A Customer Success Story: Club Quarters Hotels
Club Quarters Hotels has been a well-known hotel brand for over 30 years that caters to the business traveler segment. In more recent times, thanks in part to COVID, their model has pivoted to attract leisure travelers who were visiting their destination cities.
To expand their market share and create more diverse revenue streams, they are focused on re-energizing their operational capabilities by continually investing in hotel automation. ROOMDEX is one such technology that now forms part of this strategy, with Club Quarters Hotels offering ROOMDEX’s upsell platform in all of its 16 properties in the U.S. and U.K.
We recently had the opportunity to speak with Assaf Gal, Vice President of Revenue Management and Distribution at Club Quarters Hotels, who provided some interesting insights on technology’s role in improving service levels, as well as where he sees the hotel-to-guest digital experience evolving in the near future.
How did you first encounter ROOMDEX? What was in place before that?
I heard directly from Jos about ROOMDEX. Jos and I go back – we worked together when he was with StayNTouch, so I have very high confidence in him. So, when he reached out about ROOMDEX, I said, Absolutely! I think this is a potential revenue stream that we currently do not have at Club Quarters.
When it came to upselling, we didn't really have anything in place, primarily because most other technologies had some type of a manual component. I was looking for something that is 100% automated, where there will be no involvement from anybody on our team – especially operations and the revenue team in the setup of an upsell.
My goal for the ops team is to focus on the check-in and check-out process versus the administrative work of setting up an upsell and making sure that the right transaction codes are set up with the right posting codes and posting amounts. I had several conversations with Jos and his team and looked over the product and it really checked off every one of my needs. It felt right to move forward with it for the portfolio.
Everybody in the hotel industry has been talking about the tightening of the labor market. Is labor availability a driver in your technology decisions?
Yes, like most of our industry, we have concerns about the labor market, so we are leveraging technology to help us be more efficient with our staff. But in this case specifically, my opinion is that a front desk agent should be focusing on customer service and on the guest standing in front of them, instead of setting up a room upsell or an early departure fee.
So when I said automation, it was really the entire process - from the purchase to completion. That includes noone on the revenue team, the reservations team or the front desk having to focus on, set up or approve an upsell. So, the short answer to your question is yes - it is labor related, but it's really a functionality of service.
You did a trial with a couple of your hotels and they went well. How did you feel about the performance? Any surprises?
I think it performed as I thought it would for our portfolio, for our type of hotels and for what we offer. I am looking forward to launching at all the hotels as we have added a third component – the early arrival upsell – which I believe will make a big impact on performance.
You see this in a lot of hotels and resorts where you check-in early and they charge you an early arrival fee automatically. So, 1) I think there's demand for this and 2) I believe the consumer is expecting to pay, to arrive and to check-in early or to check out late. The ROOMDEX product allows us to take advantage of it seamlessly, which is terrific.
I also like that ROOMDEX has the ability to reach guests that we can’t – like the OTA customer – unless we did this manually, one guest at a time, reaching out daily to customers. I think this is really provides a number of opportunities for us.
For other hotel customers, we see early arrivals and late departures generating tremendous amounts of revenue. I seems to surprise revenue managers when they see that. Some are used to giving this away for free, so, they're concerned about changing to a fee model. But the truth is, the guest is purchasing peace of mind – something that's guaranteed.
Totally. A hundred percent. I mean, how many times have we all arrived at our destination early because we took an early flight, or we had to leave late because we had a late flight. So, the ability to guarantee an early arrival or to guarantee a late departure in advance – that peace of mind has a real value to it, right? And we're seeing it – it's working.
When you are making decisions for a group of hotels, how do you think that might be different than if you're just making decisions for a single hotel?
We are consistent across the brand when it comes to technology. We have the same property management system, the same revenue management system, the same reservation system and so on.
First of all, from cost perspective, it's more beneficial. That's one. Two, the ability for employees to manage multiple properties, it's a lot simpler if you're using the same system. So, my revenue managers, each manage anywhere from three to five hotels - and so it's obviously significantly more effective and efficient to be using a single system versus multiple systems.
It also gives you the ability to cross between hotels. If somebody goes from one hotel to the next, they don't have to learn new systems. And so it's really seamless. There's plenty of benefits for using the same systems across the brand.
As far as why we select one system versus another, we put together a list of what our needs are, what we need to function properly as a brand, and then we go out there and try to find the right system that gives us everything that we need to accomplish that. We did that with our revenue management system, with the property management system. As we move forward, we're adding more and more new technology. It's an interesting time.
You mentioned you are currently doing early arrival monetization. Are you upselling any guest services?
For hotels that offer a breakfast, we will probably eventually offer a breakfast purchase there.
But what I am really interested in is a new ROOMDEX feature that allows a customer to select a specific room based on room attributes, such as location, away from elevators, high floor, low floor, etc. So, I am really look forward to trying that because I think that has great potential, because I know when I book a room, I'd love to make sure that I'm away from elevators or that I'm higher on higher floors. If I have the ability for a small fee to guarantee that, I would absolutely do that.
You're referring to our new ABS (Attribute-based Selling) which is currently in pilot. For those testing the product, room location attributes are very popular. It's very much like the reaction to an early check-in, where you want to guarantee something. You're willing to pay a little bit more just to guarantee something that you like. We're very excited about it.
Yeah, me too! We all purchase airline tickets and part of the process is selecting your seat, and we're paying extra to select our seat! We all do it, so, why not a hotel room? Select exactly what you want. I think that's terrific.
Okay, to finish up, if you were speaking to a colleague at a trade show who was contemplating upselling platforms, how would you summarize what you know about ROOMDEX?
First of all, great team. ROOMDEX is really easy to work with. And second is the integration. We use Opera Cloud PMS and the set-up was simple. As far as setting up the integration, it was very simple and, it works. It works really well. Feedback from the hotel team is positive because they really have nothing to do. They just had to swipe the guest card. So overall, it's very positive. And, I also see a lot of potential for the future. So as good as it is now, I see a lot of potential to make it even better than it is today.
About ROOMDEX, INC
ROOMDEX is the technology leader in the hotel upselling software space. Its hotel upsell software automates, monetizes and ultimately simplifies the hotel room upgrade process by putting the power of choice in the hotel guest's hands.
ROOMDEX Upsell Automation uses hotel reservation, guest data and its proprietary True AvailabilityTM and Dynamic Pricing algorithms to deliver personalized digital offers, greatly enhancing the guest experience. The hotel upsell tool relieves hoteliers of the labor time required by other upselling solutions while delivering high margin revenue and a substantial ROI.
ROOMDEX is now the exclusive provider of ABS Upselling. Attribute-based selling re-imagines hotel inventory merchandising, delivering a unique and improved guest satisfaction and increased hotel revenue.
ROOMDEX leverages hotel operational and software experience gained by our team members while in leadership roles at companies such as MICROS (now Oracle Hospitality), Nor1, Duetto, StayNTouch and Shiji to develop our innovations in hotel automation, dynamic pricing, operational availability and attribute-based selling. Since founding in spring of 2020, ROOMDEX has signed hundreds of hotels across North America, Europe and Asia Pacific.
Website https://www.roomdex.io
Twitter: @ROOMDEX
Facebook: facebook.com/roomdexinc
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