Buyer Success Story: SeaCrest Oceanfront Lodge
Perched excessive atop a bluff overlooking the Central California coast is the SeaCrest Oceanfront Lodge. Celebrating its sixtieth anniversary this yr, SeaCrest is positioned alongside 5 acres of Pismo Seaside sands and is well-known for its relaxed and pleasant beachside environment.
In February of 2022, SeaCreast determined to strive ROOMDEX Automated Upselling. Initially they cautious about altering their guide upselling procedures and skeptical that an automatic resolution would not trigger operational issues.
Happily, the choice has paid off. Since activating ROOMDEX, their lodge upsell income has grown month over month. We just lately caught up with Jed Bickle, Normal Supervisor and Heidi Kamas, Assistant Normal Supervisor to search out out precisely how the ROOMDEX upsell system is performing, do they nonetheless have operational considerations, and what would they are saying to different hotelier who is likely to be not sure about attempting automated upsell software program.
When or how did your crew first come throughout ROOMDEX? What was your response if you first noticed and heard about it?
Jed: I heard about it via somebody who had beforehand labored for our PMS firm. He reached out to me immediately and stated “Hey Jed, I’ve received this nice income administration product, I believe you’d actually, actually prefer it. I believe it will work nice to your property in your market and if you’d like, I am going to allow you to strive it totally free for a month.” I believed, “oh, free income?” and since I actually belief this man, so we gave a shot.
Previous to ROOMDEX, how did you deal with upselling?
Jed: We had an e-mail advertising firm that does our e-mail surveys and stuff. They’d an possibility the place we may ship out emails at predetermined intervals, providing potential upgrades – however they did not hook up with our PMS. It was actually simply easy advertising.
Visitors would get an e-mail saying, “Would you like an improve?… however the entrance desk goes to have to substantiate that that improve’s even accessible.” So, in the event that they clicked on it and we might obtain a response e-mail. However we’re all the time so busy, so we by no means actually received the e-mail in “actual time.” As soon as somebody had the time, they might undergo the emails after which they must see if the improve is likely to be accessible. Then, they must transfer the room and cost the improve or put a observe for someone later to cost the improve. It was a little bit of a laborious course of, and in instances the place we’re actually busy, the improve might have been accessible when the friends requested it the night time earlier than, however by the point we received to it, it is now not accessible – and now you will have disenchanted them.
Did you’re feeling restricted with that upsell course of?
Jed: As I discussed, the massive limitation was taking the time to see if we’d have the provision to grant their request. However the different problem in counting on a manually intensive upsell program is solely the labor problem. Sadly, you do get plenty of turnover on this enterprise and when you will have new individuals, it’s a must to practice them – how you can promote an upsell on the desk (and to even keep in mind to do it!). Plus there’s the e-mail advertising side, how you can test the e-mail, how you can decide on granting requests and so on. So, sure, coaching and turnover gradual the system down significantly.
With Automated Upselling in place, what influence have you ever seen in your workers’s workload?
Heidi: We’re simply so used to it. It does all of the upselling by itself. There’s actually nothing we have to do. We sometimes test the notes to observe the exercise, however now all the things is so automated that we form of neglect about it!
Beforehand we have been continuously checking the e-mail to verify we’re answering the upgrades, ensuring we get in touch with the friends to allow them to know if it is accessible nonetheless or not, how a lot the worth is, ensuring the cost truly will get added. However with ROOMDEX it does all that routinely – it is very nice. I do must say when it was first introduced to me, I used to be freaked out. I did not need to quit that management, each when it comes to trusting it to do it proper but in addition the work side.
Many lodges are very ingrained of their methods, and when new software program is launched, there’s a actual worry there about trusting the brand new system. How did you take care of that?
Heidi: At first everybody was freaked out pondering it is was going to trigger overbooking or it is was going to mess issues up within the system. Particularly, throughout the summer season, that is one of many seasons that made everybody panic a bit of pondering it was going to trigger over bookings, but it surely would not. The system is simply so good that we have not had any points with it in any respect. Everyone loves it.
Jed: I additionally keep in mind when it being introduced, the Government Housekeeper was fully towards turning on early check-ins and late checkouts. They have been actually scared that we weren’t going to have the ability to honor or meet these kind of requests. So, we very slowly turned that characteristic on – which is one other good factor about ROOMDEX is that you may introduce it step by step. We shortly realized there have been no points the place we could not accommodate an early check-in and late check-out. Now the housekeeping aspect of the home could be very snug with it.
One other good thing about the ROOMDEX “set and neglect it” characteristic is we now can have totally different prices for various upgrades. After we have been doing it manually, we actually solely had one value. We by no means actually thought, “Effectively, if there’s extra demand, we’d even have the ability to get a bit of bit extra out of that improve.” There have been instances the place we weren’t as busy and we needed to make the worth extra interesting however we have been caught with simply that one set value that went out on our e-mail communications. With ROOMDEX, we may value primarily based on demand, and we shortly began getting upsells for twice as a lot as we’d usually get. It was, actually, wonderful. One that actually stood out to us was an early arrival, I believe it was like a 12 o’clock arrival and so they paid $150. And we checked out it and we stated, “Wow, someone is prepared to pay $150 to come back test in at 12.” Our minds have been blown.
You are also promoting visitor providers via ROOMDEX. Are you able to inform me particularly what you might be promoting?
Heidi: We’re promoting a bit of lavender reward field {that a} native farm places collectively. It contains objects like a lavender spray and a lotion. Initially, we have been promoting that via the entrance desk, and we barely bought any of these little packages. Now with ROOMDEX we’re promoting these so incessantly, we have already positioned one other order with that little farm – good for them and good for us, and good for the visitor! One other factor that is actually well-liked are cheese plates. These we’re continuously promoting out. We will hardly sustain with the demand. It has been a prime vendor.
What do you suppose you might be including extra ancillary visitor income via this method? What’s it about ROOMDEX that makes individuals need to buy extra?
Jed:
I believe it is as a result of it is very easy on the visitor aspect. The best way by which upsells are introduced to them are actually easy – clear. With the previous system, the way in which improve pricing was proven to the friends was not clear, and we had instances the place a visitor would present up on the entrance desk and never notice that there was a cost for the upsell. They’d clicked that they needed it after which they’d get right here and say, “Oh, I did not notice there was an upsell cost,” With ROOMDEX that by no means has occurred. It has actually helped us meet visitor expectations.
Let’s discuss upsell efficiency basically. How has your lodge upsell program efficiency modified?
Jed:
Oh, it is undoubtedly improved. The common room improve is double what we have been getting earlier than. Pre- ROOMDEX upgrades got here in someplace round $35. Now we’re getting $70 on these upgrades. It has been fairly spectacular. However, not solely do you get all that but it surely additionally takes a few of the operational challenges away. So, you are getting the extra income when you’re additionally making it simpler in your entrance desk and your crew. It is actually a win-win.
After we’re in our summer season season, our occupancy for the month might be 93%. The chance to improve is smaller however we make up for it within the early arrival and the late checkout income, as a result of even in extremely compressed instances as that also works very, very nicely.
However even when occupancy is excessive, the opposite a part of this upselling success has been extra income from higher balancing the home – which is not very easy to see within the pure upsell numbers. For instance, after we are in a position to improve friends to premium rooms a number of days previous to arrival, we release these decrease priced rooms for reservations nearer to arrival – which, in fact, due to compression, are getting the next value than in the event that they have been bought within the weeks earlier than. So, I believe that delta we see on bought rooms that different friends have been upsold out of can actually be attributed to ROOMDEX upselling too.
Now that you have had this expertise, what would you say to business colleagues or hoteliers who is likely to be nervous or not sure about attempting an upsell automation software program?
Jed:
Primary, it really works. From my very own private expertise, it really works extraordinarily nicely. After which I believe the second factor is, the free month trial. That is what received me! After we talked about what it will take to arrange our property administration system interfaces, the setup was – I imply, I do not suppose we needed to do a lot of something. ROOMDEX made it very easy. We received to strive it for a month totally free and straight away it began working. If that is nonetheless an possibility, I might say “strive it for a month totally free – and in case you do not prefer it, you do not have to pay something, they flip it off and, you realize, there you go.”
And whereas it’s a very a lot “set it and neglect” system, what I actually like about ROOMDEX, is their consumer providers managers. You may attain out and there are individuals there to assist. As soon as we noticed the outcomes and so they have been constantly delivering, we thought “Is there a approach we are able to, tweak some issues and possibly push the restrict a bit of bit extra and actually see the place we are able to go?” We labored with the crew at ROOMDEX who helped us make the modifications and so they stated, “We’ll ship you updates on experiences on the way it’s working”. It is clear they need you to succeed simply as a lot as you need to succeed.
About ROOMDEX, INC
ROOMDEX’s lodge upsell software program, “Improve Optimizer,” automates, monetizes, and finally simplifies the lodge room improve course of by placing the facility of alternative within the lodge visitor’s arms. Automation is the cornerstone of our pioneering lodge optimization platform. ROOMDEX makes use of lodge reservation, visitor knowledge and its proprietary persona and value algorithms to ship personalised digital provides, tremendously enhancing the visitor expertise. The lodge upsell device relieves hoteliers of the labor time required by different upselling options whereas delivering excessive margin income and a considerable ROI.
The corporate was based by Jos Schaap, Pierre Boettner and Denis Bajet, three business veterans (Ex. MICROS-OPERA (now Oracle Hospitality), StayNTouch, Shiji and Nor1) who collectively deliver over 90 years of lodge software program innovation expertise in PMS, integrations, income administration, BI, cellular, self-service and improve optimization software program. Since founding in spring of 2020, ROOMDEX has signed on greater than 90 lodges with 8,500 rooms throughout the U.S., U.Ok. and Europe.
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