Rezcontrol PMS works with Brakspear on its “Honeycomb Houses” portfolio, while SiteMinder manages their distribution, ensuring visibility and optimized pricing across multiple channels. Since joining forces, the Honeycomb houses have gone from strength to strength.

Brakspear operates a large portfolio of British pubs, including a group of ten ‘Honeycomb Houses’, which together represent around 140 rooms across seven of these properties – three remain standalone pubs or restaurants. Each property is unique, often located in listed or historic buildings, brimming with character and charm under the ‘our home is your home’ philosophy. Although each establishment maintains an independent look and feel, they are run with a consistent structure, particularly when it comes to their menus and overall approach to hospitality, creating consistency for the brand, which is now equal to its operational systems and functions.

Brakspear aimed to streamline revenue management operations and optimize reservations, entrusting the task to Sid Kostromin, Room support for Honeycomb Houses in Brakspear.

“We knew we needed to move to the cloud for greater efficiency, as well as to allow Rezcontrol and SiteMinder to integrate seamlessly. »

Rates and distribution were also managed manually, so rate setting was not optimized and channel choices could be hit or miss. The decision to adopt Rezcontrol and SiteMinder was therefore driven by the need to modernize and migrate to the cloud, to fully integrate them and thus better manage room availability, pricing and distribution.

A revolutionary integration

“With Rezcontrol and SiteMinder, Brakspear now has centralized access to all key platforms, enabling smoother management and reducing the complexity of multiple connections – it’s so much simpler and more reliable. »

Sid explains: “The combination of Rezcontrol and SiteMinder has created a single, centralized pricing and reservations management center. The main benefit of this upgrade was the ability for systems to communicate through a single, centralized hub, eliminating the need to contact each solution provider individually, saving considerable time.

Sid confidently says that the combined solution of Rezcontrol and SiteMinder has significantly improved Brakspear’s efficiency and tasks that once took hours are now completed in minutes thanks to automation. “For example, creating a promo code for a wedding used to be a lengthy manual process, but now it only takes me 30 seconds,” Sid said. “Automation has reduced administrative burden, allowing us and the team to focus on higher-level tasks, such as strategic planning and customer service. I also do a monthly review and take care of any exception reports – much of it runs automatically! » Sid also notes the quality of support they receive. “The onboarding has been exceptionally smooth and the support team, if I need it, is excellent.”

Maximize revenue through dynamic pricing and transparent distribution

“Dynamic pricing means rooms are always sold at the best possible rates. »

SiteMinder provides detailed information and reporting capabilities that have been essential to Brakespears’ strategy. The SiteMinder platform has helped ensure that rooms are sold at the best possible rates through dynamic pricing and that availability is always up to date across all channels. Even though they continue to rely on OTAs like Booking.com, the system has improved the overall control and efficiency of managing these relationships. “Managing distribution is much more efficient. Availability and pricing are automatically updated across all channels, avoiding double bookings or gaps between platforms. Sid explains.

Embracing innovation with ease

“Through training and support, staff now realize how much easier it is to work with smart, user-friendly technology. »

Change always involves a certain level of complexity and resistance – with upgrading to Rezcontrol and integrating with SiteMinder, this is no exception. Honeycomb Houses do not have dedicated receptionists. It was therefore imperative that Sid could ensure a seamless off-site booking process to alleviate pressure on the on-site team. “We encountered some resistance at first,” Sid said, “especially from staff who were unfamiliar with technology in general! However, a cornerstone of my role is providing on-site training and practical support, particularly during the transition, which has helped ease any concerns. Now it’s totally integrated, they rarely have to call me! Staff quickly became more confident, also realizing how the new systems reduced their workload while improving accuracy, and allowed them to spend more time with their customers.

Sid explains: “The elimination of manual processes and the efficiency of systems like Rezcontrol and SiteMinder allow me to work more efficiently, freeing up time for other important tasks. In today’s market, adopting automated technology is imperative, and we’ve finally found the combination that works for us. The benefits of these modern systems are evident in our daily operations.

Reach new milestones of success

So, can Brakspear see quantifiable results from implementing Rezcontrol and SiteMinder? Using the solution combined with SiteMinder and Rezcontrol has undoubtedly improved productivity and reduced operational costs for Brakspear.

“The return on investment is clear: without the new technology, we would not sell rooms as efficiently or achieve the occupancy levels we are seeing, even though we have increased our productivity and reduced our operational costs. »

Sid didn’t hesitate when asked what advice he would offer to his fellow hoteliers looking to achieve similar results: “I highly recommend that all hoteliers invest in a property management system (PMS) and reliable distribution platform. After working separately with Rezcontrol and SiteMinder for many years, I consider them to be the best solutions on the market. In today’s industry, manual management of reservations is no longer feasible. The integration of these two constantly innovating products has brought significant improvements to our operations at Brakspear, streamlining tasks and ensuring business processes run smoothly. We live in an automated world, so automated hotel technology is essential.

Sid Kostromin
Room support | Honeycomb houses | Brake Lance

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