"Direct Guest Engagement Essential To Capture Travel Demand" Says VP At Ruby Hotels

With the US fully reopened and Europe steadily easing restrictions, Hotel bookings continue to grow significantly and have exceeded 2019 values, according to our industry research conducted in May 2021. 

In one of our recent Hotelier PULSE Live Thinktanks, we had the opportunity to catch up with Daniella Boeken, Group Vice President Commercial & Member of the Executive Board at Ruby Hotels in Germany. Here, she shared what her business is doing to ensure they effectively capture the demand and recover strongly in the upturn.

What are your expectations for the summer and do you still think there may be a chance that international travel will resume this year?

Based on last year’s performance, our outlook for summer 2021 is extremely positive. Consumer demand is here, no doubt about it. However, we must continue to wait and see how the vaccination rollout continues to develop across Europe and what the impact will be on international travel.

We hope that quickened vaccination pace in Germany will increase the industry’s chance to fully reopen and capture the demand in 2021. But we must also remain realistic, and acknowledge that international travel will probably not reopen fully until 2022.

How is your hotel strengthening its position for the pent-up travel demand?

At Ruby Hotels, we offer luxury at affordable prices. Process automation enables us to deliver this because it ensures efficiency and lowers the cost of time spent on administrative tasks. Automation and digitization have always been key focus points for us. During the low period of commercial activity, however, we took the opportunity to undergo a full tech stack review and revamp to really strengthen our position for the upturn and beyond.

As such, we have completely upgraded our PMS to automate the guest journey as much as possible, handling all payments and check-ins automatically and prior to the guest's arrival. Our hotel reception now doubles up as the bar, and hosts have more time to focus on delivering a positive guest experience rather than carrying out administrative tasks.

In 2020, we also took the time to thoroughly review and revamp our hotel websites. Particularly to respond to the rise of mobile bookings. We also continue to focus strongly on delivering contactless experiences. Last year we introduced 100% cashless payments across all our hotels - including the vending machines.

We have been engaging directly with guests in preparation for when restrictions are lifted, collaborating with guests for feedback on future events we have planned, and requesting reviews to social proof our brand. We’ve also ramped up guest messaging and pre-arrival emails, so our guests can always remember us and look forward to visiting our hotels.

With international travel on hold, for now, we currently shape our offers around the local market, delivering staycations and working with local businesses to deliver special services. However, we are still looking at the signals from across the globe, all while actively using this time to test new strategies, offers, distribution channels, and rates. I truly believe this will better enable us to capture the demand that’s moving closer and closer to our doorstep.

How is your hotel experiencing the steady recovery of hotel bookings?

Ruby Hotels predominantly represents City Center properties. So as you can imagine, bookings plummeted severely in March 2020, and we experienced cancellation after cancellation. In fact, we had as many nights canceled in one month as we did for the year 2019. After a reasonable summer last year, we also suffered during the second winter lockdown. However, bookings have been steadily growing since January 2021, and in April 2021 are currently around 2,000% up from the same period in 2020.

Looking back on last year, the industry saw tremendous demand over the summer. This indicates hotels have the potential for quick recovery in summer 2021, provided that all restrictions are lifted and borders remain open for travel. We are currently focused on ensuring everything is in place to capture the returning demand this year - this time with the long-term solution of a vaccine.

About Daniella Boeken, Group Vice President of Commercial at Ruby Hotels

Daniella Boeken is the Group Vice President Commercial and Member of the Executive Board at Ruby GmbH. In her role, Daniella is responsible for the strategic direction of Ruby’s commercial departments, including Sales; Marketing; Revenue Management; Reservations and Workspaces.

Born in the Netherlands, Daniella has been active in the international hospitality industry for 15+ years, in New Zealand; China; Hong Kong and Germany. Daniella studied international hospitality management at the Hotel School The Hague and has worked professionally for global hotel chains such as IHG and Marriott in the areas Rooms Division; F&B​; Sales and Revenue Management. Daniella developed a track record as a commercial leader, developing structures, processes, and synergies between different teams, in order to grow revenues while increasing efficiency. Prior to her current role, Daniella was active at the HR Group, where she built up the commercial departments as Commercial Vice President. Her hotel portfolio included 35+ hotels with brands from various franchise partners including Hyatt; Accor; Dorint; Wyndham and Deutsche Hospitality.

With Daniella's diverse, international experience and expertise in the commercial hospitality industry, she strengthens Ruby’s promising expansion vision. Opening four hotels this year in Germany and Switzerland, Ruby will operate 12 hotels and 3 workspaces by the end of 2021 and has an additional 15 hotels in the pipeline, in Europe, the UK and Asia.