How did The London Elizabeth Hotel achieve a 400% increase in hotel bookings in 12 months?

The London Elizabeth Hotel is a classic hotel in three adjoining 1850s buildings located in the heart of London, a one-minute walk from both Lancaster Gate tube station and leafy Hyde Park. London’s busy Paddington train station is local too – just an eight minute walk – placing the hotel in a prime location.

The hotel offers 49 traditionally-styled rooms with en-suite bathrooms, desks, TVs and free WiFi, featuring fireplaces or balconies, and park views with signature options including panoramic or stained-glass windows.

“I wanted a tool that would help me and my staff save time, but also a solution that allows me to manage my hotel day-to-day room inventory, with a quick and fast overview of all the bookings on one platform.”

Today it connects to more than 20 online channels, but it hasn’t always enjoyed this same level of reach and visibility. In 2011, Krystyna found herself drawn to an advertisement online. This advertisement from SiteMinder would not only provide the channel management solution the hotel was looking for, but it would surpass expectations, increasing the hotel’s total number of reservations by 400%.

Challenges and Objectives

Before using SiteMinder, Krystyna Lech-Maziarka, general manager at the hotel, says their challenge was with rate parity between its online booking sites, and they were often facing issues managing the hotel’s room availability across the board.

The Need: To gain visibility across online channels

To address the shortcomings, the London Elizabeth Hotel began evaluating available channel manager solutions and came across SiteMinder via an online ad.

Krystyna says she knew what she was looking for: “I wanted a tool that would help me and my staff save time, but also a solution that allows me to manage my hotel day-to-day room inventory, with a quick and fast overview of all the bookings on one platform.”

“The London Elizabeth Hotel reported a 400% increase in bookings via Expedia in their first year alone.”

SiteMinder’s channel manager selected for its ease of use

After searching for the right channel manager technology, Krystyna found exactly what she wanted when she tried SiteMinder’s channel manager. “I was immediately blown away by its power,” recalls Krystyna. “The solution was intuitive and easy to use.” This was her top priority and after the first introduction, the decision to work with SiteMinder was made pretty rapidly. The team at The London Elizabeth Hotel makes great use of the channel manager’s intuitive dashboard that provides actionable insights to enable Krystyna to make better-informed decisions.

Only two days after the account setup was finalised, The London Elizabeth Hotel was up and running on the SiteMinder platform thanks to an internal project team dedicated to the success of their implementation. Krystyna says the SiteMinder Service Delivery team, who drove this project with professionalism, understood her business needs: “We wanted to get started as soon as possible.”

After satisfying her high-priority requirement for providing an easy-to-use solution in a record time, The London Elizabeth Hotel has eliminated overbookings and has been able to place a greater focus on guest experience and satisfaction. Krystyna says SiteMinder’s technology is good value for money: “Without the channel manager, my issue with double bookings would have continued, and I can now manage my hotel with peace of mind.”

Accurate reporting at their fingertips

As a result of using SiteMinder’s channel manager, the team at The London Elizabeth Hotel reported a 400% increase in bookings via Expedia in their first year alone.

Years later and SiteMinder’s channel manager is still delivering efficiency and productivity within the hotel’s team, the platform updates 20 online booking sites, with or without promotion, in real-time with no staff resources needed avoiding potential errors. What began as an online ad has changed Krystyna’s hotel operations for the better and the team continues to see an increase in revenue and decrease in operational expenditures drastically.

Describing SiteMinder’s technology in one sentence, the happy general manager, Krystyna says: “The channel manager is a great feature, every button, every option makes sense. Great customer service and support!”