Case Study Dart Marina Hotel, Dartmouth, UK

A peaceful hotel, exclusive to residents, on the banks of the River Dart, Dartmouth. Classic and proudly independent, Dart Marina is a stylish, well-equipped hotel with 49 bedrooms, first class facilities including a bar and restaurant and chic styling throughout. A selection of self-catering riverside apartments and one of the best yacht harbours in the west country complete the mix.

Hotel requirements

• The hotel required a cloud-based system to complement their wider strategy of migrating all their systems to the cloud and reduce their reliance on on-site servers.
• They wanted a system that was regularly and automatically updated - they had to wait 18 months for an update on their previous system which then had to be downloaded and individually installed on all the different computers across the hotel with a memory stick!
• The hotel wanted their system to have an open API and seamlessly interface to third party solutions.
• They wanted their system to be future proofed and flexible to adapt to market demands i.e. when the hotel strategy changes and guests expectations evolve.

Paul Downing, Managing Director:

'The software has enabled us to implement our new business model and digitise the guest journey which in turn has enabled us to make considerable cost and time savings across our business. The way the system has been developed and is constantly being improved has been outstanding - we would never have been able to run our business the way we wanted to if we'd stayed with our previous supplier.

The automated, intuitive systems have helped us to cut our operational wage bill by over 35% and help with the staffing challenges that have been impacting our industry - I don't know how we would have got through last summer if we'd been on our old system with the amount of staff that was needed.'

Solutions implemented

• Guestline Rezlynx PMS (including Insights)
• Direct Booking Manager (DBM)
• GuestPay
• GuestStay
• EPoS

Benefits

• Personalised, high end service
  The new software complements their new business model of being residents-only, and providing a more exclusive, higher level of service. The systems facilitate this as the staff can spend more time providing a personal service to their guests than spending unnecessary time with the systems.
• £30k OTA commission savings
  The team now sell their rooms via the main metasearch sites (e.g. Google, TripAdvisor, Trivago, Kayak etc) offering guests up to the minute live rates and availability. They are no longer on any OTAs thereby saving at least £30-40,000 in commission fees per year.
• High online bookings
  They have a high conversion rate and sell rooms on their own website too with Guestline's Direct Booking Manager, again enabling them to save money and drive profitability. Online bookings had previously only accounted for about 20% of bookings (phone bookings were about 80%) - post Covid and with a quick and easy online booking system, the direct channel now account for about 60% of all bookings thereby simplifying operations and saving on staff costs.
• Online check-ins - 'less of a formality more of a welcome'
  80% of their guests now check-in online [with GuestStay] with about 60-70% of guests paying their final balance and checking-out online. This digitised process is smooth and easy to use for guests and reduces the number of staff needed in reception. The process is less administrative so the staff can provide a friendly welcome on arrival, helping them with bags and showing them to rooms rather than getting them to fill out forms!
• Alleviates staff shortages - 45% staff reduction
  The system has significantly helped with recent staff shortages and recruitment challenges as the automated services has enabled the hotel to operate more dynamically, simplifying processes without comprising on service. The ground floor team are now all multi-trained and can cover all the ground floor duties - from serving a guest and making a Cappuccino in the bar to taking a reservation or cancellation and checking a guest in. The whole team find the system intuitive and easy to use - even if they haven't used it for a while.
  By digitising the guest journey, the hotel has been able to deliver this new business model and operate with a reduced level of staffing of 45 from a pre-Covid level of 82.
• Reduced wage bill - saving 150 hours per week
  With the new digitised processes, the hotel has been able to remove their formal reception desk and the traditional shift patterns thereby saving in excess of 150 hours per week in payroll costs.
• Streamlined, online payments
  GuestPay gives guests a streamlined way of paying for their rooms and/or paying a deposit upfront. This not only helps cashflow, but it provides the hotel with the security of two-factor authentication, tokenisation and PCI compliance. Refunding is easy and as it is all done securely online, there is no room for error with keying in numbers or writing down credit card details.
• Smooth implementation and efficient support
  The implementation was simple, sleek and cost effective with a minimal amount of on-site training and minimal disruption to the business. There aren't many things the Support team can't fix instantly on Chat or over the phone and if it's a little more complex a ticket is raised.
• Integrated EPoS
  With Guestline EPoS, the bar and restaurant payments are automatically charged to the guest rooms which was a must for the hotel as they are residents-only - there is no manual cross charging and no room for error.
• Indepth insights and data
  Guestline Insights, the new data visualisation tool, gives management a good indication of their bookings, forecast reports and income. Plus, it is nicely presented - a world away from what they had with their previous system.
• Product innovation and development
  The hotel likes how the systems are flexible and can be adapted to their evolving needs. By helping to pilot some of the latest innovations, the hotel team have enjoyed working with the Guestline Product team who have been in constant contact and very responsive to any suggestions and feedback.

About Guestline

Established 30 years ago, Guestline provides innovative property management, guest engagement and distribution software to the hospitality industry. Founded on cloud technology, Guestline's revenue generating solutions enable independents of all sizes and small hotel groups to achieve maximum occupancy at the most profitable rate.

With offices in the UK, Germany, The Netherlands, Belgium, Ireland and Thailand, Guestline's property management software is currently growing revenues in businesses in 25 countries across five continents. The range of solutions include Guestline PMS, CRS, C&B, Channel Manager, EPoS, IBE, GuestStay and GuestPay. Additionally, Guestline's PMS can be integrated with nearly 200 third-party solutions via an API.

Kate Fuller
Marketing Manager
+44 1743 282300
Guestline

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