Cendyn adds revenue management tools with acquisition of Rainmaker

Hospitality sales and marketing solution provider Cendyn is expanding the scope of its services with the acquisition of the Rainmaker Group, a revenue and profit optimization platform.

The acquisition – for which details were not disclosed – is Cendyn’s first following an equity investment in June from Accel-KKR, which now holds controlling interest in the company.

Cendyn president Tim Sullivan says there may be more acquisitions in its future.

“I think consolidation is healthy. The industry is very fragmented ... and there is so much noise in the marketplace that it becomes confusing,” he says.

“There’s a lot of smart people out there who may have a piece that maybe we can either integrate with, to pull the data in to make our solution better, or potentially acquire a company that’s going to add value to our cloud technology stack.”

In the case of Rainmaker, Sullivan says the acquisition is a good fit because it provides hoteliers the capabilities to now align their marketing, sales and revenue strategies so they have a “single version of truth” about their guests to drive better performance.

“Our mission as a company is to personalize the guest journey at scale,” he says.

“We believe every touch point on that journey from research to booking to pre-stay, on property and post stay – all of those touch points can be delivered in a very personalized way. When you add personalized rates into that mix, based on what we already know about the guest from their profile, that becomes very powerful.”

Sullivan also cites Rainmaker’s “deep, multi-decade hospitality experience” and “culture of data-driven solutions” that make the two companies natural partners.

For now, the company will be known as Rainmaker, a Cendyn company, and Rainmaker co-founder Tammy Farley will become a board member.

Looking ahead, Sullivan says he is interested in solutions that will enhance Cendyn’s ability to remove friction in multiple channels.

“There’s some interesting stuff happening with some companies around metasearch and display and video and mobile that we are taking a look at,” he says.