Point Hotel is located in Brisbane on Australia’s iconic Kangaroo Point, offering guests a scenic, personalized stay in the heart of the city. The 199-room independent property is a retreat in the heart of the city, inviting guests to experience their carefully crafted spaces as a home-away-from-home.
However, time spent on administrative tasks was getting in the way of the staff providing the luxury service guests expect. This led Jennie Kim, Point Hotel’s Senior Marketing Manager, to turn to Canary. A little over a year after implementation, we spoke to her to learn about the results.
Before Canary, the front desk team spent a good portion of their days answering repetitive questions about the ferry shuttle, on-site dining options and other amenities. Now Canary’s AI Guest Messaging fully handles many of these inquiries, letting the front desk focus on the guests in front of them. Since adopting Canary, the hotel has sent and received over 120,000 guest messages. Now instead of repeating the ferry schedule, front desk teams can focus on making real connections.
“The biggest benefit has been giving time back to our front office team,” said Jennie. “By automating common enquiries and guest communication, staff can spend less time on repetitive administration and more time providing personalised service.”
Every arrival used to require paperwork, leading to long lobby queues during busy arrival times. Now, guests submit their details in advance through Canary’s Mobile Check-In, so they spend far less time at reception and start enjoying their stay sooner. To date, Point Hotel has processed more than 40,000 check-ins through the platform.
“Mobile Check-In has made arrivals much quicker and more convenient,” said Jennie. “It’s evolved from a transactional experience to a conversational one, allowing our team to make more meaningful connections with our guests.”
Point Hotel used to ask every guest to check out at the front desk — but if they skipped that step, the hotel had to wait until after checkout time to see if the room was free. Now, Canary’s Self-Service Kiosks and Smart Checkout give guests convenient options to check out and view their folio, so the front office team always knows when it’s time to flag a room for housekeeping turnover.
“Since many guests now complete checkout through Canary, we no longer have to rely on them stopping by the front desk,” said Jennie. “This has made departures more efficient and also helps our housekeeping team prioritise turnover.”
Point Hotel used to rely entirely on its team to remember to offer upgrades, so opportunities regularly slipped by. Canary’s Dynamic Upsells puts offers in front of guests before they arrive and throughout their stay. Now, Sunday late check-out has become the property's strongest seller, with continental breakfast close behind. The hotel has processed more than $60,000 AUD in ancillary revenue since deploying the product.
“Late check-outs perform especially well on Sundays when guests want to extend their weekend,” said Jennie. “By presenting these offers before guests arrive and giving them the option to stay a little longer, we've seen much more revenue than relying on manual upselling alone.”
Manual check-in, checkout, and the administrative tasks behind them used to bottleneck the front desk during peak periods, causing long lines in the lobby. Jennie estimates that Canary has saved the team hundreds of hours, which is time that’s gone directly back into guest service.
“Canary has saved our team nearly 300 hours in just the past 6 months,” said Jennie. “This has allowed our front office team to spend more time delivering personalised guest service and less time on paperwork, resulting in a more efficient operation overall.”
Point Hotel’s guest satisfaction score is currently 5 out of 5. It’s the product of many factors, but removing friction from the guest journey is certainly part of it. Asked whether she'd recommend the platform to other hoteliers, her answer was simple:
“We were looking for a solution that could modernise key parts of the guest journey while creating operational efficiencies for the team,” said Jennie. “Canary provides a convenient experience for guests while also increasing revenue and streamlining communication. This frees our staff to provide the kind of hospitality that makes guests love their stay.”
