Looking for more user-friendly technology and better support, Africa’s CityBlue Hotels found STAAH. The rest is history.
CityBlue is a borderless, branded group of business-centric hotels in Eastern and Southern Africa’s major cities, supported by a world-class digital infrastructure.
As an African-born business which was founded in 2013 with immense passion, the ambition of this decade is to consolidate CityBlue as Africa’s fastest-growing local hotel chain.
While focused on business clientele, CityBlue’s current hotels are also conference-and-leisure-friendly, located in three African port cities, two major interior capitals and one secondary city off the coast of Kenya.
Background
For large hotels and groups in particular, efficiency remains a constant hurdle to jump. Unnecessary time spent on manual work, slow data entry and error-prone admin tasks is not only annoying, but detrimental to revenue performance. In the case of CityBlue Hotels, online distribution was manually managed. To support its ambitions of powering into a leading African group of hotels, automation using modern hotel technology was not a wish. It was a must.
STAAH was a game changer
Since implementing STAAH, CityBlue’s operations have undergone a remarkable transformation. The enhanced features of STAAH channel manager have streamlined rate and inventory management processes through a stable and real-time connection to a variety of online channels to update inventory and rates.
STAAH’s unified platform also allowed rates and inventory to be managed from a single dashboard for all properties. This has not just saved countless hours but has also reduced the risk of errors and overbookings, providing a seamless booking experience for guests.
It’s this power and performance that melts away the headaches of hoteliers across the globe and makes STAAH one of the industry’s leading hotel platform. By saving time and simplifying the workload on the backend, CityBlue is able to focus more attention on their guests and look more closely at how they grow revenue – the real things the team should be thinking about.
All good decisions are centred on data. A key ask from CityBlue when looking for the right technology platform was easy access analytics and insights to inform their revenue and marketing strategy and STAAH didn’t disappoint. STAAH’s platform’s robust reporting tools enable CityBlue’s team to track performance metrics in real-time and optimise revenue management strategies accordingly. The group also uses STAAH RateSTalk to monitor competitor rates and ensure their pricing is holistic and competitive.
With business being a key segment, STAAH GDS has been critical to enhance CityBlue’s global reach via travel agents and corporate travel planners. Managed like any other online travel agents (OTA) through the central dashboard, STAAH GDS has opened CityBlue’s participation in TMC and Consortia programme with personal guidance from the STAAH team to wade through the unique complexities of this channel.
Understanding the importance of online reviews, STAAH ReviewMinder was another add-on product CityBlue Hotels invested in to maximise the potential of guest reviews to drive acquisition and a positive online reputation.
One platform making all the difference
The STAAH platform has been designed to meet the specific goals of hoteliers, which is why hotels and groups and CityBlue often see immediate results when it comes to boosting revenue and seeing a holistic improvement to operations.
The CityBlue team has been impressed with the positive impact made by STAAH. Its simple user interface has meant quick and wide adoption of this technology through the group, positively impacting operations. The time and effort saved, combined with the increased accuracy and connectivity, have not only improved their bottom line but have also allowed our staff to focus on delivering exceptional guest experiences.
What also sets STAAH apart of the rest is its customer support. When you join the STAAH network, you come on board not as a customer, but as a partner and can be assured that a dedicated team will support you quickly when required and proactively reach out to harness the power of their platform and maximise its benefits.
