More time for guests: the impact of seamless technology at Sunborn London

OPERATIONS

Located at Royal Victoria Dock beside ExCeL London, Sunborn London is the UK’s only luxury yacht hotel, offering waterfront views across the historic Royal Docks and an experience tailored to celebratory stays such as birthdays, anniversaries, and proposals. Delivering five-star service aboard a docked yacht presents unique operational challenges, from tight physical spaces to complex guest flows and the need for seamless coordination across onboard departments including F&B, MICE, and housekeeping.

Why it matters: To overcome the limitations of fragmented legacy systems, Sunborn London partnered with Shiji to implement a unified, integrated hotel technology ecosystem: transforming operations, improving staff efficiency, and elevating personalised guest experiences across the entire property.

This case study looks at how digitally connected technology helps Sunborn London run more efficiently and deliver more personalised service in a unique hotel setting. It shows the real-world impact of an integrated hotel technology stack on staff productivity, guest experience, and teamwork across departments.

Top 3 Core Objectives: In collaboration with the management, operations, guest services, and F&B teams at Sunborn London, Shiji conducted an in-depth evaluation of the impact of implementing a unified technology ecosystem to support the hotel’s digital transformation objectives. Sunborn London adopted a full suite of Shiji products to support its operations across the property. Daylight PMS enables an agile, mobile-first front desk operation, while Stellaris Digital Stay streamlines the check-in process and reduces front desk queues. Infrasys POS and Stellaris Digital Dine have transformed food and beverage service by reducing delays and minimizing errors. Astral Payments supports secure and seamless guest transactions. This integrated ecosystem connects with Revinate, SiteMinder, STR Global, Elegant Hotel Collection powered by HotelREZ, Onity, and Smart Hotel, allowing Sunborn London to personalize the guest journey while improving forecasting, pricing, and service execution.

Operational efficiency: Sunborn London streamlined Front Office, F&B, and Housekeeping processes with real-time updates and automation.
Guest experience: Online check-in makes arrival quicker and easier for guests. Dietary requirements and special requests are recorded at the time of ordering, helping staff provide more tailored service.
Implementation & support: The rollout was described by the team as smooth and well coordinated, with responsive support from Shiji and clear timelines.

Innovators Mentioned

Shiji Group

Vasilis Giannios

Operations Manager, Sunborn London

Sunborn London

Francisco Ventura

General Manager at Sunborn London

Sunborn London

"We reduced check-in time by over 80%, from up to eight minutes to just about one minute with the new system."

Vasilis Giannios

Operations Manager, Sunborn London

👍 Operations Manager, Sunborn London Vasilis Giannios said that Reduced check-in time:

"We reduced check-in time by over 80%, from up to eight minutes to just about one minute with the new system."

⚖️ The selection process: During their research process, Francisco Ventura evaluated Shiji Group's product differentiators, customer support, and holistic value as a strategic partner and ultimately decided that Shiji Group was the best fit solution:

General Manager at Sunborn London Francisco Ventura said, about their decision: "We’ve noticed that since moving to Shiji, we’ve been able to make our jobs more efficient. The fact that you’re working with the same system for everything makes technology work better for us."

📈 The results: With Shiji’s fully integrated tech stack, the team unified their data, simplified workflows, and elevated every touchpoint of the guest journey.

With Shiji’s fully integrated tech stack, the team unified their data, simplified workflows, and elevated every touchpoint of the guest journey.
From seamless check-in and instant mobile ordering to real-time housekeeping updates, everything now runs faster, smoother, and with less effort.
Most importantly, technology now works in the background, freeing up staff to focus on what really matters: delivering memorable, personalized experiences that live up to Sunborn’s unique setting.