The air in the room was still buzzing with the keynote's energy when I sat down with Vlatka. The event was designed to bring customers and prospects together to deconstruct best practices, with Real Time Revenue Steering as the theme of the day.
Vlatka had just walked off stage. Her keynote, Demand Never Sleeps, posed a pointed question to everyone in the room: if demand never stops moving, why does your pricing? It landed. The title alone is the argument.
Vlatka Barcan is the founder of AAYA Group, a revenue consultancy dedicated to helping hotels and leisure businesses optimise their revenue streams. Her background spans more than a decade in some of the world's most demanding hospitality environments, from the Pierre Hotel in New York to leadership roles at CitizenM, Sircle Collection, and Millennium Hotels. She started her career at 14. By the time she built AAYA Group, she had spent years watching hotels leave money on the table, not because they lacked ambition, but because they lacked the right systems and the right mindset. Now she brings that experience to a sector still finding its feet with dynamic pricing: outdoor hospitality.
"It's not just about changing a price tag anymore," she emphasises. The shift toward real-time steering is fundamentally changing the hospitality and rental landscape. And most businesses are approaching it the wrong way.
Most operators assume dynamic pricing is a technical problem. Plug in an algorithm, watch the numbers move. Vlatka pushes back on this immediately.
"It's actually a cultural shift. Real-time steering means moving away from the 'set it and forget it' mentality. You aren't just reacting to what happened yesterday. You are anticipating what is happening an hour from now. It's the difference between reading a map and using a live GPS."
That shift becomes far more achievable when the underlying systems are built to work together. It is here that Vlatka pointed to Maxxton's dynamic pricing solution as an exemplary model, emphasising its one-stop-shop approach.
"What I find in many hotels is a lack of synergy between various systems, such as the Property Management System, revenue management software, and guest experience platforms," she explained. "This fragmentation often leads to inefficiencies and missed opportunities. Maxxton's solution addresses this by seamlessly integrating all these components, allowing for real-time communication and a more holistic view of the business."
While dynamic pricing is well established in the hotel world, its application in holiday parks and campsites presents a different challenge entirely. Vlatka was direct about why. Booking behaviour in outdoor hospitality is far more variable, shaped by a combination of factors:
She also highlighted what she calls total revenue management, an approach that goes beyond setting the right rate for a pitch or cottage and extends to optimising revenue from food and beverage, onsite activities, and ancillary services. The pitch price is just the entry point.
The audits she runs tell a consistent story. Parks sell out too early, then leave late inventory at flat rates. A local festival announces an extra day, a demand surge of 200-400% in the making, and the pricing doesn't move.
This is the world her keynote brought to life: while you were sleeping at 3 am, a travel influencer in Tokyo posted a video featuring your region. Two hundred people hit your booking engine at once, and without an automated system, they all booked your remaining August inventory at your standard €80 rate. With one, the system detects the abnormal demand, freezes the lower rates, and moves the price to €140. You wake up fully booked and €3,000 richer.
Demand doesn't care about your time zone. If your pricing isn't automated, as Vlatka put it, "you are essentially leaving your cash register open on the sidewalk overnight."
The role of automation does not diminish the revenue manager. It redefines the job. The difference between manual and automated dynamic pricing becomes clear when you examine what each approach can actually deliver:
|
Manual pricing |
Automated dynamic pricing |
|
|
Response time |
Reacts to yesterday's data |
Responds to live demand signals |
|
24/7 coverage |
Depends on staff availability |
Adjusts rates around the clock |
|
Demand spike handling |
High risk of under-pricing |
Detects and recalibrates automatically |
|
Data processing |
Limited by human capacity |
Processes large data sets in real time |
"The machine is capable of processing vast amounts of data and identifying patterns that a human simply cannot," Vlatka stated. "However, it's crucial for the revenue manager to provide the system with the necessary context and knowledge, such as upcoming local events or broader geopolitical trends. This partnership between human intuition and machine intelligence is the key to achieving optimal results."
That judgment is equally needed internally. Successful revenue management is a team effort, not a solo function.
"By aligning goals across different departments, businesses can ensure that their pricing strategies are supported by effective marketing campaigns and a seamless guest experience," Vlatka explained. "This collaboration is especially important during the budgeting process, as it allows for a more realistic assessment of revenue potential and cost structures."
Marketing, ecommerce, sales, operations, and revenue management need to work from the same commercial calendar, or the rate move happens in isolation, and the gain gets eroded.
For anyone still hesitant about where to begin, Vlatka's advice is simple. Pick a specific segment, test real-time adjustments, and let the data make the case.
"Once you see the uplift in yield that comes from being truly agile, there's no going back."
The market is moving regardless. Gen Z and Millennials now account for 61% of new campers. They spend more, stay longer, and expect real-time availability and pricing as standard.
Demand never sleeps. The question, as Vlatka made clear, is whether your pricing does.