Case Study The Arbor Group
The Arbor Group
The Arbor Group is a growing collection of luxury 4 star hotels located in key areas of central London.
The Arbor City Hotel London is a 4 star boutique hotel in London City. It has 115 recently refurbished bedrooms, along with a cocktail bar, private cinema screening room and a Marco Pierre White restaurant. The hotel has a whole floor given over to meetings and events with the flexibility to host anything from a board meeting to a private party.
The Arbor Hyde Park Hotel is a popular boutique hotel near Oxford Street, housed within a beautiful 19th Century townhouse. This 40 bedroom Georgian hide away also hasa lounge bar, ideally suited for private functions.
Challenges:
The group were using an old, out-of-date PMS that was on-premise and wasn’t fulfilling their needs. They required:
- Their old system was out of date and too basic for their needs.
- The hotels re-branded becoming 4 star establishments and needed a system to manage an enhanced level of customer service and drive revenue.
- They needed a system that would store customer profiles and guest data to improve marketing and accelerate the check in process.
- They wanted a cloud hosted system with easy access to both property’s systems.
- They wanted to drive corporate sales and set up corporate rates.
- The hotels were getting too many overbookings.?
Solutions:
The Arbor Group selected the comprehensive suite of Guestline hospitality solutions to better suit the needs of the group. This included:
- Rezlynx PMS
- Channel Manager
- EPoS
Benefits:
Increase in room rates:
Since implementing the system, the hotel has increased ADR by £10 in the first year and by £15 in year two. With a high occupancy rate of 92% at Arbor City and 95% at Arbor Hyde Park, the resulting increase in revenue has been significant.
They have also been able to drive revenue from higher corporate rates and sales.
Rate management:
They can change rates from one place, which is then reflected across all chosen channels. It is easy to set up a number of group and corporate rates and copy to any number of rooms. Rules can be applied where there is a minimum stay or the room is non-refundable. The hotels can set a release period in advance for group bookings so rooms are available to sell if not confirmed.
All seasonal fluctuations in rates are automatically applied and rates can be adjusted during peak times when local events are taking place.
Improved customer service:
The hot keys provide quick access into the system which has been personalised to improve the speed of room bookings and check-ins.
Reception use the one page summary of all departures and new stays and can quickly view the customer’s room type, number and rate when they check-in.
Increase in upsells:
It’s easy to create packages and new rates which has helped drive complimentary sales. Restaurant bookings are promoted with room sales to drive upsells.
Direct bookings & OTA commissions:
By setting rules in advance to manage bookings, applying ceilings (for number of rooms by channel) and closing availability from the channels, they have improved direct sales.
Application of VAT rule:
The change in VAT (to 4%) for stays longer than 28 days is automatically applied, which simplifies the invoicing process for the accounts team.
Marketing:
Customer profiles can be created and the database can be segmented and targeted with email campaigns promoting special offers and packages. The hotels schedule email campaigns which are then automatically sent to target customers.
Training and installation:
There was minimal disruption during the install and all the staff were trained and equipped with manuals. All the rates and bookings were loaded into the system, which were then checked by the trainers to ensure the systems balanced. The staff were confident on the system from day one.
It has subsequently been easy to train new staff on the systems and functionality.
Fully integrated:
The hotels can manage bookings and generate invoices for all the conferences and events (for either hotel) from one place, apply credit limits and post dinner and drinks bills to guest rooms.
Quick response times:
Guestline’s UK Support team responds to any queries within an hour on average during the day or first thing in the morning if the query was left during the night.
"The Guestline systems are the best on the market. Having worked on several different PMS systems in my hospitality career, the Guestline
solutions are future proof and great value for money. The systems are multi functional and ever evolving with regular new software upgrades.
The rate tools saves me time and effort and I can access the systems remotely 24/7 from any device- ideal if I’m away or want to log in from home. I can switch from one hotel to another to access all the information and data from the hotels.
In a highly competitive market place we need to keep on top of our game and the Guestline systems allow us to optimise our sales and drive revenue.
The system is multi-functional, yet intuitive and easy to use. Overall, the system has beneffited many areas of the business and we are thrilled that
we made the switch."