After some of the toughest years in the hospitality industry yet, the Holiday Inn & Suites Duluth-Downtown wanted to bounce back and make changes that would help the property. So they implemented hospitality messaging to get in touch with guests and boost satisfaction scores.

The largest hotel in Duluth, Minnesota 

A charming historical city along Lake Superior in northern Minnesota, Duluth is full of young families in the summer and business travelers year round. The Holiday Inn & Suites Duluth-Downtown is the largest property in the downtown area, said General Manager Brandon Porter.

Starting off in the hospitality industry when he was 15 years old as a dishwasher, Porter has been at this location for 11 years. 

“I’ve worked in every department in the hotel,” he said, this year being his third as general manager. Committed to not only the industry but this property, he wanted to see a change after a tough few years.

“We were seeking out a way to start over, and the best way to do that is to get in touch with our guests,” Porter said.

Top 300 in just 2 weeks 

After deciding that a hotel text messaging system was the way to go to improve scores and the overall guest experience, Porter and his team excelled. 

In just over three weeks since launching hotel texting at the Holiday Inn & Suites Duluth-Downtown, the property is ranking No. 254 out of over 4,000 properties on Kipsu performance scoreboards.

“Our front desk loves it,” Porter said, of all the time and phone calls hospitality messaging is saving his team. “We get a lot of guests in the summer, it can be a lot… if we can save just a few minutes, that’s more time for the guest in front of us.”

And the guests are noticing, too: One IHG Diamond Elite rewards member who has stayed at this Duluth property multiple times mentioned in a recent review that they loved the new texting feature.

“That led to our first ten out of ten review, it’s worth it right there,” he said of the hotel texting service. 

Hospitality messaging can also help with follow-up on guest requests, Porter added. Say a guest needs extra towels—if they call and a front desk member writes it down, it could get lost or forgotten. By using hospitality texting, there is a written record of what room number needs what, and when. 

“Since we’ve adopted it, we’ve already seen it in our reviews and it’s going really well,” he said.

The Holiday Inn & Suites Duluth-Downtown is one of many hotels using hospitality guest messaging as a form of contactless communication as the hospitality industry bounces back. Learn more about texting for hotels or schedule a conversation with our team today!

‍

If you're interested in sharing your own story about using Kipsu, send us an email at hello@kipsu.com