Background
The Castlefield Hotel is a 48 bedroom hotel located on the waters edge in the historic and picturesque Castlefield Basin, Manchester.
Perfectly placed at the heart of Manchester, it is an ideal location for exploring the city centre. Within 5 minutes walk of the famous Granada Studios, G-Mex Centre, Bridgewater Hall and within easy reach of Manchester’s main attractions and sporting venues.
Late in 2008, Castlefield was informed by their current property management system (PMS) vendor that support for their current system would be withdrawn in 2009. This decision meant that Castlefield had to either upgrade to the latest system from their existing supplier or see what alternative systems were available.
Rather than automatically upgrade with their existing supplier, Castlefield took the opportunity to investigate what other systems and innovations were available in the marketplace.
The Challenge
It became apparent to the management team at the Castlefield that they required an innovative, comprehensive and cost effective solution to replace their existing system.
It was essential that any new system must allow them to manage the property using real-time single image inventory and have the ability to expose that inventory globally, not only via its own website but also on the major online booking channels and GDS.
An additional requirement of the system was the ability to exploit the hotels existing customer database to help maximise profitability by building closer relationships with existing customers.
The Solution
After completing an in-depth evaluation of prospective solutions providers, Castlefield selected Guestline’s Rezlynx web based PMS along with Guestline EPoS and Roomlynx real-time channel and distribution manager as their preferred solution.
Rezlynx was chosen for its ease of use, unrivalled levels of flexibility and superior sales and marketing capabilities. The addition of the Roomlynx channel management solution made Guestline’s systems a winning combination.
Rezlynx is a 100% internet based property management system designed around a single, centrally located data source, which can be accessed from anywhere in the world via a standard web browser.
Rezlynx incorporates full PMS functionality, including Front of House, Reservations, Conference & Banqueting, Back Office, Sales Ledger, business analysis reporting, and an extremely powerful Sales & Marketing tool.
The fundamental principle behind Rezlynx is that the software is not installed locally at the hotel. Instead, it is hosted remotely on Guestline’s dedicated servers and Guestline are responsible for the security and backup of the hotel’s data, as well as the resilience of the hardware on which the software and data is stored.
Rezlynx offered a wide range of benefits when compared to a traditional locally installed PMS.
- Lower Cost Of Ownership - There is no need for the hotel to purchase expensive new computer equipment to run the system.
- No Specialist IT Skills Required At The Hotel - The remote servers are maintained by qualified technicians and constantly monitored to ensure there is little or no down time.
- Security Of Business Critical Data - The confidential hotel database is subject to comprehensive backup and security procedures and can be accessed by the hotel on demand.
- Remote Access From Anywhere In The World - Proprietors and management teams can access the system and the live data from anywhere in the world.
- Lessened Impact Of Hardware Failures - The potential effect of a hardware failure at the hotel is significantly reduced. With Rezlynx there is no need to reinstall complicated software, users simply replace the PC and connect to the internet to access the system again.
- Live Online Bookings – Rezlynx has the facility to offer live online availability and reservations via the hotel’s web site. The system can also be accessed by third party reservations portals and bookings are transferred automatically into Rezlynx on a real-time basis.
- Multi Property Capabilities - Individual hotel properties under the same ownership can take advantage of Rezlynx’ single data source, by checking live availability for sister hotels and making cross property reservations. The client database, guest history and ledger details can be shared across all hotels.
To fulfill the Castlefield’s objective of maximising revenue opportunities through online sales channels, utilising both the hotels own website and the major online booking agents , Guestline installed Roomlynx its channel management and distribution solution.
Roomlynx streamlines the online channel management process by actively connecting hotels to the leading online travel agencies, such as LateRooms.com, Bookings.com and Expedia, and the Global Distribution System via Synxis.
This powerful two way interface enables Castlefield Hotel to manage online rates, inventory and availability directly from their Rezlynx property management system (PMS). It also facilitates the seamless delivery of reservations from sales channels directly into Rezlynx, without the need for manual data entry.
Business Benefits
Thanks to Rezlynx, the Castlefield are now able to offer improved levels of customer service, customer records are held in a single location allowing for faster check-in times as there is no need to key in the customers details.
Rezlynx’s reporting capabilities allow the hotel to react quickly to changes in the marketplace as management information is available in real-time.
Roomlynx will greatly improve operational efficiency when it comes managing online presence, not only does it reduce the time spent managing channels but it also increases online exposure and ultimately revenue for very little effort. Roomlynx is a unique solution that fundamentally changes the way hotels manage and process online reservations.
“Roomlynx has made a phenomenal difference to bookings generated through online channels – in the first four weeks Roomlynx was live it generated over £20000 of revenue. With Roomlynx managing availability in real-time we can now offer online sales down to the last room, something we couldn’t do previously.” Steve Hanson, Sales Manager for Castlefield Hotel.
“We are delighted to be working with Castlefield Hotel, and have provided them with a feature-rich property and channel management solution that enables them to sell their last rooms to all sales channels, thus increasing profit and dramatically reducing the time spent managing their sales channel.” Steve Patterson, Managing Director of Guestline™.