Background
Bought out by owner Aidan Stevens in 2016 and fully renovated and refurbished, this beautiful independent boutique hotel near Cirencester on the edge of the Cotswolds has 43 rooms, a garden restaurant and an award-winning spa. They came to Rezcontrol having previously run our server-based system, following extensive market testing.
Before purchasing Stratton House, Aidan had run another hotel, which used Hotel Executive, and he introduced this to his new venture.
The problem
"We needed a system which was feature-rich and great value"
When Aidan purchased Stratton House, there were benefits to a server-based system, but by the time Rezcontrol was launched, the advantages of the cloud were becoming evident, with everything in one place, automatically updated and available on any device.
“We were on a knife-edge between Rezcontrol and a larger competitor,” explained Aidan. “In the end, Rezcontrol was proven to be extremely feature rich for its price, hitting the right balance between cost and functionality.”
Stratton House migrated in 2022, as the pandemic was coming to an end and hospitality was able to open its doors. The migration was smooth and seamless, and the team have found numerous advantages to the system.
“We really appreciate the transparency in Rezcontrol’s billing, and the way it brings rooms, table reservations and events together,” said Aidan.
The solution
“Rezcontrol is clear and easy to use, with such responsive support"
The whole team have found numerous benefits from using the system. “Having worked with different reservation systems, I find Rezcontrol highly intuitive, with all the necessary features and a user-friendly interface, said Reception Manager Tatyana Bezrodnova. “Customer support is quick and very efficient too”.
“We love the easy invoicing and allocations for groups and events”
Meanwhile, Wedding and Events Coordinator Charla Clifford added: “I use the correspondence tab to create templates for groups, deposits and invoices – the invoicing pro forma is so easy to use, with simple categories for the correct allocations.”
The benefits of Rezcontrol
“We really appreciate the choice, and management, of APIs”
One of the advantages of Rezcontrol is that Avondata selects and manages the integrations, so any issues are dealt with at source. They are carefully chosen to best complement the hotelier’s needs, and to ensure a 360 degree provision.
“RoomPriceGenie has added significant value, especially in the summer months,” said Aidan. “Once the parameters are set, it runs itself, also saving hours of manual adjustments, and the algorithm has been proved right on numerous occasions, where a human might have not risked going with a higher rate, for example. Hotel managers aren’t statisticians, so we are more than happy to let the technology do the job!”
“RoomPriceGenie has added significant value, increasing revenue and removing pricing misjudgments”
Resdiary is another vital integration, ensuring that room and table bookings are coordinated and billing handled via Newbridge POS, while SiteMinder helps enormously with channel management.
Stratton House also runs lots of events, with weddings and parties, escape and spa breaks, wedding fayres, quiz nights and seasonal activities, so the hotel makes good use of Rezgift, Rezcontrol’s own gifting platform.
“We’ve been very interested to hear about the latest innovations with Rezgift, such as seating plans and ticketing,” said Aidan. “And we’re keen to explore RotaReady to help with staffing.”