Munich Hotelier Opens First Staff-less Hotel

By BW Hotelier THE CONCEPT may not catch up anytime soon in India, but Hotel Buddy, which opened in Munich Germany doesn’t have any staff. You can manage everything here during your stay, from booking the room, checking in and out as well as paying for it all, from a mobile device. The brainchild of a Munich hotelier, Johannes Eckelmann, who already runs the well-known Cocoon Hotel brand, Hotel Buddy at Stachus Square (photo of room above) is a new concept, low-budget hotel that is completely staffless. It’s made possible largely thanks to the cloud-based hotel management platform from hetras. "The benefits for guests are pretty obvious," explains Eckelmann. "That is, they are staying in a modern, brand-new hotel right in the heart of Munich, and at an unbeatable and affordable price." The seventy-five hotel rooms are located inside a large office complex and distributed over several floors. Guests can check in early, even days in advance, and they just need to sign their name on the pad at the kiosk upon arrival. This signature is then saved together with their reservation. Once signed in, guests collect their key card from a machine. This code-based key card will then automatically transport them by elevator to the correct floor. All of the technology behind these staffless systems - online booking, online payment, early check-in or kiosk-based check-in at the hotel, the interfaces to process guests’ credit cards and create key cards, the automatic check- out technology, not to mention the system for managing car parking spaces - is provided by hetras and controlled with hetras hotel software. "This technology is a perfect fit for the demands of young target groups that are used to organizing their travel on mobile devices and online," explains Tanja Baier, hetras sales manager. "Just as urban travelers today just check in online for flights, they would also much rather be able to check into hotels the same way - quickly, without any fuss and without having to stand in a queue." As Eckelmann further explains, "One of the many advantages of using a cloud-based platform is that there is no need to invest in any hardware. All data are automatically saved and always available to hotel staff, no matter where they are." This centralised access to data means that jobs like distribution and revenue management, which are keys to success, can also be centralized. For this reason, Eckelmann's two Cocoon Hotels at Stachus Square and Sendlinger Tor will now also be switched to the cloud-based hotel management software from hetras. Buddy Hotel-is a unique, mini-budget hotel concept created by a Munich hotelier, Johannes Eckelmann. It was brought to life as a vibrant alternative to his two existing Cocoon Hotels, which are based on a budget lifestyle hotel concept with a retro design. Together with Oliver Massabni, Eckelmann set up the first of the Cocoon Hotels in Munich at Sendlinger Tor in 2008, and the second one opened at Stachus Square in 2012. Another Cocoon Hotel near Munich Central Station is set to open at the beginning of 2016. Both Cocoon Hotels currently have a very high capacity utilization rate of 90 per cent. At present, plans are underway to expand the hotel brand beyond Munich to either Hamburg or Vienna.