OPERATIONS

Norway's Solstrand Hotel undergoes a digital transformation with OPERA Cloud

Verified case study Hotel Tech Report has reached out to hoteliers at Solstrand to verify this case study.
Case study header image
Sometimes, opportunities emerge during the unlikeliest of circumstances. With strict travel restrictions in Norway, our property – the Solstrand Hotel – was shut down for a good portion of 2021. But rather than lament the loss of business, we decided to use the time to get better and work smarter. That’s why we began the digital transformation of our historic, full-service, resort hotel founded in 1896. Known for its spa, gardens, pools, and restaurant, the 135-room property with 25 meeting rooms offers majestic views of the fjord.
Why it matters: We selected OPERA Cloud property management system as the centerpiece of our efforts and, in less than a month, Oracle Hospitality helped us achieve our goal.
  • Hoteliers must be able to adapt quickly and seize emerging opportunities. OPERA Cloud provides that power by accelerating innovation, simplifying IT and making it possible to address guest needs - not only today, but tomorrow.

Top 3 Core Objectives: In a very thorough process, we met with several hospitality technology providers and analyzed the pros and cons of different hotel PMS platforms.
  • Fast, Simple Integrations: By the time we decided to go with OPERA Cloud, we had little time left before the reopening of our hotel. We were also installing a new spa system at the same time which needed to be integrated with OPERA Cloud. We challenged Oracle to make the process a quick one. Although we didn’t make it easy on ourselves, Oracle got it done.

  • Expansive Partner Network: Not only did we need to integrate a new spa system, we knew the ability to integrate new technologies simply, quickly, and efficiently would be essential to remain competitive. That’s why the Oracle Hospitality Integration Platform (OHIP) was very appealing. As part of the OPERA Cloud Suite, OHIP is a self-service platform that allows us to work with third-party providers to quickly integrate their products and services to deliver better experiences to our guests. It opens the door to work with any of the partners in Oracle’s huge network

  • Generating More Event Revenue: By switching to OPERA Cloud, we’ve also been able to capitalize upon OPERA Cloud Sales and Event Management software. The sales and event management software is part of OPERA Cloud and is key to overseeing a big part of our business. We viewed this as a major advantage because most other systems haven’t yet developed a sales, catering and event module in their cloud solution

Oracle Hospitality

OPERA Property Management Suite - from independents to global brands, OPERA is the flexible, configurable, intuitive solution to manage your entire operation

Innovators Mentioned

Solstrand
Oracle Hospitality
Oystein Totland
Hotel Tech Report reached out to Oystein Totland who verified this case study.

Project Manager, Digital Transformation, Solstrand Hotel

Solstrand

"Our Opera Cloud version has just transitioned to the Oracle Cloud Native Environment. Opera is now much faster and more stable compared to the old server. There will no longer be any system downtime during updates and upgrades. The Cloud Native Environment will give us more opportunities for connecting to 3rd party solutions using OHIP. It’s great that the Management at Solstrand Hotel are focusing on digitalization and development, and that they prioritize to have a person dedicated to these tasks within their own team. Independent, historical resorts like Solstrand Hotel needs to offer their guests modern solutions. Not only to meet the increasing expectations from our guest, and to stand up in the competition against the hotel chains, but also to give our staff the best tools and make Solstrand an attractive place to work. It’s exciting to go through and analyze the different processes that daily takes place at the hotel, to see where we can help the teams to save time by making the processes more efficient. Setting up Opera in a smart way has been essential, to be able to extract good reports for the kitchen and restaurant departments. Oracle has also been helpful and created customized reports that fits our needs. Integration to Opera Cloud was essential when we selected our spa system TAC in 2021. Many of our guests appreciate to charge their treatments to their room, but we have also managed to get 55% of the reservations to be booked and prepaid online. This means less stress for our spa therapists and more time to prepare the room between the treatments. In May we installed new 43” Phillips MediaSuite TVs from BazePort in all guest rooms. In addition to the standard TV-channels and built in Chromecast, these will give our guests the general information they need, in their preferred language. We no longer need to update an information folder in all the rooms, it’s now easy to change for example the breakfast hours digitally. The integration with Opera will reset the guests Chromecast settings upon checkout. We have just signed an agreement with P3 Hotels and are in the process of building a customized Booking Engine. We will also be using their solution for sending pre-stay emails to all our guests, offering packages and room upgrades, as well as mobile check-in and check-out. P3’s long experience with OHIP integration to Opera Cloud was an important factor for our choice. We are in the final process of evaluating different housekeeping solutions and will go live with this in Q1 2024. This will also give us more efficient Maintenance and Lost & Found functions. All integrated with Opera Cloud of course. It’s fun to be early adopters of new solutions, and it gives us a great opportunity to give feedback and push for further development, to make the solutions better. OHIP is still new to many system providers, and some haven’t developed all the same functions as in the old interfaces yet, but the opportunities with OHIP are endless. We will no longer consider a new system that requires an old type of interface that is connected through a server at the hotel."

Oystein Totland

Project Manager, Digital Transformation, Solstrand Hotel

👍 Project Manager, Digital Transformation, Solstrand Hotel Oystein Totland said that OHIP enables quick techstack expansion through its industry-leading variety of partners:
  • "Our Opera Cloud version has just transitioned to the Oracle Cloud Native Environment. Opera is now much faster and more stable compared to the old server. There will no longer be any system downtime during updates and upgrades. The Cloud Native Environment will give us more opportunities for connecting to 3rd party solutions using OHIP. It’s great that the Management at Solstrand Hotel are focusing on digitalization and development, and that they prioritize to have a person dedicated to these tasks within their own team. Independent, historical resorts like Solstrand Hotel needs to offer their guests modern solutions. Not only to meet the increasing expectations from our guest, and to stand up in the competition against the hotel chains, but also to give our staff the best tools and make Solstrand an attractive place to work. It’s exciting to go through and analyze the different processes that daily takes place at the hotel, to see where we can help the teams to save time by making the processes more efficient. Setting up Opera in a smart way has been essential, to be able to extract good reports for the kitchen and restaurant departments. Oracle has also been helpful and created customized reports that fits our needs. Integration to Opera Cloud was essential when we selected our spa system TAC in 2021. Many of our guests appreciate to charge their treatments to their room, but we have also managed to get 55% of the reservations to be booked and prepaid online. This means less stress for our spa therapists and more time to prepare the room between the treatments. In May we installed new 43” Phillips MediaSuite TVs from BazePort in all guest rooms. In addition to the standard TV-channels and built in Chromecast, these will give our guests the general information they need, in their preferred language. We no longer need to update an information folder in all the rooms, it’s now easy to change for example the breakfast hours digitally. The integration with Opera will reset the guests Chromecast settings upon checkout. We have just signed an agreement with P3 Hotels and are in the process of building a customized Booking Engine. We will also be using their solution for sending pre-stay emails to all our guests, offering packages and room upgrades, as well as mobile check-in and check-out. P3’s long experience with OHIP integration to Opera Cloud was an important factor for our choice. We are in the final process of evaluating different housekeeping solutions and will go live with this in Q1 2024. This will also give us more efficient Maintenance and Lost & Found functions. All integrated with Opera Cloud of course. It’s fun to be early adopters of new solutions, and it gives us a great opportunity to give feedback and push for further development, to make the solutions better. OHIP is still new to many system providers, and some haven’t developed all the same functions as in the old interfaces yet, but the opportunities with OHIP are endless. We will no longer consider a new system that requires an old type of interface that is connected through a server at the hotel."

⚖️ The selection process: During their research process, Oystein Totland evaluated Oracle Hospitality's product differentiators, customer support, and holistic value as a strategic partner and ultimately decided that Oracle Hospitality was the best fit solution:
  • Project Manager, Digital Transformation, Solstrand Hotel Oystein Totland said, about their decision: "Ultimately, we chose OPERA Cloud because Oracle is known for its security measures. Going to the cloud and moving your data from on-premises can be frightening for any hotelier; avoiding such risks was important, and we trusted Oracle’s accomplished record in security across its business, from product development to processes."

📈 The results: With the ongoing benefits of streamlined integration, an expansive partner network, and ongoing updates, Solstrand has been able to dramatically improve our operations.
  • The benefits of better integration aren’t limited to connections with new solutions. OPERA Cloud’s integration improves operations with existing ones, too. In the past, our central reservation system, which was integrated with the on-premises PMS, experienced downtime – sometimes, up to a few days. When that happened, we’d have to do reservations manually, and risk overbooking. But with OPERA Cloud, our CRS is so stable. That problem is completely gone.

  • OPERA Cloud’s integration capability was a major reason for the fast installation. This was a key factor in our selection of the hotel PMS.

  • We host a lot of meetings during the weekdays, and on weekends, we’re busy with family parties and celebrations. The software has been improved, and it allows for editing several events at the same time, which saves a lot of time for our staff. And we’re looking forward to using new features such as booking guest rooms as meeting rooms. It’ll automatically block the guest room’s availability (when it’s reserved in such a fashion), so you don’t have to do it separately. For us, it’s a valuable feature because we’ve been seeing a bigger demand for smaller meetings.

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