OstellOlinda

Tell us about your property.

OstellOlinda is located in Milan within the Paolo Pini park, formerly the nurses' dormitory of the old psychiatric hospital. It was established in 1999 through the efforts of the Olinda Social Cooperative to promote social inclusion and mental health in the metropolitan outskirts.

Our keyword is hospitality: under the same roof, we welcome tourists, workers, groups, theater companies, and individuals involved in mental health programs. Our mission also includes offering job opportunities to people with physical, mental, or social vulnerabilities.

The hostel has 16 rooms, including both shared and private spaces.

Seventy percent of our tourist bookings come from OTAs; we don’t yet have a booking engine on our website, but we’ll launch one next year with the goal of increasing direct bookings.

A self-funded organization like ours couldn’t afford a Revenue Manager. We tried to create dynamic rates manually, but it took time, and we were afraid of making mistakes. With Smartpricing, managing rates has become simple.

How were your rates managed before Smartpricing?

We conducted an annual study considering various factors, such as city events. Based on the findings, we created base rates, which were then increased by a percentage depending on the season… a kind of handmade Revenue Management!

I’ve been managing the hostel for two years and handle everything from breakfast to job interviews. At some point, as demand increased and with OstellOlinda’s dual social/tourism nature, I realized I could no longer manage pricing on my own. I was afraid of making mistakes.

We would have needed to hire a Revenue Manager, but as a Social Cooperative, we are entirely self-funded, and it was an expense we couldn’t afford.

What convinced you to try and adopt Smartpricing?

Before coming here, I worked in a 4-star hotel where we managed eight booking platforms, and it was us receptionists who updated availability and rates. So, I know well how chaotic manual management can be! I used to have eight tabs open simultaneously, and the risk of overbooking was always around the corner.

At the hostel, we wanted to optimize the entire pricing management process. You were the first solution we came across and the first we chose. This was because, even from the demo, I was impressed—the interface was very user-friendly.

So, I presented the proposal to our board of directors. I pitched it by forecasting the revenue increase you predicted for the hostel, which indeed came true.

What results have you achieved with Smartpricing?

After the initial configuration, I made small adjustments to further tailor the algorithm to the unique needs of a hostel. Once that was done, I saw great results.

Previously, I had to check the rates every two days—now, not anymore.