Red Lion Launches a Subsidiary to Sell Software to Hotels
Skift Take
CEO Greg Mount persuasively says many independent hotel operators are overpaying for operational software that's inadequate. Red Lion is savvy to try to woo independent hoteliers by promising preferential commission rates with online travel agencies. Still, execution will be difficult.
RLH, the Denver-based parent corporation of the Red Lion Hotels chain, is getting into the software sales business. The franchisor has launched a subsidiary, RLabs, to take the software the company has built to manage its properties and sell it to independent hoteliers.
The first white-label product, Canvas Integrated Systems, is a cloud-based hospitality management platform that includes basic revenue management tools and a switch for distributing rates and inventory to online travel agencies and other sales channels.
Red Lion (RLH) believes it has a competitive advantage over other tech vendors in the market. Hotels pay travel agencies fees to display their inventory, and RLH will extend to independent hoteliers using its software the preferentially discounted commission rates it has negotiated for its branded properties.
RLabs has already migrated the first independent property, Monterey Tides, to its Canvas system. It has deals to provide services for "up to seven hotels."
Fighting Words
RLH is defying the naysayer
