Smartness reviews: Gfell (Fiè allo Sciliar, Italy) - Case study

Context

Hotel Gfell is located in the heart of the Sciliar-Catinaccio Nature Park and was opened in 2020 as an evolution of a traditional mountain hut and rest stop for hikers.

With 17 rooms overlooking alpine meadows and forests, a scenic wellness area, and a restaurant focused on local cuisine, Gfell has become a favorite not only among hikers and bikers, but also among guests seeking nature, relaxation, and good food.

The hotel is open from early May to early November, with additional openings over Christmas and Easter. Its guest base includes mostly Italian and German couples, along with a steadily growing international audience.

The challenge

When Hotel Gfell first opened, it operated with a fixed price list, adjusting rates only slightly around peak holidays. But this approach soon proved limiting. After the post-pandemic travel boom, prices in the region doubled—even without a major change in service quality.

Rates remained high even after demand normalized. For guests, pricing became a matter of principle: even high-spending travelers began to look more critically at value for money.

We believe only those who work honestly have a future. At Gfell, we realized we needed a tool to track the market accurately and find the right price—both for us and for our guests.

The solution

In 2022, Hotel Gfell switched from a fixed rate model to dynamic pricing, choosing Smartpricing after comparing several revenue management solutions. What made the difference was Smartpricing’s adaptability.

Many systems on the market follow standard occupancy-based rules. Whether you manage 17 or 200 rooms, the algorithm behaves the same. That was too rigid for the owner, who wanted a system tailored to his property.

After the initial setup and some testing, Gfell fine-tuned the algorithm’s level of aggressiveness to match their business goals. Now, Smartpricing manages pricing autonomously 95% of the time. The remaining 5% is reserved for strategic monitoring during periods of high demand.

A system with fixed rules doesn’t help us. If we wanted to change prices based on occupancy alone, we could do it manually. We wanted something smarter and customizable—because if we do something, we want to do it well. With Smartpricing, we found exactly that.

The results

The impact was immediate: after going live in August, Hotel Gfell saw a nearly 25% increase in revenue by October compared to the same period the previous year.

That result sparked a broader transformation—in guest behavior and demand management:

Guests now book earlier

Not only has Gfell retained its loyal guests through targeted offers, but over time, travelers have learned how the system works and know that booking early pays off.

Today, most bookings are made well in advance, allowing the team to plan better and work more sustainably.

It’s late June, and we already have more bookings for October than last year at this time—60% of them from returning guests. We already know what our October revenue will be, which gives us much more room to plan.

Stronger market response in tough times

One of Gfell’s favorite Smartpricing features is the ability to monitor competitor rates—especially when demand is weak.

For example, last spring, bad weather affected the entire region. Many hotels, especially larger ones, reacted by slashing prices, triggering a downward spiral.

Gfell, however, maintained its positioning within a consistent price range and never dropped below its minimum rate. With Smartpricing, they avoided undervaluing their offer, protected their margins, and preserved their brand’s perceived value.

We were probably the first to use Smartpricing here in South Tyrol, and we often recommend it to colleagues. We tell them: having a fixed price list on your website is too limiting. If demand drops, you can’t lower rates, and if things go well, you can’t raise them. It hurts your business either way.