Home of the largest event space in the state, the Crowne Plaza Suites Providence-Warwick Airport is home to all kinds of gatherings—from weddings to cheerleading competitions, they’ve got something for everyone. Wondering how they keep it all straight? With guest messaging, of course!

Movies to salt collectors 

Front Office Manager Alyssa Sullivan walked into this Warwick, RI property seven years ago and hasn’t left since. Moving up from working the front desk to now managing it, she’s no stranger to the hub of the hotel. 

“I fell into it and loved it,” she said of her job. “Every day is different, you don’t know what you’re going to get.” Whether guests are looking for more pillows or there’s an issue, the front desk is the place to go. 

And it’s always busy—from May until September, the property is booked every weekend, Sullivan said. This weekend, they’re hosting an event for salt-container collectors. Last weekend, they had four proms on Friday and four on Saturday. Last month, they were the location for a Christmas love story movie shoot (it’ll be out soon on Lifetime). 

“It’s challenging but rewarding,” she said of all the fun events that are hosted at this Crowne Plaza location. “We’re a group-based hotel, so we see lots of different types of people.”

Taking mediocre to 10 out of 10

Sometimes, guests are having a “meh” stay but don’t want to say anything over the phone or in person. With digital messaging for hotels, a simple text makes it easy to communicate needs that would improve the experience — and the same guests leave rating the stay a 10.

“People feel more comfortable texting,” Sullivan said of requests that they get. Relying heavily on the mid-stay check-in messages that automate through top hotel texting services like Kipsu, her team asks guests to rate their stay from 1-10.

If it’s lower than a seven or eight, they “roll out the red carpet,” she said, so that guests know they care. 

“That’s probably my favorite feature personally, because people could be having a mediocre stay but you don’t know that, until they give you a six on a survey,” Sullivan said. “It’s like, I wish we had known it wasn’t that great.” 

By communicating through hospitality messaging, her team can text guests and fix any issues right away—avoiding those sixes on review sites. 

Help from anywhere 

Hosting the vast events that they do, Sullivan and her team customize group texts through the Outreach feature for each one. For example, her team sent a welcome message for a karate tournament that included the registration location and a map of the hotel, showing where everyone would be competing. 

She also enjoys hotel texting and managing her team through the Kipsu app. “I love it from a manager standpoint, if [the app] is texting me that messages are overdue, I can just close it out on my phone,” she said. 

Or a team member is slacking? She can tell them from her phone too. 

The busiest nights for the Crowne Plaza Suites Providence-Warwick Airport are usually Fridays, when the team can have 200+ check-ins. “I can be anywhere and help them by answering messages,” Sullivan said. “I’ll be at family dinner and just pop in and text a guest quick.”

Overall, using hospitality messaging with Kipsu has helped communicate with guests—individually and on a group basis—help increase satisfaction scores, and avoid negative reviews at her property. “It’s really helped our scores, I hope everyone uses it,” she said.

Find out more about texting for hotels or schedule a conversation with the Kipsu team today!