ADAPT APARTMENTS Case Study | Apaleo Customer Stories

Introducing ADAPT APARTMENTS

ADAPT APARTMENTS is a forward-thinking family business looking to bring their vision for modern and comfortable accommodations to life in the serviced apartment space. Situated in the vibrant tech hub of Berlin-Adlershof, each studio or one-bedroom apartment features tasteful furnishings, warm colours, and high quality materials - guaranteeing every guest feels at home during their stay.

We got an exclusive look into Managing Director Ralf Krause’s expansion plan alongside his son Constantin, where they revealed 3 additional new properties underway, besides 3 current properties boasting around 550 rooms on the Apaleo platform. The upcoming properties have been strategically planned to maximise ROI and profitability - a testament to Apaleo’s commitment towards truly data-driven solutions.

Transition to future-proof cloud-native technology for long-term success

Challenge: Lack of flexibility from its traditional property management system

Ralf and his team faced significant challenges with their existing PMS, feeling constrained by its limited features, still paying for unused functionalities and integrations, that made the whole process of planning unfeasible. They dreamed of having the capability of creating a fully customised tech stack that would cater perfectly to their unique business workflow. Fortunately, they knew exactly what they wanted to achieve with their tech stack, as they had an idea of which information they needed to pull and knew precisely the ideal regularity to report on that data.

“I have been on this market for so long, and most PMSs basically offer you almost everything and still not what you are personally looking for. They offer numerous reports, but not the ones that you need and there’s no way you can tailor made them for your business case.”

ADAPT had ambitious expansion plans, but their hotel PMS held them back with limited customisation options and escalating integration costs. Without the flexibility to innovate their setup budget-wise, they couldn't strategically plan for future growth.

Solution: Executing on best-of-breed approach through open APIs

ADAPT APARTMENTS has chosen Apaleo as its API-first open property management platform, allowing for easy integration of third-party apps and a scalable, cloud-native infrastructure.

Ralf and his team have taken advantage of the API-first approach to build a seamless tech stack, proving to be cost-efficient in the long run.

“Apaleo doesn’t have everything integrated in itself, but it offers open APIs, which none of the other PMS systems out there offers.”

Result: ADAPT saved 25% off of main software costs thanks to the flexibly created infrastructure

ADAPT was previously charged for integrations to key and local systems, as well as a high license fee for unused functionality – all on a per-property basis. Apaleo promotes transparent pricing, without any hidden fees, with all necessary fees included in one flat rate, plus seamless integration always free of charge. This is how ADAPT saved immediately on software costs - up to 25% and additional costs saved on each integration per property.

Constantin summarizes the technical costs saved: “For the integrations alone we would have saved 10,000 euros, if we would have brought those integrations to the Apaleo platform right away. As we’re building 3 new hotels right now, for the old PMS we would be charged around another extra 30,000 - 40,000 euros for the integrations alone, which is just an absurd amount of money, if you think about it.”

Easy & fast staff onboarding to scale up business processes

Challenge: Outdated UIs and insufficient support materials made onboarding time-consuming

Their previous PMS had outdated user interfaces that made it difficult for the ADAPT team to efficiently train new users. The interface was not self-explanatory and required additional guidance during onboarding. The success of the onboarding process relied heavily on the abilities and speed of the vendor.

“I also did the first setup in 2016, and that was not as easy. I think I took a whole day to set up rooms, rates, everything, because if you don't have someone properly explaining it to you, it's not very intuitive.” - said Constantin.

Solution: Straightforward self-service onboarding for the ADAPT team

Constantin had a past full of cumbersome onboarding processes, and now finds solace in Apaleo’s straightforward self-service solution. He appreciates the smooth transition to help make his life easier. With an eye to the future, Apaleo’s property template functionality serves as an invaluable tools for business owners looking to scale their operations.

Result: Properties are up and running on Apaleo in just a few hours

With Apaleo's easy-to-use property management interface, maintaining rates, channels, rooms, and services has never been more seamless. In a matter of hours, the team has successfully set up their properties independently.

“In controversy, with Apaleo you don’t need to have any technical experience to set up the platform. It’s so easy to use it and customise it to your business scenario.“

Fully automated operations result in time saving

Challenge: Cumbersome manual administrative tasks delay strategic vision

ADAPT had a clear vision for their guest journey and sought to shift their focus from manual tasks to strategic planning. However, they were held back for years by a lack of innovative solutions in their previous hotel PMS.

With a goal of reallocating resources and boosting profitability, ADAPT realized that each stage of the guest journey was taking valuable 15 minutes from their operations. This prompted them to take action and find a way to streamline their processes for optimal efficiency.

Solution: Achieving 100% automation in workflows by leveraging top vendors in the market

With a best-of-breed strategy in place, ADAPT has selected the top tech vendors on the market to automate all their business workflows. Now, once guests reserve, the booking confirmation and payment process and the registration forms are automatically taken care of. The check-in process is also fully automated for the guests, with the employee only checking to ensure everything is accurate. Since their virtual credit cards are also integrated and attached to the reservation, additional purchases can be made instantly and seamlessly. With minimal manual involvement, the booking and check-in stage is made supremely efficient thanks to ADAPT's technology-driven approach.

The team achieved 100% of automated guest check-ins and also reached fully digitised operational workflows making every aspect of the guests' experience streamlined from start to finish.

Result: Strategically reallocated resources to launch new properties saving monthly 10-20 hours per employee

Full automation not only freed up a significant amount of time for their back of house management, but has also allowed them to focus more on strategic planning.

“I'm alone saving about 10 to 20 hours per week, which will probably become even more with the new hotels coming on board, because I'm already familiar with the process. It's another 10 to 20 hours per month saved for me and the team.”

ADAPT invested in innovation to strategically plan for the future and increase efficiency - leading them towards a staffless property setup with no receptions or check-in kiosks. Their calculated savings - roughly 30-40k euros - enabled this forward-thinking approach, which has been put into motion to help reallocate resources and expand profits long-term.

Ralf concludes: “Overall, I'm very happy we switched to Apaleo. We gain time, capacities for other tasks - for example more time for our guests - and save a lot of money over the years, which we can use for other innovative tasks. In addition, we achieve significantly better effectiveness and professionalism in all areas of work.”

A dive into the tech stack of ADAPT APARTMENTS

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Looking ahead

ADAPT APARTMENTS demonstrated courage by implementing a change that resulted in significant cost savings. This underscores the critical importance of choosing the right partners to facilitate the transition and unlocking the potential of cutting-edge technology to boost business performance. With ADAPT's experience paving the way, many hotels are sure to follow suit and embrace innovation.

“We are planning to build 3 new hotels now, and we’re building them on the Apaleo platform, as our calculations also suggested. The time and money saving aspects are definitely shaping the future for us, because we are in the planning phase. But you can always tell that this is how it's going to be. It's not just an estimation. We have facts now. We know this is how it's going to be now.”

ADAPT APARTMENTS cuts software costs by 25% and gains 20 hours per month