Guestline's Connect event in Dublin an epic success

Guestline recently welcomed a host of hoteliers and partners to EPIC (The Irish Emigration Museum) in Dublin to explore how hotels could maximise revenue opportunities and deliver operational efficiencies across their businesses.

Amongst a room full of General Managers, owners and operators, revenue managers, the event consisted of talks on forecasting and business analytics solutions from Right Revenue and how insightful data could improve direct bookings from Sojern. Guestline’s Chairman, David Roche, also joined the line-up to talk about how tomorrow’s hoteliers would need to be digital masters to meet their guest’s ever-evolving tech needs and expectations.

Marc Thornton from DTA Marketing, hosted a panel discussion with HotelRez, Guestline, CBE and Wilson Bird (General Manager, Breaffy House Resort) for an insightful discussion on how hoteliers could implement an integrated technology platform to improve and influence the end-to-end guest experience.

Clio O'Gara, Guestline’s Country Manager Ireland commented, ‘This was an amazing event for hoteliers to hear from leading industry experts on the most innovative technology solutions that will not only help improve the guest experience but also deliver operational efficiencies and drive revenue for their business.

It was fantastic to catch up with so many hoteliers and partners and meet some new contacts – all in the comfort of this unique events space within the restored vaults!”

Delegates tweeted their delight at being at the event, including Deirdre Keating‏, General Manager at the Butler House Hotel, who said ‘#Guestlinedublin a very informative evening in EPIC for all hospitality specialists’ and Shona Cleary, Head of Digital from Great National Hotels, who added ‘Delighted to be here at #GuestlineDublin. No #stormali was stopping my day! Great meeting with @Google followed by coffee with @Sojern finishing with #GuestlineDublin in @EPICMuseumCHQ Some great speakers and in fantastic company!’.

For details on future events, please visit guestline.com or contact the team in Ireland via Clio O’Gara, Country Manager, at Clio.OGara@guestline.com.

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Auf den Leim gegangen

Ein Gastkommentar von Kristof Roemer, Geschäftsführer des Hospitality-Software-Unternehmens Guestline für den DACH-Raum. Er spricht von zunehmenden Fake-Buchungen in der Hotellerie, und wie man denen entgegen wirken kann.

Erst kürzlich machten in der Hotelbranche wieder einmal Fake-Buchungen Schlagzeilen. Mehrere Hotels berichteten, man habe über die Online Travel Agency Booking.com Buchungen erhalten, die weder wahrgenommen, noch storniert wurden. Das kann natürlich mal vorkommen. Eine gewisse Ausfallquote ist in Zeiten der „Generation Maybe“, die sich alle Optionen offenhalten will, sicherlich normal. Geschieht das allerdings häufiger innerhalb kürzester Zeit, liegt der Verdacht des Betrugs nahe. Sicher ist für den Hotelier vor allem eines: Es ist ärgerlich! Denn von den nicht angereisten Kunden im Nachhinein Schadensersatz für den Ausfall fordern? Aussichtslos!

Fake-Gäste geben meist falsche Daten an, etwa eine falsche Adresse oder Kreditkartennummer. Die wahre Identität ist so kaum nachweisbar. Betrug verhindern Auf Unterstützung von Booking.com können Hoteliers kaum hoffen. Das Portal ermutigt dazu, selbst aktiv zu werden. Zurecht, denn Hoteliers müssten dem Thema mitnichten hilflos gegenüberstehen. Mit der richtigen Technologie lassen sich Fake-Bookings im Vorfeld erkennen und Betrug somit verhindern. Dazu ist es keineswegs notwendig, jede einzelne Buchung manuell auf Richtigkeit zu überprüfen. Der Aufwand ist wesentlich geringer: Sie brauchen lediglich ein sicheres Bezahlsystem, das „PCI-compliant“ ist, also den Regeln der Payment Card Industry entspricht. Dieses System verarbeitet und prüft die Kreditkartendaten im Sinne der EU-DSGVO. Die Kreditkartendaten, die von den OTAs kommen, werden dabei automatisch von einem Payment-Provider – einer Art Schutzschild – auf Richtigkeit und Gültigkeit überprüft.

Halten die Daten der Prüfung stand, kann die Buchung erfolgen. In diesem Fall werden die korrekten Daten in einen verschlüsselten Token umgewandelt und in das PMS des Hotels eingespeist. Wird ein Fehler erkannt, oder die Kreditkarte nicht gefunden, kommt keine Reservierung zustande. PCI-Konformität kann Betrug also ganz einfach vorbeugen. Leider ist dieses Stichwort für viele Hoteliers noch ein Fremdwort. Mit diesem Unwissen machen sie sich mitschuldig an der Betrugsmasche. Denn nur ein technisch sicheres Bezahlsystem kann verhindern, dass es zu Fake-Buchungen kommt.

Kristof Roemer (Guestline)

Klicken Sie hier für eine Demo!

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Guestline and Brookson Enterprise join forces to give hoteliers intuitive powerful reporting

As we head towards the end of 2018, Guestline has delivered a number of exciting new partnerships, to enable Rezlynx users to choose the technology that fits around them. Hoteliers wanted superior reporting functionality, and that is exactly what Brookson Enterprise bring to the table.

We caught up with Christian Matthews, head of hospitality at Brookson Enterprise to find out more about the latest partnership.


Hi Christian, what is your role, Describe your job in a nutshell?

I’m Head of Hospitality at Brookson Enterprise, which means I’m lucky enough to be involved with a variety of exciting areas of the business including product development, partner relationship, marketing strategy and sales management. I try to attend as many Hospitality expo’s as I can in the UK and lead the team when we exhibit ourselves. I also make a mean cup of tea!

Why did you want to collaborate with Guestline? 

Guestline is an industry leader and is experiencing strong growth in the UK market with some great strategic partnerships, we love what they’re doing and wanted to get on board. The team at Guestline are incredibly positive and knowledgeable and we have been working closely with them to develop our unique Business Intelligence reporting suite over the last 18 months with a number of pilot hotel groups, which has been an exciting and insightful journey.

How will this new partnership benefit mutual clients?

Independent research shows that on average hotel managers are spending up to 4 hours a day producing reports. Turnkey integration of Guestline’s PMS with Brookson Enterprise allows customers to unify all of their data sources for faster, automated reporting. This can help transform hotel managers from report producers to revenue generators.

How long have you been in the industry?

I’ve been involved in the industry since 2015, it’s been an incredible journey so far and what strikes me the most, is how friendly people are in the industry, everyone at Guestline has made us feel part of their team and we look forward to the future.

What sets Brookson Enterprise apart from the rest?

The superior commercial advantage we provide customers over their competition is the number one USP that our clients tell us they enjoy. Plus, we have a world class development and customer relationship team that are constantly innovating and improving our product and service.

What challenges/ common issues does your software resolve for hoteliers?

We hear on a daily basis that hoteliers are frustrated with multiple data sources making it impossible to produce joined up business insight. Most hotels now rely on software to help run a hotel: PMS, EPOS, Procurement, Staff Rota, Social Media, Marketing, OTA’s, Payroll, Finance… the list goes on. Our software automates all these data sources and through the power of unified data, hotels are able to monitor every aspect of business performance from expectation to outcome. This unrivalled management information is able to revolutionise the customer journey, in turn increasing turnover and profitability.

What should hoteliers be focussing on for the next 12 months?

Whilst OTA’s are an important booking stream and are here to stay, I have seen first-hand the massive impact on the bottom line when a hotel focusses on direct bookings. There are first class website professionals, such as Journey, that can integrate online booking systems and improve direct bookings. The insights we can then deliver, will reduce commission cost & improve margin.

Other than Brookson Enterprise, what is the most exciting technology within the industry at the moment?

AI Chatbots. I recently stayed at an Accor Hotel and they have a Google Assistant app that a guest can interact with 24/7. Programmed to deal with routine customer service questions, this could free up significant manpower and give guests easy access to the answers they want at that time. One bit of tech to keep an eye on as AI will only keep improving.

Any future tech trend predictions?

When attending seminars, expo’s, annual conferences and webinars there is one topic that I constantly hear: smarter smart tech. I believe we’ll be seeing more ‘Internet-of-Things’ inspired hotel rooms in 2018, with guests checking in, unlocking their rooms, booking a reservation, adjusting the lighting & temperature and streaming their Netflix favourites on the TV through their smartphones.

One piece of advice for newcomers to the hospitality industry?

Learn from your peers and keep informed of the latest hotel tech and trends that can help improve the customer experience.

The new Guestline Connect Partner programme highlights the extensive range of integrated partner software solutions available to hospitality customers. Find out more here

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Simple Strategies to improve your Online Distribution

Guest post by Alex Bufton - Commercial Manager, Channel Partners at Guestline.

The distribution landscape changes on a daily basis and it is even more important to ensure you are always in the forefront of your customer’s mind – and preferred platform. Here are a few simple strategies, which could boost your performance and even open you up to new markets. Before we delve into new channels, let us look at the facts, which means a review of your current channel and business mix, as this the foundation on which to build your strategy to support your core objectives.
 
There are a plethora of examples and you all have different business models, however, some key questions are applicable no matter what your mix is: When did you last make a booking through a channel for a cheeky mini break? How was your booking experience? Here is the other million £ question: When did you last make a booking on your website? Hold that thought, as we will come back to it later.

Are you getting the most from your connected channels?
When I talk about channels, I mean both direct (your website’s booking engine) and other connected online channels. Let’s be honest – how often do you review the production statistics available to you either through Guestline’s tools for a consolidated view, or for a deeper analysis via the relevant Extranet? I’m sure this is always one of those tasks on a mental “To Do” list however it may always be moved to “tomorrow, first thing!” or “Next week I’ll have a clear schedule”. I fully understand, albeit the task should not actually take more than 15 minutes. Key indicators to look for are whether the channel is connected and whether you are receiving bookings, if you are getting business - what has been produced and what is the cancellation ratio? We see cancelation statistics by some channels of over 30%! Definitely, time to review your business if that is the case as even 20+% is high.

How can you improve those metrics?
Review your channel content as content really is King:

Rates, cancelation policies, room types. Could it be that you are too flexible?
Globally, hotels are increasing their restrictions in terms of cancelation deadlines of 24 hours prior to arrival policy for some rates, therefore offering a semi-flexible policy. Many properties have been offering a wider selection of non-refundable rates to attract bookers sooner and cutting their attrition factors too.

For Online channels – what page are you listed on and why?
Did you know you can improve your visibility by updating content and images? It also helps if your guests leave positive feedback. Your OTA’s always seek better tools and ways to improve the guests booking experience, which may also require an update of your content sometimes like adding new images, or tagging images. You can even setup automatic replies to everyday questions such as parking and bed configurations. These tools are designed to support you and save valuable time. Whether you want to drive additional OTA business or not, it’s still good practise to ensure your property is showcased to it’s very best as you want to convert lookers to bookers.

Now that you have looked into who is producing what business with you – have a look at where your guests come from and when they typically book. You may wish to start attracting business from different markets as you know they book earlier, they stay longer, spend more and are less likely to cancel. Trust me, you can look at this level of data as it is available – I’d encourage you to speak to your market managers. Of course you can run reports from your PMS to review this as you have a legal requirement to obtain the nationality of your guests too – if you’ve not ordered a copy of the Pink Book via VisitBritain, it’s full of great information on legislation to our industry. https://www.visitbritain.org/pink-book/registration-and-data-protection

There are different tools available to drive business from different markets, Booking.com offer their China Point of Sale programme for instance, if that is a market you’re looking to attract. You have a number of tools available to attract business from other markets in exchange for increased commission via the extranets.

We’ve also added a number of new channels to help you increase your visibility and expand your client reach – please drop me a line if you’d like to talk in more detail but we can now offer connections to channels that you may have had to handle manually, some that are just emerging on the market. I’d be more than happy to share details with you – so yes, I am luring you to talk to me.

Maybe further down the line you’d like to foray into adding Meta-Search your channel mix therefore driving the cost of guest acquisition down. Trust me, we can introduce you to the “New Kid on the Block” and dispel some of the mystery. Albeit meta has been around for a while, it is constantly evolving and improving in my opinion. The benefit being that business is driven to your own website booking engine – hence my question earlier about the last time you booked on your own site. Now might be the time to review it, as we all know “Direct is always best”. And on that note, you should see what our new Direct Booking Module can do for you.

We are always eager to share best practise and useful hints & tips with you, and will continue to do so through a series of blogs and emails, as well as our Newsletter. Please always feel free to send me a message directly too, I would love to have a chat about your online distribution strategy and objectives to see what we can do together.

Wishing you continued success until the next time.

Alex

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Guestline signs partner agreement with Stardekk

Having launched the Guestline Connect programme earlier this year, we have been keen to ramp up our partnerships across the globe.

The Guestline Connect Partner programme highlights the extensive range of integrated partner software solutions available to hospitality customers.

Robert Vogt, Guestline’s Director of Business Development for Benelux met up with Michael Wiesebron, Director of Sales and Business Development at Stardekk to find out more about the partnership.

Can you please describe your job in a nutshell?

I run the commercial department of Stardekk so overlooking / managing sales marketing and partnerships. Together with the board, we devise the strategy.

Why did you want to collaborate with Guestline?

Guestline is a leading Property Management Software provider which delivers a great solution to hotels in the form of their cloud hosted PMS system. A system that is equipped for all sizes of hotels and hotel services. With the partnership with Guestline we can offer the market a fully rounded solution no matter what facilities they offer their guest.

How will this new partnership benefit mutual clients?

By giving the hotels a solution to not only manage their room sales in the cloud, we give them a solution to automate all aspects of the hotels facilities. Automisation is something we believe in strongly and this partnership opens the door to enhance the room sales in the cloud to banqueting, spa, events and much more.

How long have you been in the industry? 

I have been working within hotel tech for over 7 years, within hospitality for over 17 years.

What sets your “company” apart from the rest? 

We are not under pressure of large global investments or hedge funds, but supported by thousands of hotels that are a part of our marketing team. Delivering software that works really well is the aim to the highest technology standard. The success of the company and the leading position of our systems are based on the request of the hotelier for the hotelier. This is what sets us apart.

What challenges/ common issues does your software resolve for hoteliers?

No more over bookings, automated price an availabilities updates, maximizes room revenue via yielding solutions, runs more than only rates and availability but content as well.

Being a top performer technically and revenue alike by all major OTAs, we make sure the hotel can optimize their strategy to their best capabilities. Besides our channel manager do we offer the hotels a full suite of tools from award winning rate box, websites, booking engine, restaurant software and yielding solutions to enhance their direct booking channels.

What should hoteliers be focussing on for the next 12 months?

They should prepare themselves for new channels that will act as real competition. Just updating room rates and availability is no longer enough, with increasingly changing rate parity rules, the hotels need to have more insights and knowledge and run a hands on mentality to keep on driving direct bookings and stay competitive in the market.

What is the most exciting technology within the industry at the moment?

Chabot’s will take over a lot of reservation processes - get ready to start innovating your website and booking engines

Any future tech trend predictions?

Consumers will start booking even more last minute via voice control of their mobile devices; the growth in these segments has been increasing yearly and will take a very dominant position within the near future.

One piece of advice for newcomers to the hospitality industry?

Network and be transparent and honest. It’s a people’s business focused on hospitality, there is no other industry where you can make it or break it on your communication skills as much as the hospitality industry. Enjoy!

Delivering on brand promise for accommodation providers begins well before check in and lasts way beyond check out. The Connect Partner programme is both customer and guest driven; by seeking partners who share an appetite for constant change and improvement, Guestline are offering hospitality customers an ever changing menu of options with Guestline’s Rezlynx PMS at the core.

Become an integration partner here

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xnPOS successfully achieves certified integration with Guestline’s Rezlynx PMS

Guestline Rezlynx customers can now utilize the powerful features and functionality within the xnPOS hotel and hospitality Point of Sale system from Xn protel Systems.

Global hospitality management software company Xn protel Systems today announced it has completed the API certification of xnPOS with Guestline's Rezlynx property management system. The new two-way interface connectivity and messaging means guest and billing information is communicated between the property management system and the point of sale system. The first implementation of the new interface went live in May 2018.

Emmanuel Clavé, Group Product Director - Point of Sale systems, Xn protel Systems comments: "We are delighted to have successfully completed the Guestline Rezlynx API certification for xnPOS. This highlights our 'Open Systems' strategy that helps to deliver choice and flexibility to all our customers. With this new two-way interface, independent hotels and groups using Guestline's Rezlynx PMS can fully utilize the rich features and functionality provided by xnPOS. We look forward to working with Guestline on future projects."

Guestline provides end-to-end property management, channel distribution and digital marketing solutions to a range of hotel groups, independent hotels, serviced apartments, management companies and pub companies.

Guestline has offices in Europe and Asia, and its systems are used in 25 countries across 5 continents.

xnPOS provides comprehensive functionality and scalability that meets the needs of hotel F&B, table service restaurants and hospitality foodservice operations.

The product is already proven in a wide spectrum of F&B operations in some 50 countries across Asia Pacific, Europe and the Middle East. The pedigree and range of international customers endorses the system's flexibility, functionality, language capability and simplicity of use.

Contact
Terry Osborne
Head of Marketing
Send Email

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Oaky and Guestline sign partnership agreement to empower hoteliers with smart upselling

Robert Vogt, Guestline’s Director of Business Development for Benelux recently met up with the super friendly team at Oaky, the upsell geniuses with incredible knowledge.

Having recently signed a partnership agreement, we were keen to find out more about Erik Tengen, Oaky’s Co-Founder and CEO, and the benefits of having Oaky integrated with Guestline’s Rezlynx PMS.

Oaky are leading the field in driving incremental revenue and enhancing the guest experience through targeted pre-arrival upselling. Oaky dedicate their time to driving more direct bookings, improve online reviews and increasing revenue for hoteliers around the world.

Hi Erik, great to meet up, can you describe to our readers what your job is?

I like to think I have the best job, for me, in the world :) As Co-Founder and CEO of Oaky I am responsible for Sales, Partnerships, Funding and being the face outwards of our company. The way I see it, my job is to build relationships and to inspire others by sharing our enthusiasm and excitement for Upselling.

Why did you want to collaborate with Guestline?

Firstly, Guestline has always come across as a really positive team to work with. As a PMS partner, Guestline is strong in the UK market and we see a quick growth into other markets too. With Oaky, our growth strategy has always been around strategic partnerships: Identify key partners, build a strong relationship and integrate. Together we can make happy Guestline customers even happier.

Thanks Erik! How will this new partnership benefit mutual clients?

Our specialty is to drive incremental revenue and enhance the guest experience by targeted pre-arrival upselling. Everything we do revolves around providing exciting upsells, offered at the right time, at the right price to the right guest. We are excited to be able to offer this (automated) to all our mutual clients together with Guestline.

How long have you been in the industry?

We went live with our first launching customers in late 2014, early 2015. Back then, it was only us three co-founders that worked out of a kitchen table :) It has been an amazing experience to grow to where we are today with hotels in over 50 countries and a wonderful international team.

What sets Oaky apart from the rest?

I'm the proudest of our passion for what we do and how that has resulted in Oaky being ranked as the #1 upselling tool, with the leading upsell conversion in the hotel industry.
Traditional upselling is transactional and focused on selling room upgrades that are granted at the time of check-in. We think that guests prefer instant gratification, which is why Oaky only offers available upsells they can book with 1-click.

We believe that hotel guests expect a mobile, on-demand and personalized experience from brands, including their hotel. Guests want the ability to personalize their stay before they arrive, with high-margin offers like room upgrades alongside free services like turning down housekeeping (in return for a reward, like a free pizza) and bookable 3rd party (local) experiences. By enabling guests to  add-on services before arrival rather at check-in, the front desk has more time to focus on what they do best - the offline guest experience.

Upselling should give guests a story to tell to drive free marketing. In addition, it should evoke good feelings about spending more with the hotel. This mix of driving incremental revenue and enhancing the guest experience is driving huge guest engagement with up to 25% deal conversion.

What challenges/ common issues does your software resolve for hoteliers?

Oaky automates the upselling of personalized upgrades, ancillaries and third party bookable services before arrival. Hoteliers use Oaky for many many different reasons, although, the main objective is to drive incremental revenue.

Here are common problems you can solve with Oaky:

1. "I want to drive more direct business"

2. "I'm giving away free upgrades and want to sell more of my higher room categories"

3. "I want higher review scores"

4. "Sustainability is very important to our owners"

5. "I want to increase the value of the asset"

6. "I want to reach my OTA guests but have no way of doing this"

7. "I want to drive F&B revenue"

8. "I want to stand out from our competition"

9. "I want to increase the number of loyalty sign ups"

10. "I want to automate the whole process of contacting my guests before they arrive"

What should hoteliers be focussing on for the next 12 months?

If I were a hotelier today, I would:

1. Firstly, embrace technology as a way of getting closer to my guests, including switching to a cloud-based PMS with an open API.

2. Secondly, map out my hotels' ideal customer journey based on the type of guests I want to attract (and the results I want to achieve)

3. Thirdly, ask my peers in the industry whom I trust (or check www.hoteltechreport.com) what technology they recommend based on step 2.

4. Finally, I would start implementing trials with tools based on step 3 and eventually find a tech-stack perfect for step 2.

What is the most exciting technology in the industry at the moment?

I am fascinated by the use cases on personalization (pricing, communication, attribute based shopping, upselling) that machine learning and automation can accomplish.

Any future tech trend predictions?

Voice is in the US slowly becoming the norm for how we search (powered by AI assistants like Alexa), and it significantly changes the way we buy. When this hits travel, I think we have a completely different distribution game on our hands. No longer will we see a long Google list of hotels, but be presented with 1 or max 2 options. Hotels need to make sure they are on the top of Alexa's offerings, and Amazon will have a very powerful position as an OTA.

One piece of advice for newcomers to the hospitality industry?

Come join the party! 

Speak to the Oaky team here

Speak to the Guestline team here

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