The Leela Palace Improved Guest Experience with eFront Desk & Freddie

Product: eFront Desk & Freddie

Geography: India

Implementation Timeline: 30 days

Customer Background:

The Leela Palaces, Hotels, and Resorts, has a range of award-winning properties that celebrates the country's diverse geography and rich architectural history. With hotels in the most prominent locations, Leela is known for its unparalleled service levels and commitment to servingits guests with utmost care and fondness. 

Problem Statement:

• The year 2020, along with Covid, presented new obstacles to the hospitality business, with occupancies and revenue plummeting owing to frequent lockdowns and travel restrictions. In fact, 8 in 10 hotel rooms were empty in 2020.
• Even when governments relaxed travel restrictions, there remained concerns among travelersand staff about getting the virus after coming into physical contact with an infected person.The occupancy in hotels was only40% as compared to pre-COVID years.

• Leela wanted a solution for their front desk operations that would enable their guests to check-in and check-out digitally with minimal physical contact with the staff. A 2020 study showed that 85% of travelers surveyed reported that using technology to reduce direct contact would increase their comfort level at a hotel.
• With the overloaded switchboards and shortage of staff, guest calls and queries could not be answered on time which led to unhappy guests and revenue loss.

Approach:

• With just a week’s market research, experts atBOTSHOT knew they had to design and develop a system that covered every minor aspect from PMS integrations to local lodging laws to GDPR compliance.
• It was determined that the system should be able to automatically send out pre-arrival notifications to guests on WhatsApp and email, post which a guest could complete the pre-check-in formalities digitally.

• The guests who could not receive the pre-check-in notification, could scan a QR code placed at the front desk and still check-in digitally.
• The guest-facing web app was designed with features that allow guests to fill in their ETA/ETD, andaddress, upload their IDs with a digital scanner, submit preferences, choose value add-on upsell packages, preview and e-sign their registration card or bills, and pay for their stay via integrated payment gateways.
• The staff dashboard included several capabilities that allowed personnel to check the number of arrivals and departures, view guest reservation details, approve/reject uploaded IDs, health declarations, and registration cards.
• Staff members could mark a check-in directly from the BOTSHOT dashboard and monitor guest activities throughout their stay journey.
• To improve communication, an NLP-powered Chatbotwas created with the ability to answer FAQs, interpret requests, and keep guests interested.

• The Chatbot allowed any guest request, such as water bottles, extra towels, shaving kits, and so on, to be raised directly from the bot to the existing RMS (request management system)

Benefits:

• Almost 75% of visitors across all Leela hotels preferred the contactless check-in/check-out procedure.
• The hotel was able to save at least 8-10 A4 pages onevery reservation, resulting in a 15% reduction in operational costs and contributed to the company's sustainability initiative.
• The entire process saved each guest 10 minutes that would have otherwise been spent on manual check-in formalities at the reception.
• With all the procedures completed online, the guest would only need to grab the room keys from the front desk and head to their rooms, thus reducing the guest wait time by 85%.
• There was a dramatic reduction in the number of guests queuing at the front desk.
• The automated updating of guest information and payments into the PMS reduced manual errors and clerical work by 75%.
• The technology not only increased client trustbut also increased front-desk employees' confidence as it involved minimal physical contact.This also reduced the number of Covid cases in the hotel by 30% month over month.
• This allowed the staff to allocatemore time to build a genuine connection with the guest at the start of the stay.
• The Express check-in and check-out solution helped the Leela group increase their NPS by 15% in just 4 months.