Van der Valk Ridderkerk

The Van der Valk Ridderkerk

Van der Valk Hotel Ridderkerk – Rotterdam is a 4-star hotel with 140 rooms.

With business guests during the week and leisure travels on the weekends it targets both leisure and business guests.

SuitePad tablets were installed in August 2018.

The Problem

Replacing paper collateral & staying ahead of the competition

Opened in 2007, the hotel was quickly able to gain a great position in the wider area of the Rotterdam hotel market.

In order to keep the strong positioning, it was vital for Krystle and Freek Van der Valk to keep innovating, given that the topic of digitization has gained
more and more importance over the last years. This is why they were considering new tools to communicate with the guests while they are in the property.

Three things were most important to the Van der Valks in the supplier selection process:

• Replace the print collateral that is currently in the rooms
• Ensure that a solution is installed that guests actually use & achieve positive guest reviews
• Focus not only on guest engagement but also on return on investment

The Solution

How SuitePad tackled the goals

After a selection process, SuitePad was picked as the supplier and the print collateral was replaced by the SuitePad in-room tablet in August 2018.

As the device is waiting in the room, guests can pick it up and easily begin interacting with the hotel and its services as soon as they arrive. In order to achieve a positive Return on Investment, the SuitePad Green Option was introduced in the hotel.

The Results

• The paper collateral was successfully replaced in a way that conformed with both hotel stars and Dutch classification authority standards.
• In total, all guests spend over 6 hours a day interacting with the solution and the hotel achieved positive guest feedback.
• The hotel had, on average, 117 Green Option requests per month.
• With the Green Option, the hotel saves on housekeeping costs. Linen and amenities will be reduced on a yearly basis, thus saving the environment. The monthly savings of this one feature alone already pay for the whole software subscription.

Summary

All guests together spend more than 6 hours on the solution each day, they give positive feedback on SuitePad via TripAdvisor and the solution achieves a positive return on investment for the hotel.

A win-win solution for the guests and the hotel