Case Study Best Western Hotel Lamm, Germany

Author
Heiko Stärk, Deputy GM - Best Western Lamm

Hotel overview

This 4-star Best Western Hotel Lamm is based in Singen, Germany. This family-run, third generation hotel was founded in 1938 by the Stärk family and attracts both business travellers and tourists. The hotel combines innovation and tradition and provides 76 modern, individually designed bedrooms, a gym and a sauna.

Challenges/requirements -

  • Integration to new interfaces / partner offerings were expensive. They required a more flexible and cost-effective way of implementing new technologies.
  • They required a more uniformed set of reports which were more accessible on the system.
  • They required easy access to specific data e.g. the Average Daily Rate (ADR) by target group, individual characteristics of the customer segments as well as information on bookings by distribution channel.
  • The previous support provision was slow and expensive. They were charged additional costs for items such as format adjustments which then took weeks to fulfil.
  • The old PMS did not offer an integrated payment gateway that would validate the guest's credit card data and thus protect the hotelier from fraudulent activity.
  • The old PMS was generally not adaptable to specific situations. This led to long-winded and cumbersome processes. Because of this, the hotel staff had to regularly call the support team which led to additional costs and lost time.

Overall, the old PMS wasn’t suitable to fulfil and serve the needs of a modern hotel.

Solutions - 

  • Guestline Rezlynx PMS
  • Guestline Channel Manager
  • Integration with Best Western CRS, Xenia EPOS, Rateboard RMS, Onity electronic locks & room cards, TrustYou and Betterspace

Quote from Heiko Stärk, Deputy GM - Best Western Lamm -

"Guestline has eased the burden when it comes to digitilisation. It is important for us to be able to respond quickly to the changing demands of the hospitality industry and to be using the most up to date technologies.
Guestline’s systems are continually being updated and there is a wide selection of additional third party interfaces. Faster processes give us more time for our guests and the improved reports provide us with better data and insights for our revenue management."

Benefits -

More efficient 

  • The hotel can create reports themselves bespoke to their own needs without having to call the Support team
  • The improved reports provide vital insights to help shape future strategies
  • Time is saved thanks to the structured and user-friendly software
  • With the intuitive interface, it is now quick and easy to train new starters
  • Check-in and check-out for hotel guests is now a smooth process. Additional information can be recorded directly and viewed by all employees
  • Reservation requests can be processed more quickly. It now takes the staff 3 to 4 minutes to process a telephone reservation – compared to 15 minutes previously!

Support & training 

  • The Guestline Customer Support team is available weekdays 07.00 to 24.00, 365 days a year and is able to process and resolve hotel queries in just a few minutes
  • The personal, on-site training that the employees received enabled them to start using their new PMS from day one and maximise the effectiveness of it. The training team were also able to reassure anyone that was previously skeptical of the new system!

Remote access 

  • Guestline provides mobile access to the PMS
  • This enables the hotel management team to access the system remotely and work from anywhere, at any time. Not only does this give them flexibility but they can also react quickly to any special requests or urgent inquiries they receive

Third party interfaces 

  • The hotel now have access to a variety of additional interfaces which can be implemented easily. Switching from existing third party interfaces was also a smooth process