Doug Rice on Attribute-Based Selling: GauVendi Named Among the ABS Products in Market

This is an excerpt. The full article is by Doug Rice and was published by Hospitality Upgrade on 14 April 2023: Definitely Doug 4/14/23: Now Playing Near You: Attribute-Based Selling (Part One). We reproduce two passages here with attribution; please read the original for the complete analysis.

Why this article matters

Doug Rice is one of the hotel industry's most respected independent technology analysts. In April 2023 he revisited attribute-based selling (ABS) after reviewing the commercial products then in market. He does not work for GauVendi and was not paid for the piece. That is exactly why it is worth citing: it is an independent assessment of where GauVendi sits in the category.

On the products in market

"I am indebted to several companies who shared their approach to ABS, including three with products in the market that use ABS for selling and/or upselling: Expect Me, GauVendi, and Roomdex. GauVendi offers both an ABS-enabled web booking engine and ABS upselling for existing bookings (including third-party); Expect Me and Roomdex support ABS only for upselling after the initial booking."

On why legacy systems need an add-on

"Most legacy property management systems (PMSs) and central reservations systems (CRSs) are fundamentally incapable of managing true attribute-based selling. Older systems require add-ons (such as GauVendi, Expect Me, or Roomdex) to manage availability and pricing of multiple attributes."

The article goes on to define the four dimensions of a room sale (attributes, ancillaries, policies, duration), to distinguish direct from indirect ABS models, and to dismantle the myth that attributes cannot be sold through OTAs. Part two, published on 28 April 2023, covers benefits, operations and yield management.

Read the full article on Hospitality Upgrade · Doug Rice: LinkedIn

Copyright in the original text belongs to the author and Hospitality Upgrade. Quoted here under fair use for the purpose of commentary.