Abhijit Joshi

In the hospitality industry, Analytical solutions are used to price hotel rooms. These Analytical solutions must incorporate additional data feeds that represent the variables impacting hotel prices in the real world. While incorporating these data feeds like prices published by the competitors on the Web or reputation of the hotel in the social media there are unique challenges. In this case study, I want to share my experiences in solving these problems that involve understanding the hidden patterns in the data feed, resolving data sanity issues and finally incorporating these data feeds into the solution in an iterative manner. This journey requires close collaboration with not only the internal teams but also the external clients. In some cases, clients suggest enhancements to this usage of additional data feeds that need to be incorporated a relatively short timeframe. There is no one size fits all solution for using these data feeds. Additional configuration items need to build around these data feeds. In this case study, I want to share a success story in incorporating these data feeds using agile principles.