as hotel operators face moderate growth expectations alongside higher distribution, marketing and operating costs. Suppliers have increasingly focused on tools that link campaign decisions to revenue outcomes and reduce wasted spend during periods when hotels already expect to sell out.

The Potential to Influence score updates daily. It reflects how guests are shopping and how responsive they are to changes in price or promotional messaging. The goal is to highlight where demand is still available-and where additional effort is unlikely to change the result.

For hotel marketing teams, the update is positioned as a way to be more selective about when and how to deploy budgets. Spotlight is designed to flag time periods and customer segments where targeted promotions could generate incremental bookings, and to discourage investment when demand is already "maxed out" or unlikely to move.

In one example, a hotel might see strong weekend leisure demand combined with price sensitivity. In that case, Spotlight could flag an opportunity for a campaign that promotes premium rooms by emphasising value and experience, with the expectation that some guests may trade up.

Day-by-day signals

The daily refresh cycle is intended to keep pace with changes in shopping behaviour. Hotels often see rapid swings in demand around school holidays, local events, flight-capacity shifts and competitor pricing. These dynamics can change within days, particularly in urban markets and resort destinations with short booking windows.

IDeaS is pitching the score as an input for campaign planning across paid media, email and other channels. It also emphasised accountability, citing a link between marketing actions, demand movement and forecast revenue that can be tracked over time.

Mike Chuma, Chief Marketing Officer at IDeaS, said the changes address pressure on hotel marketing budgets and the need to demonstrate return on spend.

"Hotels everywhere are navigating tighter budgets, shifting traveler behavior, and increased pressure to prove the value of every marketing dollar. Spotlight directly addresses that challenge. By bringing together forecasting, price sensitivity, and demand insights in a way marketers can easily act on, Spotlight helps commercial teams focus their efforts where demand is still up for grabs. This is the type of practical, forward-looking innovation our clients expect from IDeaS, and we're excited to expand these capabilities to hotels worldwide."

Commercial alignment

The update also reflects a broader push across the hotel sector to better align marketing and revenue management. Many operators have historically treated the functions separately, with marketing focused on brand and demand generation and revenue teams managing pricing and inventory. Vendors have positioned integrated data and shared metrics as a way to reduce internal friction and improve trading decisions.

Spotlight is intended to operate in that overlap. It applies forecasting and price-sensitivity concepts typically used in revenue management and presents them in a format aimed at marketing teams. IDeaS said existing users have redirected spend away from periods when demand is unlikely to shift and toward opportunities where targeted activity is more likely to convert.

Klaus Kohlmayr, Chief Evangelist, Chief Development Officer, and Head of IDeaS.Lab, said the product direction reflects customer feedback about campaign performance and access to timely commercial data.

"Over the years our clients have told us one of their highest priorities is to enhance marketing execution and campaign ROI with relevant and timely revenue science data. Spotlight represents a major step forward in how hotels understand-and influence-future demand. IDeaS' unique Potential to Influence index gives teams a clearer sense of which opportunities are truly actionable, allowing them to deploy their limited budget with far greater precision. As IDeaS.Lab continues to push boundaries in applied analytics, we're committed to helping hotels make smarter decisions that lead to stronger commercial outcomes," said Kohlmayr.

IDeaS, a SAS company, supplies revenue management software to hotels, resorts, large hotel chains, cruise lines and parking brands. It has more than 31,000 installations globally and is rolling out the updated Spotlight functionality to additional markets.