How to Increase Operational Efficiency while Making 5-digit Savings

Improved Multi-property Guest Communication

Citybox managed to save costs while making their guests happier and freeing their staff from heavy workloads. With Bookboost, they merged all their communications and automated repetitive tasks.

Modern innovation

Citybox is all about the modern. By cutting out the clutter they offer high quality for affordable prices. The brand has properties in six cities.

Unique reception

Citybox is not like other hotels. The guests handle booking, payment, check-in and check-out themselves.‍

The MeetingBox

True to their concept, the conference rooms include all the equipment a modern conference needs, for competitive prices.

About Citybox

Citybox is a modern budget hotel chain with six properties in Oslo, Bergen city, Bergen Danmarksplass, Kristiansand, Antwerp, and Tallinn. Citybox focuses on good locations and spacious rooms with contemporary design, removing the unnecessaries like minibars.

Citybox has no front desk reception, restaurant, or bar. Instead, Citybox has its own check-in kiosk, a Host Office and the guests themselves take care of booking, payment, check-in, and check-out.

“Our way of running the hotel is trying to be as efficient as possible. We don’t have an open reception, just a backstage receptionist office, and invisible staff. Our staff used to have pretty heavy workloads and we wanted to free them from repetitive tasks.”

William Fosser, Revenue Manager of Citybox

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The challenges

Managing multi-property budget hotels is highly demanding due to the sheer number of tasks with limited resources.

One of the biggest challenges was delivering guest service at each hotel. Placing a staff member at each hotel was too costly, yet they needed to be ready to answer guest questions. Therefore the hotel focused on developing its digital communications to meet traveller expectations while providing centralised customer service.

How Bookboost helps

To address the challenge, Citybox clearly knew that it needed a Guest Messaging platform that integrates messages from all communication channels for all hotel properties into a central dashboard. Bookboost was implemented in 2018.

Bookboost’s Web Messenger and Unified Inbox implements a chatbot on the website and provides a browser-based unified inbox that integrates all messages from a variety of channels. Citybox uses the tool in different ways:

• Manage incoming inquiries

All enquiries come through the unified central inbox from the website, SMS, Wechat, Whatsapp, Facebook etc. The operator responds to all guests, using the pre-set answers feature for FAQs. Saving time in sourcing answers, typing and responding.

• Funnel conversations & assign tasks

Nearly all enquiries are handled by the operator, but where there are serious guest complaints, these are routed for response to each hotel’s general manager. This allows the hotel group to remain transparent and approachable putting the guests’ considerations first.

• Manage multi-property hotels

The Unified Inbox handles all Citybox properties, making the process more efficient for Therese. One account, one system for all hotels meaning only one person needs to handle the system.

“Bookboost has helped me a lot by unifying messages of guests and handling repetitive inquiries. I am able to cut the time that I spend answering repetitive questions and use the spare time to respond to more complicated issues or to connect with my guests. I work more efficiently with the help of Bookboost.”

Therese, Booking Coordinator of Citybox

The results

• Save human resources & cost

Previously, Citybox would have had to place one staff member at each hotel to manage inquiries. After using Bookboost, they only need one staff centrally to supervise all 4 properties, saving 3 human resources at an estimated total of €81,358 per year in labor cost*.

• Save time

Through supervising all communication channels and properties with one staff, using pre-set answers, each staff saves an average of 50 minutes just on typing and 30-minutes looking for information each day.*

• Work more efficiently

Citybox has become more efficient in daily operations since using Bookboost, focusing their valuable time on critical tasks to provide better services and make their guests happy.

• Better guest experience

The seamless communication internally and externally has made Citybox’s guests satisfied. Inquiries are answered on time, requests are fulfilled properly, and even complaints are valued and taken good care of.