When Rachel Paley took on the role of General Manager at Saratoga Arms seven years ago, she inherited more than just the operations of a historic 30-room boutique hotel—she stepped into the demanding world of manual rate management. Located in the heart of downtown Saratoga Springs, this meticulously restored 1870s property had been in Amy Smith's family since 1998, building a reputation for excellence that demanded an equally excellent pricing strategy.
The Challenge of Manual Rate Management
"That was my life," Rachel recalls about the pre-TakeUp days. "I was doing it manually every single day, looking at the previous day's reservations, navigating to that part of our reservation calendar, taking a look at trends for those particular days, and adjusting rates accordingly."
For a property with 30 rooms across nine different room styles, this wasn't just time-consuming—it was consuming Rachel's workday. She estimates spending "a good hour a day" on pricing alone, but that could expand dramatically when special events came to town.
"When a concert was announced, I could be spending a good portion of my day because as reservations were coming in, I was manually updating," she explains. With their largest room category alone containing 13 rooms, each booking would trigger a cascade of adjustments. "There were pockets of time where I was in the system doing rates all day."
Amy adds context to their revenue journey: "Prior to Rachel managing rates, we had a meeting every fall to set our rates for the next year. And that was it—that was our rate." This approach, still common among smaller properties, left significant revenue potential untapped.
Discovering a Better Way
Saratoga Arms' journey to TakeUp began during industry conferences where they first heard about AI-powered pricing solutions. As active participants in hospitality innovation and with strong connections throughout the industry, Amy and Rachel were perfectly positioned to explore cutting-edge revenue management tools. Colleague recommendations and success stories further convinced them to take the leap with TakeUp.
The Revelation of Value
The transformation has been remarkable. Perhaps the most striking benefit has been discovering their property's true market value.
"TakeUp has showed us rates that we never in our wildest dreams thought we could get," Rachel enthuses. "We've taken reservations where the three of us would be like, 'Did anyone see that reservation that came in? Who paid that amount of money?'"
This revelation about their property's value didn't come at the expense of guest satisfaction. In fact, Amy notes that their reviews have remained consistently excellent despite the higher rates. "The feedback from our guests, the value that we bring is right on par with the rate that they're paying."
Beyond the Numbers: New Insights
While the revenue improvements have been significant, both Amy and Rachel appreciate the deeper market insights TakeUp provides.
"Your reporting is really granular and very good to inform other parts of our business," Amy notes. "I'm looking at when certain things are booking. There's that purple bar graph that shows booking windows, so it really informs our marketing. We don't have to get nervous about a certain weekend in July not booking because last year it booked 30 days or less."
Rachel adds that TakeUp "layers pieces of information that we've never been privy to before," particularly around market demand. "If market demand for a certain time of year is lower, we could be striving towards hitting last year's numbers when the market is telling us that's maybe not realistic. That's just a data point we never had access to before."
Building Trust Through Partnership
The journey from skepticism to trust wasn't instantaneous, but rather built through relationship and responsiveness.
"The trust was built with the relationships with this team," Rachel explains. "They are very open to our feedback and they want to make us have a good experience with their company and make their product better. They've just been very responsive to the things that we need."
Today, Rachel still performs occasional "rate nudges," but the heavy lifting of daily rate management has been lifted from her shoulders. A recent comprehensive rate bounds adjustment, done in collaboration with their TakeUp specialist, has further optimized their pricing strategy.
The Future of Revenue Management
For Saratoga Arms, the partnership with TakeUp represents not just time savings or incremental revenue gains, but a fundamental shift in understanding what guests will pay for quality.
"It really has showed us the worth of our product," Rachel reflects. "People are not afraid to spend more if we give them the opportunity to do that."
As they look to the future, both Amy and Rachel see their partnership with TakeUp as a competitive advantage in an increasingly sophisticated marketplace—one that allows them to focus less on spreadsheets and more on the exceptional guest experiences that have made Saratoga Arms a destination for discerning travelers.
