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The Company
b'mine is a contemporary hotel group with presence in strategic locations throughout Germany, including Frankfurt, Dusseldorf and Cologne. Each hotel consists of 145-250 rooms, restaurants, bars, wellness areas, event areas and courtyards, as well as some of them special CarLofts, providing guests with a comprehensive lounging experience.
The company prides itself on its unparalleled experience with sophisticated architecture, event spaces that inspire, and tailored service to make guests feel as though they have the city at their fingertips. From celebrating holidays to hosting special events or simply spending time with family, each b'mine hotel boasts breathtaking backdrops that cannot be surpassed.
The Problem
b'mine Frankfurt struggled to keep up with their guest feedback, receiving approximately 600-800 feedbacks per month. The rooms division manager was responsible for responding to these reviews but often had to cover front desk duties due to personnel shortages and sick leaves. This made it challenging to respond to reviews as he was frequently interrupted by phone calls, emails, in-person inquiries, check-ins, and other guest requests, which disrupted his thought process.
In addition, he had a difficult time responding to negative reviews and reviews written in foreign languages. Crafting satisfactory responses for these reviews required an especially high level of focus and concentration. However, he was unable to devote enough time to writing responses due to the reasons outlined above.
The Solution
MARAs AI Review Reply Generator acted as an invaluable personal writing assistant for the rooms division manager. Without changing anything else, MARA enabled him to optimize b'mine's online presence without neglecting his other duties.
1. Result: Dramatic leap in response rate within one month
Thanks to MARA's assistance, b'mine experienced a 90% response rate within one month, a significant improvement from the 15% response rate prior to utilizing our AI Review Reply Generator. The rooms division manager was now able to respond to reviews within one to two days while working at the front desk. He described being able to efficiently respond to up to 30-40 reviews daily, including those that required complex answers while being able to attend to current guests and fulfill his usual front desk duties.
2. Reduction of mental load: Answering reviews feels like a walk in the park
The rooms division manager noted that the MARA AI tool is simple to use, even for busy hoteliers and managers such as himself. The AI tool identifies the important aspects of each guest review and efficiently generates appropriate and compelling responses within seconds.
This solved two main problems of his:
First, he was not able to cut enough time out of his busy days to respond to the majority of reviews. MARA helped by decreasing the time needed to respond to a single review from about 6 minutes down to just 1-2 minutes. This gave him more free time to respond to a larger number of reviews.
Second, and perhaps more importantly, the Rooms Division Manager needed at least 20 minutes at a stretch to "get in the mood" for answering reviews. As MARA is in the right mood for this anytime and does the largest part of coming up with a professional, individual and friendly answer to any review in any language, he could even use five free minutes between the arrival of two guests to answer one or two reviews. This time was previously largely unproductive, and MARA helped turn it into productive time.
So the two benefits of MARA were that it turns unproductive time into productive time and saves a lot of time per answer. This resulted in more answers, a less mentally draining answer process ("It was almost fun at times!”), and even better answers as every feedback is answered individually and in a positive and respectful manner.
3. Delegation: Ability to achive consistent response quality as a team
The rooms division manager also enabled his Assistant Front Office Manager to respond to online reviews. To get used to the tool, the Assistant Front Office Manager started with simpler reviews, and quickly became proficient with it. With this kind of delegation, the Rooms Division Manager is confident that b'mine can maintain a high response rate and improve its online reputation, all without hiring additional personnel.
Using MARAs AI Review Reply Generator freed up more of the Rooms Division Manager's time, which he and his team used to provide excellent customer service to their guests. The team's prompt responses to previous guests also helped to increase customer loyalty.
The Experience
Nowadays, online reviews are essential to gaining new customers. Guests often examine both negative and positive reviews before making their reservations. Therefore, b'mine understood that their online presence is critical to their business. To ensure that future guests have confidence in their services, b'mine takes great care to thoughtfully address all reviews.
The rooms division managers and b'mine's have had a very good experience working with the AI tool. MARA effectively addressed all of their guests’ concerns and enabled b’mine to reach their objectives without making a great impact on their on-site services and resources. As a result, b'mine now benefits from an outstanding online presence and consistently attracts visitors who have witnessed their customer-centric approach online.
Key achievements of b'mine with MARA:
- Significant increase in review response rate from 15% to 90%;
- A decrease in the workload of staff responsible for responding to online reviews;
- All of the above without hiring new personell or changing processes
Experience MARA today.
Maintaining a positive online presence can be challenging, but it doesn't have to be. Just like b'mine, you can boost your review response rate without expending time and resources. To register for a free account, please click here, or contact us if you would like to learn more about our product.
