Sirvoy’s Cloud-Hosted Hospitality Management System Simplifies Administrative Tasks and Cuts Costs

TL; DR: Sirvoy’s intuitive property management system empowers users from all types of accommodation operations to digitize and simplify daily administration tasks. The cost-effective solution, launched in 2008, now boasts rich, customer-centric features designed to streamline property management and even build their own websites. Through a laser-like focus on the customer, Sirvoy has successfully created a cloud-hosted software solution designed for hoteliers by hoteliers.

After more than a year of pandemic-related lockdowns, many vaccinated individuals are experiencing serious wanderlust — and they’re ready to do something about it.

In a recent global survey administered by Tripadvisor, 86% of respondents said they would travel domestically and 77% said they would do so internationally in 2021.

To prepare for a potentially massive increase in tourism, some property managers are turning to convenient, SaaS-based management solutions. Sirvoy’s cloud-hosted software, for example, offers intuitive management, booking, and website-building solutions for all types of hotel and accommodation operations.

Katie Tether, Customer Success Manager at Sirvoy, said that the company is always looking for ways to help the hospitality industry thrive in the current travel environment.

“Revenue streams have changed a bit for hoteliers,” Katie said. “We’re trying to make sure that the functionality they need is there to capitalize on new strategies, such as segmenting their properties in different ways or offering various extras.”

According to Sirvoy, some hoteliers still rely on traditional pen-and-paper property management methods. As pandemic-related cost-cutting and social distancing measures continue to reduce staff capacities, Sirvoy also helps relieve administrative burdens so teams can do more with less.

Thousands of users across more than 100 countries trust Sirvoy to help them streamline their operations and grow their businesses. The company’s free 14-day trial allows new users to determine whether the technology can do the same for them.

Sirvoy was founded in 2008 by brothers Mats and John Persson. John, a developer by trade, originally built the software solution to support his mother, Birgitta, a retiree who had recently purchased a hostel in Sweden.

“When she bought the hostel, she began looking for software to take bookings and make the day-to-day administrative work easier,” Katie said. “So John squirreled away for a while and developed the initial version of Sirvoy for Birgitta. It grew very organically through hoteliers she knew in the beginning.”

Sirvoy’s bespoke design made the cloud-hosted technology stand out, and the product spread throughout the hospitality management space in Sweden.

“But Sirvoy is a product that suits hoteliers no matter where they are in the world, and it’s competitively priced, so it quickly spread across the globe,” Katie said. “We started supporting more and more languages — and I’m pretty sure we support more languages than any one of our competitors at this stage.”

A popular phrase you might hear uttered among internal customer support agents is “the sun never sets on Sirvoy.” That’s because the company is truly global, with a presence in more than 20 countries and native-speaking agents representing all supported languages.

“It is lovely for our customers to be able to communicate with a support agent who truly understands where they’re coming from,” Katie said.

Sirvoy’s experience as a distributed workforce has also proved valuable since the start of the pandemic.

“We’ve always worked remotely, so we’re used to tools like Zoom that we use internally to make sure we’re constantly in touch,” Katie said. “We know how to spend time together and keep communication channels open.”

Today, more than 10 years after Sirvoy’s founding, the company boasts a rich set of user-inspired features. Continued client collaboration has resulted in many of them, from a booking engine and rates manager to communications functionality and even a website builder

Sirvoy’s talented team of developers works endlessly to advance the hospitalities management system, whether they’re boosting functionality or ensuring the software remains on the cutting edge in terms of innovation.

“We have a gorgeous working atmosphere,” Katie said. “At the heart of it, everybody just wants to create an easy-to-use, affordable product that meets our customers’ needs.”

The company serves nearly 3,000 customers worldwide, with new subscribers signing up every day. Katie told us Sirvoy appeals to a wide range of hoteliers, from providers of smaller accommodations to large enterprises.

“Many of the properties we serve have a very personal touch,” she said. “That’s why our support, product, and marketing teams have conversations with customers day in and day out. We know what is happening in the marketplace, what the impact on our customers is, and what our customers are asking for most frequently.”

In fact, Sirvoy’s SaaS-based delivery model forces the company to continuously invest in user-centered innovation — or risk losing customers.

“It’s a subscription-based product, so every single month, you have got to keep them coming back for more,” Katie said. “It’s an expensive way to service your customers, but it’s worth it. We don’t want people to come in and then disappear — we want them to stay with us for the long haul.”

In February of this year, Sirvoy released a website builder that comes fully integrated with the company’s existing solutions. The straightforward software empowers users to create a responsive, mobile-friendly webpage in just a few steps.

“Some of our customers, especially those with small or niche properties, need a tool to get online but don’t necessarily want a complicated product,” Katie said. “This website builder is easy-to-use, and there’s always somebody on the other end of the phone line or web chat to help you.”

The website builder automatically populates sites with the images and room descriptions users upload to their Sirvoy accounts. Easy-to-navigate tools empower users to change the background, colors, and fonts in real time with an instant preview feature. And publishing only takes a few clicks.

“It’s well priced, and it delivers,” Katie said. “Obviously, some customers do want the bells and whistles, but the vast majority of customers want a stable product. We’re very proud that we never have issues with availability or backups.”

Websites created with the builder come with direct booking capabilities, which allow hoteliers to avoid paying commissions through third-party providers.

“The visibility that you get from a site like Expedia is amazing, but you pay for that privilege,” Katie said. “Of course, if you take direct bookings, that money is all yours. So that’s why we created the website builder — to help maximize revenue.”

Research has repeatedly shown that happy employees make for excellent customer service, and it isn’t any different at Sirvoy.

“Everyone’s happy to work here; it’s a really lovely environment,” Katie said. “It’s very open. Everyone’s free to voice their opinions, and everybody who works here has a real sense of ownership.”

Sirvoy’s healthy workplace culture helps the company achieve its primary goal: to make customers’ lives easier at a price they can afford.

“There is a huge amount of competition in our space,” Katie said. “But our customer support is a huge factor: it’s free, available 24/7, and in your language, which is amazing for a lot of our customers.”