How Crowne Plaza Newcastle Captures New Revenue and Scales Guest Communication With Canary

OPERATIONS

Crowne Plaza Newcastle, a 251-room full-service hotel in Newcastle upon Tyne, uses Canary to move guest communication to SMS and WhatsApp, promote its restaurant, gin bar and spa to the right guests, and generate over £20,000 in new upsell revenue.

Why it matters: After switching to self-management, the team wanted to improve the guest journey while creating new revenue streams. With every guest question running through the front desk and add-ons depending on staff remembering to offer them, digital messaging and automated upsells opened up both.

Crowne Plaza Newcastle uses Canary’s Guest Messaging to handle guest requests over SMS and WhatsApp and to broadcast segment-specific promotions for its restaurants, spa and activities, and Dynamic Upsells to automatically offer room upgrades, early check-in and breakfast packages to the right guest at the right time.

Top 3 Core Objectives: After moving to self-management, Crowne Plaza Newcastle wanted to take pressure off the front desk, make guests aware of its many amenities and capture upsell revenue it was missing.

Digital guest communication: Every guest question, from dinner reservations to spa bookings, ran through the front desk, overwhelming staff and leaving guests waiting for answers.
Promote on-site amenities: Guests who went straight to their rooms often didn’t know about the restaurant, gin bar, spa and leisure club the hotel offers.
Automate upsell offers: Add-ons were offered manually at check-in, so if staff didn’t ask or guests didn’t know what was available, the hotel missed out on revenue.

Innovators Mentioned

Crowne Plaza Newcastle

Canary Technologies

Kristina Skaburskyte

Director of Revenue

Crowne Plaza Newcastle

Antony Hazel

Director of Operations

Crowne Plaza Newcastle

"Room upsells do the best in terms of revenue. Our suites, early check-ins and breakfast packages are the most popular, but everything adds up to create incremental income we weren’t getting before."

Kristina Skaburskyte

Director of Revenue

👍 Director of Revenue Kristina Skaburskyte said that Canary’s Dynamic Upsells generate incremental revenue Crowne Plaza Newcastle wasn’t capturing before.:

"Room upsells do the best in terms of revenue. Our suites, early check-ins and breakfast packages are the most popular, but everything adds up to create incremental income we weren’t getting before."

⚖️ The selection process: During their research process, Antony Hazel evaluated Canary Technologies's product differentiators, customer support, and holistic value as a strategic partner and ultimately decided that Canary Technologies was the best fit solution:

Director of Operations Antony Hazel said, about their decision: "If you check in and go straight to your room, you might not even realise the gin bar is there. Now, we can send special offers to different guest segments, like sending corporate travelers offers built around dining allowances. That’s what Canary helps us do."

📈 The results: Crowne Plaza Newcastle has generated over £20,000 in requested upsell revenue, moved guest communication to SMS and WhatsApp, and now drives more revenue from the amenities it already has through targeted broadcast messages.

£20,000+ (~$27,000 USD) in requested upsell revenue, led by suites, early check-in and breakfast packages.
Guest questions and requests are handled over SMS and WhatsApp, so guests get answers and actions right away without calling the front desk.
Segment-specific broadcasts promote the restaurants, gin bar, spa and activities, such as dining offers for corporate travelers.