The new Village Hotel in Glasgow had barely opened its doors before it shot up the ranks to feature as one of the town's top places to stay and gained a rating of 'excellent' on booking.com and ranked top on TripAdvisor. According to one of the reviews left there, "automated check-in is superb as is the very efficient check-out".
Thanks to hetras, the Glasgow hotel more than meets the expectations of a technology savvy target group that is used to being able to rapidly reserve rooms online and pay for them in much the same way. "Naturally our most preferred customer is one who books online directly with us," reports Rob Paterson, Commerical Director of Village Hotels, and adds: "Fortunately Village Brand has a strong following in the UK."
The Channel Manager, which controls the online booking portals (OTAs), and the kiosk system for the self-check-in and -out system have all been implemented by hetras. In future, booking and check-in are actually to become even simpler still thanks to a mobile app developed by hetras.
More sales through Customer Relationship Management
"Today a fifth of the total business is coming from online travel agents. We see this as an opportunity to expand the reach of our brand to introduce new customers", further explains Rob Paterson. "We are confident in our service levels coupled with a strong CRM/Sales strategy designed to drive repeat, direct custom."
Thanks to a strong interface, hetras makes it quite easy to connect Revinate, a Customer Relationship Management System that is soon going to be added to the Village Hotel system. To date, the system already includes services such as the the Point of Sales System Kappture, the payment system Six and Letshare for conference room bookings. This allows the chain to rapidly and easily access the competencies of a range of different service partners.
Plans for the future: further expansion and direct bookings for events
Investor KSL Capital, which took over Village Hotels only a short while ago, is very much set on expansion: "We are exploring a number of sites in the UK with an intention to grow the network of Hotels and Gyms in the coming years," explains Rob Paterson.
However, that's not the only plan for the future: Village Hotels are just in the process of setting up a new responsive website that will show all revenue sources online – from fitness studio memberships and the management of the 80,000 members up to conference room bookings. "Village is also well known for their famous party nights which we will launch online ticketing for within the new site," describes the Commercial Director the chain’s other projects. No matter what the project, at Village Hotels hetras is always involved.
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