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Case Study: Kimpton Implements GuestWare�s
Enterprise to Provide Powerful Guest Service

June 21, 2002 - The Kimpton Hotel & Restaurant Group always has been known for its first-class service. From its start, the San Francisco-based boutique hotel collection has excelled at beating guest expectations. Its trademark cozy fireplaces in its lobbies, its elegantly designed guestrooms and its friendly, individually designed, chef driven restaurants have earned the company a reputation for high-quality service with a personalized touch.

Kimpton�s ability to consistently anticipate, meet and exceed guest expectations has helped it grow to 33 hotels throughout the U.S. and Canada. Its properties, which average 184 rooms, are found in seven states and in two locations in British Columbia. The company will open hotels in Washington, D.C. and Silicon Valley this year, and in San Francisco in 2003. 

�Kimpton Boutique Hotels has plans to double in size in the next five years,� said Steve Pinetti, Senior Vice President Sales and Marketing. �Most of that growth will be on the East Coast.� 

As Kimpton�s customer base has grown, so too has the company�s need to recognize repeat guests. In early 2000, Kimpton executives discussed the best way to roll out a systemwide program to recognize its best customers. It decided on a two-phase approach and selected GuestWare as the software tool it would use. GuestWare, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software for the lodging industry, is developed, marketed, implemented and supported by Diversified Computer Corp., Seattle.

First Phase Expands Guest Recognition Program

The first phase of Kimpton�s plan included the implementation of recognition standards and processes to deliver personalized service to repeat customers. Within these standards, each hotel was given the opportunity to customize its recognition program to maintain local identity and flair.

Kimpton chose GuestWare�s Guest Recognition software as the tool it would use to track guest preferences and reward its repeat guests. Guest Recognition automatically builds and maintains a database of repeat guests using data from a hotel�s Property Management System (PMS). GuestWare�s matching process compares expected arrivals with past customers and identifies each repeat guest.

Taking a conservative approach with its CRM system rollout, Kimpton decided to launch its guest recognition program at the individual property level and not corporatewide. GuestWare was tested first at the Hotel Palomar in San Francisco. GuestWare Version 2.0 was selected because it already met the technical objectives of phase one and it had a Lanmark interface for Guest Recognition. 

Within six months of the GuestWare installation in April 2000, the Hotel Palomar was able to expand its recognition program from fewer than 50 guests to more than 1,500 guests. GuestWare showed the hotel that more than 35 percent of its guests were repeat customers and that on some days that number reached more than 50 percent.

�When I first saw GuestWare and discovered what it could do from a guest recognition standpoint, I got very excited,� said Shirley Bovone King, Kimpton�s Guest Loyalty Champion. �I had been using index cards to track guest preferences. To be able to organize and automate that information was great.�

After a very successful six-month pilot test at the Hotel Palomar, Kimpton began to add GuestWare to its properties at a rate of about four hotels per month. Within eight months GuestWare was installed in 26 Kimpton hotels. King said the software should be in 33 of Kimpton�s hotels by the end of July 2002. Kimpton�s primary goal was to implement GuestWare�s Guest Recognition component but GuestWare�s Rapid Response and Incident Tracking features also are used to log critical guest requests.

Logging Guest Experiences Improves Service

Rapid Response enables each Kimpton property�s staff to log, dispatch and follow-up on all guest requests and problems. Incident Tracking gives each hotel the ability to quickly log an incident (a.k.a. experience), gauge the response time to it and track the amount of compensation used to satisfy a guest. General managers at Kimpton�s hotels are given incentives to log incidents.

�From a hotel asset point of view, to be able to quickly identify and eliminate recurring maintenance problems is valuable,� King said. �Many of our hotels have been using Incident Tracking to manage vendors as well. The beauty of Incident Tracking is that there is a function that enables us to track costs.�

By logging guest experiences, a very valuable history for repeat guests is created. All issues logged for a guest are clearly listed in the guest arrival report. This makes it easy for staff to create a better experience during the guest�s next visit. 

At the Prescott Hotel in San Francisco, staff noticed that one guest ordered the same breakfast each time he visited. Using GuestWare�s Incident Tracking, they were able to create a running order that reminded them to serve him the same breakfast selection each time he stays at the hotel. The personalized service impressed the guest. At other hotels, Incident Tracking was used to track guests� needs for hypoallergenic pillows, improve towel service and reduce door lock difficulties.

GuestWare worked closely with key executives at Kimpton to develop a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for GuestWare. It defined the processes and guidelines for how each hotel would implement the new guest recognition program. Part of the document defined the role and responsibility of each department and management. Kimpton designated a GuestWare champion and co-champion at each hotel to take ownership and drive the program.

Another purpose of the SOP was to define the standard guest preference guidelines. In keeping with the individuality of the boutique hotel concept, GuestWare allows staff at each hotel to create their own unique preferences while adhering to some corporate standards to be met across the collection of properties.

Conference Calls Key to Successful Implementation

With so many hotels rolling out GuestWare, executives at Kimpton decided regular biweekly conference calls were vital to ensure a successful rollout of the guest loyalty program. The phone meetings included GuestWare champions from each hotel and at least one senior executive. The calls created an open forum for participants to share success stories and concerns.

It was not uncommon for Thomas W. LaTour, CEO, Pinetti and general managers to participate in the calls. Kimpton executives used this opportunity to emphasize the importance of the program, review property statistics to measure success, and create competition and incentives among hotels.

One Kimpton property with a success story to tell is the historic Hotel Monaco, a boutique hotel set in the heart of downtown Salt Lake City. Thanks, in part, to the level of customer service that GuestWare enabled, the 225-room hotel won 87 percent of the transient business in its competitive set in December 2001. That compared to 70 percent for its competitors, according to Brett Cunningham, assistant front office manager and guest loyalty champion at the hotel. That success occurred just nine months after GuestWare was installed in March 2001.

Cunningham said the Hotel Monaco welcomed 15,000 guests between March 2001 and January 2002. A little more than 4,100 of those were repeat guests logged into the GuestWare database. Each record includes not only contact information but also the guest�s preferences, visit history, how much they spent during previous visits, as well as birthday and anniversary information. Guests who make a reservation for a first-time return visit are pre-blocked into the best rooms, given an apple and bottle of water in their room and welcomed with a personalized, handwritten note.

Second Phase: GuestWare Enterprise Centralizes Kimpton�s Guest Profiles

Once guest recognition processes were in place and each property had built up a significant database of repeat customers, the second phase of Kimpton�s plan was rolled out. It includes a systemwide customer information system run by GuestWare�s Enterprise software. Using Enterprise, Kimpton hotels can share and recognize repeat guest profiles and preferences. Properties also can create and maintain an ongoing central database of customer profiles and visit history for marketing purposes.

Enterprise first was tested at several Kimpton properties in the fall of 2001. It since has been implemented throughout the chain. With Enterprise, each Kimpton hotel sends an updated guest profile database through the company network each night using encrypted files. The database goes out over the Internet to a FTP site where it is pulled into a central database hosted by Diversified Computer Corp. Each property�s database is then merged with the guest profiles from all other Kimpton properties. A cleansing process occurs within that central database to ensure the integrity of the data.

Only the first batch of guest profiles sent from a Kimpton hotel to the central database includes every profile. Each subsequent daily transmission includes only new or changed data. The system architecture has a fault tolerant design that allows hotels to continue to use GuestWare even if their connection to Enterprise is lost. 

After guest profiles from each hotel are merged in the central database, selected profiles are returned to each hotel. The criteria, or rules for selecting those returned profiles are set by the management company. In Kimpton�s case, it is currently focused on their most frequent guests. Kimpton�s goal is to increase the number of profiles identified to all guests with personal profiles in GuestWare.

�The focus of our program is recognizing personal preferences and rewarding loyalty,� King said. �We promise our guests their preferences will be met at all Kimpton Boutique Hotels. That would not be possible without Enterprise.�

While Enterprise works to a hotel company�s advantage, it also works to a guest�s. Enterprise enables a hotel�s staff to include a guest�s property-specific preferences for a hotel within a chain or global preferences to be recognized at all hotels in the chain. Using Kimpton, for example, a guest might have a favorite room at the Monaco Denver but also have a pillow preference that applies to any Kimpton Boutique Hotel. Enterprise allows hotels within a chain or collection of properties to accommodate such preferences.

Central Reservation System Connectivity

Enterprise also enables Kimpton�s central database to interface with its Pegasus Solutions Loyalty Program System (LPS) and Central Reservation System (CRS). This allows a guest�s preferences to be seen at the time a reservation is made. Earlier this year, Kimpton, GuestWare and Pegasus successfully developed, tested and installed the CRS interface. Approximately 20,000 guest profiles were transmitted in the first run. Guest profiles currently are sent to the Pegasus LPS and CRS from the central database at DCC monthly after they have been merged and cleansed.

The interface enables transmission of complete guest profile information. That data includes specified global preferences that are available to the reservation agents. Having profiles of repeat guests available at the point of reservation streamlines the reservation process and enhances the guest experience.

To date, only guest profiles with addresses or e-mail addresses are included in Kimpton�s GuestWare databases. Those are pieces of information that King said are not easy to collect.

�Getting an address is tough,� she said. �Addresses are not required over e-channels and a lot of travel agents are reluctant to provide that information.�

One of Kimpton�s corporate initiatives is to improve its address collection rate. Guests are encouraged to complete a card with address and preference information at check-in. Kimpton also is developing a Web site that will enable a guest to enter personal preference information on-line.

Sales and Marketing Benefits

One of the primary goals of a CRM initiative is to collect and use information that later can be used to drive incremental revenue from existing customers. With a database of guest profiles available to each hotel�s sales team, the potential to mine that data for leads is tremendous.

Data can easily be extracted out of a property-level GuestWare database or Enterprise�s centralized database to create mailing lists or e-mail lists. Kimpton currently is having success with property-level mailings and is looking to bolster its corporate marketing with Enterprise.

King explained that GuestWare enables a sales team to generate a report showing a list of companies and their repeat guests. The list can be used to identify new repeat guests from companies that previously have not been targeted as a corporate account or for group business. One Kimpton hotel recently landed a major U.S. company account because of such data access. 

�One of the main selling points also was the fact that we were able to track their employees� preferences,� King said.

For the Hotel Palomar and other Kimpton hotels, GuestWare has become an integral part of guest recognition.

�GuestWare helps us provide the personal touch that makes Kimpton Boutique Hotels unique,� Pinetti said. �Being able to know guests� preferences, no matter where they stay in our collection, is truly a competitive advantage. GuestWare�s robust data mining capabilities also provide the means we need to create new business. That is extremely important in a challenging business environment.�

 

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Contact:

Mike Benjamin
Vice President, Sales
GuestWare
1-888-504-8378
[email protected]
http://www.guestware.com


Also See Customer-Relationship Management Software Helps Salt Lake City's Hotel Monaco Beat the Competition / April 2002 
GuestWare Propels Peabody Orlando to National AH&LA Guest Relations Award / April 2002 
Kimpton Hotel & Restaurant Group Installs GuestWare to Improve Guest Loyalty Program / July 2001 


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