Luxury Cottages offers a collection of high-end luxury accommodations in the UK's most sought-after areas. The company carefully selects exceptional properties for its portfolio and prides itself on its personalised customer service.
The first challenge for Luxury Cottages was to have a “data depository”. The depository would become a central hub for the company. The company wanted data to be at the forefront of everything it did.
The core of the business is holidays, but the company involves many moving parts. This complexity results in lots of different types of data, such as:
Luxury Cottages wanted employees to be able to retrieve data at their fingertips. If the company could instantly access information, it would help reduce time-wasting questions and duplication of work.
Secondly, the company wanted a CRM that could fully integrate with email and marketing automation. Also, one that could handle tracking and analytics - for example, combining with their FB and Instagram postings and adverts.
Luxury Cottages had tried different types of CRM systems but were unsuccessful in finding one that worked for them. This frustrating experience led to further research to see what was available on the market.
HubSpot appeared as a viable solution, and a few contacts had also recommended it. The USP of HubSpot was its cutting-edge ability to integrate with other APIs. One solution for everything, instead of buying several different solutions.
Plus Your Business (PYB) supported Luxury Cottages implementation with HubSpot by:
Luxury Cottages used an industry-wide property management system (PMS) called SuperControl. However, there were lots of shortfalls with the software. It was mainly a data repository, with employees having to pull data manually for HubSpot.
Now, Luxury Cottages is developing its own booking system with an API feed. The data goes into SuperControl and then feeds into HubSpot. This integration has resulted in Luxury Cottages using HubSpot as the main point of contact for all data.
Alistair Malin, the CEO, said this about PYB’s support, “...their understanding of HubSpot and its capabilities is unparalleled, and they are happy to go the extra mile to find out anything that might be relevant to you and your business.”
There is now increased efficiency during the onboarding process for properties. A pipeline of several thousand opportunities is further filtered down, e.g. going from lead, contractual opportunity, etc., until it is live on the website.
Luxury Cottages has used HubSpot to codify all the different types of information needed for each property. This automation has increased efficiency across the business. Everything is now complete before listing a property on the website.
The company has achieved its original aim to develop as a HubSpot business. HubSpot “seamlessly links the customer journey, with the customer service and marketing function, linking all the other business areas”, said Alistair.
The successful integration of the property side of the business has empowered Luxury Holidays. The next stage is to work on the guest side. This process will need custom development of the booking engine and further integration with HubSpot.
The impact of HubSpot has increased efficiencies in every department. Once the business's guest side implementation is complete, this area can work alongside the property side and further increase efficiency.
For example, onboarding efficiency has increased. The company has gone from 75 properties in August 2021 to 285 by July 2022. Without HubSpot and the direction of PYB, the process would have been a lot slower.
All business processes link via HubSpot. For example, after the complete collation of information for a property. The commercial director and team receive an alert advising them the property can go on to the site.
An alert then goes to the property manager to say it is live and up and running. It advises the property managers they have three days to check the listing and are happy with it. Everything can now be built and codified via HubSpot.