We Eliminated Seasonal Staffing Costs: The Story of How Our 4-Person Team Did the Work of 12
In a five-star hotel, “luxury” means anticipating a guest’s needs before they even have to ask. But how can your team provide that level of luxury service if they are constantly busy answering the same questions? Every “what is the price?” or “where is the location?” query is a time thief, stealing the opportunity to build a personal connection with a guest. For most hotel management, the solution is simple: hire more staff when the high season arrives. But what if there’s a smarter way?
Vera.Support offers a modern solution to this major operational challenge in the hospitality industry. It’s not just software; it’s a strategy that liberates your most talented team members. Let’s hear from our customer, Mr. Demir, on how this strategy changed the balance sheet and service quality of his luxury hotel.
“I Didn’t Know I Was Changing the Hotel’s Destiny the Day I Convinced My Boss”
Mr. Demir, General Manager of a 5-star coastal hotel and a Vera.Support customer:
“Our boss is an old-school hotelier. He believes in the power of looking a guest in the eye and saying ‘welcome.’ He wasn’t against technology, but he was afraid of what he didn’t know. ‘How can a robot say ‘welcome’ to my guests, Demir?’ he would always ask. That’s why, for years, we went through the same painful process before every summer season.
We have a fantastic core team of 4 people. But when summer came, fueled by our advertising campaigns, our digital doors would practically be knocked down. WhatsApp, Instagram, the website… the inboxes would overflow. My team would try to answer these messages without even having time to drink water, eating their lunches at their desks. And do you know the most painful part? 75% of the incoming messages were the same question: ‘What is the price for a double room in July?’ The remaining 25% were requests for directions, airport transfers, or information about the hotel’s location. My valuable, trained staff were working like a navigation device and a calculator.
At the beginning of each season, we would hire 8 more seasonal staff to handle this load. Finding staff was one headache, training them was another. By the time we taught them the spirit of the hotel and our quality of service, half the season would be over. Just when they started becoming efficient, they would go home because the ‘season was over.’ This was both an incredible cost and a terrible inefficiency.
Last winter, I sat down with my boss. I told him about Vera.Support. ‘Sir, we’re not hiring a robot,’ I said. ‘We’re going to give our team the gift of time. Let an assistant that never gets tired handle the prices, addresses, and transfer info 24/7. And our team? Let them prepare a special gesture for the honeymoon couple’s room, or leave a small note on the table of a guest celebrating a birthday. In other words, let them do our real job: providing that ‘5-star touch.”
It was a tough sell, but he agreed to a trial. However, I had one more step in mind. We requested a custom integration from the Vera.Support team. I asked, ‘Our biggest problem is price inquiries. Can this AI connect to our Channel Manager (our hotel occupancy and pricing system), pull the current rates for the requested dates, and tell the customer itself?’
This request became the key to the entire project.
This summer was a turning point for us. We got through the entire season with our core team of 4. We didn’t hire a single seasonal employee. At night, on weekends, during the busiest moments… Vera’s AI assistant instantly answered all those standard location questions with patience and in the guest’s own language. But the real revolution happened with the price inquiries.
Now, when a guest wrote on WhatsApp, the dialogue went like this:
Guest: ‘Hello, what is the nightly rate for a sea-view room for two between August 15-20?’ Vera Assistant: ‘Hello, I am checking for you right now… For the dates you’ve requested, the nightly rate for a sea-view room is X TL. This price includes breakfast. Would you like to proceed with your reservation?’
We barely had to answer any price questions ourselves. The AI was pulling the correct, real-time price from our Channel Manager and presenting it to the guest.
The best part was the final step. When the guest said, ‘Yes, I’d like to proceed,’ the AI would present them with two options:
Vera Assistant: ‘Wonderful! To complete your booking, you can either proceed to our online reservation page or connect with one of our customer representatives who can handle everything for you. Which would you prefer?’
This way, it wasn’t just answering simple questions; it was guiding the guest to the final step of the booking and placing them in front of our team as a warm lead.
The result? This season, we saved the entire cost of 8 seasonal employees—salaries, insurance, and all expenses. This was a huge profit for us. But that wasn’t our real gain. Our real gain was that my fantastic team of 4 was no longer working like calculators. They were chatting with guests, keeping track of their special occasions, taking notes for their next visit. Our guest satisfaction surveys went through the roof, because my team was now truly providing ‘service.’
Last week, my boss came to me with one of those survey results in his hand. He smiled and just said one thing: ‘Demir, we need to give that assistant a raise.’
Thank you, Vera.Support, for giving us back not just a piece of software, but our time, our quality, and our profitability.”