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Sydney Lodges stamps out disputes, reduces staff pressure and improves guest check-ins

Seamless Guest Experience: Pre-check-in reduced pressure on staff, gave guests the option to manage bookings online.

10h saved per week: Time saved automating check-ins and payments redirected to guest services.

Stamping out disputes: Chargebacks knocked out by guest-initiated payments providing financial security to the business.

The challenge

Sydney Lodges operates over 100 rooms across 3 boutique properties, the perfect oasis in Sydney's vibrant Randwick. With a devoted, tight-knit team, Sydney Lodges provides sanctuaries for guests and a sleek, modern experience. The team needed a way to streamline their check-in process and elevate the guest experience. Transforming payments was part of the process, particularly around flexibility of transactions and handling disputes. Finally, as a small team, they were looking to save time wherever possible—and they needed a user-friendly payment gateway to implement quickly.

We save so much time with people checking in online and paying online. The labour is significantly reduced, so we have more time to be able to do other things on our shifts, which is saving us a great deal of money.

MAROUSA POLIAS, GENERAL MANAGER, SYDNEY LODGES

The solutions

RMS's Guest Portal and Payment Gateway, and the integration with Goki Smart Locks was the ideal solution for Sydney Lodges and their guests.

Online Check-ins

Sydney Lodge's are redirecting their staff's time by implementing online pre-check-ins. They've given guests greater control of their reservations and payments using the RMS Guest Portal. The outcome? Smoother check-ins for both guests and staff.

Guest-initiated payments

Sydney Lodges is scuffing out disputes and making payments easier with RMS Pay. By providing guest-initiated payments like Pay By Links, the team know that every transaction is safe and secure.

Smart Access

Want to check-in but there's no one on reception? No worries at Sydney Lodges. By integrating Goki Smart Locks with RMS's powerful reservations platform, guests can arrive and depart armed with a DoorCode sent to their mobile device.

The results

With the addition of the RMS Guest Portal, RMS Pay, and Goki Smart Locks, Sydney Lodges has made life easier for both guests and staff. Online check-ins and secure payment links have cut down on time and hassle, knocking out payment disputes and fraud headaches. General Manager Marousa Polias even managed to run things smoothly from Europe while on holiday! These changes have helped Sydney Lodges save money, work smarter, and focus on what really matters—making guests happy.

Being a cloud-based system, I can use RMS from anywhere. Last year, I went on my first holiday since COVID overseas, and I was able to log in from Europe and do what I had to do.

MAROUSA POLIAS, GENERAL MANAGER, SYDNEY LODGES

My boss would send me the dispute letters and he'd say “another love letter for you” and my heart would sink. Now, I don't even think I'm going to receive one! I have confidence that we're not going to have a dispute.

MAROUSA POLIAS GENERAL MANAGER, SYDNEY LODGES

Read our full interview here

Transcript

The introduction of Goki, RMS Pay, and the pre-check-in option on the Guest Portal was kind of like a beautiful three-way marriage.

My name is Marisa Polias. I'm the General Manager of Sydney Lodges. One of our main goals here at Sydney Lodges post-COVID was to simplify a lot of what we do. We needed to really work on saving costs and make the guest journey seamless. We went to RMS with a few ideas.

We started with the pre-check-in feature on the RMS Guest Portal. From there we integrated RMS Pay and Goki Smart Locks. We save so much time with people checking in online and paying online. The labour is significantly reduced, so we have more time to be able to do other things on our shifts, which is saving us a great deal of money.

My favorite feature of RMS Pay is the payment link. I can send a link to a guest for payment and it can be for any amount and I know that payment will be received into our bank account securely with approval from the guest.

Nobody wants to deal with disputes and there's nothing worse than losing a big chunk of money because of somebody's fraudulent activities. It's just so sad and depressing when you lose a dispute. My boss would send me the dispute letters and he'd say “another love letter for you” and my heart would sink. Now, I don't even think I'm going to receive one! I have confidence that we're not going to have a dispute.

Being a cloud-based system, I can use RMS from anywhere. Last year, I went on my first holiday since COVID overseas, and I was able to log in from Europe and do what I had to do. Scheduled reports allow me to see everything.

I have great confidence in RMS, and it makes us so happy.

Watch our full story here: