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A high-end luxury estate in New Zealand expands their online reach with Little Hotelier’s all-in-one business solution
Greenmantle Estate is a high-end luxury estate on the Kapiti Coast in New Zealand. This spacious two-storey lodge boasts 6 suites and several function rooms, and is set amid established gardens which have been lovingly tended for generations.
Guests celebrating special occasions such as weddings, anniversaries and birthdays enjoy both the luxurious surroundings and the special touches provided by the hosts, one of which is Ralph Green.
“As a host, I greet guests when they arrive. I’m standing there smiling and being pleasant to them, making sure that everything is ready for them.”
In addition to being a host, Ralph is the Director of Operations at Greenmantle Estate.
“Part of my role is to look into how we can improve everything we do – because as a lodge, we need to make sure that everything is extremely smooth and impressive for guests and the travel trade. So I make sure everything beyond the guest experience works, and part of it is the technology infrastructure, including reservations.”
Little Hotelier has absolutely saved us money and grey hair. The service has always been excellent, the pricing is fair, and so I haven’t looked at anything else because I’m perfectly satisfied.
The Challenge
Unfortunately, Ralph felt that Greenmantle Estate’s reservation process was inefficient.
“The way we took bookings was too slow because we were operating manually. Every booking had to processed individually, so invoicing was a pain, and there was the risk of double booking because people couldn’t know what was and wasn’t available.”
Greenmantle Estate refrained from connecting to any third party distribution sites because they didn’t want to risk double bookings. Ralph knew that this wasn’t the way to go if he wanted to grow the business.
“The fact that we weren’t connected to any online travel agencies (OTAs) because we couldn’t do channels meant that we couldn’t have advanced – we needed a solution to get any kind of scale or sanity.”
Ralph concluded that some kind of software was necessary in order to help take Greenmantle Estate to the next level.
“If we hadn’t done anything about it, we wouldn’t have been able to progress. We had to pick something. There isn’t a choice because you can’t run a very tiny operation without having a hotel room reservation system in place.”,
The Solution
Ralph began to search for the best solution for Greenmantle Estate.
“We needed something
- That would allow us to sell through online channels;
- That would be ‘in the cloud’ so that as operators, we can access reservations from anywhere in the world, because we’re not in one single place all of the time; and,
- Affordable.”
Ralph asked a few luxury lodges what they were using, and Little Hotelier’s name came up. After taking a closer look, he was convinced that it was the best tool to help Greenmantle Estate scale as a business.
Ralph found that implementing Little Hotelier was simple to do.
“I’m not from this world as a reservations person so the support was excellent during the setup and all the way through. The training I received was very good.”,
The Results
With Little Hotelier, Greenmantle Estate is now able to connect to online channels.
“Little Hotelier has been very helpful – we’ve avoided headaches and overbookings because guests can see directly what’s available. It’s certainly cost-justified all the way – it pays for itself easily just by having the channel management functionality.”
Combined with Greenmantle Estate’s online marketing efforts, Little Hotelier was the last piece of the puzzle to increase online bookings.
“We have a strong internet presence from a marketing perspective, so we attract a lot of people to our website, but the fact that we can complete it by allowing guests to make a booking is fundamental, because they’d rather do it online.”
Ralph also enjoys the fact that Little Hotelier allows him to manage his bookings from anywhere, as long as he has an internet connection.
“We access Little Hotelier via computer because we’re not always on site. Without that remote access, we wouldn’t be able to function.”
Ralph feels that Little Hotelier has saved Greenmantle Estate time and money.
“I’ve been able to take the time Little Hotelier has saved me, and reinvest it in improving and enhancing our operations.”
He is so happy with Little Hotelier that he recommends it to other small accommodation providers.
“I have been willingly recommending Little Hotelier to other small accommodation providers because I think it’s effective.”
Greenmantle Estate runs much more efficiently and profitably with Little Hotelier in place, and Ralph is not looking back.
“Little Hotelier has absolutely saved us money and grey hair. The service has always been excellent, the pricing is fair, and so I haven’t looked at anything else because I’m perfectly satisfied.”
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