Swedish Hotel, Spa, and Conference Center VANN Finds Winning Solution

Problem: Online reservation and booking system that made customers and staff unhappy

VANN is a hotel, spa, and conference center that is located 23 km northeast of Lysekil, an hour’s drive north from Gothenburg on Sweden’s west coast. It is situated an hour’s drive south from the Swedish-Norwegian border and is located in a nature reserve next to the Gullmarsfjord, which is Sweden’s first protected marine area. The unique hotel offers a spa, conference bookings, a restaurant, and of course accommodations for both business and pleasure.

As a modern hotel operation, VANN offers reservations and booking together – and online. Before implementing the Nets Easy checkout solution, 30% of reservations by guest hotels were made online, while the other 70% were made via phone or email. VANN’s goal was to increase online reservations to save time and decrease manual labor by hotel staff—but to also make payment by invoice and accurate tracking of payment possible. This would be a convenience for the hotel guest. VANN’s ultimate goal was to shift the balance of reservations so that half of all reservations were made via online booking and payment.

They needed a checkout solution integrated to their webshop that was both easy for customers and could save time and effort for their staff.

Solution: Improved Webshop functionality from a cost-effective, all-in-one checkout portal

“With Nets Easy, not only is the activity in the webshop healthy but the functionality is what we wanted,” says Anna. “We now have accurate booking, accurate invoicing, and easy refunds. This resulted in satisfied guests who did not experience any negative experiences in making reservations, receiving confirmations, or even getting a refund if they canceled their booking. Of course this helped our reputation and brand,” she explains.

There were many reasons that we selected Nets Easy. Anna explains that one of the reasons is that everything was grouped together: “We experienced an all-in-one portal and service was more integrated and locally available. Price was also a factor— the cost for Nets was less than the available options in the market. Importantly, Nets Easy integrates easily with our online reservation system called Bookvisit. Some of the other competitors do not integrate with our systems. It is very important that the checkout provider integrates seamlessly with our webshop and reservation system.”

Results: Higher Customer Satisfaction, Less Administration, and More Online Reservations!

We have been using Nets Easy since the start of 2021, explains Anna. “We see that we have increased our online bookings—we are uncertain that this is a result of our offering invoicing. And we definitely experience the solution as being easy to use.

“Currently, the mix of online versus phone/email reservations is closer to 40:60,” says Anna. “We hope it continues to move so that it becomes 50:50 which is our goal.”

contributor

Samara H. Johansson
Content Manager, Nets E-Commerce

With 15+ years of experience in strategic marketing and communications roles, for Nets I focus on presenting e-commerce market insights in a way that is easy to understand and practical. Read more