Challenges
The Familotel Allgäuer Berghof is an owner-managed 4-star superior hotel at an altitude of 1,200 meters which specialises in family holidays. The owners, the Neusch family, focus on the smallest details to ensure that old and young alike enjoy a relaxing and uncomplicated stay. The Allgäu Berghof is regarded as one of the best children and family hotels in Germany, and has also made a name for itself internationally.
hotelkit is very easy to use, user-friendly and almost self-explanatory.
They were looking for a digital solution to help them improve their knowledge management, and clarify the delegation of responsibility for various tasks. Although they had already established good communication channels within and between departments, there were still misunderstandings, most minor, but occasionally more serious. In addition, they wanted to involve employees from the Building Services and Housekeeping departments more actively in the internal communications process in order to increase efficiency in these areas.
Implementation
The hotelkit test phase took place in summer 2013, with a rapid, well-structured start. Just a few days after the technical set-up, both the administrators and the staff were trained in the day-to-day use of hotelkit, and was launched simultaneously for both groups.
From the very first phase, the Neusch family had a strong focus on the topic of knowledge management. To create a solid base, the hotelkit team was on hand to advise the family, and help them to find the best intuitive structure for the handbook. As a result, they were able to collect and enter the hotel’s existing SOP’s and step by step processes, and make them available to all employees. From now on, the knowledge that was already present in the hotel is gathered and updated in a place accessible to all.
Results
Owner Christian Neusch knew from the beginning exactly what he wanted from hotelkit. Initially more of a critical bystander, he soon became a convinced user: “Since we introduced hotelkit, we have performed better and become much more efficient, especially in the Housekeeping and Building Services departments. Important updates are quickly made available to the right person – and it is easy to see who has already read or edited which piece of information. hotelkit is very easy to use, user-friendly and almost self-explanatory. And even if you’re not in the office, with hotelkit you can quickly get an overview of the hotel – from anywhere.”
The handbook in the Allgäu Berghof currently contains nearly 500 articles, which have now been revised around 14,000 times. In addition, more than 11,000 tasks have been logged, which corresponds to an average of 280 tasks per month. Internal communication now takes place almost exclusively via hotelkit, which is reflected in the figures: to date, approximately 1,000 handovers and 1,020 news items have been prepared and actively discussed with team members in all areas.
The hotelkit team helped us with the structure of our handbook from the start, and the knowledge base is expanding daily.
hotelkit has really proved its worth in the day- to-day running of the hotel, as reported by Ms Neusch Senior: “On one of my rounds, I discovered a large mark on one of the hotel walls. I got out my phone, took a photo, and sent the hotel’s building services manager a repair order through the hotelkit app. Not two minutes later, he turned up with the paint, as he had just finished another job on the same floor. You can imagine how surprised I was – after all, I had only just placed the order. That reminded me of how much more efficient we have become, thanks to this great solution.”
About the author
Julia Stiefsohn
Enjoys giving websites an attractive look, this blog also bears her creative handwriting, at least in part. Speaking of handwriting: every now and then, when she’s in the flow, she also writes.
