Holbrook Hotel reaches full potential by using Little Hotelier’s all-in-one solution

Holbrook Hotel was a business born out of deep love for local farming and produce in the Riverina-Murray region of NSW, Australia. Being halfway between Sydney and Melbourne, it’s situated in an area that suits both families seeking a getaway and business travellers looking for comfortable, modern, amenities.

For marketing & events manager Meg Hollins, there was “a strong desire to share the beauty of our area with the world.”

With three locations now in operation and 35 rooms on offer, the business offers modern accommodation and proudly showcases farm-fresh produce in excellent restaurants at each venue.

The other properties include Holbrook Motel, and Woomargama Hotel – a classic country pub venue dating back to 1881.

“We’re especially proud of our largest venue, Holbrook Hotel, which was originally established in 1914. Purchased by a local farming family in 2019, they took great joy in restoring it to its former glory,” Meg said.

“The hotel’s restaurant is a true showcase of our farm-to-table mentality, offering regeneratively farmed beef and lamb, proudly grown within 50km of the Hotel’s doors. Our passion for the region has also led us to form strong connections with other local producers, allowing us to further showcase the best our region has to offer to locals and visitors alike.”

To keep an operation like this running smoothly, an effective property management solution is required. This came in the form of Little Hotelier, and we spoke about how the software has helped the Holbrook Hotel team run the business successfully.

Frustrations with a system that wasn’t delivering

Before Little Hotelier, Holbrook Hotel was managed by a different system. It was one that wasn’t delivering on its promises, according to Meg.

“Our initial property management system was pitched to us as a solution that could ‘do it all’ but it quickly became clear that it was overly complex and time-consuming,” Meg explained.

“We found ourselves spending countless hours trying to navigate the software, and our staff faced the same frustrations, leading to ongoing user errors despite extensive training.”

On top of this, the system also wasn’t adequate for managing online travel agents, and was causing guest experience issues on the direct booking side of things.

“Since implementing Little Hotelier, our staff are happier, our customers more satisfied, and to top it all off we’re SAVING money.”

Enhanced insights, boosted direct bookings, and improved cash flow

Little Hotelier is an all-in-one solution designed specifically for small accommodation properties. This means it has every feature a small hotel needs to succeed.

Some of the most useful features for Holbrook Hotel, proved to be Little Hotelier Insights, the online booking engine, and Little Hotelier Pay. Meg had nothing but praise for all of them.

Insights integrates with the software’s other features to provide key performance reports on bookings and revenue, on top of providing real-time local market data.

“The Booking Performance report is incredible. It allows us to quickly, easily, and clearly assess our performance. Everything we need is right at our fingertips, making it simple to track our progress and make informed decisions to benefit our business.”

The online booking engine enables hoteliers to take direct bookings from their own website and even via metasearch sites like Google Hotel Ads, enabling the business to boost profit and guest communication.

“The booking engine has definitely helped us drive more direct bookings. The customer-facing side is wonderful,” Meg explained.

“Additionally, the Demand-Plus tool is a game-changer, simplifying the complexities of search engine advertising and getting our property noticed. Before implementing Demand-Plus, we were managing all the advertising ourselves, which was time-consuming and challenging. Now, Demand-Plus does the hard work for us, promoting our property on channels like Google Hotel Ads, Trivago, and TripAdvisor, while we enjoy the rewards of increased visibility and direct bookings.”

Little Hotelier Pay helps hoteliers take seamless, secure, payments allowing both guest and host to complete the process quickly and easily.

“Little Hotelier Pay is exceptional. It eliminates the need to manually charge and refund cards through EFTPOS machines,” Meg said.

“Even when taking a phone booking, we can simply send a payment request link, making the process wonderfully simple.”

An efficiency boost that puts a smile on everyone’s face

Thanks to Little Hotelier, a boost in direct bookings was most welcome at Holbrook Hotel. However, there was an even bigger impact delivered in the form of time.

“The biggest wins for us have been a significant reduction in staff training hours and improved staff satisfaction,” Meg said. 

“Additionally, we’ve seen a drastic reduction in errors, such as double bookings or issues with payments not being recorded correctly, which used to occur due to faulty channel connections with OTAs. As a result, our customers are more satisfied with their experience, our staff are happier, and we’re happier.”

One of the big reasons for these time-savings is the channel manager feature. The channel manager offers hoteliers automated, real-time, inventory management. It allows operators to list all of their rooms on every preferred booking channel at the same time without having to worry about double bookings or manual data entry.

“Using the channel manager has saved us a significant amount of time and resources. We’ve also had no issues with bookings not coming through or being recorded incorrectly, Meg said.

“In the past, dealing with errors like double charges due to faulty payment recording was a weekly issue, requiring us to refund customers frequently. With Little Hotelier, payment information is always clear and concise.”

On top of all the great benefits brought by Little Hotelier, is a cherry on top in the shape of a mobile app. Little Hotelier’s mobile app enables hoteliers to manage key tasks anywhere, anytime. There’s no need to be tied to a physical front desk or even be at the property at all.

“We absolutely love the mobile app,” she said. “It has greatly streamlined our operations by allowing our housekeeping team to access it directly from their phones, eliminating the need to return to the office to check the computer.”

“Additionally, our Point of Sale system in the restaurant is iOS-based, so we have Little Hotelier installed on all our tills. This allows our staff to check guests in from anywhere on the property, including the restaurant and bar, making the whole process much more efficient.

Thank you, Meg, for this simply amazing feedback and we wish Holbrook Hotel and all your venues the very best in the future!