Nestled among pine trees, just a few steps from the Croatian seaside and Poreč town center lies Valamar Parentino, one of the most popular hotels in the coastal region. Roughly 40 years after its opening, this 230-room property is still going strong and underwent an extensive renovation in 2014 to earn its fourth star. With such a large resort comes complex operations and, in particular, a maintenance department with a lot of moving parts.
Road to success: streamlined maintenance department
The old four-step system for reporting maintenance issues at the Valamar Parentino Hotel - mostly based on face-to-face communication - demanded a lot of back and forth, which was highly ineffective and time-consuming. We spoke to Vlastimir Ivancic (CIO) and Roberto Gobo (Director of Strategy and Technology) about how they have transformed their operations at both a property and a group level with some smart tech thanks to Flexkeeping‘s Hotel Operations Platform.
»Flexkeeping is a platform with that 'WOW!' effect. I experienced this only once before in my entire career. It’s been a great pleasure working with you.«
— Vlastimir Ivancic, CIO at Valamar Hotels & Resorts
Before Flexkeeping: frustrations and inefficiencies
A member of staff, most frequently a housekeeper, reported a maintenance issue to their head of department. Next, they would log it into a computer system which sent a phone notification to a maintenance team member. After resolving the issue, the same person had to mark it as completed in the computer system. More often than not, maintenance issues remained unnoticed or unresolved until the next day. They were also more likely to be noticed by the guests, resulting in a complaint as a knock on effect.
After Flexkeeping: automation and collaboration
We always look for companies to partner with that share our vision and are flexible enough to meet all our needs. We have a lot of custom processes and can be quite demanding and Flexkeeping was really able to adapt and focus on us as a customer.
The company has a solid product that is totally focused on Operations (Housekeeping, Maintenance, F & B etc.) and our staff have found it really easy to use, which is crucial. We think that in the future a combination of automated tasks, usage of data and usage of analytics in real-time is what will drive Operations forward.
For example, Flexkeeping significantly optimized and simplified the process of reporting hotel maintenance issues. It allowed all team members to log the issue directly into the platform, instantly informing everyone of the problem and its urgency. When a maintenance team member marks the issue as "resolved," Flexkeeping will notify the entire staff.
»We've significantly lowered future maintenance costs«
— Roberto Gobo, Director of Strategy and Technology at Valamar Hotels & Resorts
After introducing Flexkeeping, we recorded 60% more issues, proving the platform's efficiency. The management can better organize maintenance work by obtaining a more extensive overview of all maintenance issues. This approach significantly lowers future maintenance costs, too. We can also predict and prevent potential negative impacts on guest satisfaction.
Seamless onboarding and support
The onboarding process for us was super easy. It was truly seamless - we validated it on one property as a pilot then we quickly rolled it out to all our other properties. It's also easy when you work with a partner that understands hospitality and Operations well. The background of Flexkeeping's team in hospitality helps the company be more focused on us and understand what we actually need.
Becoming more strategic
In addition to an overall increase in reported maintenance issues, our team logs them in more evenly throughout the day. Thanks to faster and more efficient communication, we quickly identify and resolve problems. Flexkeeping enabled us to deal with every problem promptly and fix it the same day it was reported.
More efficient team communication also contributes to a higher level of guest satisfaction. Since problems are reported and resolved more swiftly, they are less likely to affect guests. Flexkeeping helps us adhere to the highest standards of guest satisfaction.
Flexkeeping truly helps us to focus on resolving our deeper pain points within our Operations team. That was always a massive strength of the platform, and they are able to understand our processes well. One of our favorite things about Flexkeeping is that it keeps a lot of statistics about what is happening, and it tries to improve things based on the data and the actions and events that are happening all within the platform.
