NEW YORK—July 13, 2017—The Whitby Hotel, an upper midtown Manhattan property with 86 individually designed bedrooms and suites, is adding value and efficiencies to multiple departments thanks to Web-based GoConcierge, a complete hotel operations solution. The next generation concierge software is utilized by team members in concierge, events and housekeeping and is produced by Los Angeles-based GoConcierge. “It is saving so much time while increasing guest satisfaction,” says Todd Hunt, Head Concierge. The new version of GoConcierge that Hunt and his team members are using offers the ability to create guest profiles and add guest preferences. “To be able to better remember guests on a very personal level, it means a lot,” Hunt says. “As a hotel, you need to make memories. The guest profile is making a huge difference.” All About Enhancing the Guest Experience “Our mission from the beginning has been to make it easier for concierge and other departments to do their jobs better and faster—all while enhancing the guest experience,” says Adam Isrow, Executive Vice President, GoConcierge.net. “Guests are benefiting from the way The Whitby Hotel has embraced the guest profile portion of the GoConcierge application. In doing so, the team can further personalize the guest experience and create more lasting memories.”
The Whitby Hotel opened with GoConcierge in February. Hunt says it was first the concierge team that used it, followed by events, and then housekeeping. Primarily, the concierge application is used for task tracking, whether it be a restaurant reservation, a lost and found item logged by housekeeping, amenity, or incoming package. Using GoConcierge’s Guest Task Calendar, a hotel associate can log and track guest and other requests and tasks quickly and easily. With just a few clicks, these can be entered and located. The calendar is color coded, which makes it easy to highlight open, pending and closed tasks. “Our team also really likes the new message center functionality and how we can easily see all correspondence sent to and received by the guests,” Hunt says. “To be able to log packages in such detail is incredible,” Hunt adds. “We easily manage packages now and our team and those who have been provided access can quickly respond to a guest inquiry.” Going Places Made Easy with Google If a guest has a question about an area restaurant or attraction, a quick visit to GoConcierge’s database, powered in part by Google Places, provides the answer. “It pulls from Google very quickly,” Hunt says. “The accuracy of the locations is important. We are able to print out, e-mail or text directions so much easier. Increasingly, guests are looking for walking-direction maps and we are able to deliver.” A transportation report generated from GoConcierge each morning helps the doorman know what forms of transportation will be needed and when. A packaging report provides details on incoming and outgoing packages. The system knows who handled a package and when. “GoConcierge provides accountability,” Hunt says. GoConcierge’s text messaging option in the Calendar is a feature that is used frequently. One can send instant messages to the recipient’s cell phone. When the recipient responds to the text message, it automatically appears in the Calendar as a flashing message to alert the concierge so the request can be handled quickly. A message center in GoConcierge tracks all e-mail/text correspondence with guests. Hunt says 50 to 75 percent of the time he texts with in-house guests. “That has been an interesting change in the last few years,” he says. Many Reasons for Reminders Flashing reminders also alert users about other tasks needing accomplished. “We have a tremendous amount of reminders—to light candles at 5:30, for example, or reminders for the packages we deal with,” Hunt says. The reminders help ensure that no task is missed or left undone. GoConcierge, which has been utilized at other Firmdale Hotels, is user-friendly and easy to learn, Hunt says. “By the end of the training day, our new team members are pretty good with it,” he says. And, when there is a question about the software, response is fast. “Adam and his team have focused on the functionality we need most with the software,” Hunt says. “Just a few months into their time using GoConcierge, Todd and his team are continuing to learn more and more ways to utilize GoConcierge to make tasks easier to manage, personalize the guest experience, and ultimately increase guest satisfaction,” Isrow says. “What GoConcierge is really about is making it easier to spend more time and attention on guests.”
