Background
Daish’s Holidays are specialists in UK seaside coach holiday breaks. They provide holidays in England and Wales, across 11 hotels. They migrated all 11 hotels to Rezcontrol during summer 2025 and their experience of onboarding and working with the system has exceeded all expectations.
As their short break holiday packages all include coach travel, half board accommodation and live nightly entertainment, they primarily use Rezcontrol for the ease with which they can manage large bookings, while not requiring extra functionality such as table reservations and on-site event management.
The problem
"Our previous system was complicated, with poor service"
Daish’s ran with another system for several years, which had wide-ranging functionality but was also overly complex, and included options – at a cost – which the company simply didn’t need.
It was also difficult to get problems resolved, so when they acquired The Sandringham Hotel in Weston-super-Mare, which already used Rezcontrol, they were recommended to try it by the hotel’s GM and were quickly impressed by its intuitive simplicity and the presence of a personal account manager – one of the services Rezcontrol prides itself on, which not all systems provide.
The solution
"All our databases uploaded to Rezcontrol without a hitch"
When Daish’s moved to Rezcontrol, with 11 hotels to migrate they were naturally anxious about their existing reservations and databases.
“We import bookings from a specialist coach travel specialist,” explained Daish’s IT Manager Darren Gilchrist. “This has always required a manual upload into the individual hotel’s PMS, and while this is still the case – as T4 is a bespoke provider without a PMS integration – we achieved a seamless migration and all our existing databases and bookings were uploaded without a hitch.”
“The system had to be foolproof”
Daish’s has a predominantly senior demographic, so the ability to allocate rooms easily to a large group booking, with guests who will often have specific access needs, is paramount.
The benefits of Rezcontrol
"The combination of online training and personal support has been a godsend"
“It had to be foolproof, as every hotel works on the basis of a complete changeover every four days,” said Darren. “This is quite a task, as we have 11 hotels, ranging from 63 – 110 bedrooms. Guests don’t get to choose the actual room, as these are allocated by the hotel. But within Rezcontrol they can specify both preferences and physical requirements.”
Meanwhile, Rezcontrol is working on a dedicated integration to T4 as well.
Staff in all the hotels have benefited from Rezcontrol’s modular online training, which offers the convenience of bite-size chunks which can be absorbed at the team member’s own pace. Additionally, our account management team carried out all the installations and visited each site in person, to carry out further training as needed and answer queries or demonstrate solutions and easy system shortcuts.
“I remember in some hotels there were reception staff who had been anxious about adapting to a new system,” said Nathan Woodward, Rezcontrol Customer Success Manager. “It was so satisfying being able to provide the reassurance and training they needed in person, while seeing them quickly gain in confidence.”
“The hotel reception teams soon gained confidence and we were able to answer all their queries”
“Onboarding went so smoothly, and the PMS does all we need and more,” said Darren.
With Daish’s very specific needs, they focus on those functionalities which are most relevant to their setup, and they have also added Rezpay* to their arsenal. With one portal, accessible within Rezcontrol, RezPay centralises all payments, whether taken online, at reception, via payment links, and through standalone PDQs.
“We can now charge extras, such as from the bar, directly to the rooms, and we are also setting up the pre-payment card authorisations to avoid chargebacks, which will save us from losses if someone tries to leave without settling a bill,” said Darren. “Going forward, for those of our hotels which cater to local events, we are going to start offering event-based booking opportunities.”
Pre-payment card authorisations, email automations and festival bookings
These will be rolled out at the Barrowfield Hotel in Newquay for the Boardmasters festival, when the hotel will be open for external bookings, and similarly for the Imperial Hotel in Eastbourne, for the Eastbourne Tennis Festival.
“Generally, only 1% of our bookings come from OTAs, but for these bespoke events we want to make the most of seasonal bookings, are very happy with the service SiteMinder provides,” he said. “When we are connecting to external local events, we also plan to use Rezcontrol’s email automations to promote these bookings and share information with guests who have booked in for them.
Overall, Daish’s are thrilled with Rezcontrol. “It’s so intuitive; issues are always addressed so fast, and it really works for us,” concluded Darren.
*ClearAccept Ltd t/a RezPay is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority under the Payment Service Regulations 2017 (FRN 926372) for the provision of payment services.