Smeetz, a provider of smart all-in-one ticketing software for leisure and cultural attractions, has been sharing the benefits of its AI-powered dynamic pricing solution.
Dynamic pricing allows operators to continuously modify the costs of their services in real-time according to market-specific variables like demand, weather predictions, peak times, days of the week, amount of time left before an event, website traffic, and more.
Instead of sticking to a fixed price, dynamic pricing gives attractions control over their pricing strategy. This can boost profit margins and improve the guest experience, as well as streamlining operations and unlocking more data insights.
Swiss Vapeur Parc
One happy customer that has been using Smeetz’s dynamic pricing solution is Swiss Vapeur Parc, a mid-size amusement park in Switzerland that offers a unique experience of riding over two kilometres of track on 1⁄4 scale train replicas. The attraction welcomes more than 150,000 visitors per year, with some strong peaks during holidays.
In 2019, the operator chose to work with Smeetz because of the firm’s optimised checkout process and dynamic pricing capabilities. Following the implementation of dynamic pricing at the park, the operator reported a 25% increase in revenue, compared to fixed pricing. In addition, the park saw a 22% increase in average basket size online and a 21% online conversion rate.
In terms of operations, this ability to accurately predict visitor numbers and smooth peaks in attendance led to a reduction in operating costs of 30% operation costs. On average, guests were booking three days in advance.
“The dynamic pricing is very simple, the more the customer buys in advance and the fewer sales there are, the cheaper the ticket,” says Damien Fulbert, director of operations at Swiss Vapeur Parc.
“The apparent complexity of dynamic pricing strategies did not lead to any questions from the guests, who are used to such practices in the hotel and aviation industries. Going back to traditional pricing would now seem terribly silly knowing how much both the guests and the park are benefiting from dynamic pricing.”
He adds:
“We now see the real trends 3-4 days in advance, this allows us to adapt the staff, the number of trains out and the supplies for the restaurant, which is very practical to avoid losses.”
Chillon Castle
Smeetz also helped to bring in dynamic pricing at the Chillon Castle Foundation, a popular heritage site in Switzerland that sees over 400,000 annual visitors. This attraction turned to Smeetz during the Covid-19 pandemic to help manage reduced capacity and high visitor concentrations, and it was specifically interesting in using the firm’s dynamic pricing feature, in order to flatten occupancy and incentivise visitors to book less popular time slots.
Thanks to dynamic pricing, Chillon Castle saw a 40% increase in average basket size online, a 28% increase in online conversion rate, and a 10% revenue increase through cross-selling online.
Kit Strobl, head of ticketing at the Chillon Castle Foundation, says: “Using Smeetz’s dynamic pricing tool, we were able to implement a dynamic pricing strategy to optimise the capacity of each of the time slots by varying prices, among other things, according to the occupancy rate.”
To find out more, click here to access Smeetz’s dynamic pricing whitepaper.
Earlier this month, Smeetz celebrated some new additions to its AI-powered Commerce Intelligence Hub. The firm’s innovative solution simplifies operations and boosts revenue by leveraging data and cutting-edge technology. It goes beyond basic ticketing and retail management by offering AI-driven pricing strategies and cross-selling recommendations to optimise sales strategies.
