Unlocking Hospitality Operations for 5-Star Guest Experiences with Breezeway

Navigating the complexities of managing a thriving hospitality business in today's market presents significant challenges. From managing operations to delivering exceptional guest experiences, hospitality operators face a myriad of complexities daily. However, with the right tools and solutions, these challenges can be overcome, leading to streamlined operations and unforgettable guest experiences.

In our February ELEVATE Webinar, the panelists, Annie Schnaubelt, Vice President of Lake Tahoe Accommodations, Adam Norko, Vice President of Business Development & Growth at Travel Advantage Network, and Brittany Blackman, Owner of Breathe Easy Rentals, explored the intricacies of running a thriving hospitality business with the help of Breezeway. The days of juggling multiple systems and manual processes can be left in the past. Breezeway's platform provides a seamless and integrated solution, streamlining various aspects of hospitality operations. From addressing operational challenges to dynamic Welcome Books, after-hour call management, safety protocols, and guest messaging, Breezeway's comprehensive suite of products offers an integrated solution.

Leveraging Guest Messaging for Operational Excellence

It's safe to say that communicating with guests has always been tricky, urgent issues often get buried, and there's a never-ending flow of requests. Our panel of experts discussed how optimizing our guest messaging tool has given their teams the ability to stay on top of in-house issues, increase guest satisfaction, and drive 'gap night' revenue.

Annie Schnaubelt of Lake Tahoe Accommodations, recalls “Before Breezeway Messaging, we just had such a high volume of calls and emails, and we couldn't keep up. Messaging has been a game changer for us, and it was super easy to implement. It brought over all the reservation data so our staff knew who they were talking to, they knew when the guest was arriving, and we were able to automate messages. My staff was happy, the guest was very happy, and they continue to be happy that we have it.”

Adam Norko with Travel Advantage Network, urged ELEVATE attendees, “If you're not using text messaging today, you're missing out.” TAN currently has more than 1200 properties across 75 different locations, with a large volume of guest communication. Prior to using Breezeway Messaging, a lot of communication would either get missed or pushed to the next day. Adam noted that there's a huge opportunity to use messaging not only to communicate better with guests but also from a marketing perspective to increase revenue through repeat bookings and filled gap nights.

Brittany Blackman of Breathe Easy Rentals, shared that text represents 90-95% of their communication with owners and guests. The remainder being via email or phone calls and Breathe Easy Rentals has some of the best customer service and reviews in the area. Shea attributes much of this to the speed in which she can respond to guests and the ease of templates within Breezeway, allowing Brittany to say goodbye to manually typing out the same message time and time again and hello to automation.

Personalizing Experiences with Dynamic Welcome Books

Personalized digital Welcome Books specially crafted to amaze and assist your guests throughout their entire stay are essential to elevate your brand. Breezeway Guide is a cutting-edge solution that efficiently provides your guests with the essential information they require, precisely when they need it. By minimizing unnecessary communication and enhancing your brand, Guide ensures a remarkable and seamless experience for your valued guests.

There's such a depth of information in Breezeway’s operations tool, that helps operators get the information they need to the guests at the right time. Breezeway Messaging and Guide allows them to do that without having to think about it, so when questions do arise, they can respond as quickly as possible and encourage a positive guest experience.

Adam Norko concurs “With Messaging and the Guidebook, we’ve absolutely seen a reduction in the number of calls and time spent trying to resolve issues as well. So it's not just the incoming calls, it's the back and forth that comes after those reports. Now, we have more manpower to focus on solving other problems.”

Simplifying After-Hours Call Management

With growing staff shortages, finding and keeping staff that is willing to be on call after-hours has become increasingly challenging for hospitality operators. Many of the ELEVATE panelists felt this struggle and hadn’t found a solution until implementing Breezeway Assist - Breezeway’s team of hospitality professionals trained to respond to guest calls and messages at any hour.

Breezeway Assist works seamlessly with our Operations and Messaging products to surface all of the property, and guest, and process information that’s already in your Breezeway account to respond to guest text messages and calls. Brittany Blackman adds, “When onboarding with the Breezeway Assist product about a month or two ago, there really wasn't a conversation about whether to implement it or not, we just did. I say that because we already had everything in Breezeway, and the Assist team is already trained on how to use Breezeway to answer guest questions. So there was no issue for our team, they didn’t have to learn new software, download a new app on their phone, or do any training; there was no friction.”

Brittany Blackman highlighted some of the typical frustrations with after-hours coverage. “I've used several third-party answering services over the years, and I have a ton of horror stories. As the manager, the next morning you get the email of the entire call log, then you realize that a situation didn't get handled well and you have to go back and listen to the recording and they are excruciating.” As a result, she took on the burden of answering all of the calls and was hesitant to use another service to shield her guests from negative experiences. “I don't want a frustrated guest having a more frustrating conversation with an answering service.”

But, Blackman highlighted one of the key differentiators on Breezeway Assist that really sealed the deal for her. The visibility into conversations via Breezeway Messaging, which allowed her to review the conversations that had occurred the previous night to understand the interactions and type of customer service her guests received, without ever listening to a call, freeing up a significant amount of her time. “Assist has become an extension of our team. I can't say more good things about the Assist team, even just using it for a short amount of time - I wish I would have done this the second it dropped.”

Annie Schnaubelt concurs, "The Assist team is fantastic. With their level of customer service, you wouldn't know if it's someone from our Lake Tahoe Accommodations guest services team or their team responding to guests. We can see all the history of the interactions they've had with the guests after hours and they're able to handle most of the guest requests."

Watch the full webinar recording to hear even more insights from these panelists.