How The Garden Inn Found Its Turning Point with Yanolja Cloud Solution's PMS

OPERATIONS

For years, The Garden Inn stood proudly in the heart of Indiana, USA — a 220+ room property known for its friendly staff and homely charm. Guests came for comfort; they stayed for the experience. But behind the scenes, the management team was fighting a silent battle every day — one against outdated technology. Their old, on-premise PMS had once been dependable, but over time, it became the very thing holding them back. System downtime averaged nearly 6 hours per week, and check-in delays increased guest wait times by up to 18% during peak seasons. Frequent computer crashes stalled operations, missing integrations led to billing errors affecting roughly 1 in every 30 reservations, and the lack of remote access meant that even a simple update required someone to be physically on-site. As guest expectations rose and operations grew more complex, frustration followed. Staff turnover in front-desk roles even began to climb, with exit interviews citing “system issues” as a top-three stressor. Something had to change.

Why it matters: The Garden Inn needed a property management system that could keep up with daily operations, not slow them down. Their legacy, on-premise PMS caused frequent downtime, check-in delays, and manual work that affected both staff and guests. Moving to a cloud-based PMS gave the team reliable uptime, accurate real-time data, and the ability to manage the property from anywhere. For a 220-room hotel running a busy front desk, these improvements directly reduced operational strain and helped staff focus on service instead of troubleshooting systems.

Our Cloud PMS replaces the Garden Inn’s on-premise system with a browser-based platform that staff can access from any device. It manages core hotel operations such as reservations, room assignments, housekeeping status, payments, and reporting in real time. For the Garden Inn, this meant no more local server failures, no manual re-entry of data between systems, and no waiting for IT support to update the software. The team now handles check-ins from a single dashboard, processes payments through integrated gateways, and sees live room availability without refreshing screens or calling housekeeping. Managers can review occupancy forecasts, adjust rates, and approve changes even when they’re off-site. Because the system updates automatically, the staff no longer loses time on maintenance tasks that used to interrupt the day.

Top 3 Core Objectives: Move the Garden Inn from an outdated on-premise PMS to a modern cloud-based system to improve operational reliability, speed up front-desk workflows, and reduce errors in reservations and billing.

Improve system reliability: Switch from a local server PMS to a cloud PMS to eliminate frequent crashes and downtime, ensuring stable access to reservation and front-desk functions at all times.
Streamline front-desk operations: Enable check-in, check-out, room assignment, billing, and housekeeping status updates all from a single, browser-based dashboard — reducing manual steps, wait times, and the need for on-site IT support.
Reduce billing & reservation: Leverage built-in integrations and automated real-time updates so that booking data, payments, and room availability always remain synchronized — minimizing manual errors and guest-impacting mistakes.

Innovators Mentioned

The Garden Inn

Yanolja Cloud Solution

Andrea Josseline

Assistant Desk Manager

The Garden Inn

"Switching to Yanolja Cloud Solution's PMS changed our entire workflow. Check-ins are faster, payments are cleaner, and our team finally has a system that helps instead of getting in the way. We can actually focus on guests again, not fixing problems. — Andrea, Assistant Desk Manager, Garden Inn"

Andrea Josseline

Assistant Desk Manager

👍 Assistant Desk Manager Andrea Josseline said that “Yanolja Cloud Solution's PMS streamlined our operations, reduced errors, and let our team refocus on delivering great guest service.”:

"Switching to Yanolja Cloud Solution's PMS changed our entire workflow. Check-ins are faster, payments are cleaner, and our team finally has a system that helps instead of getting in the way. We can actually focus on guests again, not fixing problems. — Andrea, Assistant Desk Manager, Garden Inn"

⚖️ The selection process: During their research process, Andrea Josseline also researched , SiteMinder, Cloudbeds, and ultimately decided Yanolja Cloud Solution was the best fit for them.

Assistant Desk Manager Andrea Josseline said, about their decision: "We compared several systems, including Cloudbeds and SiteMinder, but Yanolja Cloud Solution's PMS was the only one that gave us the reliability, integrated payments, and real-time updates we needed without adding extra complexity for the team. It simply fit the way our hotel operates."

📈 The results: After switching to Yanolja Cloud PMS, The Garden Inn saw dramatically faster check-ins, far fewer billing errors and chargebacks, growth in direct bookings, and a noticeable increase in overall revenue and guest satisfaction — turning day-to-day operations from a drain into a source of efficiency and growth.

Check-in times dropped from around 5 minutes to under 1 minute once integrated payments and ID scanning were in place. Front-desk productivity increased by roughly 70%, and average guest wait times fell by 3–4 minutes on arrival.
Payment-related errors dropped by over 90%, thanks to secure digital ID scans and automatic payment handling. The hotel won 100% of chargeback disputes after migrating — a dramatic shift from the previous manual, error-prone system.
Direct bookings through the hotel’s website rose by 25%, reducing reliance on high-commission OTAs — saving the hotel roughly $3,000 per month in commission fees. Monthly revenue increased by 12% overall, driven by faster check-ins, fewer errors, and more direct reservations. Operational costs dropped by 18% in the first year, thanks to reduced overtime, fewer errors, and improved efficiency. Overbooking incidents were reduced by 95%, because rate and availability updates now sync automatically across all OTAs in real time.