Mar Hall Hotel
Luxury independent hotel Mar Hall sought a new IT system to address several key challenges. By reducing paperwork and manual processes it aimed to improve responsiveness to customer enquiries, and to maximise bookings and financial performance. Clarity has delivered seamless, broad ranging functionality that enables staff to transform the customer experience and drive sales, with easy to use tools and outstanding reporting.
- Fast, efficient bookings capabilities
- Manual administration massively reduced
- Detailed revenue accountability across the business
- Problem-free implementation & excellent support
- Seamless solution: POS, PMS, events, leisure activities, etc
Client
Mar Hall is an independent five star hotel near Glasgow. The hotel was established in 2004 in a magnificent gothic mansion, and quickly won its premier luxury rating. With 53 bedroom suites, an Aveda Concept spa, 18 hole golf course, restaurant and bar facilities and superb grounds, it is a popular venue for corporate as well as leisure based guests. The newly created Earl of Mar golf course reflects the Mar Hall philosophy of ongoing investment in new, high quality facilities.
Brief
Mar Hall was reliant on a legacy property management system (PMS). Hotel staff were aware of the shortcomings of the IT system, and the appointment of a new Revenue Manager brought these issues into sharper focus.
Weak tracking and reporting capabilities were a major concern, as they hindered Mar Hall's business control. It was difficult for managers to obtain a clear picture of profitability across different operational areas, or to optimise strategy and marketing plans in the absence of this critical information.
Frontline staff found that the system was not user friendly. And the lack of a seamless operational view made it difficult for anyone other than the Reservations department to track rooms and rates. Consequently, out of hours booking enquiries were simply manually noted and referred to the Reservations department when it was next open - wasting staff time, losing the hotel business, and providing a poor service introduction to customers expecting a premier experience.
Solution
Having evaluated several alternative IT solutions, Mar Hall selected the ClarityLive for Hospitality software suite. ClarityLive offered everything the hotel needed, with superior reporting and cost effectiveness. This integrated software incorporates an extended family of proven modules specifically designed for managing hotel and hotel-related leisure activities, with an emphasis on enhancing the customer experience.
The ClarityLive solution at Mar Hall incorporates:
- Point of sale system
- Property management system (PMS)
- Events management functionality
- Integrated spa, golf and leisure software
- Channel management tools
“The system is really well integrated,”
says Sharon Mullen of Mar Hall,
“we've had no interface issues at all.”
Clarity brings cross-sector insights and an intimate understanding of customer transactions. This experience and understanding is reflected in a uniquely broad and seamless solution, as well as the fresh and results-focused thinking demonstrated by Clarity's people.
Phased system implementation began with the core POS and PMS system, with Clarity staff on site throughout. This process included transferring existing bookings and customer data, plus comprehensive training covering back office as well as customer facing transactions.
Results
Clarity's solution is delivering benefits at several levels. Most fundamentally, the relevant and easy to use functionality is enhancing the consumer experience.
More relaxed, confident and efficient staff can deliver even better service, speeding bookings and quickly meeting customer requests.
“Our staff really like using the system - there's simply no comparison with what we had before,”
affirms Sharon Mullen.
“Clarity is constantly building on new experiences and ideas,” says Sharon, “they develop these and build them into our solution.”
Reduced administration
“Managing events used to involve the use of a lot of handwritten notes by staff - it was slow, inefficient and could lead to errors. With our new events management software, the administrative task is massively reduced. The flexible, easy to use software improves the end-to-end process, frees-up staff productivity, and means that we deal with enquiries more effectively - it's a huge thing for us,”
says Sharon Mullen.
The integrated spa, golf and leisure functionality is proving valuable, too. There's greatly enhanced control of membership information and, as with the events management tools, vastly improved diary management. Sharon Mullen explains,
“We've eliminated double bookings and improved our space usage - it all contributes to revenue growth and improved service.”
Increased bookings
The manual recording of out of hours booking enquiries is also a thing of the past. Now any member of staff can confidently sell rooms, increasing bookings and eliminating lost sales opportunities. Sharon Mullen concludes,
“Clarity's system gives us a highly effective yield management system with outstanding reporting. We can segment the business, track performance, and plan budgets much more effectively.”
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