CoDE Pod Hostels – The CoURT
The CoURT uses GuestRevu to get the answers to specific questions and to drive online reviews
The Company
CoDE is an experience rather than just a place to lay your head. “We would like people to learn something about our building and local culture, sleep in an unusual bed/room or join a whisky or beer tasting. We encourage people to come up to our reception staff and have a chat or make friends with other guests,” says general manager, Ben Scheelings.
The Challenges
Quickly and efficiently building online reputation for a new property
As a new property, driving online reviews and building a good online reputation as quickly as possible were critical for The CoURT. “People are hesitant to book accommodation when there is no review score or not many reviews. A good review score is a boost to ABR [Average Bed Rate] as well,” says Ben.
There are many reasons that play a part when choosing the right solution. One part of that is technical, which means that solutions need to integrate with each other. Another part is achieving the goals that you have set out. Ben chose GuestRevu because of our “clean interface, good exports, connection with [their] PMS and price.”
The main goals for The CoURT were to:
• Boost the number of reviews on online platforms
The first months are generally slow for new properties, and having reviews online can help getting through these start-up months.
• Consistent guest culture
The first months are generally slow for new properties, and having reviews online can help getting through these start-up months.
• Identify issues early on
Feedback is needed from guests to improve the daily operations, especially when it is new.
A property’s goals (or at least the specifics behind them) can change quite quickly. TripAdvisor was the main focus, and having the integration in the questionnaire was really important at the start. That quickly changed to solely focusing on Google reviews within the first month, for a short period of time. Ben tells us more about the reason behind the decision:
“The reason for choosing Google at the start was because we have 2 CoDE Hostels in Edinburgh and the listing for the new hostel needed an activity boost, in order to have both appear on the map as normal.”
The Solution
An automated guest feedback and online reputation management solution that saves time
According to Ben, having an automated guest feedback and online reputation management solution is “an important time-saver, relieving the reception staff of the task of having to manually upload the guest list.” At the same time they are also receiving email alerts when a negative review comes in and can then react.Adopting new solutions is not always easy, and we hear more about the setup experience for The CoURT.
“We have worked with reputation management tools before and I would say that the setup with GuestRevu was by far the easiest. The connection with our PMS was easy to set up and synchronisation worked straight away. I believe the first emails went out the same day.”
Support is a focus area for GuestRevu to ensure clients are happy, and hearing from Ben that his experience gave him “good suggestions and quick action on changing the emails or setup.” - shows that having dedicated staff and a wealth of industry knowledge really supports our clients throughout their journey from set up to achieve their objectives.
The functionality of our software at different properties can vary depending on how and why they use GuestRevu. Ben gives us some insight into how they use GuestRevu: “At the moment we mostly use GuestRevu at a management level. I like the clean interface, I also like the comprehensive export which can be used in BI tools. The reception staff responds to reviews through the platform, as it’s sometimes just easier to stay on one platform and respond to all the reviews there, and then move to the next platform.”
At the moment we mostly use GuestRevu at a management level. I like the clean interface, I also like the comprehensive export which can be used in BI tools. The reception staff responds to reviews through the platform, as it’s sometimes just easier to stay on one platform and respond to all the reviews there, and then move to the next platform.
The Results
Access to feedback from the start allowed for operational changes on the ground
When The Court was designed they took in all the lessons they learned in the past and applied them to the new hostel. But you can only really see if everything works when people use the property, so right from the start, they had loads of feedback on the hostel from guests through post-stay surveys. Using this feedback they have changed: showers, communal spaces, more seating spaces, breakfast offers, eye masks, and earplugs.
“Over the first six months of using GuestRevu, we didn’t set any definite goals (like x number of reviews or x score for cleanliness). But the platform has proven itself very useful in the first months to establish our online presence and improve the hostel in the early stages of opening” says Ben.
Being able to track the impact of certain operational changes you make can be vital, as Gareth said “We did the trial with the mattress toppers, which was interesting. Unfortunately, we didn’t see much difference in sleeping scores.”
The ‘Advanced Filters’ allow you to use both the PMS data (in this case Cloudbeds), and the questionnaire responses to gain insights into specific areas. “During the lockdown period I played with the data export from GuestRevu in our BI tool and this was very helpful to look at the satisfaction rating per room type.” says Ben.
Ben personally puts the growth in The CoURT’s Net Promoter Score down to “not just offering a bed, we are offering a great experience. The pod beds, the staff, the history of the building, the events”. Increasing the NPS from 66 - 80 in just over 7 months is a fantastic achievement when the industry average in 2019 sat at 39.9.
We know online reviews can have a positive impact on your business, and Ben agrees that asking guests to leave online reviews is a key factor in keeping your occupancy rate high and encouraging potential guests to book by saying, “Yes, it’s definitely a factor. I would even say that a higher review score will boost ABR.”
Looking at ways to use the competitor benchmarking is an area that GuestRevu can guide the team at The CoURT through in more detail, and we look forward to doing that with Ben so that it provides more answers.
The last question we had for Ben was whether he would say GuestRevu is an essential tool for any company, property or travel destination to have? “Yes, we live in a world where data is collected everywhere which can be analysed and give you all the answers to improve your business. You just have to ask the right questions! I think the pre and post-stay surveys in GuestRevu are an excellent way to gather some of this data.”