Leveraging the Upgrade Check-In Flow at Best Western River North Hotel
A Modern Hotel in the Heart of Downtown Chicago
Located in downtown Chicago sits a 150-room, trendy property – the Best Western River North Hotel. Only a few blocks from the Magnificent Mile and a short walk or ride to exciting attractions, museums, restaurants, shopping and landmarks, the Best Western River North Hotel is the truly ideal location for both business and leisure travelers. With a commitment to providing high levels of guest satisfaction and warm hospitality, combined with outstanding amenities and stunning views, this hotel provides a unique experience for their guests. The Best Western River North Hotel was named one of the best hotels in Chicago by National Geographic Traveler Magazine and called the best moderate hotel in Chicago by the Travel Channel.
Seamless Process for the Front Desk Staff
During the implementation of Jonas Chorum, the Best Western River North Hotel focused on setting up the software to meet the specific needs of their property. “With the onsite parking at our hotel, we needed a solution to easily add this upcharge to guests who are arriving at the front desk and need to pay for parking,” stated Heidi Bitar, General Manager at the Best Western River North Hotel. “Having said that, the special requests functionality as part of the check-in flow was the best way to set this up and seamlessly have our front desk add this charge to the guests folio.” By adding this functionality as part of the check-in process, they have also experienced some key benefits, “Prior to implementing Jonas Chorum and adding the special request option for the parking charge, our process was more manual and cumbersome to complete. The upgrade flow feature has sped up the check-in process for both our staff and guests, creating a quick and easy check-in experience overall.” Additionally, with the easy-to-use nature of the check-in functionality within Chorum PMS, the front desk staff was able to learn how to use it quickly and truly enjoy using it on a daily basis.
Enhanced Reporting Capabilities and Additional Revenue
With majority of the special request revenue coming from onsite parking upcharges, the Best Western River North Hotel is able to track and manage cars parked and revenue incurred as well. As Heidi stated, “Since we do offer both free and paid parking options, the parking detail report helps us identify how many cars are on our lot in total. In addition, the special requests report, which is built-in as a standard report in Jonas Chorum, allows our accounting team to track how much revenue has been made from the parking upcharge.” Year to date, the Best Western River North Hotel has attained roughly $27,000.00 in additional revenue using the special requests feature as a part of the check-in upgrade flow, which comes standard with the Jonas Chorum property management system. This additional revenue alone more than pays for the cost of Jonas Chorum on a yearly basis, which is something Heidi appreciates. “We experience many guests checking in on a daily basis, and the ability to simply click the appropriate special request code in a drop down as part of the check-in process has really become routine for our front desk staff. This ensures any upgrade or special request charges don’t fall through the cracks, which helps us maximize our revenue during check-in.”
About Jonas Chorum
Jonas Chorum is a suite of streamlined, intuitive and flexible property management software solutions, designed to provide hotels with everything they need to operate more efficiently and cost effectively, all while delivering a personalized guest experience. Product offerings include Chorum PMS, Chorum CRS, Chorum Mobile, and Chorum Sync. The cloud-based platform features a lineup of high-tech applications and user-friendly features, making it a superior software solution for independent hotels, chain hotels and hotel management companies.