Mobile working and increased business efficiency for holiday-rental owners
Briars Cottage is a gorgeous 2 Bedroom Cottage, frequented by couples seeking a romantic weekend, or a mid-week escape.
Duncan and Di have owned the property since May 2013 and pride themselves on ensuring their guests have an enjoyable experience during their stay.
When staying at Briars Cottage guests may just find a thoughtful box of chocolates, wine or even a small welcome pack complimentary of Duncan and Di.
Located between spa town Daylesford and resort town Hepburn Springs, Briars Cottage is the complete spot to get away from the daily grind, celebrate an anniversary or special birthday, get pampered, or even just relax.
It has given us the ability to spread our tentacles. It has helped us broaden what we know… or knew!
The Challenge
When Duncan and Di purchased the cottage back in May 2013, it was their first time being accommodation providers.
Being new to the hospitality industry, Duncan knew that they needed to focus on maximising their exposure. However, both Duncan and Di were working full time.
They quickly realised that they needed a system to help them spread the word about their cottage, while minimising their daily operational tasks.
Duncan immediately started to look for a system that would manage the administrative workload ahead of them, while connecting them to as many online distribution channels as possible.,
The Solution
Before Little Hotelier, Duncan and Di trialled another system and found a list of issues. The system simply did not meet their online distribution needs.
Duncan says he then set his son (whom works in IT) with the task to find a suitable system that would:
• Manage and automate their online bookings
• Provide a booking engine
• Be of low maintenance
• Be something they could “set and forget”
Along with the assistance of a web developer friend, Duncan and Di’s son came back with some potential solutions with Little Hotelier being amongst the top of list.
Duncan then began to do his own research on these potential systems and found Little Hotelier ticked all the boxes. Being in IT himself, he was already very familiar with cloud based software solutions and decided to give SiteMinder a call to enquire further about Little Hotelier.,
The Results
Little Hotelier integrates with over 200 online distribution channels, freeing Duncan and Di from the administrative task of updating their inventory across all of them.
“We don’t have to worry about updating reservations from our OTAs manually. Little Hotelier talks to all our Channels.”
Duncan and Di are also able to gain a clear overview of their business:
“Little Hotelier is my booking engine but also my single source of truth. I couldn’t function without it.”
With Little Hotelier, Duncan and Di have enjoyed having the ability to access their account anywhere at any time. In fact, Duncan was able to take care of business whilst holidaying in Singapore for 2 weeks last year:
“Little Hotelier allowed us to run the whole business in another country, with just an iPad and a mobile phone…”
When in need of assistance or advice, Duncan and Di enjoy the customer service they receive:
“We have been using Little Hotelier since we opened up for business. From the beginning both Di and I have found the Little Hotelier team to be very responsive and accommodating. I get the feeling that I am the only customer.”
Duncan looks forward to liaising with the Little Hotelier Team for many years to come:
“As we’ve grown, the Little Hotelier team has always been there to support us. It just feels like our success, was your success.”
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