Abba hotels is a Spanish hotel chain that was founded in 2000 with just three properties: two in Madrid and one in Pamplona, the city of its first headquarters. Today, headquartered in Barcelona, the group has 25 properties located both in Spain and internationally.
The choice of the name abba has little to do with the famous Scandinavian music group, instead originating from a practical need at the time: appearing at the beginning of hotel guides thanks to alphabetical order.
In recent years, and to complement its hotel network, the chain has diversified its offering with sub-brands such as abba Apartments and abba Suites. The latter is a line of premium apartments that includes properties like abba Suites Playa del Carmen, located on the Caribbean coast of the Riviera Maya.
Under the slogan “First, a smile,” abba hotels’ main objective is customer satisfaction, prioritising hospitality, kindness, and warmth in service. With a close family spirit, they want guests to enjoy abba as they would their own home.
The chain has fully embraced process digitisation, incorporating new technologies while maintaining its commitment to environmental sustainability, embodied in its “sostenabbabilidad” project, focused on waste management, product selection, food policies, and responsible practices.
Although in its early days abba hotels focused more on the corporate customer, today it opts for broad and diverse segmentation. With multiple managed properties and international expansion plans underway, the group needed a robust technology solution to centralise its distribution and optimise operations.
From fragmented management to centralised efficiency
Before adopting SiteMinder’s platform, abba hotels operated with two different channel managers: one integrated into its property management system (PMS) with a bidirectional connection, and another with a direct connection to channels that required manual handling.
This setup led to a lack of visibility across channels, occasional parity issues between systems, and more complex operations – especially in a context where strategy and incident management are centralised, but day-to-day tasks fall to each property.
According to Alicia Muñiz Lana, CM Integrations and Connectivity at abba, this duality resulted in “a lack of visibility on the part of the channels and, at times, a lack of parity between software.”
The decision to choose SiteMinder aligns perfectly with the group’s tech-led strategy, aimed at achieving efficiency, productivity, quality, and accuracy through solid, comprehensive software.
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Hassle-free implementation and error-free experience
The implementation process was smooth and straightforward, even for a group with 25 properties. The guidance from SiteMinder’s team throughout the process was key to coordinating timelines between each hotel’s onboarding and go-live. Alicia especially highlights the support received, which enabled a fast and orderly transition.
Today, abba hotels uses SiteMinder to enhance guest acquisition through improved channel connections and inventory management, optimise reservation management, and gain crucial market insights and reports.
The results with SiteMinder have transformed the group’s day-to-day operations.
The mapping process has been notably simplified and, by using a single channel manager integrated with seamless PMS integration, it is no longer necessary to manually register each reservation.
One of the key benefits has been the near-total reduction in incidents or errors. When a mapping issue arises, the system sends immediate, specific notifications, allowing the team to resolve it before it impacts the booking channels. Communication with channels is now smooth, fast, and stable.
For a multi-property group like abba, SiteMinder Multi-Property has been a game changer. The platform allows all rate plans and room types to be created from the outset and reused in any existing or future property, allowing for more agile and efficient configurations.
The impact on staff has also been clear: by spending much less time managing daily tasks, commercial relationships with channels are more efficient, and the team can focus on higher-value strategic goals.
Future outlook: Technology as a necessity
For abba hotels, hotel technology is no longer something to consider “in the future,” but an immediate necessity. The team believes that technology applied to tourism drives efficiency and profitability and allows them to focus on what truly matters: the guest.
In this context, platforms like SiteMinder play a fundamental role by:
- Connecting the hotel with a wide selection of channels and maximising visibility.
- Saving time and resources thanks to dynamic, centralised management.
- Contributing to increased profitability through sales and revenue enablement.
Their recommendation for other hotel groups is clear: technology investment should align with business objectives and the size of each property. However, if the goal is high competitiveness, rate optimisation, data analysis, and revenue maximisation, they believe this investment should be a priority.
With optimised processes, practically non-existent incidents, and teams freed to focus on strategy, abba hotels is in a strong position to advance its international expansion plans while maintaining the close, family spirit that has defined it since 2000.