C-Hotels customer story

C-Hotels choose modern, flexible hospitality system

The Belgian hotel chain gained better control over their data and processes in order to drive profit.

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12% increase in RevPAR

93% call reduction

between housekeeping and front desk

Halved average check-in time

About C-Hotels

C-Hotels welcome around 235,000 guests every year to their nine properties along the Belgian coast. Unlike most groups, every hotel has a unique concept, from art nouveau to industrial New York, so although the hotels share an ethos of excellent customer service, the visual identity and feel is different for every property.

The group was looking for a modern, flexible hospitality cloud that would give them more control over their data, a powerful revenue management solution, and the ability to save significant time by eliminating long-standing, manual processes across the business.

Five hotels went live in three days

Pain

Changing the way a hotel operates will always come with detractors from staff. With something as significant as a new PMS, onsite teams don't want to have to do endless onboarding and learning of a new system.

Solution

C-Hotels began by onboarding five hotels, all of which were fully online in only three days. During the same time, hotel staff were learning how to use the platform, having been given access to a sandbox environment where they could explore freely and learn by using the system.

Result

• 5 hotels went live in 3 days
• Staff were able to self-train using Mews University

Instant access to data and reporting

Pain

C-Hotels wanted easy, immediate access to their own data. Before Mews, the hotel group were charged on a case-by-case basis whenever they requested their data, and there was minimal reporting that often had to be done manually.

Solution

Mews has a wide selection of easy-to-use reports and free, immediate access to all hotel data, including reservations, availability, room status, and customer information. C-Hotels also use Mews Analytics for even more powerful data reporting and analysis.

Result

• 20+ dynamic reports in Mews
• Easy access from property dashboard
• Zero data access fees

“Our staff know that Mews are very responsive so they’re happy to question things. They come to me and they say, ‘Inge, can you ask Mews if they can change that? Because I think it will be much easier to do it that way or that way.’ It’s a great relationship.”

Inge Decuypere
Owner, C-Hotels

Revenue management boosts RevPAR and occupancy

Pain

Mews has played an integral role in C-Hotels’ revenue management improvement. Beforehand, this was done through a time-consuming manual process with an Excel file, and there were only two rates: high season and low season.

Solution

Using the PACE integration from Mews Marketplace, C-Hotels now have a more sophisticated, automated revenue management system that was easy to implement and has contributed to significant improvements.

Result

• 12% increase in revPAR in some hotels

Automation of comms and online check-ins

Pain

Booking confirmation emails had to be sent manually, with guest names, dates and prices all input by the staff, which took longer and resulted in occasional mistakes. The group also wanted to improve the check-in experience, so that staff don't have to spend so long on impersonal tasks like taking card details.

Solution

After making a booking with Mews, guests receive an instant, automated confirmation email. Check-in and check-out are also both much faster, with many guests taking advantage of online check-in. Check-out is typically fast because most of the guests have already paid before arrival, thanks to payment automation.

Result

• Halved average check-in time from 4 to 2 minutes
• 40% of check-ins now online
• No manual errors in confirmation emails

“We had much fewer calls from housekeeping to the front desk and vice versa, because now they can see on their tablets which rooms are ready.”

Inge Decuypere
Owner, C-Hotels

Faster housekeeping and less waste

Pain

Manual, paper note-taking was for housekeeping duties was both time-consuming and wasteful. Time was also lost for front desk staff, as they had to phone housekeeping to find out whether a room was ready.

Solution

The Mews housekeeping app works on tablets that can instantly report a room as clean, also contributing to less unnecessary paper waste. Also, the number of calls between front desk and housekeeping have been dramatically cut, helping housekeeping turn over rooms faster and giving front desk more time to focus on guests.

Result

• 93% reduction in calls between housekeeping and front desk
• 90% reduction in paper waste

Integration spotlight

C-Hotels currently uses six integrations, including a channel manager and door look solution.

Quicktext

Quicktext is a tool that centralizes guest communications from multiple channels. C-Hotels receive all messages from Booking.com, the C-Hotels website, Facebook and more in a single platform, meaning receptionists only have to look in one place to answer questions. This saves time for staff, removes the possibility of missed messages, and means guests receive faster answers.

View Quicktext

“Don't hesitate to move to Mews. Just do it, and don't be afraid of the implementation because it's not that difficult. Mews is a very user friendly PMS and it makes everything much easier. Not only at the front desk, but also at the back office.”

Inge Decuypere
Owner, C-Hotels

Looking ahead

C-Hotels will continue to innovate and create ways to further streamline and automate services for both staff and guests. By focusing on this, the company will be able to spend more time delighting guests and less time on manual tasks.

The team will continue to push the boundaries of hospitality and leverage Mews, along with its integrations, to become a hotel brand synonymous with unrivalled guest experiences.

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If you're impressed at what these properties have achieved, why not find out what Mews could do for you?

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