Case Study – The Tawny, Staffordshire, UK

The Tawny is an incredible hotel like no other. They’ve taken all the best bits from a traditional hotel experience; fabulous restaurant and dining options, room service, amazing guest facilities, a heated outdoor pool...and combined them with your own private space, a country escape to call your own for the duration of your stay.

Accommodation includes Wildwood huts, treehouses, romantic boathouses, the lookout and luxury retreats. Located in the heart of 70 acres of rural Staffordshire, guests at The Tawny can explore woodland, stroll through lakeside gardens, and delight in enchanting follies.

• Even though the hotel didn’t open its doors until July 2021, they started taking bookings in February 2021 and It quickly became apparent that their newly installed system wasn’t adequate for their requirements.
• It was basic, lacked functionality and couldn’t fulfil their needs – for example, it didn’t have a postcode finder, it was difficult to build and upload rates and you couldn’t add certain items (like breakfast) to rates.
• There were lots of manual uploading and administration tasks with the system which was both time-consuming and open to errors.
• The Support team were US based which was impractical – with the different time zones, they could never speak to anyone over the phone and issues would take twice as long to get resolved.

‘Our office manager previously used Opera and loved it but now, having used Guestline, she wished she’d always had Guestline – it’s so much easier and intuitive to use. The team love it too!’

Our payment system is seamless and secure and by implementing a digital check-in, our staff can spend less time on paperwork and focus more on responding to guest requests. The efficiencies the system provides enhances the experience for the guests and staff alike.’

• Guestline Rezlynx PMS (including Insights)
• Direct Booking Manager (DBM)
• GuestPay
• GuestStay
• Channel Manager
• EPoS
• Integration with ResDiary [restaurant booking software]

The Guestline trainer Ian Elske made the transition easy and stress-free - they simply couldn’t praise him enough! All the deposits balanced the first-time round, and bookings and rates transferred over seamlessly. There was little disruption to their daily business operations.

Guestline’s Direct Booking Manager is so simple and effective that the hotel disconnected all their OTAs - all bookings are direct as the system is strong enough to facilitate their 80% occupancy rate. The room photos and descriptions help sell and promote the unique features of the rooms and all its amenities which again helps drive conversions.

Previously the hotel was taking £12,000 new daily bookings with their old system. Now it averages £21,000 in daily bookings, an increase of 75%.

Rates are now easy to manage, set up and upload. They team can track and change rates accordingly which not only saves time but helps them maximise revenue and has enabled them to increase their ARR by 15-20%.

The DBM enables the team to set up and sell a range of packages online which not only saves staff time but helps generate additional income. Previously only sold over the phone, these revenue-generating packages are proving popular, especially with non-residents.

Over 80% of their guests check-in online with GuestStay (as most guests travel from afar, often they do it in the car en route). This alleviates queues at peak times and enables the staff to offer a more hospitable welcome by providing help and assistance to their guests and offering upsells to make their stay even more enjoyable.

It’s even a simple process to check guests in at reception - compared to the previous lengthy process and with simple features such as the postcode finder, staff can check in guests in 1 minute (compared to 10 minutes with the old system!).

It’s far easier to take online payments with only one system to manage. The pdq machine also tracks transactions online and it’s a completely paperless process now.

All online bookings are paid in advance which helps with cashflow and eliminates the risk of chargebacks. With phone bookings, guests pay 50% over the phone in advance and then are sent a pay link to pay the remainder ahead of arrival. Guests are able to check their balance online.

With ResDiary, guests can easily make a restaurant booking and with the integrated all-in-one portal, it’s simple for staff to track and manager these bookings.

It’s easy to add/change items back of house and on tills. The cross charging of items is a big help and is an improvement on their previously disparate system.

With the system being fully integrated and automated, it’s a lot more time efficient and straight-forward to manage. It’s simple for guests to make a booking and easier for the staff to take a reservation. Additionally, with the PMS at the heart of system, the team can track all activities in one system - it’s easy to view sales and revenue and to analyse the effectiveness of promotions to enable them to generate as much revenue as they can.

Its quick and easy for new staff to get acquainted with the system. Guestline’s Online Support Portal is useful for learning new features and gaining more knowledge – they use it regularly.