How Cheya Hotel & Residences Increased Online Sales by 94% with Exely

About Cheya Hotel & Residences

Cheya Hotel & Residences is a hotel chain in Istanbul, Türkiye, featuring five properties that offer elegantly designed accommodations, all located near or with views of key attractions. The chain is suited to both business and leisure travelers.

Goals

• Increase direct bookings 
• Decrease dependence on OTA’s bookings 
• Enhance the hotel chain’s brand visibility and build a stronger hotel identity

Cheya Hotel & Residences faced significant challenges coming from their heavy reliance on online travel agencies (OTAs). The reliance on OTAs not only reduced profit margins but also decreased the ability to create strong customer relationships. 

Hotels needed a solution that would ensure guests could easily find and book directly, while also cultivating brand loyalty. This meant transforming the way their guests interacted with the hotel chain. 

Solution

Direct Sales: 

Exely Hotel Website Development. Exely created a central hub website for the hotel chain. The website enabled guests to easily select a specific hotel within the chain either in a booking form or on Google Maps. The website was optimized for SEO well in advance of its release to enhance visibility in search results.

Quality was prioritized via thorough testing to ensure smooth performance. The hotels had a personal project manager who oversaw the process. They communicated between the hotel and the development team as well as ensuring that feedback was addressed quickly. 

Exely Booking Engine. Exely implemented this solution to effectively retain users on the website. Purchase motivators and smart widgets trigger users to book directly. It offers a variety of pre-set promotions, such as country deals (IP-based promotions), last-minute deals, and mobile discounts, encouraging potential guests to make faster booking decisions. With lower commission rates compared to OTAs, the hotel saves on fees and boosts profit margins.

Exely Loyalty Program. Exely installed the loyalty program, which is free for Booking Engine users It allowed guests to earn and benefit from rewards across all Cheya properties, fostering lasting relationships and brand loyalty. The solution made it possible for the hotel chain to work with the guest's loyalty program in all hotels at once: the guest saves and spends rewards in all hotels using one single card.

The solution operates through a simple authentication process on the website, and discounts are automatically applied during the booking process. Hotels do not need to manually calculate loyalty levels; instead, they set the criteria based on the number of nights spent at the hotel and the system manages everything from there, automatically tracking and updating guest levels.

Online Distribution:

Exely Channel Manager. This solution allowed Cheya Hotel & Residences to manage all OTAs in one Extranet. Exely Channel Manager automated prices and availability distribution across platforms. It simplified the hotels’ sales management and ensured real-time booking synchronization.

Seamless Integration for Effortless Synchronization 

PMS Integration. Exely Solutions integrated seamlessly with the hotel's PMS, Elektraweb. This integration was crucial, as it allowed for streamlined operations, reduced the risk of overbooking, and ensured consistent pricing across all platforms. 

This integration ensures automatic synchronization of availability and pricing, there is no need for manual updates. All online bookings are instantly updated across all systems, minimizing the risk of overbooking and guaranteeing that rooms booked online cannot be double-booked offline (via phone, at the front desk, or via email).

Result

Since implementing Exely Solutions, Cheya Hotel & Residences has significantly improved its performance and achieved its goals across all its properties. Exely Solutions has helped the hotel chain boost website sales, retain guests and attract repeat bookings. 

• Direct Bookings: Increased by 25%.
• Online Sales Growth: Revenue from May 2023 to August 2024 increased by approximately 94%.
• Loyalty Program: Enhanced guest retention and satisfaction, leading to a higher rate of repeat visitors.
• Operational Efficiency: Streamlined management processes reduced dependency on OTAs and enabled cost savings on commissions.