Case Study The Dean Court Hotel BW Premier Collection, York

The Dean Court Hotel has the most enviable position in York, directly opposite the York Minster. A historic building, with connections to the Clergy of The Minster, with 40 unique, individual bedrooms. The Dean Court is a 4 star Best Western Premier Collection hotel, oozing charm and personality. A real home-from-home experience!

• The hotel was previously doing everything manually which was both time consuming and open to error.
• With no interfaces to third party websites, they needed a system that was fully integrated, that automated processes and gave them visibility across more platforms to increase their bookings.
• With a lack of insights, they needed in depth data and reporting to help drive business decisions and improve resources.
• To aid they busy bar and restaurant operations, they required a sophisticated EPoS system that was fully integrated with the PMS.

• Hotel Cloud PMS Guestline Rezlynx
• Guestline Channel Manager
• Restaurant Management Guestline EPoS
• Direct Booking Manager (DBM)

Rebecca Hardcastle, Events Co-ordinator: ‘During the demo, they showed us how the system worked, how it can benefit us and how other hotels use it. It seemed the best choice for us and it absolutely was - 6 years on and we’ve never looked back, it’s a fantastic system!’

To hear more from Rebecca on her experience with Guestline, please watch her video testimonial here.

Steve Bailey, Acting General Manager: ‘It’s just more effective, and if its effective, it’s saving us time, which is ultimately saving us money. The fact that it’s fully integrated and automated makes the whole process more seamless. It just does everything we need it to do. The relationship between Best Western and Guestline is very strong. They work very closely with us and we are really happy with the support we have receive - I would be encourage other hotels to check it out and make the change.’

To hear more from Steve on working with Guestline, please watch his video testimonial here.

As it's a cloud based Property Management System, staff can log in from anywhere across the property and when off-site [at home for example]. All the different departments have access which enables them to do their jobs more efficiently.

The 2-way integration to the Best Western CRS and all the other 3rd party websites (OTAs) and has made life a lot simpler, quicker and automated. It’s simple to change rates too which are then easily distributed across all the various channels, helping the hotel to improve revenue and occupancy.

With the increased visibility on 3rd parties and the direct booking platform the hotel has seen an increase in bookings as it is easier for guests to find the hotel and make a booking. The automated distribution of availability in the Channel Manager makes it quicker and easier to update 3rd parties so it’s always up to date and accurate across all platforms and they never overbook.

The check in process is a lot quicker and simpler, taking about half the time it used too, which allows the front desk staff to spend more time with the guests. The time and resources the hotel saves has enabled them to be more customer focused, giving the guests a more personal experience prior to and during their stay. There are little extras in the system that the hotel couldn’t do before, such as adding birthdays or anniversaries. Having that information to hand makes all the difference and allows the hotel to go the extra mile.

The migration went smoothly and the system was built the way they wanted it built. The hotel had in-house training which included lots of support from Guestline, who were always on hand to help.

The statistical data is massively beneficial to the hotel. If they roll out a new menu item in the restaurant or a special offer, their ability to track it, see the success of item and get a break down has allowed them to make informed decisions moving forward on what works and what doesn’t.

The hotel love the upsells feature, they can add an upsell to the reservation and it’s charged automatically rather than being a manual process. It used to be a long process but now it is quick and simple, helping them generate extra revenue.

The Support team are accessible and fantastic at what they do. Even though the hotel has a manual, the Support team don’t make them feel like any question is silly, they just help. They talk them through every area they need assistance with, and explain how to fix it rather than just doing it themselves so the hotel know how to do it in the future.

The cloud PMS is such a user-friendly system that it’s so simple to teach someone new how to use it. The ‘Help’ sections on the website are equally useful and the training site is particularly handy - staff are more relaxed using the training site, they are not going to press any buttons they shouldn’t or break anything!

EPoS is fantastic, the hotel can just add a button when they need to or charge to rooms -it’s seamless. The hotel don’t have to worry about room charges or lost revenue because it’s all automatically applied. The hotel especially like a feature on the till that shows you how long people have been sat and when they last ordered -this lets them know when to visit certain tables and with all the information in front of them, they can better assess the situation.

ResDiary integration is great for managing restaurant bookings and can be done on the guest reservation, all in one area. As with the Gifted integration, a gift voucher platform.

The automated processes extend to the confirmations and pre-stay emails which go out on the click of a button; the hotel used to manually type these so it’s a great time-saver and delivers a consistent and welcoming first impression to the guest.