Pristine beaches, stunning natural attractions and awe-inspiring heritage sites are just some of the reasons Davao City welcomes millions of tourists local and foreign alike every year. The world-renowned Filipino hospitality warms the hearts of visitors to the King City of the South as do fresh and sweet fruits and delicacies and reinvigorating adventures and experiences. Davao likewise serves as gateway to nearby provinces in Mindanao and the tourist spots there.
Situated in one of the top cities in the Philippines and a mere three-minute drive from the Davao International Airport, it’s no wonder that OYO 150 Davao Airport View Hotel is the go-to accommodations for tourists.
But running one of the busiest hotels in the city is no walk in the park. Therese Lapeña, business development manager at Davao Airport View Hotel, looks back at a time when managing the hotel and business was a real challenge. The system they were using at the time did not reflect real-time changes in room availability, resulting in “constant overbooking incidents,” she shared. “I would stay up late at night answering inquiries, processing refunds and monitoring bookings on Booking.com, AirBnB and Facebook,” Lapeña added.
Right from the beginning, hotel operations and management had been taxing for the Davao Airport View Hotel owners, who started in the leasing business. They opened the hotel in 2009 and paused operations when another company leased the entire property. After the contract ended in 2018, the Department of Tourism convinced the owners to re-open Davao Airport View Hotel to help address the shortage of tourist accommodation in the city. The owners took the opportunity to give the hotel a second lease on life, and now it is one of the most popular, inexpensive lodgings in Davao City.
Still, day-to-day operations remained tough, with the booking process, in particular, proving to be a bane in an otherwise successful hotel business. That is, until OYO entered the picture.
OYO Hotels & Homes is the world’s second-largest chain of hotels, homes, managed living and workspaces. OYO empowers small and independent asset owners with the operational capabilities and technology to help them compete with big hotel chains. OYO also assists hotels in increasing their booking rate by growing their visibility and presence online.
“We were looking for a company that can help us with our online booking and daily operations since running a hotel is really not our expertise,” said Lapeña. “And like an answered prayer, OYO reached out to us with a proposal.”
OYO’s team walked the hotel’s board members through OYO’s profile and capabilities, guiding them on the gains to be achieved in partnering with OYO and discussing the benefits of streamlining the booking process and overseeing operations. The hotel board members were also introduced to OYO’s dynamic pricing system, which ensures asset owners that revenue is maximized.
“Before OYO, our room prices were fixed at PHP988 per night. Now, we can go up to PHP1,500 per night when demand is high. Imagine that jump in value just from being an OYO partner,” said Lapeña.
Besides benefitting from the dynamic pricing, partnering with OYO has made overall hotel supervision become more manageable with the presence of an OYO Captain. To make sure service at the hotel is consistent with OYO’s standards, a dedicated manager in the form of the OYO Captain regularly visits the hotel to check the rooms and facilities and provide training to the staff. The OYO Captain is also online 24/7, ready to assist on customer inquiries or complaints at any time.
“The OYO Captain gives the hotel management peace of mind and assures us that the hotel is providing high-quality service at all times, especially during peak seasons,” Lapeña added.
The overbooking challenges of the past have been resolved as well. Davao Airport View Hotel now uses the OYO OS, a sophisticated and user-friendly Hotel Management System that automatically updates the team with new bookings from Agoda, Expedia, Booking.com or the OYO website.
Another product of OYO technology that has improved the hotel’s overall efficiency and business growth is the Co-OYO app. Designed specifically for hotel owners, the Co-OYO app helps monitor cash flow, pricing, customer reviews and the overall performance of the business.
According to Lapeña, their partnership with OYO has helped them maximize the potential of the Davao Airport View Hotel by giving them wider exposure and boosting their technological capabilities, something that they could only hoped for before OYO came along.
Currently, OYO Hotels and Homes is present in Metro Manila, Cebu, Baguio, Pampanga, Boracay, Batangas, Iloilo, Bataan, Tagaytay and Davao. With more than 260 hotels and 4,300 rooms, OYO is committed to upgrading the tourism and hospitality industries in the country with technology-driven asset transformations.
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