The Central Park Hotel, London is located opposite Hyde Park, just steps away from Kensington Palace. The property boasts historic charm and contemporary style with 325 uniquely decorated guest rooms that complement the building’s classic Victorian style.
The impressive location is matched by excellent customer service. Sharath Shetty, Head of Sales and Revenue, says “guest experience is very important for us”, emphasising that they offer continual training sessions to staff to achieve a high level of customer service.
Previously, the hotel was using a system they found difficult to use. The wait time between inputting rates and seeing them reflected on their channels was considerable. The time and energy required to manage the system detracted from time staff could devote to what matters most – guests.
SiteMinder becomes the perfect partner
Following recommendations from industry colleagues, Central Park London made the change and implemented SiteMinder as their technology solution. Mr Shetty saw a difference straight away. He explains, “In the three years that I have used SiteMinder, I haven’t encountered a single error in rate loading. The rates are uploaded in almost real-time to all channels”. This speed is due to SiteMinder’s two-way connection to over 400 channels, which enables hoteliers to secure over 105 million reservations annually, in real-time.
“Managing my rooms and rates have changed drastically since I started using SiteMinder due to its responsiveness and instantaneous rate syncing. This has increased my Average Daily Rate (ADR), occupancy and overall revenue whilst reducing over-bookings and human error”.
Saving time and delighting guests
The ease of working with the channel manager has been a big benefit to the hotel. As Mr Shetty says “SiteMinder is very user-friendly and effective. Any room opening or closure can’t be any easier”. For a property the size of Central Park London, this is of critical importance.
Mr Shetty has found that he can now do more things in less time, making his job easier and more enjoyable as a result. This time-saving has proven very useful, as guests are happier now that staff has more time to delight them.
Three years after implementing SiteMinder, Mr Shetty couldn’t be happier.
“Any time I require assistance, it is followed up with at a great pace. I would tell other hoteliers to choose SiteMinder because it is the most powerful channel manager and provides excellent customer service”
To improve syncing responsiveness and streamline their operations, Central Park Hotel London began using SiteMinder’s platform solution, which leverages technology from AWS including EC2, RDS, Kinesis, ElastiCache, DynamoDB, Lambda as well as various AWS networking technologies. By doing so, they have achieved an increased average daily rate (ADR), higher occupancy and eliminated human error.