David Thomson is the Chief Information Officer for Staypineapple Hotels, a group of 10 boutique luxury hotel properties in seven cities across the United States. As the person responsible for the technology stacks that power each one of the hotel group’s properties, Thomson is always on the lookout for new digital solutions that can improve the guest experience, boost revenue and increase staff efficiency.
“The modern hotel guest expects an outstanding digital experience that matches the quality they receive in-person when staying at a property,” said Thomson. ”At Staypineapple, we’re always looking for ways to enhance the guest experience using technology. And a big part of that is ensuring that we only deploy solutions that work seamlessly with a guest’s personal mobile device and don’t require the download of any new apps,” he continued.
“It’s very important that we engage our customers using the technology tools they’re most comfortable with, and for most, that’s their smartphone,” said Thomson. “And that’s one of the primary reasons we chose Canary as the Guest Management System to power our properties’ digital guest journey. Our team saw that Canary’s platform could help us accomplish all of the operational and sales goals we had around guest experience, efficiency and revenue, while checking every criteria box we had for technology solutions.”
Staypineapple chose to deploy a number of Canary’s solutions at its properties including, Contactless Check-In, Digital Upsells, Guest Messaging and Digital Authorizations. After only a short amount of staff training time, each property was live and ready to use Canary with their guests.
“Staypineapple’s staff members have adopted Canary into their day-to-day routine very quickly,” said Thomson. “It’s a huge benefit that both our staff and guests are able to easily engage with the platform.”
Thomson highlighted a variety of benefits that were associated with each of Canary’s individual products that make up its Guest Management System.
“Before we deployed Canary, we had a very ‘inn-keeper’ mentality,” said Thomson. “We would welcome you at the desk, go through all of the administrative paperwork and then provide you with keys and send you on your way.”
With Canary, Staypineapple Hotels are now providing a modern guest experience that streamlines the check-in process.
“Today, guests receive an email and text message before they ever arrive with a unique link that allows them to complete all of the administrative tasks before they arrive at the property. This allows us to provide guests with a more personalized and streamlined arrival experience that they love,” said Thomson.
According to Thomson, one of Staypineapple’s major goals when selecting guest-facing technology solutions is to find ways to drive more ancillary revenue without compromising the guest experience. And Canary’s Digital Upsells feature provided the ideal opportunity to do just that, which is why Staypineapple implemented its Guest Management Platform across all 10 of its properties.
“Since implementing Canary, we’ve increased the amount of upsell packages we’ve sold to guests by 200%,” said Thomson. “It used to be that we’d ask our front desk agents to help us push upsells when guests arrived, but the results were lackluster; with Canary we can drive more revenue without our staff having to worry about it.”
In addition to the benefits of Contactless Check-In and Digital Uspells, the Staypineapple CIO was also keen to highlight that Canary’s Guest Messaging solution has significantly helped the 10-hotel group substantially increase staff efficiency.
“Since implementing Canary, our time to guest inquiry response has become twice as fast and Canary has made our team 20% more efficient across the board,” said Thomson. “This is fantastic as it has taken the pressure of guest phone calls off the front desk that can be distracting when our agents are trying to check guests in.”
Canary has enabled Staypineapple Hotels to meet all of the business goals it had for a Guest Management Platform. Its industry-leading solutions have significantly increased revenue per guest, markedly improved the guest experience and made staff 20% more efficient across the group’s entire property portfolio.
“We’re extremely happy with what we have been able to achieve with Canary’s Guest Management Platform at Staypineapple’s properties,” said Thompson. “And we very much look forward to continuing our partnership in enhancing the guest experience well into the future.”
.webp)
.webp)
.webp)
.webp)