The first time I saw that Rate Optimiser had saved a customer $100,000 in a single month, I had to check three times. That was the moment I realised we had built something that could truly reshape how corporate travel works.
Vaishali Lavanis is HotelHub’s Director of Product Management. Part of the team since 2021 and bringing a wealth of travel tech experience, she has been the driving force behind the evolution of Rate Optimiser, delivering millions in savings to our TMC partners.
HotelHub’s path into rate optimisation began as a thought experiment during the quiet days of the Covid-19 pandemic. HotelHub’s powerful content management tools already gave TMCs wide-ranging controls to direct bookings to the hotel rates that delivered best value for them and their customers, but could we refine the process even further to guarantee that this was the case every single time?
One key consideration, I realised, was timing. Agents and travellers might secure the best rate available at the moment of booking, but hotel prices are always shifting. A conference cancelled, a block of rooms released, a competitor’s promotion – what looked optimal at 9am could be overpriced by 2pm. By harnessing technology to track rates post-booking, detect when better options appear and automate re-bookings, we could widen that window of opportunity to capitalise on these fluctuations.
The human factor in machine learning
Designing HotelHub’s Rate Optimiser meant grappling not only with algorithms, but with human nature.
Simply seeking cheaper rates would not cut it; business travellers are not spreadsheets. Saving $100 on a booking by giving up breakfast may look good on the bottom line initially, but the cost of traveller dissatisfaction could come higher later on. Likewise, there were psychological challenges to navigate: how to re-book a traveller automatically without creating anxiety or convince a travel manager that technology could outperform rates they had spent months negotiating.
We knew that a one-size-fits-all engine could never tick all the boxes. Each corporate client had distinct red lines; for some, a king bed was non-negotiable; for others, cost eclipsed comfort. Our system would need to learn these parameters and adapt accordingly.
The learning curve
No two Rate Optimiser implementations are the same. TMCs can get up and running quickly with some basic rules, but the real magic comes as we work with them to test parameters and fine-tune preferences, seeking their particular sweet spot between making savings, boosting revenue and satisfying customers.
The results are unequivocal. A client processing 20,000 hotel bookings per month usually sees around 4,000 optimised. With our customers achieving an average saving of $90 per stay, that’s $360,000 a month reclaimed.
That said, one of the most important lessons has been knowing when not to optimise. VIP travellers, accessibility needs, complex itineraries and mission-critical trips often require human judgement. Teaching Rate Optimiser to recognise these nuances has been vital to its success. The smartest systems know their own limits.
“Teaching Rate Optimiser to recognise these nuances has been vital...”
Vaishali Lavanis
Director of Product Management, HotelHub
Redefining value in corporate travel
What began as a re-shopping tool has become a source of market intelligence. Today, our technology not only reduces costs, but guides better procurement decisions before the booking ever happens and allows TMCs to demonstrate continuous value to their customers with transparent reporting.
For me, the reward isn’t just the millions saved; it’s seeing our partners respond with confidence to the age-old question, “Are we getting the best available rates?”. For the first time, the answer is a definitive “yes”.
5 years into the project, I still find myself scanning the daily reports, excited by each line of savings and every note of client satisfaction. They are reminders that technology, when tuned to human behaviour, can do so much more than automate – it can change an industry.
