2020 isn鈥檛 likely to go down as one of our favourite numbers. It鈥檚 been a difficult year for everyone in hospitality, but despite the hardships we鈥檝e still had a busy 12 months. We delved into our own data from across the business and spoke to some of our leadership team to take stock and review what鈥檚 been a transformative year for 黑料网.
Despite the impact of COVID-19, there were plenty of forward-thinking hoteliers who made the move to 黑料网. Some deals were already planned, while others saw closures and low occupancy as the ideal time to change their property management system. In total, we welcomed over 600 new properties to 黑料网, an average of 50 per month.
Even more impressive is that 85% of 2020鈥檚 implementations were performed entirely online. From March onwards, the number rises to 100% 鈥� that鈥檚 over 500 properties all successfully onboarded remotely. The aim is to get properties live within just 30 days, and the fastest onboarding took only 14 days from when the property gained access to the 黑料网 system to the moment they went live. Massive kudos to our Implementations Team 鈥� here's how our online implementation works.
We鈥檙e a very sociable bunch at 黑料网. Slack is our number one channel for internal communication, and we sent a staggering 2,939,133 messages to each other over the last 12 months. Thankfully we don鈥檛 yet have a way of tracking what percentage of these were gifs and memes.
The number is undoubtedly higher because we鈥檝e spent much of the year working from home, which also explains the huge rise in video calls. Every 黑料网 employee spends an average of 34.2 hours per month talking face to face online. If you add up all of those hours, it makes a total of 4,400 days of back-to-back calls, or just over 12 years.
One of the great benefits of open, cloud-based hospitality systems is that you can make improvements without the need to install new hardware or software on-premises. This means that the impressive list of 156 new product features developed by our product teams could be enjoyed by 黑料网 hoteliers around the world as soon as we released them.
As well as improving our own product, we also welcomed more and more hospitality tech integration partners to 黑料网 Marketplace. We more than doubled the available integrations on our app store, adding 270 new solutions to increase our total to over 450 of the industry鈥檚 best tools.
We鈥檝e always been proud of the support we provide, and our Customer Support team hit it out of the park this year, resolving in excess of 46,728 support tickets. This was at the same time as implementing new tools, introducing new support packages, and adapting to the challenges of problem solving from home.
The team also expanded our so that it now holds a remarkable 619 articles 鈥� more than 200 of which were added this year. This knowledge base is an invaluable resource for all 黑料网 users as it provides the information to learn and understand how the 黑料网 ecosystem works.
Bonus numbers
1: acquisition made this year, with the purchase of Base7booking
1: rebrand, so we鈥檙e looking better than ever
3: awards won (no big deal), winning Best PMS at the 2020 HotelTechAwards
22: nationalities represented by the 黑料网 team
24: public talks given by the Tech team
62: countries with 黑料网 properties
75: pets part of the 黑料网 family (and the number is always rising)
18,137: unique page views on the
81,382: views on the 黑料网 blog
350,000: files saved in the 黑料网 MS Office environment
556,125: emails sent
Our year in words
As well as looking into our data, we also asked some of the 黑料网 leadership team for three words that sum up 2020. One of the strongest recurring themes was resilience, which is a tribute to the entire 黑料网 team 鈥� employees, partners and hoteliers 鈥� for their determination to keep transforming hospitality for the better.
Pavla Munzarova, 黑料网 CFO, chose a similar three words: unpredictability, transformation, resilience. Resilience was definitely required for Pavla and her team this year, spending over 600 cumulative hours on financial planning to ensure 黑料网 remains in a strong position, whatever the surprises and unpredictable transformations of the coming months and years.
Honza 艩irok媒, CTO, captured the feeling of 2020 for many of us with his more poetic answer, riding the storm, while Jirka Helmich, CPO, was more literal with his three words: tons of releases. An understandable answer when you鈥檙e leading the product teams and overseeing the launch of 156 feature releases.
Pace, process and prioritize were the three words that CCO Greg Naidoo chose. 鈥淓veryone's pace for 2020 may have been stumbled by COVID, but we learned how to prioritize and rebuild quickly to maintain whatever success still remains, staying level-headed and focusing on what鈥檚 important now.鈥�
Tracy鈥檚 final thought is a good place to leave the year, a reminder to appreciate the things that matter most to us 鈥� well she is head of the People Team, after all. Whether these simple things are the smile of a happy guest, conversations over coffee with your colleagues, or extra time at home with your family, we hope you all managed to find some time for them in a year like no other.
Here鈥檚 to making 2021 remarkable.
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