Connecting the Dots to Profit: How Pandox Unlocked Net Revenue with Juyo Analytics

The Visionary Behind the Transformation: Pandox’s Focus on Net Revenue

Jens Egemalm, Director of Distribution at Pandox, leads a centralised team that brings together revenue directors, distribution specialists, and analysts. Their mission: to drive net RevPAR through smarter data usage and operational alignment.

Pandox recognised an urgent gap in the industry: the need for accurate, actionable insight into distribution costs. Unlike airlines, hotels had no structured way to manage this data. As an ownership company, Pandox needed to see beyond commissions and rates to understand true profitability. Improving their bottom line was paramount, and they identified a significant opportunity in optimising these costs.

The Challenge: Navigating a Fragmented and Complex Cost Landscape

Before Juyo Analytics, Pandox encountered multiple roadblocks:

• Complex Cost Identification: The hospitality distribution is intricate, with numerous transaction fees and brand-related expenses (such as GDS pass-through fees, loyalty points redemption, and performance marketing costs). These are difficult to identify and track consistently across diverse property types.
• Manual Data Management: Initially, cost tracking was a manual process using Excel, which was time-consuming and inefficient. While it helped teams familiarise themselves with the data, it lacked the agility for forward-looking analysis or easy comparison between properties.
• Data Silos and Tech Stack Diversity: Pandox operates with a varied tech stack across branded and non-branded properties, utilising different Central Reservation Systems (CRS) and Property Management Systems (PMS). This meant manually pulling accounting data, making data integration a significant hurdle.
• Disconnected Teams: Even with detailed data, the challenge lay in integrating this information into existing Revenue Management Systems (RMS). Data lived in silos, making cross-property comparisons and fast decision-making difficult.

‘From day one, Pandox pushed the boundaries of what revenue analytics could deliver. Co-developing with them helped us build a solution that’s as sharp and operational as their team.’ – Vassilis Syropoulos, CEO at Juyo Analytics

The Search and the Game-Changing Decision: Co-Developing with Juyo

Pandox proactively sought a solution to combine revenue and cost data for comprehensive net revenue analysis. In 2016-2017, off-the-shelf technologies for this specific need were limited.

Already using Juyo Analytics for their general Business Intelligence (BI) and revenue analytics, Pandox engaged in discussions with Juyo to access additional cost data.

This led to a pivotal partnership where Pandox and Juyo co-developed a dedicated distribution cost module, tailored to Pandox’s unique requirements. This collaboration was defining for Pandox’s work, enabling them to track metrics precisely as they needed.

‘Juyo gave us the flexibility to track exactly what we needed. It wasn’t about adapting our strategy to a tool, but building a tool around our strategy. That made all the difference.’ – Jens Egemalm, Director of Distribution at Pandox.

Key factors that cemented Juyo as the right choice included:

• Tailored Development: Juyo developed a specific module to address Pandox’s unique need for net revenue analysis, a capability not readily available on the market.
• Efficient Cost Tracking: Juyo provided real-time, live insights into distribution costs, linked to revenue data. This was a game-changer, allowing for weekly and even daily analysis, as well as easier comparisons between properties.
• Flexible Integration: Juyo’s ability to connect with a wide variety of PMS systems was crucial given Pandox’s fragmented tech landscape.
• Commitment to Accuracy: Pandox’s strategy hinges on accurate data, and Juyo delivered on this critical requirement.
• Customisation and Flexibility: Juyo’s platform allows for 100% customisation of dashboards, integrations, and reporting, enabling Pandox to build their own KPIs and workflows without rigid reporting structures, a key differentiator from other BI tools.

‘The constant support from the Juyo team in addressing data accuracy issues and incorporating feedback for new features, such as enhanced cost contract setup, was invaluable.’ – Jens Egemalm, Director of Distribution at Pandox.

The Impact: Quantifiable Results and Organisational Alignment

The implementation of Juyo Analytics brought about profound and quantifiable improvements for Pandox:

• Informed Strategic Decisions: Access to detailed cost data allowed Pandox to make data-driven decisions that directly impacted profitability. For instance, they were able to reject a brand proposal that, despite lower commissions, would have increased overall distribution costs due to other related expenses.
• Optimised Performance Marketing Spend: By understanding the actual cost of their direct channel, Pandox set firm guidelines for performance marketing across platforms such as paid search, remarketing, and meta search. This strategy guaranteed profitable marketing investments and prevented excessive spending on activities that merely shifted bookings between channels.
• Consistent Net RevPAR Growth: From 2016 to 2020, Pandox experienced consistent improvements in their net RevPAR capture rate, averaging about 0.5 points annually. For a large portfolio of hotels, this translated into millions in net revenue improvements.
• Increased Overall Distribution Efficiency: Analysis revealed that while direct commission costs were increasing, Pandox’s marketing efficiency also improved. This indicated a smarter allocation of sales and marketing investments, leading to overall revenue growth and improved efficiency.
• Enhanced Cross-Team Collaboration: Juyo facilitated data operations, fostering a culture of understanding and collaboration across various departments. By educating staff on the importance of net revenue and direct bookings (e.g., encouraging direct bookings, capturing guest email addresses), Pandox reinforced key behaviours that improved performance. 

“Juyo’s ability to provide a ‘single source of truth’ helped integrate e-commerce and marketing into the revenue strategy, aligning teams around shared goals.” – Jens Egemalm, Director of Distribution at Pandox.

Looking Ahead: Total Net Revenue and a Defining Partnership

Today, Pandox’s journey with Juyo Analytics continues. 

The next frontier? Implementing Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) around total revenue management, that go beyond rooms to include all in-house guest spending. The ultimate goal is to focus on total net revenue as a key performance indicator.

For Jens, the relationship with Juyo isn’t just about better dashboards. It’s about better decisions..

‘Our partnership with Juyo is defining for their work with distribution costs and net revenue. As we advocate for industry-wide adoption of net revenue metrics, Juyo remains our engine for innovation.’ – Jens Egemalm, Director of Distribution at Pandox

He believes that while AI will bring significant operational efficiencies, there is enormous potential in optimising distribution through accurate data and knowledge. And Juyo has provided a robust system to fulfill this purpose.

This lasting collaboration demonstrates how Juyo Analytics enables hotels to integrate their data, anticipate trends, and realise their complete revenue-generating capabilities.

‘This wasn’t just a client-vendor project. It was a shared mission to put profitability at the centre of revenue strategy, and the results speak for themselves.’ – Vassilis Syropoulos, CEO at Juyo Analytics.