Penny Farthing Hotel Uses Hotelogix to Gain Business Intelligence and Improve Guest Experience

(A case study of Penny Farthing Hotel - part of VISION Hospitality Asset Management Group, UK)

A Quick Look: After the management of the hotel was taken over by VISION Hospitality Asset Management in early 2015, the Penny Farthing Hotel underwent a major reorganzing effort. The property's Yield and Revenue Asset Management team chose Hotelogix to handle the hotel's operations. The Penny Farthing Hotel has benefitted from more transparent reporting capabilities, and the reception team enjoys robust features which help create an excellent guest experience.

About Penny Farthing:

The Penny Farthing Hotel, Lyndhurst, is ideally situated just off the High Street in Lyndhurst village center in the New Forest National Park. Privately owned and run, it strives to offer consistent, unobtrusive personal service to all guests, meeting individual needs as they occur. The hotel has 22 en-suite bedrooms, with some self-catering accommodation within the main hotel building.

Challenges Faced:

Before operations were taken over by Vision Hotel Management in January 2015, the Penny Farthing Hotel used traditional methods to manage reservations using a diary, with the reception team making bookings in pencil they could then easily rub out or change, if required. Managing bookings on third party channels also required significant manual inputs. It was especially difficult to manage bookings during the busy summer months, when the hotel stayed full for six weeks straight. The biggest challenge that the hotel faced was the lack of any sort of data log, so the business lacked prior documentation and analysis on customer metrics and revenue analytics.

From Research to Implementation:

The VISION team spent about three weeks researching various property management systems that provided remote access, was easy to learn and user-friendly, and required no hard cash investment. They came across an article discussing Hotelogix's Freemium plan, and found it to be well-suited to the Penny Farthing Hotel's size and number of rooms. They contacted the Hotelogix UK Market Manager, and the system was then gradually implemented over a six week period. The Penny Farthing team found the online videos to very helpful during the learning process and the General Manager then covered more details with the team on reporting, functionality, forecasting, and harvesting historical data.

Clear Benefits after Using Hotelogix:

• 'The biggest  clear benefit has  been the  transparent management reporting capabilities  now available to them. This feature allows the management team to see how the business is pacing for the future. The General Manager has better visibility on where she can change rates and improve the hotel's strategy to benefit the business, such as when they should be selling more on Expedia.com and Booking.com versus other sources.
• Additionally, the reception team is pleased to have a solid Front Desk system in place with robust features that help better serve guests. Using a Cloud-based PMS as opposed to pen and paper has freed up considerable time between staff members and guests, and the staff feels much more confident in their ability to provide excellent customer service with more time for face-to-face interaction. An example of this is streamlined and standardized invoicing offered by the system, which has been greatly appreciated by the guests.
• The staff is able to keep data logs and track the customer journey in a visible manner.
• The ability to access the system remotely has helped the asset manager better understand the business mix and emerging guest patterns with the General Manager.
• The Penny Farthing Hotel has also been very pleased with the immediate follow up from the Hotelogix support staff whenever assistance is needed.

“Hotelogix has helped us get a clearer understanding of how to better target repeat business as well as new customers.”

-Mustafa Gheewala, Yield and Revenue Asset Manager
Vision Hospitality Asset Management