Grove City Motel

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Grove City Motel is a friendly, old Florida style motel in sunny Englewood, Florida.

The property consists of eight units and one cottage on good sized grounds, which also include a swimming pool.

Frequent guests are usually made up of eager fisherman looking to take advantage of the prospects the local area affords.

Dan Peterson and his wife came on board in early 2016 to help manage the day-to-day demands of the motel.

“A typical day would start out with me opening up the office. Doing whatever paperwork and processing required and then working on the pool and grounds. My wife is in charge of rooms and laundry. Of course we work together depending on the needs for the day,” says Dan.

The Challenge

Dan and his wife quickly found out it simply wasn’t efficient to maintain a quality motel while also processing bookings and reservations manually.

“Since we did everything with pen and paper it was easy to miss a step. As for booking, we wanted to fill the room that would be empty during the week in the off season.”

Keeping the status quo would mean only one thing, according to Dan. “Lower income and having to deal with walk-ins.”

The Solution

Dan decided to google hotel management systems and knew exactly what he was looking for.

“We needed something that my wife and the owners could use without needing a long training period. A platform that could easily be used when we’re away from the property (I am a bit technically challenged!) on a smartphone or tablet. I can’t believe how much I can do on my phone.”

Thanks to the great support he received, Dan found it very easy to settle on Little Hotelier in the end: To be honest it was because Peter Math was so easy to work with.

Grove City Motel soon found itself with a valuable new team member.

“Little hotelier is like having 24 hours of office staff for $119 a month.” Yet Dan adds Little Hotelier is so easy to operate; “…a child could do it.”

The Results

Life soon became a whole lot easier for Dan and his wife.

“My wife and I simply entered all of our existing reservations and started using the system. We kept a written record of business for a week and then felt comfortable just using Little Hotelier to keep track of things after that. I like the ease of looking at the calendar to check availability and daily activity. I like the reports button to keep track of income and statistics. It is so great to be able to rattle off numbers to my boss at the touch of a key.”

Importantly, bookings began to prosper at Grove City Motel thanks to Little Hotelier’s system that updates even when Dan was not there.

“The first month we used the front office manager. The second month we added the OTAs. Two days before the end of the second month I had to have major surgery on my foot. For the past month I have run the office from my bed. July is traditionally one of our slowest months yet we finished the month with 87.6 % occupancy.”

This could be a result of Little Hotelier’s ability to connect the motel with a greater number of OTAs and a broader customer base.

I still get to take my own reservations and decide which rooms I release to them. The best thing is in just a few seconds I can run last minute specials to fill empty rooms.

All of this has culminated in an increase in revenue for the property and will allow Dan to upkeep the premises better.

“I will be spending more time on landscaping and remodeling as soon as I get back on my feet. For now the only reason we have not had to hire a full time employee to make up for my recuperation period is due to Little Hotelier and the unbelievable amount of outside work my wife has taken on.”

So would Grove City Motel recommend Little Hotelier to other small businesses?

“Absolutely.”

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