SHH Hotels embraces digital automation

SHH Hotels is a growing, family-run hotel group based in the Austrian region of Styria. Since launching in 2021, managing directors Andrea and Nina Schober have been on a mission to blend heartfelt hospitality with a strong emphasis on self-check-in concepts and modern, digital and efficient operations. Today, their portfolio includes three hotels, several apartments, and guesthouses, all built around the idea of making stays as seamless and contactless as possible.

We caught up with Erich Nigg, who has been with SHH Hotels for several years and is responsible for the administration, IT, development, and programming. Erich gave us a behind-the-scenes look at how Apaleo’s open API became a game-changer, empowering SHH Hotels to reimagine both their digital guest journey and operational workflows.

Challenge: Implementing digital self-check-in concepts

One of the biggest roadblocks SHH Hotels faced with their previous PMS was the lack of support and flexibility. Integrations were not only costly and time-consuming, but also unreliable, making it difficult to roll out digital self-check-in concepts.

That’s why to move forward, SHH Hotels needed a modern property management system (PMS) built for flexibility. One that supports seamless and affordable integrations with third-party applications like self-check-in terminals.

Solution: Apaleo, the open platform with an API-first approach

Switching to Apaleo’s open, API-first platform, gave SHH Hotels the freedom to implement a range of digital check-in concepts, including their self-service check-in terminals. Apaleo thereby became the backbone of their digital operations, enabling a setup that’s not only smooth but built to scale.

“We knew that we needed a future-proof system, something that we could expand by ourselves and align perfectly with our self-check-in concepts. That’s why Apaleo was the obvious choice,” Erich added.

Today, digital self-check-ins at SHH Hotels are powered by Ariane self-service kiosks. In the apartments, additional apps from the Apaleo Store come into play, such as Smart Host for guest communication and Nuki for keyless access with smart door locks.

To bring everything together, Erich built a custom middleware that acts as a bridge between Ariane and Apaleo using XML commands. It pulls real-time data from Apaleo and feeds it back to Ariane in the required format. This seamless data flow is made possible entirely by Apaleo’s API-first approach, which ensures full data and functionality access, enabling smooth, reliable integrations.

“It’s a massive improvement compared to our previous PMS. Everything runs smoothly now, and thanks to the open APIs, we can tailor the system exactly to our workflows. No more compromises, we can build the digital experience that we want for our guests,” Erich said.

Result: €35,000 of cost savings and a 75% boost in guest satisfaction

Integrating Ariane, along with the apps Smart Host and Nuki into Apaleo came without any ongoing license fees, hardware costs or costly integration appointments. This gave SHH Hotels the freedom to fully realise their envisioned digital guest journey and check-in concepts while also achieving significant cost savings. By reusing their existing Ariane self-check-in kiosks and eliminating both license and integration costs, SHH Hotels was thereby able to save over €35,000.

On top of the cost savings, the guest satisfaction was increased by around 75%, particularly when it comes to digital check-ins. With the old PMS, small but frequent issues like misspelled guest names from Booking.com reservations created daily friction. Now, guests can easily find their reservation using their booking confirmation number, making the entire check-in process smoother, faster, and far more guest-friendly.

Guests staying in one of SHH Hotels’ apartments receive a digital check-in message three days before their arrival. From there, they can conveniently provide all the necessary check-in details in advance, including personal information, ID and even their license plate number for the assigned parking spot. This message is thereby sent via the preferred communication channel, which can be email, WhatsApp, or SMS. Also, thanks to the integration with the Nuki app, a digital Nuki smart key is automatically created and linked to the guest’s apartment during the check-in process, and it is automatically deactivated upon check-out. The result? A smooth digital guest journey that’s seamless, efficient and saves valuable time for both guests and staff.

Apaleo’s comprehensive API documentation thereby gave SHH the tools to move fast. It enabled them to implement their digital guest journey with ease, like integrating their apartment check-in system within just two days.

Challenge: Manual hassle with the processing of OTA prepayments

Managing prepaid credit card bookings from Online Travel Agencies (OTAs), like Booking.com, used to be a major manual task for SHH Hotels. With their old PMS, the staff had to double-check and process each prepayment manually to prevent bookings from being flagged as unpaid - all to make sure guests could check in without delays or confusion.

At the heart of the issue was the inability of the old PMS to properly receive and process virtual credit card data from the OTA bookings. It couldn’t reliably retrieve or process the payment details, which meant prepayments often went unrecorded. As a result, guests were often, despite having already paid in advance, asked to pay again at the check-in.

To ensure each credit card payment was recorded correctly, the staff needed to process each payment manually. This included the opening of every booking, retrieving the credit card details and entering them hand by hand into the payment interface. All in all, a slow, inefficient and time-consuming task but necessary to make sure payments were recorded accurately.

Solution: Fully automated processing of OTA prepayments

By switching from their old PMS to Apaleo, SHH Hotels was finally able to leave manual payment processes behind. With Apaleo the required credit card data can now be securely, in an encrypted form, transferred to the hotel group. Being able to receive this data, gives them not just access to the required data but it also ensures that the OTA prepayments can be processed accurately and reliably.

This automation is powered by a custom script developed by Erich, combined with scheduled cron jobs that regularly check whether a credit card is on file and if any payments are still pending. When needed, those pending payments can be triggered and processed automatically. Even refunds can be handled directly within Apaleo, no third-party tools required.

Result: Up to 2 hours freed weekly, saving 110+ hours annually

With secure credit data transfer and fully automated OTA prepayments, SHH Hotels was able to eliminate this time-consuming manual booking process entirely. At the same time, they significantly reduced the risk of human error. The result being that all OTA prepayments are now processed reliably and accurately, with no risk of missed or misallocated payments.

Beyond accuracy, the team now benefits from major time savings and therefore achieved an increased operational efficiency. Thanks to Apaleo, SHH Hotels saves up to 110 working hours per year. That’s time that can now be reinvested in what matters most: the guest experience.

Future outlook and final words

While SHH Hotels has already automated most of their processes and tackled key challenges, their digital transformation journey is just getting started. Next up: an AI-powered virtual phone assistant that can take bookings, answer guest questions, and even perform tasks directly in Apaleo - all without human intervention. On top of that, more digital innovations are on the way, including a digital guest directory and automated invoice delivery.

Alongside their push for digital innovation, SHH Hotels is also preparing to expand. New acquisitions as well as the launch of hotels and apartments are thereby often executed at short notice and at impressive speed.

“Apaleo is the perfect fit for us because the PMS can be set up in just a few hours, and our in-house systems can be adapted just as quickly. With any other PMS, that would take significantly longer,” Erich added.

As we wrapped up our conversation, Erich highlighted one more key point: with Apaleo, even hotel and apartment groups without deep technical expertise can build the systems they need.

“The Apaleo Store offers a wide range of high-quality integrations, so anyone can easily design a system that fits to their needs. But what truly sets Apaleo apart is the access to all your data, which means that you retain full control. In theory, you can do almost anything, and you can with that create fully customized solutions. That, to me, is what makes it so incredibly valuable,” Erich concluded.