Nestled in the vibrant heart of London, Stand Palace, part of L+R Hotels, is a historic landmark that has welcomed travellers since 1909. Moments from landmarks like Trafalgar Square and the lively atmosphere of Covent Garden, this 788-room hotel seamlessly blends modern comforts with traditional British charm. The hotel provides guests with an ideal setting for both leisure and business.
Best Western Premier Boulder Falls Inn in Lebanon, Oregon, is a charming destination designed for relaxation. Featuring 84 comfortable guest rooms and suites, the Inn boasts a peaceful one-acre Japanese garden, alongside an outdoor heated pool, hot tub, a fitness centre, and excellent dining at the 1847 Bar and Grill.
AutoCamp is redefining outdoor hospitality with design-forward accommodations in iconic natural destinations across the U.S. With eight locations — from Yosemite and Zion to the Catskills and Asheville — AutoCamp blends the adventure of camping with the comfort and style of a boutique hotel. In addition to signature Airstreams and modern cabins, the brand has expanded access to the outdoors through a sister brand, Field Station, an indoor hotel-meets-basecamp concept for van lifers and road trippers. Over the past decade, AutoCamp has welcomed tens of thousands of guests and earned praise from Oprah Magazine, Vogue, Bloomberg, Food & Wine, and more.
As part of its partnership with Cendyn, La Chambre du Marais launched Google Performance Max for travel goals (PMTG) campaigns through the Cendyn Digital Marketing Platform (DMP), with the strategic objective of generating high-quality conversions while maximizing return on ad spend (ROAS).
Eau Palm Beach Resort & Spa, a member of Preferred Hotels & Resorts, is a luxury oceanfront property located in Manalapan, Florida. It offers 309 guest rooms and suites, each with a private balcony overlooking either the Atlantic Ocean or lush resort gardens. Spanning seven acres of beachfront property, the resort offers a modern take on Palm Beach luxury, distinct from the more traditional reputation of the area.
Founded by entrepreneur Sheila Johnson, Salamander Collection has a luxury portfolio with many awe-inspiring hotels: the Forbes Triple Five-Star Salamander Middleburg, an equestrian-themed property in the Virginia countryside; Salamander Washington DC, an elegant hotel located along the capital’s vibrant Southwest waterfront; Half Moon, the storied resort in Montego Bay, Jamaica; Aspen Meadows Resort, with its sweeping 40 beautiful acres in Aspen, CO’s west end; Hotel Bennett, a spectacular grand hotel overlooking the city’s historic Marion Square in Charleston, South Carolina; and Innisbrook Resort in the St. Petersburg/Clearwater area, which hosts the PGA TOUR’s Valspar Championship each year on its famed Copperhead Course.
With properties in Amsterdam, Vienna, Copenhagen, and Paris, Zoku is redefining the business hotel experience by offering a unique, home-like environment for long-stay travelers, who typically stay at least 14 nights. Zoku offers a relaxed place to live, co-work, meet, and socialize, making guests feel part of the local scene.
A small vacation rental company in the Northeast with 36 cabins was getting ready to build two large properties, one of which would have an indoor pool, about a mile from a popular ski resort. This expansion was in addition to bringing on a couple of newly built homes they were adding to their management program which would mean 20% of their cabins would have eight bedrooms or more. By the end of 2024, they would own 8% of the properties they managed.
Makarem sought to elevate their digital advertising strategy, with a strong focus on metasearch, to maximize direct bookings and improve ROI. Their key challenges included:
In today’s competitive hospitality industry, visibility and seamless booking experiences are key to driving direct reservations. CHC’s advanced booking system + Frontdesk PMS, is transforming how hotels present their rooms and amenities to potential guests—boosting direct bookings while minimizing reliance on third-party admins and intermediaries.
Leandra, the Guest Experience Manager at STAYERY, faced a growing challenge as the brand expanded its portfolio of service apartments. With the opening of new locations and an influx of guest reviews, managing responses became increasingly complex and time-consuming. Initially, their response rate hovered around 30%, which was insufficient for maintaining a strong online reputation. However, with the implementation of MARA's AI-driven reputation management solution, STAYERY not only streamlined their response process but also elevated their response rate to consistently over 90%. This is their remarkable success story.
The Classik Hotel Collection is a premier owner-managed hotel group with five characterful hotels in top German destinations. With a focus on providing a warm welcome and a memorable stay, they deliver an exceptional guest experience from check-in to check-out – but up until recently, their direct booking journey wasn’t quite so smooth.
Hotels face a constant challenge with the dominance of Online Travel Agencies (OTAs) taking share in every market. And then paying 18-23% of their net revenue back for the privilege of getting these bookings. With just a small investment that is much less than these commissions and shift to a more strategic mindset, share can be shifted back to the hotels where it belongs.
An iconic hotel in the heart of Key West, Florida, partnered with Cogwheel Marketing to revitalize its online presence. Facing limited visibility in organic search, we undertook a comprehensive SEO campaign that would transform the hotel’s digital footprint. Despite initial hurdles, including low keyword rankings and minimal referring domains, our strategy led to a monumental increase in keyword rankings, organic traffic, and domain authority.
Transforming the hospitality landscape, HiJiffy pioneers the integration of advanced conversational AI with its Guest Communications Hub, revolutionising how hotels engage with their guests. This case study illustrates the remarkable impact of HiJiffy’s collaboration with Leonardo Hotels.
This case study explores the journey of a UK hotel group, Kabannas, implementing HiJiffy’s conversational AI across its guest journey. This has led to fantastic results, especially when it comes to automating answering incoming queries and boosting the conversation rate of upselling with Oaky. This publication is based on HiJiffy’s first-party data and insights from Louise Garner, the Commercial Director at Kabannas, who is quoted throughout. Kabannas is subscribed to a Premium plan at HiJiffy and benefits from conversational AI in communications across the guest journey, implementing the chatbot on the webchat on their website, WhatsApp, and email. The Client: Kabannas Kabannas is a group of three hotels in the UK, with a total of 135 rooms, located in London St Pancras, Newcastle, and Liverpool. Formerly operated by the Youth Hostel Association, Kabannas acquired the properties in 2023. The brand stands for providing well-located, quality, flexible accommodation where travellers can rest, recharge, and connect with others. Each hotel offers buzzing social spaces that nurture a community feel and food and beverage services that fuel travellers’ energy. The Challenges To differentiate on the market and mark the arrival of the new brand to the properties, Kabannas aimed to put the guest in charge of their digital journey and interactions with the hotels. They looked for a solution that would allow their guests to chat with them whenever they needed, even outside of the traditional 9 am to 5 pm Reservations Department. “AI is here and changing quickly, resistance is futile, hospitality and other service industries need to get on board and embrace the change, your guests, your customers, your employees expect instant information at their fingertips.” – Louise Garner (LG), Commercial Director at Kabannas In addition to the goals above, the aim was also to keep Reservations staffing to a minimum. It was important that Reception team members could quickly grasp a new AI tool and be able to aid a guest when necessary while prioritising taking care of the guest in front of them. Key pain points Kabannas identified repetitive questions guests would ask daily, such as the check-in time, breakfast cost, closest train station, and so on, as the main pain points to be addressed with an AI solution. All of this information was readily available on the Kabannas website or in reservation confirmation emails, but guests lead busy lives and want to interact and get transactional details instantly. From a broader perspective, Kabannas was looking for a specialised tech solution that would help them to: Enhance guest experienceMaking communication channels, including the website’s webchat, WhatsApp, and email, readily available to engage with (prospective) guests. Automate guest communicationsAnswering common questions to boost bookings and processing in-stay queries regarding amenities and services to have a positive impact on guest satisfaction. Optimise proceduresFurther improving the guest experience and reducing the team’s workload, Kabannas looked to automate procedures, including group bookings, reservation modifications and cancellations, refunds, and more. It also mattered for the brand to work with a solution specifically designed for hospitality and a company that understands the industry and is driven by innovation. The Implementation & Adoption Louise Garner reflects on the adoption process: “An advantage we had was launching a new business with a set tech stack rather than adding HiJiffy into an existing tech stack and team where I imagine you could get some resistance as change can be hard. During our ‘go live’, we held training calls with the three property teams to show them how to use HiJiffy. We followed this up with a Loom training video accessible on Teams Channels for all users. We also created written training resources that all Reception Team members can access.” “A few team members who had worked for the previous owners of the properties with a traditional reservations department were a little resistant and not used to answering pre-arrival questions. This was quickly resolved once they saw how easy HiJiffy is to use. We also asked their feedback on what information we could add to the chatbot to help them. When they sent in ideas, which were subsequently loaded into the system, it was an instant attitude change for some of the team as they felt valued and could see how the ‘tool’ was a great addition to our guest experience.” The Solutions The key applications of HiJiffy’s conversational AI across the entire guest journey at Kabannas properties include: Answering pre-booking FAQsHiJiffy’s conversational AI, specialised in over 200 hospitality-specific topics, instantly replies to incoming queries 24/7 across various channels managed by the brand, including webchat and WhatsApp. “HiJiffy is the ultimate team member! From answering basic guest questions to facilitating high-value group leads and enabling Oaky upgrades, HiJiffy does the job of many and is there 24 hours a day.” – LG Supporting direct bookingsThanks to seamless integration with the Cloudbeds booking engine, conversational AI facilitates bookings on the website and guides users through the booking process. Facilitating group bookingsA special custom flow is triggered for bookings for more than ten guests. It collects all necessary information and passes it on to Group Reservations. “Another key function is how easy setting up chatbot flows is, especially for group enquiries. The leads come in with pre-filled key information, making it easy for Group Reservations to reply promptly after checking availability. In today’s world, a guest enquiring about a group demands a quick response, and HiJiffy allows us to do this.” – LG Improving guest experienceAn automated WhatsApp message reminds incoming guests about the key information on the day of their arrival. After the check-in, a welcome message introduces the chatbot and establishes it as a channel for 24/7 assistance during the stay. In-house communicationsAI provides automated instant replies to guests asking questions about facilities and services. “In-house communication is key. Today’s guests expect to be able to use instant messaging once they are checked in to ask a question or report an issue. HiJiffy facilitates all this. Quick replies from team members reduce the chance of a guest checking out with an unresolved issue and subsequent low rating once they leave.” – LG Increasing revenue from upsellingAfter the booking, the brand sends automated WhatsApp campaigns offering guests personalised upselling options through Oaky, integrated seamlessly with their systems. Guests can easily explore and select additional services to enhance their stay. Not only does this improve guest satisfaction, but it also positively impacts the bottom line. In addition, upsell offers are promoted in the webchat when travellers and guests ask about specific topics, such as breakfast. The Results This summary of the key achievements related to using HiJiffy’s Guest Communications Hub refers directly to the challenges indicated in the earlier section. The results are based on HiJiffy’s data (visible to the client in the dashboards and reports section of the platform), as well as Kabannas’ insights and observations they contributed to this case study. 92% of questions answered automatically by conversational AI From June 2023 to June 2024, the AI chatbot at Kabannas received over 40K conversations and automatically resolved 92% of the queries. The most common questions regarded booking an entire room, group bookings, managing bookings and check-in. “This demonstrates our guests can interact with an AI tool and get the information they need instantly with only very few interactions requiring human interaction.” – LG 71% open rate of WhatsApp campaigns Automated WhatsApp campaigns, including service and upselling messages, get an average 71% open rate at Kabannas. This is just short of double the average performance of hospitality email campaigns for the EMEA region, as stated in the 2024 Hospitality Benchmark Report published by Revfine (36.4%). Getting the message to the guests on their preferred channel positively impacts guest satisfaction – as they feel taken care of by the brand – and the revenue, as illustrated in the next point. 35.7% conversion rate for upselling with Oaky via webchat and WhatsApp campaigns In addition to using Oaky for upselling via email, Kabannas is also using channels automated by HiJiffy to promote offers such as breakfast or towels. In May 2024, upselling deals were presented in the webchat and WhatsApp campaigns over 2.5K times, with 13.5% of guests following the link to learn more. This resulted in a 36% conversion rate, translating to 125 sales via automated channels. For context, the average performance of any hospitality email campaign in EMEA is a 2.9% click-through rate and 0.4% conversion rate. In other words, the synergy between Oaky’s upselling system and HiJiffy’s AI-powered automation leads to 90x higher conversion rates. Testimonials “HiJiffy delivers high levels of automation along our guest journey. HiJiffy allows our guests a simple and effective way to engage with us from the initial research phase to post-booking, pre-arrival, in-house and post-check-out. Over 90% of the time, they instantly get the answer they need – a game changer in the hospitality industry. We can focus our team on face-to-face interactions with our guests, and HiJiffy allows them to confidently step away from the screen and engage with our guests.” - Louise Garner, Commercial Director at Kabannas “We’re excited about how the partnership between Oaky and HiJiffy leverages AI-powered communication solutions for upselling. It enables hoteliers to impress guests by seamlessly promoting relevant offers directly on their favourite messaging platforms. By delivering relevant offers through the right channel, we ensure that guests can enhance their experience directly at the property. This not only boosts guest satisfaction but also increases ancillary revenue for hotels, creating a win-win situation for both guests and hoteliers.” - Clément Dénarié, Chief Revenue Officer at Oaky. “Collaborating with Kabannas, specifically with Louise Garner, has been an outstanding experience. They leverage the latest technology, consistently adopting AI innovations to enhance operations and elevate guest experiences. Kabannas stands out for their proactive and inventive use of our solution, particularly in personalising guest interactions and optimising resource management. Their ability to seamlessly modulate their tech stack ensures they stay at the forefront of the industry, adapting swiftly to new technologies and integrating them effectively. Their enthusiasm for AI and cutting-edge solutions makes them an exemplary partner. We proudly support their journey and look forward to their continued success.” - Elodie Soares, Customer Success Manager at HiJiffy
Crown & Champa Resorts (CCR) is synonymous with unparalleled luxury and hospitality in the Maldives. With a portfolio of exquisite resorts spread across the stunning atolls of this tropical paradise, Crown & Champa Resorts has long been revered for its commitment to providing guests with unforgettable experiences amid breathtaking natural beauty. Each property within the Crown & Champa portfolio is characterized by its unique charm, impeccable service, and dedication to exceeding guest expectations.
Hotel Wailea is Hawaiʻi’s only Relais & Châteaux property and its sole adults-only luxury hotel. Situated 300 feet above the sea with sweeping views of three Hawaiian islands, this lush, tropical enclave was voted #1 hotel in Hawaiʻi by Travel + Leisure readers in the 2022 and 2023 World’s Best Awards. Seventy-two individually designed suites are set among 15 acres of zen-inspired landscaped grounds, with tropical gardens, cascading waterfalls, and winding pathways.
Pacific Hospitality Group (PHG) is a leading force in hotel management and investment. Embracing a strategic long-term vision, PHG focuses on both owning and operating hotels and resorts across the United States, cultivating value for investors and fostering expertise within its management teams. With a diverse portfolio encompassing branded and independent properties, PHG leverages the strengths of legacy brands while fostering innovation through its independent resorts.
With a sleek glass façade offering dramatic views of Puget Sound, Thompson Seattle embodies the beauty of the Emerald City in the heart of downtown. A short walk gets you to Pike Place Market, or you can opt for an off-the-beaten-path gem like the prohibition-style bar Zig Zag Café. The boutique hotel’s 152 luxury rooms and suites ensure you live like a local in modern style.