AI-powered pricing is helping boutique hotels increase revenue by optimizing rates daily based on real-time demand, competitor pricing, and guest behavior.
Many hoteliers assume they’re too small for an RMS, but that mindset is outdated. Today, revenue management systems are table stakes for staying competitive, even for 20–40 room properties.
Boutique hotels like Hotel Giles, Saratoga Arms, and St. George Inn have shifted from manual rate setting to intelligent automation and have seen measurable revenue gains as a result.
RevPAR growth is clear: Hotel Giles saw a 9% increase, while Saratoga Arms and St. George Inn reported higher average rates and bookings at price points they never thought guests would pay.
Using AI frees up hours per week, allowing GMs and staff to focus on guest experience and operations rather than spreadsheets and guesswork.
If you’re not using AI pricing yet, you’re already behind. The properties seeing strong results are the ones who stopped waiting and started optimizing.
Most boutique hotels still rely on traditional seasonal rate plans or simple weekday/weekend pricing. It’s easy to manage until real-world demand starts changing by the hour.
That’s where Hotel Giles, a charming inn in Texas Hill Country, found themselves. “We didn’t change rates very often,” said owner Ernie Slatinsky. “It was sort of a set-it-and-forget-it.” But with that strategy, the hotel was often leaving revenue on the table during busy weekends and scrambling to fill rooms when things slowed down.
St. George Inn, a 35-room boutique hotel in St. Augustine, Florida, had been manually managing revenue for nearly two decades under the leadership of industry veteran Irving Kass. But with new supply entering the market and team bandwidth stretched thin, the hands-on model started showing cracks. “I don’t have the time to really follow all the nuances anymore,” Kass said. “It was time to automate it — to help my team become successful.”
Even properties with advanced manual strategies were feeling the pain. At Saratoga Arms, a 30-room hotel in Saratoga Springs, NY, pricing was a daily grind. “I was doing it manually every single day,” said GM Rachel Carter. “On concert days or big events, I’d be in the system adjusting rates all day. It was incredibly labor-heavy.”
So what made these seasoned operators, some with decades of pricing experience, finally hand the reins (partially) to AI?
For Saratoga Arms, it started with skepticism. “I’m a little bit of a control freak,” Rachel admitted. “I didn’t want some computer touching my rates.” But the fatigue of daily rate changes and the promise of automation, pushed her to give it a shot. “When we saw TakeUp, it was huge.”
What sealed the deal? Seeing results they couldn’t have imagined. “TakeUp has shown us rates that we never in our wildest dreams thought we could get,” she said. “We’ve taken reservations where we’re like, who is paying that rate? That’s fabulous.”
Irving Kass of St. George Inn came from a robust yield management background, having led multiple resorts and hospitality boards. “I’ve been doing this manually for 20 years,” he said. “I know what every hotel in town is charging without looking.” But even with all that knowledge, he recognized something was changing: “I realized I was getting older, and my team didn’t intuitively understand pricing the way I did. It was time to bring in AI to help them and help the business.”
Once live, these hotels didn’t just feel better about their pricing they saw results on the books.
Hotel Giles
“I’m often flabbergasted by what people are willing to pay,” said Ernie. “We never would’ve set those rates ourselves.”
St. George Inn
“TakeUp ensures we don’t miss the low-hanging fruit,” Kass explained. “The system makes smart decisions before we would’ve been able to react manually.”
He added, “While I’m away in wine country, TakeUp is making me money to pay for the trip.”
Saratoga Arms
“The value we bring is right on par with the rate guests are paying,” Rachel said. “We’ve had no drop in reviews, even with the higher pricing.”
These hotels didn’t adopt AI to take themselves out of the equation. They adopted it to take pricing off their plate without compromising their strategy.
Just as importantly, it scales to the realities of smaller hotels. You don’t need a full revenue team, just a smart tool that thinks like one.
For a long time, boutique hotels were told that dynamic pricing tools weren’t made for them. That they were too small, too unique, or too hands-on to benefit from automation.
These stories prove otherwise.
Whether you’re managing 12 rooms or 120, AI-powered pricing can help you:
“Success isn’t just about short-term results,” said Irving Kass. “It’s about building process. And AI helps us build a pricing process that’s sustainable.”
Ready to See What AI Can Do for Your Hotel?
If you’re still relying on static rate plans or gut instinct, now might be the time to upgrade your pricing game.
👉 Schedule a demo and see how TakeUp is helping real boutique hotels increase revenue, reduce workload, and build pricing strategies that work in any market condition.
Because great pricing isn’t about guessing. It’s about knowing.
Do boutique hotels really need AI-powered pricing?
Yes, more than ever. While some small hotels assume they can manage rates manually, AI-powered pricing helps boutique hotels react in real time to demand changes, competition, and guest behavior. As seen in our blog post, hotels like Saratoga Arms and Hotel Giles significantly increased RevPAR and reduced pricing workload by switching to TakeUp. In short, AI pricing isn’t just a luxury, it’s a proven way to increase hotel revenue and a necessity in today’s dynamic market.
What kind of results can boutique hotels expect?
Results vary by market, but boutique hotels using TakeUp have reported:
These numbers aren’t theoretical, they come directly from properties like St. George Inn, Saratoga Arms, and Hotel Giles. If you’re looking for a boutique hotel revenue case study, these real-world results speak volumes.
We’re a small team. Is AI pricing hard to implement?
Not at all. Most boutique hotels are up and running with TakeUp in just two weeks. The platform was built specifically for small, independent properties, with a focus on ease of use, visual insights, and helpful support.
What’s the ROI of switching to AI hotel pricing?
In most cases, boutique hotels see positive ROI within 60 to 90 days. That includes direct revenue growth, fewer pricing errors, and significant time savings. But the real return comes from building a consistent, scalable hotel revenue management success strategy; one that doesn’t depend on one person doing everything manually.
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