Recently named “Hotel of the Year” by Wyndham Hotel Group, this property is streamlining workforce communications using a digital logbook in the cloud and guests and staff are loving it!
[Alameda, Calif. — October 11, 2016] —When the Super 8 in San Bruno, Calif., was honored with the “Hotel Of The Year” award last month during the Wyndham Hotel Group Global Conference in Las Vegas, owner Prativ Patel attributed his property’s success in part to the outstanding communications between staff and guests. For nearly two years this hotel, located just two miles from the San Francisco International Airport, has been operating with HotelTap, a workforce automation tool that replaces traditional notebooks, paper tickets, sticky notes, internal emails, etc. as a way for hotel staff to communicate with each other and guests quickly and efficiently.
“HotelTap is a digital log book that creates task logs for our staff,” Patel said. “It also performs and tracks maintenance requests, keeps track of lost and found items, and resolves customer complaints using a fun social media network format similar to Twitter. This cloud-based software has really simplified the way we do business and how we serve our guests. Having to manually write down everything that happens during a shift is really archaic and time consuming. Not everyone has that kind of time, especially if we are really busy with check ins. If someone forgot to record a guest request or a maintenance issue, management would not know about it until the guest complained. HotelTap gives us peace of mind in knowing that we are being reactive and proactive in our service delivery 100 percent of the time.”
Here's how it works: Rather than requiring Super 8 San Bruno staff to click through a series of tabs or buttons, HotelTap uses a steady messaging stream of interactive notes and tasks that are relevant to each department and staff member. For example, a front desk agent will log into HotelTap and see only the information or incomplete tasks that he or she needs to address during the shift. Any information relevant to the front desk — or tasks that need performed during the shift — is presented to the agent upon log in. Staff only see the communication stream relevant to their department, while managers and owners have access to all hotel correspondence.
HotelTap contains a comprehensive analytical dashboard that records and tracks guest complaints and provides a snapshot of maintenance and equipment issues and task history relating to them, by category and physical areas of the hotel. The dashboard neatly organizes the property's complaint records so operators can easily pinpoint problem areas. The system offers alerts for tags so that managers and owners can be notified via text messages about particular issues as soon as they are entered in HotelTap.
“The message alerts from HotelTap have really kept me apprised of urgent situations at my hotel,” Patel said. “If I get a text notification that reads #GuestComplaint or #911 or #SoldOutTonight tags, I know that I need to take some type of immediate action. As a hotel owner, all issues are important, and this tool enables me to keep on top of things. I can log into the dashboard from anywhere and see if all maintenance issues for the day have been resolved and make sure that staff are communicating effectively via the system. HotelTap is user-friendly, straight forward, and requires little training to operate. Our staff loves it, and so do I; it was customized to the way I prefer to do business.”
Today, HotelTap has been added to a second property owned by Patel, the Hotel Aura also in San Bruno.
HotelTap is designed to:
- Replace notebooks, paper tickets, internal emails, spreadsheets, text messages and radios
- Be easily accessible from any Wi-Fi device
- Facilitate mobile notifications sent to employees with links for responding directly to issues
- Print task list for employees
- Deliver daily activity reports to keep a paper trail of all communications
- Manage Waitlist, Lost & Found, Group Reservations and other operational tasks
- Enable employees to communicate in their language of choice, including Spanish
- Track and analyze guest complaints and maintenance issues
- Search information with TAGS and words
- Create recurring checklists for shifts, inspections and preventive maintenance
- Attach documents, photos and videos to notes and tasks
- Provide equipment records to save time and make informed expense decisions
- Store unlimited data and notifications
“More and more hoteliers are telling me that HotelTap is the missing link in staff-to-guest communications,” said Sandip Jariwala, HotelTap founder. “Hoteliers using HotelTap say their guests are happy, and it is showing in their customer satisfaction scores. Staff members are happy too; they like having a modern and easy-to-use tool that they can relate to. The social media orientation of HotelTap makes it effortless for them to use. We hope more hotels looking to improve their internal communication turn to HotelTap.”
Schedule a Demo HotelTap is available for one low annual fee, based on a hotel’s size. The system provides 24/7 security, as all property data is securely stored on HotelTap's cloud servers with daily backups. Round-the-clock LIVE technical support also is provided. To schedule a demo of HotelTap, click here. For more information on HotelTap, visit http://www.HotelTap.com or call (844) 381-7221.
