We had a pleasure to talk with a front office manager Josip Pribilović from the beautiful hotel Marul in Split. Read more to find out how they optimized their hotel operations to achieve success.
How did you start doing this job? How did it all begin?
Things took their natural course in my case. It all started with attending the tourism high school and studying tourism at the Faculty of Economics in Split. I would regularly work while I was a student to get as much experience as possible. That led to my job at Hotel Marul in 2013. In the last eight years, I was promoted a couple of times and took the front office manager role.
How did you choose the property management system? What challenges did Rentlio help you solve?
We looked for solutions that would save us time and allow us to manage all of our daily hotel operations with one software. Before, we would do most of our activities manually, and since we are present on 9-11 OTAs, that complicated things quite a lot for us. With Rentlio we can avoid overbookings with just one click. The software we used before was not simple to use and didn’t have an option to connect with the channel manager. Rentlio gave us that simplicity that we sought for but also mobility thanks to a great mobile app. Rentlio mobile app allows us to stay in the loop with the happenings in the hotel while being away from the office.
‘I use the mobile app mostly when I am away. I can quickly check incoming guests or if they have any special requests or preferences, and prepare better for the next day.’
How does Rentlio help you achieve success?
Thanks to Rentlio and our careful and dedicated approach to guests, we managed to have constant growth in occupancy for years before the Covid-19 crisis. According to the Trip Advisor, we have also been in the top 25% small hotels for a couple of years in the row. We save at least 10 to 15 minutes per reservation, which allows us to give all of our attention to guests. When you have a lot of incoming reservations in a day, this means a lot.
What are your favorite features that Rentlio offers?
Fast guest registration with eVisitor. Our favorite moments are those when guests stay surprised with how fast we managed their check-in process. The channel manager also works very well, and the central dashboard gives you a simple and clear overview of everything.
What is success to you when it comes to tourism?
The ability to adapt is an excellent way to success. Being able to reach given revenue goals, guest satisfaction, and team effectiveness is what we strive for.
How to adapt to the upcoming changes caused by COVID-19? Any advice that helped you?
Like everyone else, we have also been greatly affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. We are trying to stay as positive as possible and regularly communicate with our team to discuss the next steps.
Luckily, we did not have to reduce the number of our employees but did have to make significant cuts in the budget until the situation resolves. Some of the measures the Croatian government took helped but the question of how sustainable the strategy is – it still remains.
We are fully aware that we need to be patient while we wait for the market recovery. While waiting, we will use this time to adapt and avoid booking cancellations with more flexible policies. Many reservations we successfully switched for the next year already. We will furtherly decrease prices and create special discounts for different guest profiles to stay competitive.
