Ultra-lean hotel team delivers
The Zipper Hotel & Apartments in Düsseldorf, Germany, has revealed how it operates efficiently with 80% fewer staff than typically required for a hotel of its size.
The 168-room hotel, which opened its doors in November 2023, has only ever required six members of staff to run it, thanks to employee and guest experience tool Like Magic.
The platform has also enabled The Zipper to rapidly onboard staff, with every team member fully trained in just a day and a half.
Despite the ultra-lean team, the hotel has generated positive feedback from guests, with Google ranking it 4.6 out of 5 and Booking.com ranking it 8.8.
Like Magic’s platform brings a booking engine, guest platform, employee interface and monitoring tools into one place, creating a centre of operations for hotel management.
This unlocks a totally digital guest journey for guests, some 70% of whom use WhatsApp as their preferred means of communication
The platform allows staff to run operations using a traffic light system of notifications and recommended actions, making the whole process of customer service and property management much more automated.
The platform is also monitored in real time. If there’s a problem with the digital guest journey, it instantly provides a solution, enabling staff to be both remote and proactive at the same time.
Hotel co-founder Tobias Sebastian Oberdieck said, “The fact that some 70% of guests are choosing WhatsApp as their preferred means of communication is a clear indication that they today expect seamless, instant communication at their fingertips.
“So, we are really happy to be one step ahead of the game when it comes to using tech to make our guests’ lives that bit easier.
“But what I think is really interesting is the useability of the platform, as it is easy to understand and fun to work with. We may be operating with numbers that would have previously constituted a ‘skeleton crew’, but with Like Magic, we are genuinely able to operate just as efficiently and productively as a team of 30.”
Wan Chai uncovered
The Hari Hong Kong has launched an audio walking guide that explores beneath the surface of one of Hong Kong’s oldest and most diverse districts, Wan Chai.
Part of The Hari’s “Live Like a Local” experience, the user-friendly app “The Hari Neighbourhood Guide Audio Tour” features an interactive map and narrations of seven of the district’s hidden gems, all located a short walk from the urban hotel on Wan Chai’s Lockhart Road.
The guide includes a personal touch from the hotel’s founder Dr Aron Harilela, the chairman and CEO of Harilela Hotels. The Harilela family has long legacy in Hong Kong,
His narration discusses his memories of Wan Chai as he grew up, the district’s eccentricities and how his love affair with art leaves its mark at The Hari Hong Kong with rotating artwork adorning its spaces.
“By diving beneath Wan Chai’s surface, our audio walking guide provides a layered, cultured and singular viewpoint of our neighbourhood and its peculiarities,” Dr Harilela said.
Look who’s Hungry for Singapore
Hungry Hub, Thailand’s online restaurant and hotel reservation platform, has announced a strategic partnership with the Singapore Tourism Board.
The collaboration aims to leverage Singapore’s diverse food scene to attract Thai and Malaysian visitors, as part of STB’s recently launched F&B campaign to showcase Singapore as a global culinary capital.
Hungry Hub will offer curated dining experiences at a range of restaurants in Singapore. App users will be able to purchase fixed-price meal packages on the app at select restaurants in Singapore, allowing them to browse and choose what they want from pre-selected menus.
Under the partnership, STB and Hungry Hub will launch joint marketing campaigns to promote F&B experiences in Singapore through social media.
Travelport makes a splash in Cyprus
Travelport and Cyprus-headquartered corporate and marine travel agency ETN have expanded their long-term agreement.
ETN will tap into Travelport’s technology to create modern travel retailing experiences for its clients with retail-ready travel content and AI-powered search enhancements.
Nikos Bolias, managing director at ETN said, “Travelport+ offers us direct access to multi-source travel content along with modern travel retailing tools that will support our growth and reach across the Americas, Africa, Europe and Asia.”
ETN’s integration of Travelport’s end-to-end NDC solution will expand the flight options available to the agency’s clients with a single connection to normalised, retail-ready air content.
Heading image credit: Singapore Tourism Board
