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How a boutique hotel increased direct bookings and overall revenue with SiteMinder’s product suite

  Posted in Technology  Last updated 1/12/2023

Located in the heart of Manchester, the Velvet Hotel offers its guests a unique experience. The boutique hotel features 19 rooms that include period furnishings amidst an urban backdrop.

While the hotel offers guests a sense of history and culture, it also boasts the latest and greatest technology designed to improve the stay of each individual.

General Manager Darren Reilly was not only concerned about the customer experience and satisfaction levels, but also about growing his hotel and attracting new guests from across the world.

Challenges to overcome

Reilly identified three distinct challenges in his current hotel operations:

  • overbookings as a result of the manual reservation process;
  • a booking engine that was charging commission for each reservation that was completed directly; and,
  • cumbersome website updates that were difficult for his team to implement.

While the Velvet Hotel was not struggling and had a healthy booking rate, Reilly knew that these administrative and technological issues could quickly become problematic for the hotel.

He wanted to eliminate these challenges in order to improve his team’s efficiency as well as increase guest satisfaction ratings.

An actionable solution

Reilly found the answer to all of his problems in SiteMinder, which offers a product suite designed to improve hotel operations for properties around the world.

He was first attracted to SiteMinder because of its innovative Channel Manager, which was easy to implement and instantly eliminated the risk of overbooking rooms at the Velvet Hotel.

But soon, he realised that SiteMinder offered an array of products designed to enhance and improve operations at his hotel.

Ideal results

Reilly first noted the impact that the Channel Manager had on his property. Almost instantly, he began to see an improvement in guest satisfaction ratings, and the number of double bookings at his hotel went down significantly. As an added benefit, he loved that the Channel Manager integrated easily with his Property Management System.

Then, TheBookingButton became his go-to solution for his booking engine issues. With TheBookingButton, Reilly no longer had to pay a commission for every booking generated on his website. In addition, this booking engine offered a simple user-interface that increased online booking and customer conversions.

Finally, Reilly turned to Canvas in order to create a website that was easy to update and use. Using Canvas, the SiteMinder website builder, he was able to create a beautiful, professional and responsive website that could quickly be updated, even by someone without technical expertise.

Not only was he impressed with the products and results that SiteMinder offered, but he found their support team to be a valuable resource for growing his business!

“From time to time, especially in the beginning we called the support team for help. The team always get back to us very quickly… I’m very pleased with SiteMinder’s suite of products, and I’m looking forward to continuing working with them.”

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By Shine Colcol

Shine is the SEO and Content Manager of SiteMinder, the only software platform that unlocks the full revenue potential of hotels. With 5+ years of experience in content strategy, Shine has produced informational content across various industry topics, mostly about operations management and continuous improvement. She aims to share well-researched articles for hoteliers to discover how to optimize their time and increase room revenue.

 

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