The Backwaters Lodge Solves Key Management Challenges with Exely Suite

About Hotel

The Backwaters Lodge is an eco-friendly hotel located in Wilpattu, Sri Lanka. The property offers a unique blend of nature and luxury, making it a perfect destination for wildlife enthusiasts near Wilpattu National Park.

The hotel features eight cabin-style rooms set high among the trees, providing guests with views of the surrounding wildlife and forest landscape. The hotel's commitment to sustainability is evident in its zero plastic policy, ensuring a responsible approach to the environment. Activities such as birdwatching, river safaris, and Tuk Tuk tours allow guests to enjoy the beauty of nature while minimizing their impact on the environment.

Challenges

• High expenses on OTA commissions fees 
• No-shows and last-minute cancellations 
• Difficulties with forecasting demand for safari tours 

In Sri Lanka, tourism took a long time to recover after COVID-19. Hotel occupancy rates were much lower than at pre-pandemic times. To attract guests, The Backwaters Lodge actively promoted itself through OTAs. This strategy had a negative impact on revenue, as the hotel was required to pay an 18% commission fee for each reservation. 

However, as tourism began to rebound, the hotel recognized the need to shift focus back to its own website to increase margins by cutting expenses. In order to address this issue along with other crucial tasks, The Backwaters Lodge turned to Exely for a solution. 

Solution

Cutting Expenses by Prioritizing Website Sales:

Exely Booking Engine. To boost direct bookings, Exely provided the hotel with a user-friendly platform on the website. With purchase motivators and smart widgets, users are encouraged to book directly.  

Exely Reputation Manager. The property has a 9.0 rating on all the popular OTAs. To retain users looking for social proof and encourage them to book directly, The Backwaters Lodge integrated a Reputation Manager widget on its website. The solution collects reviews from various OTAs and displays a consolidated rating and up-to-date reviews on the website.

Increasing Average Check and Planning Ahead: 

Upselling in Exely Booking Engine. The Backwaters Lodge is a safari-type hotel with eight cabins. To increase the average check and benefit from another revenue stream, the property offers safari tours at the front desk and on the official website.  

After guests select their accommodations, they are presented with various service options such as guided tours, equipment rentals, and dining packages, increasing an overall check. By upselling tours on the website, the director can forecast the demand in advance and request the exact number of safari jeeps. 

---

In case your property offers services and tours just like The Backwaters Lodge, consider offering them to locals and other travelers outside that do not book a stay with you. Exely Services Booking Engine allows you to sell any service or day pass on your website without booking a room. 

For upselling services to guests who are already at the property, we are preparing the Exely ServiceHub app. Stay tuned! 

---

Reducing Cancellations and Securing Revenue: 

Prepayments by bank cards in Exely Booking Engine. There are not many rooms, and the average check is high, so cancellations and no-shows can damage for the hotel's income.  

To prevent last-minute cancellations and no-shows, the hotel requires guests to make advance payments through its website.  

This policy not only secures revenue but also encourages guests to stick to their plans. Even if a guest decides to cancel, the hotel keeps the prepayment.

---

Charging prepayment online is possible if the hotel has an online merchant acquiring integrated. The Backwaters Lodge selected a payment gateway, and we integrated it into Exely Booking Engine. 

For those guests who book by email or over the phone, it is easier to charge advance payments with Exely Payment Links. It takes just two minutes to create and send a link to  a guest. 

---

Optimizing Performance with Smart Insights:

Exely PMS. The Backwaters Lodge uses this solution to manage the property. The hotelier enters information about offline bookings and gets access to 27 different reports. For example, reports on sales dynamics, ADR and the sale of additional services. Reports can be viewed in Exely Extranet and downloaded in a convenient format. 

Exely Channel Manager. This solution allowed The Backwaters Lodge to manage all OTAs in a single Extranet. This is where the hotel keeps track of online booking information. Bookings from Booking Engine and Channel Manager are synced automatically. As a result, the hotel saves time, and the statistics are the most complete.  

There are reports on how different channels perform: how many bookings each channel generates and how much revenue it brings in. Thanks to this data, a hotelier can understand which channels are worth investing in and which are not. 

Exely Advisor. This solution collects data on website and OTA bookings together and turns them into reports on online sales, in particular, booking window and booking disparity.  

Result

Since switching to Exely Suite, The Backwaters Lodge has boosted direct sales and reduced its reliance on OTAs. Lower commission fees have helped improve profit margins, while Exely Solutions have solved key challenges like upselling, managing analytics, and cutting costs. With better control over these operations, the hotel now runs more efficiently and can focus more on delivering a great guest experience.