Implementing technology at your hotel can be intimidating, especially when adopting the tech across multiple departments. However, when done effectively, it can drive success and create a seamless experience for everyone. From the guest journey to cross-team communication, Kipsu’s innovative tech solutions work together to streamline operations and boost the overall guest experience.

Holiday Inn Plainview - Long Island by IHG leverages Kipsu Engage and Kipsu Exceed to improve both guest experience and hotel operations. We sat down with Kunal Patel, General Manager, and Patrick Thompson, Front Office Manager, to learn more about their hotel’s success with guest messaging and digital ticketing.

Keeping digital service human-centered

Patrick and Kunal see Kipsu Engage as a differentiator, because it enables a better, more personalized connection with the guest. Many people today are so used to interacting with chatbots, that it’s actually surprising to them when it’s another human on the other side of the message. Patrick shared, “I've gotten that a few times. Oh, I'm talking to AI. And I'm like, no, you're talking to somebody at the front desk, not AI, you know, and I think a lot of people are kind of taken back by that because they're not used to that messaging service.”

Service recovery is one text away

One of the benefits of Kipsu Engage is the ability to find more opportunities for service recovery, especially through welcome messages. Sending welcome messages to guests opens the door to fast and effective communication, and makes service recovery and overall guest service easier to manage. “If there is anything they want to share with us like, ‘oh you know this has been an issue in the room’ we can repair it, or if they want to move something, any kind of thing they communicate with us,” said Kunal. “We're able to at least talk to them and react appropriately.”

“If there is anything they want to share with us like, ‘oh you know this has been an issue in the room’ we can repair it, or if they want to move something, any kind of thing they communicate with us.”
- Kunal Patel, General Manager of Holiday Plainview - Long Island

Bringing Kipsu’s communication to the BOH

Before implementing Kipsu Exceed, the staff at the Holiday Inn was “old school” - using walkie-talkies and handwritten log books. But they soon discovered that they needed something more, especially when it came to maintenance requests and PM requirements. With the hotel already using Kipsu Engage, it was an easy decision for them to add Exceed to their hotel tech stack.  “This just kind of digitized everything,” said Kunal, “so it made it easier just to see what's done and not done and, you know, just kind of track everything.” 

He had found many features within Kipsu Exceed useful, including various checklists, log books, front desk features, and especially the preventative maintenance module. All of these made implementing the ticketing system a no-brainer.

Adopting new systems and software

The key to getting the most out of Kipsu Exceed is adoption. And while Patrick knows that “nobody likes new things…I think they’re seeing the benefits of it. Everyone knows that this is something that we want to implement that’ll benefit the hotel and guests.” Luckily for him and his team, adopting the new ticketing software was really easy. By starting slowly, and training one department at a time, their hotel was able to build stronger SOP’s across all departments and improve cross-team communication.

The first step in gaining adoption and usage for the Holiday Inn was setting up preventative maintenance checklists within the software. “We do inspections in about six or eight rooms depending on the day.” Patrick created inspection checklists “so we can just walk around with a tablet - that way, it stays digital, and my boss, Kunal, can go in there and just see what the inspections look like instead of having to deal with papers on his desk.”

"Everyone knows that this is something that we want to implement that’ll benefit the hotel and guests.”
- Patrick Thompson, Front Office Manager at Holiday Plainview - Long Island

To help with employee morale and software adoption, Kunal has even found a way to gamify the inspections with a bonus program for the room attendants. “We check one of their rooms every day before the housekeeping manager and inspector to see how the room was done. Whoever has the lowest amount of things wrong in the room, they get a $75 gift card. Second place gets $50 and third place gets $25.” This motivates the room attendants to keep performance - and rooms - at their peak, leading to fewer guest requests, and higher guest satisfaction.

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Visibility between management and staff 

One noticeable difference they saw after using the two Kipsu solutions was the visibility between staff and management. When staff is leveraging Kipsu Engage at the front desk, it’s easy for management to get even more visibility into the types of conversations that are happening with guests. “Once you see it in place you see you do get to converse (with) a lot of guests and their messaging back and forth,” said Kunal. This level of visibility can provide insights not usually seen by GMs, property managers, and owners.

For Kipsu Exceed, Patrick has noticed improvements among the staff when it comes to visibility and accountability. “We even see some of the staff members at the front desk, even housekeeping, who aren’t on that day, and they read the log books, they see what’s going on.” And when it comes to accountability for maintenance tickets, “we know who’s signing off on it and who’s doing it. It works a lot better.”

Holiday Inn Plainview was able to take their success with Kipsu Engage and build onto it with Kipsu Exceed.  At Kipsu, we make sure our tools work better together, providing an elevated communication experience for both staff and guests. If you’re ready to learn more about our hotel solutions, schedule a conversation with us today!

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