The Modern Hotelier #150: Using AI to Improve Your Revenue Strategy | with Andrew Rubinacci
===
Andrew Rubinacci: I said that if I have someone changing rates, 
$10 on next Tuesday
five years from now, 
we've done something wrong. And it is five years from now. We do need the systems to do the tactical things. We shouldn't be spending five hours a day pulling together reports. We should have the people working on the strategy and doing the insights and making sure they're focusing on the business as opposed to pulling data together, 
trying to get some sort of insights out of it and doing tactical changes.
Steve Carran: Now we are joined by Andrew Rubenacci, the Chief Advisory Officer from FLYR. Thanks for sitting down with us, Andrew, how
you doing today? Thanks,
Andrew Rubinacci: Thanks. I, I appreciate being here.
Steve Carran: Absolutely. So Andrew, oh, can you tell us a little bit about yourself? Where did you grow
up?
Andrew Rubinacci: Uh, I grew up in, uh, in New York, in, uh, Brooklyn before it was trendy and, uh, yeah, Northeast guy, so, uh, New York, New Jersey area.
Steve Carran: Very cool. How did growing up in Brooklyn shape you into who you are today?
Andrew Rubinacci: you know, it, it was the city. It was, uh, there's, it's frenetic and, uh, you know, it just, I, I love going and moving and doing things, and I think that's probably from, from my youth.
David Millili: That's great. And how did you get into hospitality?
Andrew Rubinacci: that's, that's a funny question. I, I did a, a book report, like, what do you want to be when you grow up? And uh, I was a sophomore, junior in high school.
They had a big book and, uh, I went through and hotel manager came up, I read it. I'm like, ah, hotels are cool. I like hotels. And kind of pursued it. Went to school for it. And uh, yeah, that's how I ended up there.
Steve Carran: Very cool. So we're at BITAC here
in
uh, Del Mar. Is this your first BITAC? 
Andrew Rubinacci: It
isn't. I've been to, uh, one other, so I was supposed to go two years ago and had a major conflict, couldn't make it, but I was here last year. It was fantastic. And, uh, yeah, I'm back this year. 
David Millili: you know this is our first time? What makes BITAC in your words different from other events?
Andrew Rubinacci: It's, uh, is different. It's um. it's a small group. They do a great job of making sure everyone meets, everyone, you know, see with a different person at every, uh, lunch, breakfast, every opportunity,
pairing people up. Uh, it's really, really great. 
Steve Carran: So for those that might not be familiar with FLYR, can you give us a little overview of what you do?
Andrew Rubinacci: Sure. Well FLYR is, uh, you know, fly for Hospitality is, is basically, revenue management solutions and, and platform and, uh, business intelligence. So those two things. FLYR in general, we have an airline division as well that does the full tech stack for a, a bunch of airlines, but in the hotel space, it really is RMS and business intelligence.
David Millili: cool.
And what are some of the things that make FLYR different?
Andrew Rubinacci: FLYR is, I mean, I think it is different than, uh, you know, I, I jumped to the tech side after 35 years. I sat in everyone's advisory board and it's newer tech and that's not always better. Um, and there's some great technologies out there, but a lot of the technology start with the base algorithms and have been the same for since the beginning two years of history, 12 week trends, and they've built things on it, and there's some very good things that they've done with it.
FLYR from the ground up was built with AI because it was 2016 when AI started to explode in the tech landscape and really built it up from that standpoint. So there's a different algorithm for every room type and rate code, and it really just learns constantly and gets better.  
Steve Carran: AI has obviously been a hot topic here at by, but one thing we've been talking more about is what makes ai, ai, I guess, so successful, and that's the data behind it. How, how is data or why is data so important to FLYR?
Andrew Rubinacci: Well, I
mean, a lot of companies have a lot of data. It's what you do with the data and how you manage it. So, we really make sure we have granular data down to the transaction level with the history, and we're able to build it up and build everything around that. So we, we pull data 48 times a day, every 30 minutes.
We optimize 24 times a day. So we really use the data to continually learn and to create a single version of the truth. And that's, really important. 
David Millili: I mean one of the biggest questions hotels always ask is how? How quick can I get onboarded? So how quick can a hotel get started with
Andrew Rubinacci: Well, and that's, I think another piece of d differentiation. Like I said, a lot of our competitors, a lot of the brands themselves, the two years of history, 12 week trends, you need three months of data before you can actually start to get any recommendations. In most cases, um, they'll do some proxies or some things, but, and everyone says, well, after a year, it really starts to work well as long as you don't mess with it.
Because We've taken an entirely different approach. We literally can start getting recommendations four to six days after we get the data, and we have about 80% of our customers on full automation within two weeks.  
Steve Carran: Wow.
that's best. Wow. Wow.
So
it's no secret Hospitality and some hospitality tech companies. Little slower to innovate, little slower to
adapt.
Um, not what I understand about FLYR. How are you guys staying ahead of the curb and continue to innovate?  
Andrew Rubinacci: Well, I mean the speed of of innovation, speed of ai, I mean, we're in that, we're not in the hospitality space. I mean, we are, but we're a tech company and we're innovating as a tech company. So, an example, I sat down with one of, uh, the big consultancies, showed them some stuff last ITB in 2024, sat down and again this year, and showed them what we've changed.
We've upgraded the entire group's package. We've re enhanced our restrictions. We re-platformed our entire BI solution. And now we have ai natural language query where you can just ask the questions, what's performance next month, you know, and, and continue to build templates out that way, or give you, uh, AI summaries with large language models out of it.
That's all within the last 12 months and, you know, third, 320, I think, code pushes last year. A lot of things are happening and we're, as new technologies come on, we're able to take advantage of 'em and get 'em into the hotel. Use hands.  
David Millili: Great. And what else, what's, what's next on the roadmap? What are some new things that are coming up?
Andrew Rubinacci: There's, there's a lot. You know, one of the things, 'cause it is science. There's thousands of calculations happening all the time. One of the biggest questions is, well, why is it $259? And you have some general things. We're actually working and we'll have it done by the end of this year. The system will be able to tell you.
Basically why it's doing what it's doing. So why are you at the, well, this is what we're doing on this date. You can ask the question and it'll tell you and give you transparency on it.  
Steve Carran: So what do you see for the future of not only commercial, but also revenue strategy?
Andrew Rubinacci: I mean, lemme start with revenue strategy. Revenue strategy. I, and I've said for years and my background, like I said, I'm new with tech, so I was basically, I ran the commercial functions at Abridge and Omni and many of the first ones I achieved for years. I said that if I have someone changing rates, $10 on next Tuesday.
Five years from now, we've done something wrong, and it is five years from now. We, do need the systems to do the tactical things. We shouldn't be spending five hours a day pulling together reports. We should have the people working on the strategy and doing the insights and making sure they're focusing on the business as opposed to pulling data together, trying to get some sort of insights out of it and doing tactical changes.
So, 
David Millili: So what's next for FLYR? Uh,
Andrew Rubinacci: I mean, the sky's the limit. I mean, on the airlines side, we're doing some fantastic things with Riyadh Air. I'm not gonna go into a lot of the airline side, but really, really innovative stuff. Full tech stack, new airline
on the hotel side. We're gonna continue to innovate.
We want it to be a commercial platform, not just revenue management commercial platform. We're working with partners like Amaze on the sales and catering data. We're looking at what we can do on the, the, the marketing data. We're pulling in things like Demand 360 and other things to, on the BI side especially, you should be able to go to it and be able to get all the information you want and need in one spot.
I ran the commercial functions at Abridge and Omni and many of the first ones I achieved for years. I said that if I have someone changing rates, $10 on next Tuesday.
Five years from now, we've done something wrong, and it is five years from now. We, do need the systems to do the tactical things. We shouldn't be spending five hours a day pulling together reports. We should have the people working on the strategy and doing the insights and making sure they're focusing on the business as opposed to pulling data together, trying to get some sort of insights out of it and doing tactical changes. we're not all things to all people because the AI learns, but we are all things to all people. So what I mean by that is we've got 12 room hostels, uh, and we have a thousand room five star resorts and, and everything in between. because the AI learns and it, it basically customizes the, the application, the, the platform to the individual property.
So it can, can work with a large variety of, of types.
David Millili: And how do you think the role of revenue managers are gonna   
Andrew Rubinacci: I mean, revenue managers are, are gonna change, uh, quite a bit. I, I think I said it so more into strategy, less into tactical. I think the commercial function, a lot of the revenue management people will end up being commercial leads. And we're almost going full circle. 'cause you know, 30 years ago was director of sales and marketing was the commercial lead.
We can call it that. But we're, we're getting back to one, one throat to choke. Right? That's what an owner wants is who can I strangle when it doesn't? Yeah. That doesn't work. Okay.
Steve Carran: So last question here. Um, how do you, we've, like I said, we've been talking about a lot about AI here. How is that going to affect hospitality?
Andrew Rubinacci: AI
will affect hospitality like everything else. It will impact everything, whether that's, scheduling changes for the front desk, uh, being able to get distressed passengers to come. I mean, there's everything you do in the, in the revenue and commercial space. You know, the the vision is. I should be able to link data in.
I should be able to know so much about you that I can offer you exactly what you want, when you want it. I know that you. Travel five times a year. You go to a city center hotel, you get a king-sized bed, but I know you have a family and you do spring break. You go ahead and over Christmas, you'll argue about it.
First week in January, you'll start looking at that. I should be able to show you the family rooms at the right time. Three weeks out show you, hey, you should book your wave runner and your beach and your golf and, and all those things. I get airline data, so I say, Hey, you've got a. 8:00 PM flight. Why don't you get a late checkout?
And I know that converts highest at check in. That's where the industry's gonna go. AI will help us do all that stuff and pull it all together. And I think it, it will be really great for the guests because you'll make 'em happy. You're gonna give 'em what they want, but you're gonna make it done seamlessly and easy for them.
Steve Carran: Absolutely. They're getting a more personalized experience and getting those experiences, whether hyperlocal or at the resort as well, which is gonna create more revenue and better
Andrew Rubinacci: Yeah, more revenue, which is what we want, but also for the guests. It's exactly what they want to do and what they're looking for. And if you can anticipate that, you'll be better off.
David Millili: so what's the best way for people to find out more about FLYR and get in touch with 
Andrew Rubinacci: Well, the easiest way is, uh, you know, they can email me at Andrew dot rubenacci at FLYR without the e.com. but you know,
call me (678) 576-9775. Anything. I mean, we've got our website. You can go on there. But we really are, uh, wanna be accessible and we've got a, you know, any customer here, we have here in the room, we can.
Tell you, we, we really do pride ourselves on being as accessible as possible.
Steve Carran: great.
Thank you for stopping by 
Andrew. We appreciate it. No, thank  you. Great conversation for you. Yeah. it was good. Thank you. Appreciate it.