Elevating Events: Cromlix and Advanced C&B

Scottish destination hotel and event venue boosts cross-departmental efficiencies through technology

Summary

  • Improved cross-departmental collaboration, making teams more efficient
  • Revenue optimisation with transparent forecasting for easier upselling capabilities
  • Fully integrated tech stack using the Guestline product suite: Guestline Platform, Direct Booking Manager, GuestPay, Newbridge EPoS, Advanced C&B

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About Cromlix

A romantic Victorian-era country estate outside Dunblane (Scotland), Cromlix re-opened in March 2023 following an extensive renovation led by owners Kim and Andy Murray. It has since been crowned one of Scotland’s leading hotels, receiving countless accolades including 5 Red Star recognition by the AA.

The mansion house and stunning grounds appeal to a range of leisure guests, whether relaxing for a short break in one of their 16-bedrooms or indulging with an exceptional occasion in their private dining and event spaces. With event spaces for up to 70 people, Cromlix epitomises luxurious experiences, prioritising guest satisfaction as its key metric.

 

Challenge

The team at Cromlix pride themselves on providing an exceptional events experience, but were experiencing increased operational challenges working from their traditional management systems. Inevitably, in the hustle and bustle of a busy hotel and event venue, identifying the most up-to-date documents was a challenge for some departments, and keeping track of the busy calendar and multitude of payments was time consuming for the hotel’s highly experienced events team.

The team needed a dedicated C&B platform to ensure their event organisation was at its most efficient, facilitating better communication between departments and carrying the luxury feel of the on-property experience to the booking and planning process for clients.

 

The Results —A Hospitality Success Story

The Cromlix team were keen to keep their tech stack simple, ensuring that any new platform worked with its existing systems. Having had a positive experience using Guestline Platform as the hotel’s PMS, the decision to install Guestline’s Advanced C&B in July 2023 was a straightforward choice.

Katy Allen, Events Manager, Cromlix said: “We wanted to improve our event management, really take it to the next level. It made sense to work with Guestline as we use their PMS and didn’t want to bring another company in. Our Reservations Manager had worked with Advanced C&B before and thought it would be beneficial to our business. It links well with bedrooms, and has the same user feel so we didn’t need to teach anyone a brand new system, which helped people feel comfortable using it right from the start.

It keeps our event sheets consistent, which builds confidence in the system amongst our team. The chefs know where to find the latest information on dietary requirements. Event teams know where to see up-to-date guest numbers. And for sales, the system triggers us to remember potential upsells we can mention to the client, helping boost incremental revenue from ancillaries such as decorations.

But the main things for me are the payments system - it’s so easy to keep track of event payments and know who’s paid what; the forecast tools provide a clear understanding of business on the books; and it’s easy for everyone to use, whether updating menus or making notes on client wishes.”

 

Our thoughts

When seeking to provide an elevated guest experience amongst the challenges of running a busy events calendar, it can be easy for messages to get lost in translation. Cromlix’s dedication to their guests is exceptional; it’s not just the events team who wanted to be more efficient, but the whole hotel was on-board with trying to be even better than their already stellar reputation for hosting events. It’s great to see everyone from chefs to the front office team enjoying the benefits of Advanced C&B.

 

Results

Allen said: “Advanced C&B has changed the way we run events, both how we work with our customers and internally. The system pulls our event organisation together, with each department able to access up-to-date event information in one place. We’ve found we’re collaborating better, with sales and operations all buying into it because it's easy for them to access and to use.”

Following updates to Advanced C&B, Cromlix is also able to now share event information with the client’s event planner.

Allen said: “Clients can directly see who’s picked up bedroom allocations, their payment timeline, and the overall event details. They can also pay directly from the portal which is saving us time by reducing the need to frequently email payment details.”

For more information on Cromlix, visit cromlix.com

 

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"It made sense to work with Guestline as we use their PMS and didn’t want to bring another company in."

 
 

 
 

"But the main things for me are the payments system - it’s so easy to keep track of event payments and know who’s paid what."

 
 

 
 

"Advanced C&B has changed the way we run events, both how we work with our customers and internally."