As Vice President of Operations at SIXTY Hotels, Christopher Horn brings an impressive range of hospitality industry experience to the role, focusing on discovering and executing hotel efficiencies, improving operations processes, and optimizing business growth at SIXTY Hotels’ locations. We spoke with Horn about his work at SIXTY Hotels, the dynamic landscape of the hospitality industry marketplace, and how hoteliers are ushering in a new wave of creative concepts and technological solutions to deliver better experiences to current and future generations of guests through team apps.
How did you communicate with associates across five hotel locations before adopting Beekeeper’s team app?
We utilized an array of bulletin boards, stapled announcements to paychecks, meetings and television monitors in high-visibility areas throughout the hotel to distribute information.
You mentioned that chat campaigns have been a particularly successful aspect of implementing Beekeeper. Which features of Beekeeper does SIXTY Hotels use most? What are some of your most important use cases?
We will soon launch the largest use case for Beekeeper beyond streamlining operations communication as we roll out our Associate Opinion Surveys, which will be facilitated through Beekeeper. We are also looking at an integration with ADP to allow hotel associates to review hours worked, paychecks, and PTO balance.
With a 90% adoption rate, Beekeeper implementation is going well! What feedback have you received from your frontline and hotel management staff about the team app?
Associate feedback has been overwhelmingly positive with an emphasis on how Beekeeper has improved transparency throughout the hotel for all associate levels.
What part of your hotel workforce has been most significantly impacted since adopting Beekeeper?
We have seen nearly every associate level positively impacted through our Beekeeper team app. The most creative and inspiring results often come from our Room Attendants. One of the most compelling anecdotes to share would be from one of our Room Attendant’s at Nautilus, a SIXTY Hotel in Miami. This team member posted an awesome idea to launch a bed-making competition with the hotel housekeeping team.
How has Beekeeper helped to cultivate the company culture of SIXTY Hotels? How does Beekeeper reinforce the mission and vision of the brand?
Beekeeper has been a terrific vehicle to deliver and showcase SIXTY Hotels’ culture throughout all of our locations.
What impacts (if any) has Beekeeper had on hotel guest experience? Have you noticed, for example, that online reviews have increased, or been more favorable?
Our TripAdvisor scores and surveys have definitely increased since the launch of Beekeeper.
What impact have you seen on hotel employee engagement and retention?
Our associate engagement on Beekeeper has been terrific and will continue to grow as these high-touch programs such as ADP integration and AOS go live. Furthermore, we are working through understanding how this will translate into our culture building and retention goals for SIXTY Hotels.
“Millennials have a different context of ‘value’ when it comes to hotels. Our industry needs to adapt and re-focus our efforts towards these renaissance components within hospitality as they will continue to shape consumer spending and decision-making.”
Christopher Horn, Vice President, SIXTY Hotels
How easy was the Beekeeper onboarding process for SIXTY Hotels?
Very easy! We utilized a phased launch that allowed leadership to acclimate to the team app and generate organic content prior to the all-associate launch week.
How is SIXTY Hotels planning to leverage Beekeeper to incorporate professional development through continued learning and certification programs?
This is still taking shape, but we will strategically align our launch of a Service Culture Program Launch in 2019 with Beekeeper.
Are there any features you are hoping to utilize or to do more with in the future on Beekeeper?
Survey features; and posting from corporate to announce major brand moves and news.
