How to set your spring 2025 pricing strategy today

Here are the key steps you can take right now:

Start by examining guest behavior: Which dates are generating the most interest? Which booking channels are performing best?

Next, compare this data to your historical records. This approach is essential for identifying what worked (and didn’t work) in previous years, giving you a baseline and helping you set realistic goals. It also allows you to establish “starting prices” for each room type for the spring season.

The best way to conduct this analysis is by creating an occupancy curve—a graph that tracks historical bookings and lets you quickly compare year-over-year occupancy rates.

Want to learn how to build your occupancy curve? Check out our guide on using the booking window to increase hotel reservations.

Setting initial prices is just the first step. These prices shouldn’t remain static—what you decide today likely won’t hold in a few months. That’s why it’s critical to monitor booking trends and market fluctuations regularly, adapting your prices dynamically.

For example: Let’s say, in January, your occupancy rate for April is 15% for standard rooms and 5% for suites. If these figures align with last year’s performance and your goals, you can stay in observation mode.

However, if bookings are slower than last year, you can plan a gradual price increase as reservations pick up.

Additionally, you can pair these adjustments with special early-booking offers, such as including breakfast or wellness treatments at no extra charge.

The strategies above are effective but require time and expertise, especially if done manually.

If you’ve never analyzed your data strategically, don’t worry—you don’t have to do it alone. A dynamic pricing and revenue management software like Smartpricing can handle the heavy lifting.

Smartpricing integrates seamlessly with your property management system, allowing you to perform in-depth comparisons in just minutes.

For example, to compare spring 2025 performance with spring 2024, simply access the Dashboard. For your first analysis, select spring 2025 as the “stay date,” and for the second, choose the dates for spring 2024.

As shown in the example screenshot, at the top of the screen, you’ll see current data for revenue, occupancy, average daily rate (ADR), and RevPAR, compared with the final figures for spring 2024.

This comparison allows you to measure your 2025 forecast against your consolidated 2024 results—essential for understanding how far you are from matching last year’s performance.

While comparing forecasted and consolidated data is valuable, how can you determine whether you can “relax” or need to adjust your sales strategy immediately?

The key is to review your spring 2024 performance as it appeared on the same date last year.

To do this, adjust the "creation date" settings, selecting the same date in 2024 for the second comparison (in this example, January 16, 2024), as shown in the screenshot below.

In the example, the data reveals that the property is performing well for 2025: all key metrics (revenue, occupancy, ADR, and RevPAR) have improved compared to the same point in 2024.

This doesn’t mean you can relax and ignore pricing until April—it indicates that the algorithm is well-calibrated and your trajectory is not only positive but better, with occupancy already at 19%, compared to 14% in 2024.

What if you want to exceed last year's revenue? If you aim to surpass last spring’s revenue, Smartpricing can make this easy, too.

Looking at the example screenshots again, you might make this observation: In January 2024, I had 14% occupancy and finished the spring at 100%.

This year, with occupancy already at 19%, boosting revenue further would require focusing on rate adjustments. As occupancy increases, rates should rise accordingly.

Manually adjusting rates would mean monitoring occupancy trends daily—a time-consuming task. With Smartpricing, you can fully automate this strategy.

In the "Strategies" section, select the period you want to target and access the advanced settings. These allow you to fine-tune how the algorithm responds to changes in specific parameters.

For this case, focus on the Drop and Pickup parameters.

• Pickup refers to the speed at which bookings are coming in.
• Drop is the opposite, indicating slower booking activity.

Both metrics help monitor occupancy trends relative to the check-in date.

By moving the slider for Drop and Pickup aggressiveness from +1 to +3, you’re instructing the algorithm to significantly raise rates as occupancy increases, especially for the remaining available rooms.

To better understand how this setting works, you can refer to the "Impact preview" chart. This graph illustrates how your prices will adjust under different occupancy scenarios and as the check-in date approaches.

For example, if your property has 50% occupancy, the strategy will vary based on the number of days remaining until check-in:

• 60 days before check-in, the price would increase by over +30%.
• Closer to the check-in date, the price would gradually decrease, reaching around -3% on the day of check-in.

In the example provided, the aggressiveness setting was pushed to its maximum, but you can adjust it to lower levels between +1 and +3 depending on your revenue goals.

The analysis and strategy adjustments discussed in this article take only a few minutes of your day. Once set, you’re free to focus on other strategic activities for your property. Smartpricing’s algorithm will continuously monitor key variables and optimize your prices based on your chosen strategy.

Additionally, you won’t need to manually update every price change in your PMS or Channel Manager—Smartpricing will handle the synchronization for you.

Want to see how Smartpricing works and how much extra revenue it could help you generate? Request a personalized, free demo today.