Introduction
Mercure Roeselare Hotel, a 4-star hotel situated on the border of France in Belgium, is a franchise under the renowned French hospitality group, Accor Group. With 87 rooms, 10 meeting spaces, a restaurant, a bar, a gym, and an infrared cabin, the hotel caters mainly to business clients in the region. Facing the challenge of manual data management and an outdated system, Mercure Roeselare Hotel sought a solution that could streamline its financial reporting, and this is where Blent came into play. The integration between Blent and Mews had a transformative impact on the hotel's operations, leading to increased efficiency, informed decision-making, and more reliable data.
The Challenge
Mercure Roeselare Hotel, like many others, faced several challenges related to data management and reporting. Damien, the Managing Director of the hotel, explains, "Before Blent, we were using Excel with outdated macros, resulting in manual work, a higher risk of errors, and limited flexibility. Adjusting to changes in numbers and revenue categories was a challenging task."
The Solution
The hotel's journey to overcome these challenges began when they discovered Blent on the Mews marketplace. Damien shares, "We needed a Business Intelligence (BI) solution to digitalize and automate our Profit and Loss (P&L) system, as we hold monthly meetings with the owner to present financial data."
The integration between Blent and Mews provided the solution. Theprimary advantages were:
Automation: Blent automated their data management,reducing manual work and the room for errors.
Real-time Data Access: The integration with Mews allowed liveaccess to data.
Data Accuracy: Blent pushes data from the PMS and othersource points directly to its system guaranteeing its accuracy
Time Savings: The hotel saved valuable time compared totheir previous Excel-based processes.
Achievements and Benefits
The implementation of Blent's solution yielded several significant benefits for Mercure Roeselare Hotel:
Expanded Data Usage: Initially aimed at digitalizing the P&L statement, Mercure Roeselare Hotel now uses Blent for various aspects of hotel management, integrating data from PMS (Mews), accounting (Exact Online), and planning (Strobbo).
Enhanced Efficiency: The hotel reduced manual data entry tasks,making operations more efficient. “In the past, night auditors were tasked withcopying and pasting data from multiple documents into a single report”. Today owners can access the pickup report directly from Blent’s dashboard.
Real-time Decision-Making: Access to live data and accurate financial information empowered the hotel to make informed decisions swiftly, increasing confidence in their choices.
Improved Data Accuracy: Damien emphasized the significance of data accuracy, stating, "While building the integration with Blent, we discovered discrepancies in our P&L data that had gone unnoticed for several years. Blent rectified these discrepancies."
User Feedback
The feedback from the Mercure Roeselare Hotel team has been overwhelmingly positive. The Blent solution improved operational efficiency, streamlined data management, and reduced the need for manual data entry. Damien notes, "Overall, the feedback from the team is very positive. We don’t have the need to copy-paste reports anymore since we have Blent - it’s a huge workload taken off the team’s back, and we have more accurate data."
Ongoing Support and Partnership
Blent's support and partnership have been crucial throughout the process. The support team was highly responsive during the implementation phase and remained accessible for assistance and updates. Damien adds, "Blent's team has been very responsive throughout the whole process. Whenever we have a question, they provide a solution."
Recommendation
Damien concludes, "Definitely, I would recommend Blent to other hotels using Mews. The basis for my recommendation is the in-depth analysis hotels can achieve with Blent, the accuracy of the data which makes it super reliable and trustworthy. It can change the life of a general manager of any hotel as they can make decisions based on these numbers that are pushed live into the dashboard and the reports. As of today, data is king, and having the possibility of organizing that data is a game changer."
Conclusion
The integration of Blent with Mews has revolutionized Mercure Roeselare Hotel's operations, providing efficiency, data accuracy, and real-time insights. With Blent's support and their team's positive experience, the partnership continues to thrive, offering a valuable solution for data-driven decision-making in the hospitality industry. This demonstrates that when technology aligns with the needs of a business, it can create a profound impact, leading to more informed, efficient, and successful operations.
