Blog - Actabl

Elevate Guest Satisfaction: How Housekeeping Refresh Anticipates Every Need

Olivia Messina — Thu, 05 Sep 2024 20:18:09 +0000

In the hospitality industry, guest satisfaction is paramount. A satisfied guest is more likely to return, leave positive reviews, and recommend the property to others. For many travelers, a hotel is more than just a place to stay; it’s a home away from home. Ensuring that guests feel valued and catered to can significantly enhance their overall experience and loyalty to the property.

80% of hotel revenue comes from repeating guests (Oracle Hospitality and Skift).

Alice Housekeeping Refresh introduces innovative features designed to boost your guest satisfaction and team efficiency. In this blog, we will explore how Refresh proactively addresses your guests’ needs, setting the stage for the perfect stay for each guest. By anticipating and automating guest preferences and requests even before they are even made, Housekeeping Refresh revolutionizes the way teams approach their days.

Proactive Guest Preferences: Elevating the Experience

Housekeeping Refresh introduces Guest Preferences and Ticket Automation, which is designed to elevate the guest experience by proactively addressing their needs. This innovation identifies and automatically calls attention to guest preferences that require attention from your teams. By automating these requests for special items, room attendants can reference these preferences when stocking their carts for the day, ensuring that everything a guest might need is already in place.

Addressing requests as rooms are cleaned, rather than waiting for guests to check in and make requests, saves valuable time. Better time management and communication are achieved as other departments, like the front desk, can confirm a crib has been placed in a room, or the sales team can ensure that a VIP guest’s amenity has been delivered. This coordination across departments enhances overall efficiency and guest satisfaction.

Housekeeping Refresh isn’t just changing the game; it’s setting a new standard for guest-centric service, where every detail is anticipated and every preference is a priority.

Balancing Impeccable Service with Guest Privacy

Housekeeping teams strive to provide impeccable service to every guest, ensuring that each room is gleaming and refreshed. However, balancing this commitment with respecting guests’ privacy is essential, especially if they’re still on DND for the day. This balance can even become time-consuming when housekeeping teams must repeatedly check back on rooms to ensure the guest receives service as requested if their Do Not Disturb sign is off.

Alice Housekeeping Refresh innovates alongside third-party vendors to unveil Do Not Disturb by Automation, streamlining the process for both guests and housekeeping teams. This feature empowers hotel teams to transcend the traditional door hanger method, providing a digital solution that mirrors the convenience guests enjoy. With Do Not Disturb by Automation, the connection between Alice and your hotel's external system is seamless, ensuring automation updates of DND statuses. This integration empowers your housekeeping team to know precisely when their expertise is needed, liberating them from the repetitive task of room checks.

Embrace the future of housekeeping with Do Not Disturb by Automation – where the only thing we’re disturbing is the status quo.

Peace of Mind for Guests, Confidence for Teams

Ensure your guests’ comfort with ease using Housekeeping Refresh. Your guests deserve the peace of mind that comes with checking into a perfectly prepared room, and you deserve the confidence that comes with knowing each room is ready for them. Housekeeping Refresh ensures rooms are ready and enhances the overall guest experience, making their stay feel like a true home away from home—with feather-free pillows and extra towels, of course.

The post Elevate Guest Satisfaction: How Housekeeping Refresh Anticipates Every Need appeared first on Actabl.

Boost Team Morale and Guest Satisfaction with Alice Housekeeping Refresh

Olivia Messina — Thu, 05 Sep 2024 20:00:42 +0000

In the fast-paced world of hospitality, seamless communication and strong team synergy are the cornerstones of exceptional service. When housekeeping teams work together effectively, it boosts team morale and satisfaction, improving the overall guest experience.

Alice Housekeeping Refresh introduces a suite of platform enhancements designed to elevate your housekeeping operations. In this blog, we will focus on how Refresh elevates team visibility and streamlines communication. Transform the daily routines of room attendants, optimize supervisory inspections, and efficiently manage incoming requests. By replacing traditional communication methods with real-time insights and updates, Housekeeping Refresh empowers teams to work cohesively and efficiently.

Join us as we uncover how Housekeeping Refresh sets a new standard in the hospitality industry, fostering a culture of collaboration and excellence.

Know Your Day

As a Room Attendant, having a clear understanding of your work for the day is a necessity. Knowing what tasks lie ahead helps plan and execute duties efficiently, without too many trips to the supply closet.

Housekeeping Refresh introduces the Room Attendant Daily Summary feature, which provides a comprehensive synopsis of a room attendant’s daily tasks and assignments. With this clear summary, room attendants can see all of their assigned tasks at a glance, understand the variety and quantity of rooms they have assigned, and monitor their progress as they go. This helps manage time effectively while also ensuring that your team can prioritize tasks and stay on top of their responsibilities.

The Room Attendant Daily Summary feature supports room attendants in setting themselves up for success from the start to the finish of their day. Providing a clear and organized view of their tasks empowers your team to work more efficiently and confidently, ultimately enhancing the overall quality of service provided to your guests.

Know Your Team

The role of a Housekeeping Supervisor is paramount in ensuring that operations run smoothly and efficiently. Supervisors are responsible for getting rooms across the finish line, and inspecting every detail to ensure it meets the highest standards. Quick insights into the day’s progress is crucial for maintaining high standards and effectively supporting your team.

Housekeeping Refresh introduces the Supervisor Overview feature, providing supervisors with a high-level overview of how their team is progressing through their day. This view offers quick insights of each board into the number of cleans completed, skipped and rushed room counts, and visibility into who is on break.

With this overview, supervisors can easily monitor the workload and progress of each team member’s board assignments. With visibility into completed work and special attention rooms, supervisors can make informed decisions and provide support where it’s needed most.

By leveraging these quick insights, supervisors can better manage their day, address any issues promptly, and maintain a high level of service quality. The Supervisor Overview feature enhances operational efficiency and fosters a supportive and well-coordinated work environment.

Know When it’s Time for a Break

Recognizing the importance of giving team members the space they need to recharge is essential. Breaks are essential for maintaining high morale, reducing stress, and ensuring that team members can perform their duties effectively. We foster a healthier and more productive work environment by respecting and accommodating this time.

Housekeeping Refresh introduces a valuable feature that enhances team visibility by allowing supervisors and other team members to quickly see which team members are on their break. This feature ensures that tasks are not assigned to room attendants who are unavailable, avoiding missed time-sensitive guest requests or rushed room requests. By preventing overwork and ensuring fair task distribution, you decrease the burnout of your team and foster a more satisfied and stable work environment.

With this visibility, supervisors can make informed decisions and ensure that all tasks are assigned to available team members. Housekeeping Refresh supports your teams in improving operational efficiencies and the well-being of your team, reinforcing the importance of balance and respect in the workplace. This is another tool in our toolkit to prioritize staff and prevent turnover, ensuring we continue to empower the people who power hospitality.

The post Boost Team Morale and Guest Satisfaction with Alice Housekeeping Refresh appeared first on Actabl.

Transforming Housekeeping: How Alice Adapts to Your Hotel’s Daily Needs

Olivia Messina — Thu, 05 Sep 2024 19:49:12 +0000

Housekeeping is the backbone of hotel operations, playing a crucial role in ensuring every guest’s stay is impeccable. In the dynamic environment of a hotel, the needs of both the property and its guests can change not just daily, but sometimes even hourly. This constant flux demands a flexible and efficient housekeeping team.

To meet these evolving demands, Alice Housekeeping has introduced new enhancements designed to improve your team’s adaptability and efficiency. These upgrades streamline your operations by enhancing daily filters and rule customization, ensuring dynamic adjustments with clear guidance, saving valuable time, and reducing the risk of overlooked errors. With these tools, your housekeeping team can handle daily challenges with greater accuracy and consistency. And if you’re thinking your hotel’s needs change more by the second, don’t worry—we’ve got you covered there, too!

Automated and Educated Assignments: Advanced Auto-Assign

Creating housekeeping boards daily is a meticulous task that requires careful consideration of each room and room type while maintaining assigned credit limits. This process can be time-consuming, often taking up valuable time that could be better spent on other important tasks.

Enter Advanced Auto-Assign. The innovative solution that allows you to set daily preferences and let the system create your boards automatically. Advanced Auto-Assign customizes distributed tasks and sections based on your in-house needs, significantly reducing the time spent on creating boards.

With Advanced Auto-Assign, housekeeping managers and supervisors can reclaim valuable time and focus on more pressing responsibilities. This feature boosts team efficiency and ensures smooth and effective operations, easily meeting your hotel's dynamic needs.

Seamless Prioritization: Auto Pilot 2.0

Prioritizing rooms is a crucial aspect of housekeeping, ensuring that the most important tasks are completed first to maintain guest satisfaction and operational efficiency. However, maintaining this prioritization can be challenging due to the numerous factors that must be considered. VIP guests, early check-ins, and high-demand room types all require special attention, making it challenging to keep everything in order.

Imagine if it could all be done with the click of a button. This is where Auto-Pilot 2.0 steps into the spotlight! Auto-Pilot 2.0 allows you to reprioritize your boards on an as-needed basis, adjusting to in-house or arrival demands seamlessly. Room attendants can easily identify and follow priorities by the assignment order of their boards, ensuring that all important tasks are noticed.

Automating this task with Auto-Pilot 2.0 helps avoid errors and missed items, providing a more efficient and reliable way to manage your housekeeping operations. By adjusting assignments based on real-time needs, this feature ensures that your team can respond dynamically to changing conditions, ultimately enhancing guest satisfaction and operational performance.

Recognizing Hard Work: The Importance of Credit Management

In the world of housekeeping, credits are more than just numbers–they represent the hard work and dedication of your room attendants. Properly managing these credits is crucial for team satisfaction, ensuring that each room attendant’s contributions are fairly recognized and valued.

Alice Credit Rules are designed to address the specific challenges of credit allocation. For example, if a room attendant is assigned rooms on multiple floors, their credits can be automatically increased by 2. Similarly, if they have more than 4 checkout cleans, their credits can be increased by 1. This flexibility also applies to reducing credits based on specific criteria.

By setting these rules, the system automatically adjusts credits when special criteria are met, saving time and reducing the risk of errors. This automation quickly identifies rooms that require special attention, making complex housekeeping operations more manageable. For on-the-fly changes, Alice Housekeeping also supports individual ad hoc credit adjustments made by your housekeeping leadership.

Automating the credit adjustment process helps prevent assignment errors and ensures fair credit allocation. This not only enhances team morale but also provides a consistent and accurate reflection of the work performed, resulting in a more satisfied and motivated housekeeping team.

Empowering Housekeeping Teams with Smart Solutions

Alice by Actabl is proud to equip housekeeping teams with the powerful enhancements and innovative tools of Housekeeping Refresh. This feature seamlessly adapts to your hotel operations, empowering Housekeeping Managers to efficiently assign and prioritize rooms while automating your credit rules. With Housekeeping Refresh, you can confidently reclaim valuable time to support your team, knowing each day is set up for success.

The post Transforming Housekeeping: How Alice Adapts to Your Hotel’s Daily Needs appeared first on Actabl.

Housekeeping Week and Beyond: How to Celebrate and Support Housekeeping for Long-Term Success

Olivia Messina — Thu, 29 Aug 2024 16:57:17 +0000

“Housekeeping really is the heart of the operation. It is arguably the hardest job in the hotel, and without the housekeeping team, the hotel can’t run.” – Kevin Kelleher, Account Executive, Actabl & Former Hotel Manager

This sentiment rings true for every hotelier who understands that a clean, well-maintained room is the cornerstone of guest satisfaction. Housekeeping Appreciation Week is a special opportunity to recognize the incredible work of the housekeeping team, but the celebration shouldn’t be limited to a single week. It’s the responsibility of every department to participate in this recognition and to carry it forward throughout the year.

In this blog, we’ll explore a variety of strategies and ideas for celebrating Housekeeping Week and supporting housekeeping teams in the long term. From daily activities to technology that enhances their work experience, these approaches are designed to ensure your housekeeping staff feels appreciated, empowered, and motivated all year round.

A Meaningful Approach

Housekeeping teams are the eyes and ears of the hotel, ensuring everything is perfect before a guest checks in. Given their vital role, it’s essential that the entire hotel recognizes and celebrates them. Since housekeeping touches every department in one way or another, an effective way to ensure team ownership is by having each department take charge of a day during Housekeeping Week. For example, finance and engineering can handle Monday, sales and revenue on Tuesday, front office on Wednesday, and so on. This shared responsibility ensures that appreciation is a team-wide effort, making housekeeping feel truly valued.

Daily Celebrations and Thoughtful Activities for Housekeeping Week

Housekeeping Appreciation Week offers a chance to show your housekeeping team just how much they mean to your operation. Here are some practical ideas to make each day special:

Morning Celebrations: Kick off each day with a morning celebration. Consider offering breakfast or organizing a fun game to bring the team together. Games like trivia, bed-making contests, or lighthearted challenges are fun touches and build team camaraderie. Before the week starts, be sure to decorate the space for a nice surprise and to make this week feel special.

@andriadawnkeelin Housekeping Appreciation Week Day 3 #housekeepingteam #housekeepingolympics #housekeepingappreciationweek ♬ Moves Like Jagger(Remix) - 夜临

Afternoon Treats: In the afternoons, the department responsible for the day's celebrations can distribute snacks and drinks in the hallways. Small gestures like granola bars, fruit, and drinks are a nice treat for housekeepers during their shifts and a nice way to keep the appreciation going throughout the day!

Personalized Lunch Options: Allow the housekeeping team to choose their lunch for the week from options provided by the hotel chef. This not only gives them a voice in the week’s festivities but also caters to their preferences. For hotels without a restaurant or cafeteria, consider themed catered lunches, like pizza parties, Chinese food, or taco days.

Evening Celebrations: For hotels with turndown service, don’t forget to include the evening staff in the celebrations! Similar activities, such as games or a nicer dinner, can ensure they feel just as appreciated as the daytime crew.

Gifts and Keepsakes: Thoughtful gifts go a long way in showing appreciation. Gender-specific gifts, such as tote bags for the ladies and socks for the men, can be especially meaningful. Items featuring the hotel logo, like branded tote bags, allow the team to showcase their pride in working at your hotel. Teams also love practical gifts such as thermoses, water bottles, lunch boxes, or lanyards.

Prizes for Games: To add an element of excitement, incorporate prizes into the games held throughout the week. Prizes can range from gift cards to branded tumblers to luxurious items like hotel robes and spa vouchers.

Supporting Housekeepers Beyond Housekeeping Week

Recognize Year-Round Contributions: Appreciation shouldn’t be limited to a single week. It should be integrated into daily operations, with a consistent focus on recognizing the critical role housekeepers play in maintaining hotel standards and guest satisfaction.

"I think the room attendants don't mind doing the work. They really don't, but they want to feel appreciated. They want to feel like someone actually sees what they're doing and experiencing what they're dealing with." - Kevin Kelleher

Provide Continuous Support–Especially From Leadership: Active involvement from General Managers (GMs) is crucial. GMs should participate in daily briefings, maintain a visible presence, and acknowledge the efforts of the housekeeping team, particularly during high-demand days. Whether it's helping strip rooms or simply being present, this support demonstrates solidarity and shows the team that their hard work is truly valued and making a difference.

Providing consistent support and recognition not only helps reduce turnover but also fosters a more positive work environment. When housekeepers feel valued year-round—not just during Housekeeping Week—it boosts job satisfaction, benefits the entire hotel team, and enhances the overall guest experience.

Offer Specific and Timely Recognition:

"Recognition needs to be specific and it needs to be timely... If you thank the person for their hard work on Monday, they're going to be like, 'It’s Friday, and I don’t remember yesterday.' Recognition needs to be short-term and immediate." – Kevin Kelleher

In the fast-paced hotel environment, it's crucial to acknowledge a housekeeper’s efforts that same day. Timely appreciation not only solidifies the moment but also inspires others to maintain that positive energy, fueling a continuous culture of respect and motivation across the team.

Encourage a Culture of Collaboration: Collaboration is key to a smoothly running hotel, whether it’s asking other departments for support or seeking assistance from the wider team. Demonstrating humility and vulnerability in leadership can enhance effectiveness and create a more supportive environment.

Take, for instance, a high-occupancy day with a tight flip—a situation where a large number of guests are checking out and checking in on the same day, often leaving little time to turn rooms around. On such days, it’s crucial for GMs to step in during the morning briefing and acknowledge the challenging day ahead.

A GM might say, "Today is going to be busy, and we appreciate all your hard work. We’re here to support you. We’ll have team members from sales, accounting, and the front office helping to strip rooms so you can focus on cleaning and preparing them for the next guests."

Having the GM personally assist or thank the room attendants on the floors reinforces the message of teamwork and shared responsibility, showing that leadership is truly engaged in supporting the housekeeping team. This hands-on approach not only helps get the job done but also strengthens the bond between management and the housekeeping staff, fostering a culture of mutual respect and collaboration.

Enhance Housekeeper Well-being and Efficiency with Technology

Utilizing housekeeping technology can greatly alleviate the mental burden on housekeepers by offering real-time updates on room status. Traditionally, housekeepers face the challenge of constantly checking whether a room has been checked out, which can be stressful and time-consuming. Imagine a room attendant who has 15 rooms to clean in a day, spending a considerable portion of their time walking up and down hallways, going to multiple floors, knocking on doors, and double-checking room statuses. This process can easily take away valuable minutes from each room, adding up to a significant loss in productivity.

With Alice by Actabl, housekeepers no longer need to guess or repeatedly check a room's status. The system instantly updates their boards once a room's status changes, allowing them to plan their tasks more efficiently. This real-time information reduces unnecessary steps, eases the mental load, and allows them to focus on cleaning and preparing rooms without the added stress of constantly needing to verify room statuses.

Moreover, housekeeping staff faces substantial physical and mental demands, with long hours on their feet, tight cleaning schedules, and the mental strain of uncertainty regarding room occupancy. The pressure to perform under these conditions can lead to mistakes, rushed work, or even physical injuries. Alice mitigates these risks by keeping room attendants informed in real-time, reducing the need for last-minute rushes that can compromise their health and well-being.

By investing in tools like Alice, you are prioritizing the mental and physical well-being of housekeeping teams year-round. This approach helps prevent burnout and ensures that staff can maintain a high level of job satisfaction while performing their duties safely and effectively. Creating a more sustainable and supportive workplace ultimately benefits both employees and guests, leading to better service and a more harmonious work environment.

Housekeeping Appreciation Week is an important time to celebrate the hardworking individuals who keep your hotel running smoothly. But appreciation shouldn’t end when the week does. By integrating recognition into daily operations, supporting housekeepers with the right tools, and fostering a culture of collaboration, you can ensure that your housekeeping team feels valued every day of the year. Ready to take the next step in supporting your housekeeping team? Speak to our experts and learn more about how Actabl can enhance their work experience and well-being.

The post Housekeeping Week and Beyond: How to Celebrate and Support Housekeeping for Long-Term Success appeared first on Actabl.

7 Questions to Ask When Purchasing Hotel Labor Software

Olivia Messina — Wed, 21 Aug 2024 19:33:33 +0000

Budget season is upon us, and for many hoteliers, it’s a stressful time filled with making important decisions that will dictate the year ahead. Hotel leaders around the globe are crunching numbers, learning about new products, and deciding which technology companies to partner with for long-term success.

Exploring new hotel software for your properties can bring forth a range of questions. What key features should you look for? Which technology is going to give your properties the best support? Which offers the most ROI? We’ve already addressed the 5 Questions to Ask When Purchasing Hotel Operations & CapEx Software, but what about hotel labor software?

Labor is the single largest cost for every hotel budget, and optimizing your labor needs is not optional; it's required to sell rooms and stay profitable.

The right software should allow you to optimize labor expenses, improve staff productivity, and enhance overall operational efficiency. If you’re budgeting for new hotel labor software, this blog will help provide a framework to identify the key features and questions to ask during the process, ensuring you make an informed decision that provides optimal results for meeting your bottom line.

How Does the Software Optimize Labor Costs?

Over the past few years, the hospitality industry has faced significant labor challenges, from shortages to complex labor sourcing to a high demand for increased wages.

“Today’s high-salary, fewer-candidate market calls for a reevaluation of how hotels approach labor management, especially in a time where maximizing efficiency is critical to success.”- Lindsey Goedeker

Maintaining proper staffing levels while staying within budget can be time-consuming and frustrating. Using a hotel labor software such as Hotel Effectiveness by Actabl to schedule effectively and manage labor costs can significantly impact your bottom line.

Hotel Effectiveness uses current data from your payroll and property management systems to provide powerful data, allowing managers to focus on actionable insights to reduce labor costs while improving productivity and increasing hotel profits. Hotel Effectiveness empowers effortless decision-making and staffing adjustments, such as scheduling the correct number of hours for every position and avoiding costly overtime and excess contract labor costs.

In addition, labor planning, team scheduling, and budgeting with Hotel Effectiveness take less time than traditional methods, freeing up leadership availability to improve individual and team performance and focus on growing site revenue.

How Does the Software Simplify Employee Time Monitoring and Attendance?

Accurate time tracking is essential for managing labor costs. When seeking out hotel labor software, it is crucial to ensure it includes tools to streamline employee time tracking so your team can catch mistakes and improve efficiency.

Hotel Effectiveness simplifies time tracking, improves accuracy, and provides insights that can help you get control of your future labor costs and provide a clear view of actualized labor. This allows your leaders to easily view employee time clocks to track attendance, overtime, and breaks across the entire hotel or just contracted labor. As markets evolve with ever-changing labor challenges, it’s crucial to find a solution that can keep up with the unique personnel needs of your hotel. Hotel Effectiveness was built to handle the unique aspects of hotel payroll, including employees who work multiple positions, piece pay, gratuity, and more.

How Does the Software Enhance Employee Communication and Engagement?

Given that hospitality roles are often dispersed and staffing requirements are personalized for each facility, a quick and effective communication method is a must-have feature when looking for hotel labor software.

As hotels are still seeing a large number of open positions, we recommend a tool that also offers employee engagement features as an engagement strategy to help mitigate turnover.

The Mobile App and Employee Messaging within Hotel Effectiveness is the fastest and easiest way to engage with employees. Whether you are instantly sharing updates, news, and safety information, Hotel teams can use one platform for communications, scheduling, time-off requests, and wellness check-ins. Management can instantly share announcements or news company-wide or within a specific hotel.

Plus, they’ll have access to trackable communications, dedicated messaging channels, newsfeeds, reporting, and more time-saving benefits. One of the key drivers of employee engagement is a supportive communication model. Utilizing employee engagement technology to maintain relationships with your staff is key to ensuring longer-term employment and improving the overall employee experience. Be sure to look for a partner or leader who can support seamless communication among your teams.

How Does the Software Benchmark Wages and Help Attract and Retain Top Talent?

In the face of a worsening labor shortage, hiring and retaining affordable, quality talent is becoming increasingly challenging. For hoteliers, accurate wage data and benchmarking are indispensable and crucial aspects of hotel labor software. By leveraging data-driven insights, you can make informed decisions to improve operational efficiency and retain talent.

Hotel Effectiveness offers the most comprehensive hospitality wage benchmarking tool, providing wage information by position across nearly 100 markets. This user-friendly tool enables you to make informed wage decisions and set effective compensation strategies.

Curious about how your hotel measures up? Productivity Benchmarking is another key feature to watch for! With Hotel Effectiveness, you can benchmark your hotel’s performance against thousands of brand types and occupancy levels. This allows you to gain insights into productivity, staffing trends, and industry standards, ensuring timely adjustments and optimal workforce allocation.

How Does the Software Provide Real-Time Oversight of Staffing Performance?

No two days at a hotel are ever the same. While it’s crucial to step back and assess your overall labor performance, it’s just as vital that your hotel labor software can zoom in, in real-time. Real-time oversight is essential for managing daily operations and ensuring everything runs smoothly and efficiently.

Hotel Effectiveness arms hoteliers with on-property daily labor check-in tools to gain real-time oversight of staffing performance and costs, enabling swift adjustments of resources to determine daily operational success and ensure maximum efficiency.

How Well Does the Software Integrate with Existing Technologies?

Before introducing any new technology to your organization, it’s crucial to understand how it will work within your current ecosystem. At Actabl, we recognize the importance of seamless integrations for your success. With over 420 robust integrations, our software connects with hundreds of systems, bringing all your tools and data together seamlessly, ensuring you have everything you need to run your hotel efficiently.

The Hotel Effectiveness Revenue System integrates daily data entry and reporting of metrics like rooms sold, room revenue, and F&B covers by consolidating disparate systems into one platform. This ensures standardized and efficient operations across properties. Additionally, our Payroll Time Clock Integration (TimeSync) works with systems like ADP or UKG, and integrates with dozens of payroll companies, Professional Employer Organizations (PEOs), and in-house software packages.

How Does the Software Facilitate Coverage and Shift Swapping?

Many hotels face an ongoing coverage crisis due to increased demand, limited labor pool, and the DOL’s overtime rule. Maintaining proper staffing levels while staying within budget can be time-consuming and frustrating. Managers often have to resort to costly overtime, contract labor, or the unfortunate costs of searching for great new employees. When seeking hotel labor software, it’s important to find a partner that makes the process of finding coverage as simple as possible.

CoverageFinder within Hotel Effectiveness allows managers to fill their schedules from the best source of labor: people who already work in their hotels! Amidst unpredictable occupancy and day-to-day demands, CoverageFinder reduces pressure on managers and saves them time every day. And the most timely element of all, it improves employee retention by enabling more scheduling opportunities, earning potential, and job variety without requiring any added lift from scheduling management.

Managers can activate cross-trained teams to cover staffing needs by posting open shifts or approving shift swaps, ensuring the team always shows up to work. Additionally, it enhances flexibility and employee satisfaction by allowing staff to have more ownership over their schedules, which supports the evolving market of today’s workforce’s desire for additional flexibility.

Why Actabl Labor?

There are a number of reasons why Actabl’s award-winning labor management solution empowers both corporate and on-property staff alike to navigate today's labor shortage and rising costs. Featuring an intuitive interface, Actabl Labor fosters expert-level understanding and seamlessly scales knowledge across the business, ensuring alignment internally and fostering clear lines of communication to maximize profits. But how is it demonstrably better? Actabl’s technology utilizes a powerful prediction engine, which matches employee schedules with labor plans, occupancy, and labor standards, improving operational efficiency and saving time and money across your entire hospitality portfolio.

Actabl Labor empowers above-property leaders with streamlined reporting, consolidating disparate data systems into one comprehensive view. This integration breadth provides real-time visibility into labor efficiencies, benchmarking them against industry standards and with your key competitors, facilitating data-informed decision-making.

If these 7 top reasons weren’t enough to pique your interest in Actabl Labor Solutions, take the time to see our product in action. Request a demo here and meet with our experts!

The post 7 Questions to Ask When Purchasing Hotel Labor Software appeared first on Actabl.

Celebrating Our Q3 Acty Winners

Olivia Messina — Tue, 20 Aug 2024 16:45:24 +0000

At Actabl, recognizing the outstanding contributions of our team members is a key part of our culture. Each quarter, our teams come together to honor those who have truly stood out through our Acty Awards program. These awards highlight the individuals who exemplify Actabl’s core values and go above and beyond in their roles, whether it’s supporting our teams or delivering exceptional service to our customers.

The excitement builds as we announce the nominees and winners during our all-hands meetings, where the entire company gathers to celebrate these remarkable achievements. It’s a moment of pride and appreciation for the incredible work being done across our organization. Join us in applauding the recent Acty Award winners who continue to inspire and lead by example!

Flexibl Acty: Emma Ombogo

"Emma has always been that ray of sunshine for her fellow peers especially in times of change. She is always willing to jump in with training when requests come up and does so with an unwavering positive attitude."

Buildabl Acty: Pavel Minin

"Pavel is the backbone of the Platform team, digging into every challenge for a root cause. He strives for code clarity, effective solutions, and up-to-date technologies, setting a high bar for code quality in the team."

Admirabl Acty: Bex Crompton

"Bex is the type of leader who pulls up chairs for everyone to have a seat at the table. She leads by example, making space for everyone’s voice to be heard by being open to new ideas and always allowing for input while encouraging us to try new things and avoid falling into repetitive patterns."

Growabl Acty: Marianne Nichols

"Marianne is always hustling, I don’t know how she does it. I love being able to work with her regularly - her energy is infectious. She is a great team-player, always smiling, encouraging, and happy to share her thoughts/knowledge."

Hospitabl Acty: Giovan Montanaro

"Giovan is the Wizard of Oz-tabl. Working behind the scenes to drive solutions to challenges across the customer success team to streamline our operations and make the team more efficient."

Every quarter, as we honor the Acty Awards recipients, we’re reminded of the extraordinary dedication and passion that fuel Actabl. These exceptional individuals truly reflect our values and consistently go the extra mile.

To our winners: your dedication, creativity, and unwavering commitment have driven not only our team’s success but have also made a lasting impact on our customers. We are extremely proud to have you on the Actabl team. Together, we can achieve amazing things and continue to empower the people who power hospitality!

Interested in being part of our journey? Explore our open positions!

The post Celebrating Our Q3 Acty Winners appeared first on Actabl.

5 Questions to Ask When Purchasing Hotel Operations & CapEx Software

Olivia Messina — Mon, 12 Aug 2024 18:42:36 +0000

As budget season approaches, the pressure to allocate every dollar wisely intensifies. Ensuring that your budget not only covers essential expenses but also invests in tools that drive efficiency and profitability is crucial.

A robust Hotel Operations and CapEx software can be a game-changer for the year ahead, addressing service delivery, complex housekeeping management, preventative maintenance, and long-term asset planning. By streamlining these critical areas, you can significantly enhance operational efficiency, guest satisfaction, and profitability.

Investing in CapEx can lead to a 2-5% increase in revenue, and when aligned with operational goals, it can boost profitability by up to 10% (ISHC CapEx 2023; Oracle Hospitality and Skift). The time to invest is now.

The right solution should provide above-property leaders visibility into performance across the portfolio to optimize processes. It should empower employees to make data-driven decisions, optimize housekeeping, eliminate service gaps, and stay ahead of preventative maintenance while boosting productivity, aligning teams, and streamlining communication.

If you’re considering new hotel operations software, this blog will provide a framework to guide you through the process. We’ll help you identify the key features to look for and the questions to guide your search, ensuring you make an informed decision that drives success.

How Does the Software Enhance Asset Management and CapEx Planning?

Today, hotel enterprises and engineering leaders often struggle with the visibility and accountability needed to manage their assets effectively. This poor management can lead to increased costs, shortened asset lifecycles, and ultimately, a negative impact on the business's success and profitability. 80% of hotel revenue comes from repeat guests, and without properly maintaining high-quality assets, guest satisfaction could suffer (Oracle Hospitality and Skift).

Using a software such as Transcendent by Actabl to track and manage asset performance, work orders, preventative maintenance, inspections, and risk prevention activities is critical.

Transcendent tracks assets from cradle to grave, strengthening operational and maintenance practices. When it is time for a replacement, Transcendent’s CapEx feature automatically identifies outdated equipment well in advance, so you can plan, budget, forecast, and approve capital expenditures before you need them.

CapEx planning becomes essential in prioritizing investments that will yield the highest returns. Users benefit from streamlined budget and project approvals, as Transcendent facilitates approvals for annual budgets and unbudgeted CapEx requests, so you can keep all of your work in one place and out of endless email chains! Additionally, it aids executives in making informed decisions by analyzing potential ROI and aligning expenditures with strategic goals, ensuring that funds are used efficiently to drive growth and innovation.

How Does the Software Improve Service Delivery and Guest Satisfaction?

Coordinating hotel operations is no easy feat; an improperly managed workflow can lead to long wait times, poor guest satisfaction, and lost revenue. Above-property management lacks visibility into the process, leaving them unable to suggest data-driven improvements. When evaluating operations software, look for key features that enhance the guest experience while enhancing staff productivity.

Using Alice by Actabl simplifies operations, enabling hotels to run more efficiently, deliver exceptional guest service, and drive overall success in the highly competitive hospitality industry. With one intuitive platform, teams can remain connected, and managers can report on progress in real time, allowing for improvements and changes on the fly.

With Alice, guest, and internal requests are addressed in a timely manner through automated assignments and real-time updates. With advanced guest messaging automation, staff can exceed guest expectations with fast, personalized service, enhancing overall satisfaction.

How Does the Software Streamline Housekeeping Operations?

Housekeeping operations can be incredibly complex. Manual board building can impact productivity, the lack of visibility into room cleaning statuses affects other departments in the hotel, and slow delivery times can negatively impact guest satisfaction.

Using software such as Alice by Actabl streamlines housekeeping operations, allowing the entire department to be in constant communication. Alice saves time, improves staff productivity, and enables the department to collaborate more effectively. It decreases the time to build boards, assign tasks, and communicate clean rooms and needed inspections.Housekeeping is the heartbeat of hotels, and without the proper tools, the department can struggle to keep up with demands. With mobile functionality for managers, supervisors, and room attendants, Alice allows users to send and receive requests from each department wherever they are on the property. By integrating housekeeping into your hotel’s PMS, you can enjoy a bird’s-eye view of available rooms and gain instant insights into room status, effectively closing the loop on housekeeping operations.

How Well Does the Software Integrate with Existing Technologies?

Integrations are critical for hospitality technology as they enable seamless communication between various systems, enhancing guest experiences and operational efficiency. Without integration, hotels face challenges like data silos, inefficient processes, and poor guest service due to fragmented information.

When choosing a technology partner, always explore how the software integrates with your current tech stack and systems. Actabl Ops & CapEx API access connects your existing technologies, such as in-room controls, radios, and PMS systems, to manage guest reservations, handle check-ins and check-outs smoothly, and provide personalized services.

At Actabl, we understand how crucial integrations are for your success. With over 420 robust integrations, Actabl streamlines operations and optimizes insights. Our software connects with hundreds of systems, bringing all your tools and data together seamlessly, ensuring you have everything you need to run your hotel efficiently

Why Actabl Ops & CapEx?

Actabl Ops and CapEx bring the loved benefits of Alice and Transcendent into one solution - tackling service delivery, complex housekeeping management, preventative maintenance, and long-term asset planning. Our operations solution streamlines cross-departmental task management on-property, boosting productivity and accountability. Real-time updates on the status of requests create a coordinated experience for associates and guests, ensuring issues are handled quickly and correctly, improving satisfaction. Want to see what Actabl Ops & CapEx can do for your hotels? Book a demo and see it in action!

The post 5 Questions to Ask When Purchasing Hotel Operations & CapEx Software appeared first on Actabl.

Empowering Hotel Staff to Embrace New Technology

Olivia Messina — Wed, 24 Jul 2024 16:20:12 +0000

Rolling out new technology in a hotel setting can be a daunting task. While the promise of improved efficiency, enhanced guest satisfaction, and increased staff productivity is enticing, the path to achieving these benefits often brings a unique set of challenges. General and assistant general managers are pivotal in navigating these obstacles and ensuring a smooth transition.

Properly adopting and utilizing hotel technology can greatly enhance the employee experience and positively influence retention. From varying levels of technical literacy among staff to overcoming the fear of making mistakes – securing employee buy-in and providing ongoing support is crucial to achieving successful outcomes and mitigating turnover. Here, we’ll discuss several ways hotel leaders can empower their staff to embrace new technology.

The Reality of New Technology

As adopting new technology can be exciting and intimidating, approaching the rollout with a realistic mindset is crucial. Staff members often have varying levels of technical literacy, which can create anxiety and resistance. Beyond learning new systems, breaking old habits and overcoming the fear of making mistakes are significant challenges, plus the comfort of familiar routines makes change even harder.

Choosing the Right Tools

When evaluating new technology, prioritizing staff adoption from the outset is crucial. Be proactive by involving your staff in the process as much as possible! Surveys are an effective way to encourage buy-in and give your staff a sense of ownership in the decision-making process. Ask them what they like or dislike about the current tools and what features would make their life easier.

During the evaluation process, look for tools that offer features that facilitate easy adoption, ensuring that usability is not an obstacle. Be mindful of user-friendly interfaces, accessibility features, and common challenges, such as language barriers. For instance, if an interface isn’t available in a majority of your staff’s native language, errors and inefficiencies may arise.

Alice and Transcendent by Actabl allow users to select their preferred language within the platform or application. Alice translates into 15 languages, and Transcendent translates into 28 languages. This ensures that when sending and receiving tickets, all users will see them in their selected language, including notes on tickets, minimizing room for error.

Another layer of accessibility with Alice is its extensive use of iconography. The housekeeping module, in particular, was designed with non-English-speaking housekeepers in mind. Instead of relying heavily on text in the mobile view, it uses icons, which enhances usability and improves adoption.

Where to Start

You’ve purchased a new technology, and it’s time to get staff onboard!

Investing in comprehensive training programs is crucial for successfully adopting new technology. According to the Association for Talent Development, companies that offer comprehensive training programs achieve a 218% higher income per employee than those that don't.

Some companies you partner with may offer staff training during the implementation process. Even if they provide training, you should still create a plan for ongoing support. This plan should include realistic timelines and milestones to ensure a structured and manageable rollout. It’s essential not to rush the implementation process to minimize pushback and maximize staff buy-in.

Here at Actabl dedicated implementation teams work to enable your staff with expertly configured solutions and educate them on best practices. We provide structured support and resources throughout the transition, ensuring teams feel confident and prepared. Sessions are recorded for future use and reference, and we provide a library of resources for user support and FAQ’s.

Training and Support

Creating a positive learning environment is essential for the successful adoption of new technology. As this process may be intimidating to staff, encourage an atmosphere where all questions are welcome, and mistakes are viewed as opportunities to fine-tune processes. To alleviate anxiety and foster a culture of continuous improvement, roll out ongoing comprehensive training.

What does this look like in action?

Comprehensive Training Sessions: Regular, in-depth training sessions with hands-on workshops that allow staff to practice real-life scenarios. These sessions should cover all aspects of the new technology, ensuring that staff members feel confident in their abilities to use it effectively.
Online Interactive Modules: Look for partners that provide online modules that allow staff to learn at their own pace. These modules can be revisited as needed, offering a flexible learning option that accommodates different schedules and learning styles.
Daily Standups: Incorporate discussions about tech updates into daily standups. This practice keeps everyone informed about the latest developments and provides a regular opportunity for staff to ask questions and share feedback.
Webinars and Resources: Offer webinars and other educational resources to encourage a culture of continuous learning. These resources can help staff stay up-to-date with the latest features and best practices and can be revisited when needed.

Addressing Resistance to Change

Overcoming resistance to change is not an if but a when especially when there has been one way of operating for a significant amount of time. Here are some strategies to keep in your back pocket to foster a positive attitude when rolling out new technologies:

Gamification: Use gamification techniques to make learning new technology fun and engaging. This can include challenges, leaderboards, and rewards for milestones achieved. A small reward such as lunch, gift cards, or recognition goes a long way!

Some platforms may have gamification built into them to encourage engagement. Transcendent by Actabl’s Associate Engagement (coming later this year) uses gamification to motivate maintenance staff, leading to improved morale, efficiency, and successful outcomes.

Address Pain Points: While it’s important to celebrate successes, it’s equally crucial to address any points of resistance, especially during a time when staff retention is critical. A recent survey revealed that 76% of hotels report staffing shortages. Adopting and effectively using technology can play a major role in the happiness and lifecycle of employees at a company. Consider sending anonymous surveys or hosting lunch-and-learn sessions with small groups to gather honest feedback and identify resistance points. When approaching non-adoptors, be empathetic and express curiosity to understand and resolve their challenges.

Monitoring, Evaluation, and Celebrating Successes

Did it stick? Effective monitoring and evaluation are essential for the successful adoption of new technology. Start by defining clear success metrics, such as system usage rates and time saved, and schedule regular check-ins to review progress. Use data and feedback mechanisms to gather insights and make continuous improvements.

Celebrating successes is equally important to maintaining morale and momentum. It may sound simple, but the public recognition of individuals and teams can make a significant impact. Offering incentives such as extra days off, gift cards, or simply acknowledging team members and highlighting success stories creates a more motivating environment and keeps the momentum going!

Empowering hotel staff to embrace new technology requires a thoughtful approach that includes choosing the right tools, providing comprehensive training and support, addressing resistance to change, and continuously monitoring and celebrating successes. By following these strategies, general managers and assistant general managers can ensure a smooth transition and reap the benefits of employee retention, improved efficiency, guest satisfaction, and staff productivity.

The post Empowering Hotel Staff to Embrace New Technology appeared first on Actabl.

Transforming Guest Experiences: 10 Ways to Use Automated Messaging in Your Hotel

Olivia Messina — Wed, 03 Jul 2024 19:57:38 +0000

Imagine this: From the moment a guest books their stay until their final farewell, you can offer personalized communication that leaves a lasting impression. In today's fast-paced world, SMS automation is revolutionizing how hotels interact with their guests, ensuring every interaction is seamless, timely, and meaningful.

Believe it or not, meaningful and memorable interactions with your guests do not have to be in person. In fact, with the development of SMS automation, the hospitality industry is discovering innovative ways to engage with guests, ensuring their needs are met promptly and efficiently. This shift not only enhances the guest experience but also brings many operational benefits to hotels.

The most challenging part of creating a conversational message with a guest is knowing where to start. Here, we’ll discuss how the automated messaging system in Alice by Actabl is transforming hotel operations and guest services, from room status automation to individual messages. You’ll gain tangible ways to leverage text automation, including 10 key examples you can implement immediately!

Text Message Automation

Staying connected with your guests has never been easier. With Alice by Actabl, teams can schedule automated messages based on guest reservation status and arrival or departure date. As providing a personalized experience is of utmost importance, scheduled messages from templates that your team has built pull information from your guests' reservations (guest name, guest prefix/title, and room number).

What do the templates look like in action?

When a guest's reservation is updated to “Checked In,” they will receive an automated text message welcoming them to the hotel with additional hotel information.
48 hours before a guest's arrival date, they receive an automated text message asking them for their arrival time and a link to the in-house amenities, encouraging them to make reservations.

Room Status Automation

One of the more common requests a front desk team receives is, “Can we get an early check-in?.” The queue formed after this request can sometimes feel unmanageable for front desk attendants. Even when a room is ready, reaching out to each guest individually is time-consuming.

Room Status Automation allows teams to provide housekeeping-related updates to their guests through messaging templates that have been automated based on room statuses. This allows teams to identify which guests want to be notified when their assigned room is ready. Once the housekeeping team has marked the room as inspected, the templated message will be sent, notifying the guest that it’s time to check in!

“The new Room Status trigger allows us to contact guests who have indicated “do not disturb” with an automated text, letting them know they can reach out to us if they need anything. In the three months we have been utilizing this feature we’ve seen a time savings of 2 hours a day! Automating these messages means that my staff can return to doing what matters: taking care of our guests.” - Cassandra Castillo, Hotel Technology Manager, The Omni Grove Park Inn

If you’ve ever returned to your hotel room to find that your do-not-disturb sign had not been removed and that housekeeping had not stopped by your room, you are not alone! This is a common occurrence, typically resulting in an evening housekeeping service request or a dissatisfied guest.

The Do Not Disturb functionality in Room Status Automation minimizes this frustration. Room Status Automation allows rooms marked as “DND” in the Alice App to send a templated text message to the guest verifying if they would like service and reminding them of the DND sign on their door. This fills gaps of communication across multiple channels and allows your team to proactively meet your guests' needs.

Individual Automated Messages

Whether a guest has asked for a reminder at a particular time or if team members would like to follow up after a dining reservation, Alice users can schedule individualized messages directly from the messaging tab. Messages can be scheduled for a specific time and date, and the scheduled message will be visible among all Alice users in the messaging tab.

Top 10 Ways to Use Automated Messaging with Your Guests

1. Room Ready Notification: Room Status Automation allows teams to provide housekeeping-related updates to guests. Guests don’t need to bombard the front desk asking if their room is ready or if they can check in early. With messaging templates that have been automated based on room statuses, guests will receive a text when their accommodation is ready.

2. DND Reminder: Often, guests forget they have a DND sign on their door and miss out on their housekeeping service. The Room Status Automation allows rooms marked as “DND” in the Alice App to send a templated text message to the guest verifying if they would like service and a reminder of the DND sign on their door, ensuring all guest needs are met!

3. Welcome Message: When a guest's reservation status reaches Checked-In, an automated message can be sent to welcome the guest to your property. This is also a great way to communicate that they can reach you anytime by texting this number!

4. How was everything with your dinner?: Typically, the front desk assists in different activity bookings or recommendations throughout a guest's stay. Let’s say you’ve helped Mr. & Mrs. Smith book a dining reservation for this evening, and you’re eager to hear if they enjoyed it, especially since it was for their anniversary! Before you leave at the end of your shift, you can schedule an automated text to the number on file wishing them a Happy Anniversary and asking how everything with their reservation was. This allows an extra level of service for your guests, even if you won’t be on the clock to send the message.

5. Reminders: Occasionally, guests will ask for a reminder, whether it’s a package pick-up, a scheduled transportation service, or even an upcoming spa appointment. Scheduling these messages allows you to stay on top of requests and provide a seamless experience for your guests.

6. How was everything with your stay?: Message templates can be automated to ask a guest about their stay 24 hours after the departure date or even once their reservation has been updated to “Checked-Out.” This is a great way to gather feedback from your guests or even provide the option to leave a public review by linking one of your preferred platforms.

7. Pre-Arrival: Start perfecting your guests’ stay even before they arrive! Interacting with your guests pre-arrival allows you to inform them of amenity options or services they are able to book in advance. You can also gather their ETA to better inform your Housekeeping Boards of their arrival date and time.

8. Departure Date: All good things come to a close! Day of Departure automated messages allow teams to remind their guests of check-out times and anticipate any late check-out requests to better arm the housekeeping team.

9. Turndown Service: You don’t want to catch your guests as they prepare to head out for the evening. A pre-evening message lets you gather preferred turndown times, ensuring a better experience for both the guest and your housekeeping team!

10. Is there anything that would make your stay better?: Check in with your guest during their stay to ensure they are comfortable and have everything they need. From an extra comforter to a dinner recommendation, staying in touch with your guests personalizes their stay and lets your team promptly meet all needs.

SMS automation is a game-changer in the hospitality industry, offering hotels a dynamic way to enhance guest interactions with personalized, timely messages from pre-arrival to post-departure. By leveraging Alice by Actabl's innovative features, hotels can streamline operations, save valuable time, and focus on providing exceptional, memorable guest experiences. This technology not only simplifies communication but also enriches the guest journey, making it an indispensable tool for modern hotels committed to outstanding service and operational excellence.

The post Transforming Guest Experiences: 10 Ways to Use Automated Messaging in Your Hotel appeared first on Actabl.

HITEC 2024 Highlights: Actabl’s Latest Innovations

Olivia Messina — Wed, 03 Jul 2024 18:40:32 +0000

You could feel the energy at HITEC 2024 as the event swirled with new innovations and game-changing solutions for hoteliers. If you missed the event or want a summary of Actabl’s latest advancements released during the show, here’s a recap of the remarkable showcase, which addressed the industry’s most pressing needs, from operational efficiency to guest experiences to revenue optimization.

Operational Efficiency

This year's innovations include solutions that arm hoteliers to overcome challenges in operational efficiency. Managing housekeeping tasks, scheduling staff, and ensuring seamless communication are major pain points that can significantly impact a hotel’s performance and guest satisfaction. Actabl’s latest innovations aim to address these challenges head-on, providing updates that streamline operations and enhance productivity.

Housekeeping Refresh

Inside Alice by Actabl, we’ve released a Housekeeping Refresh to achieve further adaptability for housekeeping teams and their dynamic operations. By enhancing visibility into tasks and guest preferences, Alice is equipping teams to manage each board efficiently every day with features including:

Automated board building and rules based prioritization with Auto Pilot 2.0.
Credit variables and nullification expand credit rules.
Room attendant daily summaries and supervisor overviews.
Automated ticket creation based on guest preferences.

Scheduler Department, Day & Location Views

Within Hotel Effectiveness by Actabl, we’ve continued to improve our labor management solution in Q2 and Q3 2024 by introducing new view updates to Scheduler. These enhancements allow for more flexible scheduling for managers across properties by adding customized locations, hour-by-hour coverage, and views of groups of positions within the department structure.

Revenue Optimization

Without question another major theme at HITEC was revenue optimization, a critical focus for hoteliers aiming to maximize profitability. This year’s innovations include tools that automate administrative processes, integrate financial management systems, and enhance communication and task management. We showcased our latest advancements in this area, highlighting an innovation designed to enhance financial management and decision-making processes. These innovations are set to revolutionize how hoteliers approach budgeting and forecasting, ensuring they can capture maximum revenue from every segment.

Next Level Budget and Forecasting

ProfitSword by Actabl is introducing updates in its budgeting and forecasting module. The latest enhancements include:

Optimized architecture for speed and performance to match the pace of growing data.
Improved user experience and filtering controls for less time investigating, and more time acting on insight.
Upcoming daily drivers for greater financial precision.

Bridging Technologies

At HITEC 2024, we reaffirmed our commitment to building the most robust integration ecosystem in hospitality. These advancements are designed to enhance collaboration and streamline operations across various platforms, ensuring seamless connectivity and improved efficiency for hoteliers.

Expanding Integration Ecosystem

Since HITEC 2023, we’ve added more than 30 new integrations, including Oracle Hospitality Integration Platform (OHIP) and Avalara. Currently, Actabl products boast more than 300 integrations with leading hospitality, financial, labor, and operations solutions.

Alice + Hotel Effectiveness Clean Sync

We are continuing to enhance collaboration among our platforms to maximize overall effectiveness. In a new integration, Alice has joined forces with Hotel Effectiveness by Actabl, which provides intelligent tools for reducing labor costs and maximizing productivity in operations with minimal staffing, to jointly launch Clean Sync. This integration enables hotels using Alice’s robust housekeeping module to seamlessly access Room Attendant Productivity reporting through Hotel Effectiveness. Clean Sync automates the synchronization of room clean counts by type, eliminating manual data entry and enhancing data integrity. This reduces the need for manual entry of room attendant work KPIs and provides scheduling capabilities that facilitate monitoring of actual and scheduled labor as well as Cost per Occupied Room (CPOR).

This integration is the latest step in building hospitality’s most comprehensive platform solution alongside integrations between Alice & Transcendent and ProfitSword & Hotel Effectiveness.

Looking Ahead: More Innovations on the Horizon

Transcendent’s Associate Engagement (Preview) as mentioned in HITEC Charlotte 2024 Innovation Report: Currently in pilot, an innovative module designed to gamify performance and standards compliance while recognizing top performers in the hotel and in the portfolio.

Alice’s Chatbot (Preview - Recruiting Beta customers): AI automation to take care of the high-volume/low-value questions through SMS.

HITEC 2024 was an exciting showcase of the latest in hotel technology, and we were thrilled to be at the forefront of these innovations. From boosting operational efficiency and optimizing revenue management to creating seamless integrations, our new updates are designed to meet the evolving needs of hoteliers. These advancements not only streamline processes but also enhance guest experiences, ensuring your hotel operates at its best.

If you couldn’t make it to the event or want to see these amazing solutions in action, we’d love to show you more! Schedule a demo and discover how Actabl’s integrated platform can transform your hotel operations and maximize results.

The post HITEC 2024 Highlights: Actabl’s Latest Innovations appeared first on Actabl.

Transform Budget Season Stress into Success with ProfitSword

Olivia Messina — Mon, 01 Jul 2024 14:52:58 +0000

As the hospitality industry gears up for another budget season, the familiar sense of stress and apprehension looms large for GMs, VPs of finance, controllers, and executives alike. Budget season is a critical time for hotels, where decisions can significantly impact financial performance for the year ahead. Yet, the process is often fraught with challenges, from managing multiple spreadsheets to wrestling with outdated financial data.

In the face of these challenges, hotel management professionals are increasingly turning to business intelligence solutions like ProfitSword by Actabl to navigate the complexities of budget season with ease and confidence. In this blog, we'll explore the common pain points of budget season in the hospitality industry and how ProfitSword can serve as a lifeline for stressed-out executives.

Understanding the Challenges of Budget Season

Budget season is a high-stakes game in the hospitality industry, where every decision counts. Yet, the process is riddled with challenges that can impede efficiency and accuracy. From manual data entry to disparate systems that don't communicate with each other, hotel management professionals often find themselves drowning in a sea of spreadsheets and reports. This not only leads to inefficiencies but also increases the risk of errors and oversights that can have far-reaching consequences for the business.

In addition to the logistical challenges, budget season also brings with it a heavy psychological burden. The pressure to meet revenue targets, control expenses, and deliver on financial projections can take a toll on even the most seasoned executives, leading to increased stress and burnout.

Introducing ProfitSword by Actabl

Enter ProfitSword, a leading business intelligence solution designed specifically for the hospitality industry. At its core, ProfitSword is a powerful tool that harnesses the power of real-time data analytics to provide hotel management professionals with the insights they need to make informed decisions. By consolidating financial data across the organization into a single, centralized platform, ProfitSword enables executives to gain a comprehensive view of their financial performance at a glance.

But ProfitSword is more than just a reporting tool—it's a strategic partner that empowers hotel management professionals to take control of their budgets and drive business growth. With features like automated reporting, forecasting capabilities, and customizable dashboards, ProfitSword streamlines the budgeting process, allowing executives to spend less time crunching numbers and more time focusing on strategic initiatives that drive profitability.

The Benefits of Implementing ProfitSword

The benefits of implementing ProfitSword extend far beyond just streamlining the budgeting process. By providing hotel management professionals with timely and accurate financial data, ProfitSword enables them to identify trends, spot opportunities, and mitigate risks in real-time. This not only improves decision-making but also enhances operational efficiency and drives bottom-line results.

Making the Switch to ProfitSword

Making the switch to ProfitSword is your ticket to a stress-free budget season. With a dedicated team of experts to guide you through implementation and flexible pricing options, ProfitSword is accessible to hotels of all sizes. Say goodbye to budget season stress and hello to confident decision-making and business growth. Schedule a demo today and experience firsthand how ProfitSword can empower you to take control of your financial future.

The post Transform Budget Season Stress into Success with ProfitSword appeared first on Actabl.

Celebrating Our Q2 Acty Winners

Olivia Messina — Fri, 28 Jun 2024 17:17:27 +0000

At Actabl, we're all about celebrating the extraordinary! Each quarter, our team comes together to nominate and honor our colleagues through the Acty Awards program. The Acty’s is our way of shining a light on those stellar individuals who embody Actabl’s values and fundamental behaviors while going above and beyond to support our teams and our customers. Please join us in celebrating our recent winners!

Flexibl Acty: Nathan Wright

"Nathan is the ultimate team player. His knowledge of Hotel Effectiveness and ProfitSword has helped customers become raving, loyal fans of Actabl."

Buildabl Acty: Stanislav Kvitash

"Stanislav consistently demonstrates an exceptional level of dedication and proficiency. He goes above and beyond in supporting not only his immediate team members but also extends his expertise and assistance to other teams within Actabl."

Admirabl Acty: Anna Mason

"Anna has jumped in to help make our team feel whole. She is always open and willing to help and goes above and beyond to ensure the team feels supported!"

Growabl Acty: Sean Finley

"Sean has a consistent record of contributing to and impacting the growth of Actabl while finding time to support the Product and CX teams with whatever is needed."

Hospitabl Acty: Jordan Godby

"Jordan takes full responsibility for ensuring account-level and hotel-level satisfaction by communicating any challenges and coordinating successful outcomes. He reaches out regularly to his accounts to solicit feedback and check in to ensure they are becoming raving fans of Actabl."

Rookie Acty: Rachel Griffiths

"Rachel is so organized, knowledgeable, flexible, and professional. She has been here less than a year but has an amazing depth of knowledge of all events – you would think she has been here for years!"

Rookie Acty: Cindy Bonggat

"Cindy started a few months ago and has completely taken over the AR department for Actabl. She has drastically improved our customer and internal team response time and created amazingly detailed processes for the accounting department. Cindy is a superwoman."

Actabl Acty: Zach Neff

"Zach is a true asset to our team, wearing many hats, both literally and figuratively. His wealth of knowledge and innovative solutions, developed during his tenure at ProfitSword, make his input invaluable across a wide range of areas and projects."

Each quarter, when we celebrate the Actys, we’re reminded of the incredible dedication and passion that fuels Actabl. These outstanding individuals truly embody our values and consistently go above and beyond.

To our winners, your hard work, innovation, and steadfast commitment have not only driven our team’s success but also made a meaningful impact on our customers. We are incredibly proud to have you as part of the Actabl team. Together, we can achieve remarkable things and continue to empower the people who power hospitality!

Want to join the fun? View our open positions!

The post Celebrating Our Q2 Acty Winners appeared first on Actabl.

4 Simple Ways to Enhance Guest Experiences

Olivia Messina — Wed, 26 Jun 2024 21:34:05 +0000

In the hospitality industry, the difference between a good stay and a great one lies in the details.

There’s no reason to overcomplicate enhancing guest experiences. It's not about grand gestures or expensive giveaways; it’s about making each guest feel genuinely cared for. From the moment a reservation pings into the system to the personalized welcome that greets each guest, we’ll discuss four actionable ways to enhance guest experiences and leave a lasting impression.

Prioritize Pre-Arrival Engagement

A guest's stay starts far before they step foot on the property. The instant a reservation is booked, the guest experience begins! Before arrival, reach out via email, text message, or with a phone call to start building the relationship and plan for any needed accommodations.

For instance, if pre-arrival communication reveals a guest will be arriving after an overnight international flight, arranging an early check-in can make all the difference. Instead of waiting hours in the lobby, they’re welcomed into the comfort of their room—a simple act that speaks volumes about your commitment to guest satisfaction.

Proactively addressing guest needs before they arise is the cornerstone of a memorable hotel stay. By anticipating and acting upon these needs, you create a seamless and thoughtful experience that guests will not only appreciate but remember.

Live and Breathe Personalization

Personalization is one of the small touches that profoundly impact guest experiences. The more your team is able to customize aspects of their stay and meet their preferences, the more welcome and appreciated that guest will feel. Team members can gather personalization touches from booking information, pre-arrival engagement, and during the stay.

If a guest has made a specific request during their turndown service, this should be noted and accommodated moving forward without the guest asking again. Or, if a guest mentions they’re traveling with family, imagine their delight at finding a crib or extra cot thoughtfully placed in their room, complete with a personalized note and treats for the children.

Remember, every interaction and conversation with a guest may reveal an opportunity for personalization. A crucial part of personalizing experiences for your guests is ensuring all hotel departments are aligned on the appropriate information. For example, if a guest reveals their preferred name at check-in and later, a housekeeping agent drops off extra towels, they should be greeted by their preferred name. This harmonious approach will improve the customer experience and allow the staff to interact more confidently with each guest.

Always Choose Empathy and Authenticity

Training your team to take an empathic approach in all situations can significantly shift hotel guest experiences. Relationships are at the heart of hospitality, and it's vital that staff offer a layer of relatability to develop lasting bonds and create loyal customers.

Especially when facing conflict, always choose an empathic approach by making a great effort to understand their perspective, even though it may differ from yours.

Moreover, encourage team members to express their individuality, engage in open conversations, and cultivate genuine friendships/relationships with guests. Rather than staff viewing guests simply as patrons of a business or corporation, encourage staff to connect with guests on a personal level, such as finding common interests, talents, and hobbies,

Educate and Instruct Your Team to Always Deliver Exceptional Service

Every interaction matters.

To offer the utmost exceptional guest experience, you must invest in and focus on your staff's behavior and interactions. We’ve all had unpleasant experiences that left us not wanting to return to a restaurant, store, etc.; the same goes for hotel stays. It only takes one interaction with an unfriendly employee to tarnish a guest's experience.

Staff must always go above and beyond for each guest, deeply caring about their needs. Consider implementing monthly training sessions that cover all aspects of hospitality service, from guest interaction protocols to problem-solving techniques to the latest trends in customer care. Additionally, organizing interactive workshops that allow staff to practice real-life scenarios may be helpful. This hands-on approach helps employees understand the nuances of guest service and the importance of exceeding expectations.

Especially as the hospitality workforce decreases in industry veterans, offer a mentor program that pairs less experienced staff with seasoned mentors who can provide ongoing coaching.

A memorable stay for each guest is attainable when focusing on the correct details. By honing in on pre-arrival engagement, personalization, empathy, and exceptional service, you’re elevating guest experiences and building enduring loyal customers. By embracing these four strategies, you can continue to offer exceptional moments of hospitality to all guests.

The post 4 Simple Ways to Enhance Guest Experiences appeared first on Actabl.

Tech Stack Matchmaking: Partnerships Webinar Series

Olivia Messina — Thu, 06 Jun 2024 16:45:14 +0000

Are you tired of the endless hospitality technology solutions that just don’t get you? Get ready to be swept off your feet!

Introducing Actabl’s Tech Stack Matchmaking webinar series—a quarterly courtship, to see what verified Partners Actabl recommends! In playing matchmaker, we're spicing up the way we recommend our tech partners.

With so many innovative tools entering the hospitality market and brilliant new vendors to work with, let Actabl play matchmaker to see if sparks fly between you and any of our Partners to enhance your operation! Think of us as your techy Cupid, here to shoot arrows and connect hearts (and software). It’s time to find your true tech love!

Speed Dating with a Twist – Where Tech Solutions are the Ones Making the Moves

First impressions are everything, and our partners are ready to dazzle you! You’ll hear from a selection of our esteemed ‘best in class’ partners. Each partner will have an opportunity to showcase their identity and demonstrate how their seamless integration with Actabl can elevate your business. The goal is love at first sight!

Should Cupid’s arrow strike, we’ll be in touch post-webinar to help you connect!

Meet Your Contenders

Prepare to be enchanted by our stellar tech suitors. In our inaugural Tech Stack Matchmaking webinar, we are highlighting our Alice integration partners. It is our pleasure to introduce you to:

Chexology: With Chexology, the guest is their claim ticket. Gone are the days of holding onto a little piece of paper to claim valuable luggage, cars, and coats. Provide a modern experience that costs less than paper, is sustainable and faster, and builds trust with your guests.

Relay: Relay is the leading team communications and staff safety platform. Over 5,000 hotels across North America use Relay to unify staff communications and provide rapid response to incidents - all without added infrastructure cost.

Join us on Tuesday, June 18, from 12 PM to 1 PM ET for an exclusive chance to meet your perfect tech match! This is your chance to connect with solutions that are not just compatible but truly understand the essence of your hospitality needs. Learn how Chexology and Relay will each bring a WOW factor to your guests.

Remember, this unique opportunity to find your tech soulmate won’t be recorded, so don’t miss out. Swipe right on innovation and register now to secure your spot in this one-of-a-kind tech romance!

Secure Your Spot

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Powering Hospitality Success: The Synergy of ProfitSword & Hotel Effectiveness

Olivia Messina — Sat, 01 Jun 2024 20:07:03 +0000

In the fast-paced and fiercely competitive hospitality industry, staying ahead of the curve is not just beneficial but essential for success. However, hoteliers regularly encounter a multitude of challenges, from navigating complex operations to accurately forecasting future trends. This is where ProfitSword and Hotel Effectiveness step in as game-changers, offering innovative and integrative solutions that are reshaping the landscape of hospitality management. Every facet of hotel operations, from room bookings to guest services, generates a wealth of data. Yet, harnessing this data effectively for management and forecasting purposes poses a significant challenge. This blog delves into how two industry-leading solutions are revolutionizing the operational landscape for hotels, empowering them to operate more efficiently and plan for success with greater precision.

ProfitSword, renowned for its pioneering data integration capabilities with over 260 industry systems, stands at the forefront of streamlining hotel operations. Its robust features enable hotels to seamlessly aggregate and normalize data from diverse sources, empowering hoteliers with real-time insights into their operations. By automating this process, ProfitSword facilitates more informed decision-making and precise resource allocation, ensuring that hoteliers have a unified view of their operations to streamline processes and drive efficiency across the board.

One standout feature of ProfitSword is its Customized Account Settings, empowering users to set up drivers and ratios for accurate labor forecasting. By adjusting parameters such as total rooms and comps, hoteliers can fine-tune their budgeting process and optimize resource allocation with precision. Additionally, ProfitSword offers the Portfolio Labor Report Day, which provides a comprehensive overview of labor data across multiple sites. This report equips users with the necessary insights to analyze actualized labor hours, monitor wage rates, and make informed decisions to drive operational efficiency.

In an industry where labor costs constitute a significant portion of expenses, optimizing labor management and budget planning is crucial. Hotel Effectiveness specializes in just that providing hoteliers with tools to forecast demand, efficiently schedule staff, and monitor performance, ultimately maximizing productivity and profitability.

What sets ProfitSword and Hotel Effectiveness apart is their seamless integration, which enables hoteliers to achieve unmatched efficiency in their operations. For instance, ProfitSword's data normalization enhances the accuracy of Hotel Effectiveness' forecasting algorithms, resulting in more precise labor planning and budgeting. This integration ensures that hotels are equipped to adapt swiftly to changing market conditions and guest demands.

The impact of integrating ProfitSword and Hotel Effectiveness is best exemplified through real-world success stories, with HVMG serving as a prime example. With the implementation of these solutions, the hotel bid farewell to manual data aggregation and ERP inputting, embracing an accurate, automated solution that saved time and enhanced productivity. This newfound efficiency empowered leadership to make informed, data-driven decisions and allocate resources strategically, boosting productivity and responsiveness in a competitive market landscape.

As technology continues to evolve, so too will ProfitSword and Hotel Effectiveness's capabilities. Future innovations, such as more automation of reports and processes and enhanced integration with solutions under the Actabl umbrella, are on the way. By seamlessly combining data integration, forecasting, and labor management capabilities, these solutions offer hoteliers the tools they need to drive efficiency and profitability. Ready to experience the benefits for yourself? Schedule a demo today and unlock new possibilities for your hotel's success.

The post Powering Hospitality Success: The Synergy of ProfitSword & Hotel Effectiveness appeared first on Actabl.

3 Tactics to Enhance Hotel Profitability

Olivia Messina — Fri, 31 May 2024 20:19:10 +0000

Are your hotels leaving money on the table?

When it comes to hotel management, profitability isn’t just about filling rooms; it’s about strategic operations, proactive asset and labor management, and leveraging data to make informed decisions.

Every room booked, every boiler running, every overtime hour logged, every asset in use, and every team member on the clock is a piece of the intricate profitability puzzle. The key to success lies in understanding and optimizing these elements to work in your favor. Here, we outline three strategies to minimize costs and improve your bottom line.

Prioritize Preventative Maintenance

Across the US hotel market, assets are aging. According to a recent Actabl review of properties, the average age of an asset has increased from 4.66 years in 2021 to 5.64 years in 2023. In the same time span, the number of assets categorized as “poor” or “non-operable” increased from 22% to 46%. If you neglect an asset, it will inevitably demand attention, often at a much higher cost than regular maintenance would have required.

On average, for every dollar "saved" by deferring maintenance, future capital renewal costs increase by four dollars.

The importance of a robust preventative maintenance and CapEx planning program should not be understated. At a minimum, it’s essential to understand your hotel’s assets, service dates, and maintenance frequency and have processes in place to ensure the assets are being properly maintained.

Utilizing Transcendent by Actabl can help you stay ahead of the game by tracking your assets efficiently with real-time monitoring and key data such as date-in-service, maintenance history, replacement intervals, and estimated costs. This enables hoteliers to assess whether equipment meets performance standards and to make informed decisions on repair versus replacement. By leveraging rich data, Transcendent ensures optimal use of each CapEx dollar, supporting better investment decisions and providing greater fiscal control.

Optimize Labor

Labor is both your greatest expense and your greatest asset. Proper management is essential to avoid unnecessary costs.

Avoid fixed schedules for hourly employees, which can lead to overstaffing or understaffing. Instead, use a forecast to schedule the labor standards you’ve created for each position in your hotel, and then update the schedule accordingly if adjustments need to be made.

Additionally, consider Implementing a labor management system to yield significant savings. For instance, small hotels with 25 employees can save over $40,000 per year, while larger establishments with 100+ employees can save upwards of $150,00 per year with Actabl’s labor management system, Hotel Effectiveness.

Preventing overspending on overtime is crucial. By implementing cross-training, staff members can acquire the skills necessary to handle tasks beyond their regular duties. This approach enables hotels to reduce overtime expenses, allowing team members to cover for each other by exchanging or picking up additional shifts. Many hoteliers rely on ShiftSwap, a feature within Hotel Effectiveness, to facilitate the management of shift pickups and swaps. This feature ultimately empowers managers with data-driven insights to optimize labor and manage contract labor costs effectively.

Leveraging Business Intelligence (BI)

Your data can not be actionable when operating in a silo!

Consolidating and normalizing data is imperative for actionable insights, increased efficiency, and maximized financial performance. With ProfitSword by Actabl, finance leaders can utilize pacing reports to compare occupancy and revenue across properties, enabling strategic adjustments to enhance performance.

Sophisticated forecasting tools allow you to anticipate changes in demand, optimize pricing strategies, and manage financial risks proactively. ProfitSword’s advanced budgeting tools integrate data from all your systems and are tailored to your business drivers, minimizing manual errors and enhancing planning capabilities to maximize revenue.

By prioritizing preventative maintenance, optimizing labor, and leveraging BI, hotel finance leaders can be sure they aren’t leaving any money on the table. Actabl offers a pathway to achieving these goals, providing the support and data necessary to make informed decisions that drive profitability. Especially in hospitality, every decision counts – ensure your properties are equipped with the right tools and strategies!

The post 3 Tactics to Enhance Hotel Profitability appeared first on Actabl.

Making Actabl History: Inside Actabl’s First AI Innovation Competition

Olivia Messina — Tue, 21 May 2024 19:27:49 +0000

With the AI market projected to reach $407 billion by 2027, there is no denying that AI is reshaping our current landscape. In the fast-paced world of hospitality, we’ve never been more determined to embrace innovation to improve the efficiency of hoteliers and our internal teams. We know AI won’t solve everything, but we believe that when applied selectively and securely, AI tools have an incredible potential to help our employees and customers be more efficient and effective.

For this reason, Actabl has made the choice to embrace AI in service of our customers and our employees. As a testament to our commitment, this April, we made Actabl history by hosting an “AI Sprint” — a week-long event that was part AI education and part “idea-athon,” where x-functional teams competed to propose ideas on how Actabl can harness AI in our products and internal tools to ultimately better serve our customers.

The specific goals of the AI Sprint were to educate Actabl employees on AI and approved internal AI tools while evaluating potential use cases within our products and current tools to identify at least one "winning" idea that our product team would prioritize and build based on value.

"We couldn’t be more excited about the potential of AI to amplify our work serving hotels and I am proud of the way our teams are embracing the future of technology." – Steven Moore, CEO.

AI Education and Kickoff

The eventful week began with a company-wide education session on making AI your superpower, featuring special guest speaker Joshua Wöhle, CEO of Mindstone. An expert in AI, he walked us through a treasure trove of tips for mastering large language models. He emphasized the importance of crafting clear, specific prompts and shared best practices for refining prompts and outputs to yield the best results. Joshua also shed light on an expert secret – a touch of flattery or a playful 'bribe' can nudge an AI to produce better results!

This session was a hit, opening employees’ eyes to the potential (and pitfalls) of using LLMs and equipping our teams with practical advice to get the most out of these powerful tools while avoiding common mistakes.

The AI Innovation Competition

After a productive education session, the competition was on! Our ten teams immediately got to work, collaborating to identify a high-impact idea for leveraging AI in either our internal tools or customer-facing products. Throughout the week, each team met daily to assess their idea and prepare to present their assessment and pitch to a panel of judges on the final day of the competition.

Each presentation needed to clearly define the target users as well as the needs or opportunities being addressed and present a clear vision of how the proposed solution would meet those needs. Furthermore, teams needed to assess the feasibility of building the solution, develop product designs, and present a go-to-market plan for how they would launch the product in the market.

Each morning of the competition, all participants met to discuss questions and requirements before breaking off for team collaboration. External advisors who brought a wealth of AI experience, including Alpine's AI team, were brought in throughout the week and were hugely valuable in helping to advise and coach our teams.

Presentation Day

At the end of the week, the panel of judges, made up of several senior leaders throughout the company as well as an external AI advisor, gathered for the final presentations and to ultimately crown our winners!

All ten teams took the stage to make the case for the value of their proposed solution, and all ten delivered extremely compelling presentations, full of highly innovative ideas on ways we can enhance our products and leverage AI to better serve our customers. It was an exciting day filled with innovation and creativity, but only one team could be our winner!

Crowing our Winners

Our judges and employees evaluated the final idea presentations on various parameters, such as alignment with Actabl's priorities and feasibility. The competition was intense, but Team 3, Ctrl+AI+Delight, emerged as the winner by impressing everyone with their "Actabl AI Labor Insights" solution.

Actabl’s Commitment to Innovation

Our first AI Sprint marked Actabl history, but it’s just the beginning of our commitment to leverage AI to better serve our customers. The competition was a great success in producing several valuable AI ideas that we believe can greatly improve our solutions and give both above and on-property leaders the ability to more easily turn insights into action and results.

Our Product team has already begun further evaluation of several ideas that emerged from the AI Sprint. We look forward to sharing more with our customers in the near future. You can be sure that our team is committed to being innovative while also letting the strongest needs of our valued customers ultimately drive our priorities.

We couldn't have made this week a success without the participation, dedication, and engagement of our employee participants, judges, facilitators, and advisors, none of whom the event would have been the same without.

One for the books! Here’s to the next chapter of innovation at Actabl!

The post Making Actabl History: Inside Actabl’s First AI Innovation Competition appeared first on Actabl.

Solving the Hotel Finance Puzzle: Top 5 Ways Finance Leaders Can See the Bigger Picture

Olivia Messina — Mon, 13 May 2024 19:02:40 +0000

In the complex world of hotel management, finance leaders are constantly faced with the daunting task of piecing together various data points to optimize their portfolios and enhance profitability. Like a masterful puzzle solver, you need the right tools and strategies to see the complete picture. ProfitSword by Actabl is the leading hospitality business intelligence solution that helps hotel leaders solve this puzzle, piece by piece.

In this article, you’ll learn five ways finance leaders can leverage ProfitSword to gain a clearer, more comprehensive view of their hotel operations.

1. Implementing Real-Time Data Analytics

The hospitality industry is fast-paced and ever-changing, necessitating up-to-the-minute data to make informed decisions. Real-time data analytics are crucial as they provide finance leaders with the latest insights into hotel performance, enabling them to uncover trends, identify opportunities, and mitigate risks more effectively. ProfitSword enhances this capability by integrating real-time data into your reporting and dashboards, pulling information from all your different systems, and ensuring that your decisions are based on the most current data available.

2. Accurate Forecasting & Budgeting

Staying ahead of the curve in the hospitality industry means having a precise and adaptable forecasting and budgeting process. By leveraging sophisticated forecasting tools, finance leaders can anticipate changes in demand, optimize pricing strategies, and proactively manage financial risks. ProfitSword simplifies this process with advanced budgeting tools that pull data across all your systems, considering your specific business drivers. This minimizes manual errors and supercharges your planning capabilities.

3. Integrating Financial and Operational Data

To truly optimize hotel performance, it's essential to merge financial data with operational insights. Seeing these two data points in tandem allows finance leaders to gain a holistic view of their business, identifying operational inefficiencies, optimizing resource allocation, and ultimately enhancing profitability. ProfitSword excels in this area with integrations across 260+ systems, including with other Actabl tools such as Hotel Effectiveness, providing a comprehensive overview of your hotel portfolio.

4. Embracing Data Visualization Tools

Without the right tools, complex financial data can be challenging to interpret and act upon. Data visualization plays a pivotal role in transforming intricate data sets into clear, actionable insights. Finance leaders can use these tools to communicate insights effectively, identify patterns, and make data-driven decisions. With ProfitSword's patent-pending data normalization process, users enjoy an apples-to-apples comparison across the portfolio, enhanced by customizable dashboards and reporting that make complex data easy to understand and use.

5. Investing in Continuous Learning and Development

The landscape of hotel finance is continually evolving, and staying current requires ongoing education and development. For finance leaders and their teams, understanding and effectively utilizing advanced tools like those provided by ProfitSword is essential. ProfitSword supports this need with a regular cadence of training for all clients, ensuring that you not only understand how to use the tools but also maximize your investment in them.

ProfitSword by Actabl is more than just a software solution; it's a partnership that empowers hotel finance leaders to master the art of portfolio optimization. By implementing these five strategies, you can begin to piece together the puzzle of hotel finance, ensuring a clearer picture and a more profitable future.

Are you interested in seeing how ProfitSword can transform your hotel's financial strategy? Watch our exclusive conversation with Kathryn Green, ProfitSword’s Director of Product, as she shares exclusive strategies and tools utilized by industry leaders to overcome hurdles and optimize financial performance.

Watch Webinar

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