Hospitality for performance
Robert Godwin and his brother, Stuart Godwin, raced for the British Sailing Team for 10 years. As part of an Olympic Development Squad, they spent a lot of time traveling for competitions around the world. Their accommodations during these trips were basic at best. Robert even went so far as to describe them as “soulless”. They felt that the spartan environments in which they were spending their leisure time ultimately hurt their athletic performance.
These experiences in less-than-ideal hotels have inspired the Godwin brothers in their work at the Lamington Group, where they are Managing Director and Financial Director, respectively. A 53-year-old family-run business based in West London, the Lamington Group offers a range of serviced apartments and apartment hotels with 250 keys and 4 locations. The group has ambitions to increase its offering to 5,000 keys by 2030.
Since taking over as Managing Director in 2011, Robert has focused the Group on creating environments that empower people to perform at their best. Their homestay model (they call some of their properties “hometels”) combines the sophistication and service of hotels with the character and comfort of an Airbnb. This sets them apart from other groups in the space, providing them with significant prospects for long-term growth.
Looking ahead
As part of his commitment to creating environments where people can be the best versions of themselves, Robert has focused on leveraging technology to meet and anticipate guest needs. Over the last 15 years, the Lamington Group has invested significant time and financial resources in integrating the latest technologies into its day-to-day work. From process automation and streamlining operations to improving the guest experience through data, the Lamington Group is positioning itself at the cutting edge of hospitality tech.
One of the solutions that the Lamington Group implemented in recent years was Salesforce, a clear leader in the CRM space. While Salesforce is a powerful tool for managing customer data, it’s highly complex and modular. The Lamington team found that they did not have the time or expertise needed to customize their Salesforce instance and make it work for them.
A ready-made solution
The COVID-19 pandemic made it clear to the team at the Lamington Group that they needed to leverage Salesforce so that they could adapt quickly to changing guest preferences and needs. While many companies pay consultants to customize their instances, those engagements are often lengthy and expensive. The Lamington Group wanted to try something different.
Then, the Group connected with Thynk, the hospitality cloud for operational excellence. Thynk provided them with an out-of-the-box solution catered to hospitality businesses like theirs.
Thynk’s impact on the Lamington Group’s performance has been evident since the very beginning. They have already been able to automate a number of their sales processes, from outreach to invoicing. With Thnyk, the Lamington Group can now generate offers in 3 minutes or even less. Their dashboards highlight exactly the data and insights that their team wants to see, and they’ve even reduced lost business due to a lack of follow-ups to 0%.
With duplicate matching tools, Thynk has helped the Lamington team manage and improve the integrity of the data they collect from their guests. The automation of mundane but time-consuming tasks has allowed Lamington teams to spend more time with customers. The combination of in-person interactions with customers and reliable, easy to interpret customer data has led to a deeper understanding of customer needs. This understanding empowers the Lamington Group to deliver the excellent experiences that are so vital to their mission.
