December 1, 2025 • 27 mins
What happens when a boutique hotel director builds a fully personalized “signature tech stack” from the ground up—and proves you don’t need to be a tech native to run one of the most digitally advanced 70-key properties in Berlin? In this episode, Tini Diekmann, Hotel Director at the acclaimed Hotel Oderberger, reveals the real-world tools, workflows, and mindsets that transformed her operations.
This episode is designed for experienced hoteliers, GMs, and department heads who have lived through multiple system overhauls, survived legacy tech, and are looking for practical, proven strategies to modernize their operations without the chaos.
Takeaways:
• How a boutique hotel built a high-performing, revenue-focused tech stack—piece by piece. Learn how Tini turned a self-built legacy PMS into a fully integrated ecosystem using Mews, SiteMinder, RoomPriceGenie, TrustYou, and more.
• Surprising operational wins you wouldn’t expect. Discover why installing a guest tablet actually slashed heating costs—thanks to a three-way integration between the PMS, in-room devices, and IoT-connected radiators.
• A realistic blueprint for evaluating, selecting, and phasing in new tools. Tini explains why you should never implement more than one or two solutions per year, how to measure ROI, when to cut a tool, and how to keep staff empowered (not overwhelmed) throughout the transition.
• AI in guest communication that actually works. Hear why their call volume collapsed overnight after adopting a chatbot—and how AI email responses now handle 98% of inquiries while maintaining brand tone and reducing workload.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Don't be afraid of doing it because, like, I was
never into tech stack. I wasneither into tech. And I was one
of the last ones at my school tohave a computer, I remember.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
From Hotel Tech Report, it's Hotel Tech Insider,
a show about the future ofhotels and the technology that
powers them.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
Today, we're talking with Tini Dijklin, the hotel
director at Hotel Oderberge, a70 key hotel in Berlin. In this
episode, Tini walks us throughthe Tini tech stack. We cover
foundational software like thePMS, as well as some interesting
and valuable add ons. You won'twant to miss this one, so let's
dive in. Well, thank you somuch, Tini, for being on the
(00:45):
podcast today.
I'm really looking forward tochatting with you. And to get
things started, I would love foryou to introduce yourself and
tell us a bit about your hotel.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Yeah. Thank you, Adrienne. I'm very happy to be
on the podcast today. I'm thehotel director of Hotel
Oderberge, which is a boutiquehotel with 70 rooms in the heart
of Berlin, Prenzlauer Berg, aquite trendy district. And
actually, the hotel is just partof a company which basically
consists of a language schooland three hotels.
(01:17):
So Hotel Oderberge is here inBerlin. We have another small
property on the East Coast inOsedom. It's called Villa
Bleichroder. And then we havethe language School, which has
another 48 studio apartments.I'm responsible for the part of
the hotel.
I'm basically the hoteldirector. I'm also director of
sales, revenue, distribution, soeverything that has to do with
(01:41):
the rooms section. I'm notresponsible for the F and B
part. I have colleagues who aredoing this, but I have enough
work with all the fields. Andyeah, I'm always open to new
things.
I think we get more in detailinto that later on, I think. But
our tech stack changed a lot inCorona. So we did the PMS change
(02:01):
in the middle of thethunderstorm of Corona five
years ago. That was in 2020. Andthen after changing the PMS, we
added a lot of more tech tools.
And yeah, I'm happy to talkabout this. Thank you for having
me.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
Absolutely. Well, let's jump right into it. I
understand that you have asignature tech stack, and I
would love for you to walk methrough the vendors you use and
also why you chose them.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
Yeah. Actually, the name came up. I thought this is
so funny because it goes wellwith my name. So it's the Tiny
Tech Stack, we call it. And Ican just say that I chose those
tools.
So they're my particularopinion. Doesn't mean they're
the best on the market. They'rejust the best on the market for
me. So I think the tech stackyou choose is very personal
because for every area, there'sso many options, like at least,
(02:52):
I don't know, five options foreach area that you could choose.
So I think nowadays, the techstack became really personal
because it's really mysignature.
So I chose this, and that'sexactly what I would recommend
for anybody having, of course, ahotel of my size. You know, I
wouldn't recommend this maybe toa hotel with 500 rooms. They
have other needs and concerns.But like for a boutique hotel in
(03:15):
a city, I would really recommendthis. But of course, there are
other options.
Well, the first thing to startwith, so that's really like the
base, is of course the PMS. It'sthe heart of the tech stack. And
when I started in this hotel tenyears ago, we had the self built
PMS, which was from the languageschool. It had all the language
data, the students, theteachers, and all this. And then
(03:38):
we added this hotel with 70rooms.
And of course, the system gotslower and slower and slower,
and then it didn't work anymoreat all. So it was like a really,
really old fashioned and noonline payment. And I can't even
imagine how we worked for thisfive years ago. But then,
fortunately, we decided tochange the PMS and we did a big
(03:59):
selection. We had differentvendors here in house and we
decided for Muse five years ago.
So nowadays they're reallypopular and they always voted on
your site for best PMS, I thinknow, I don't know, two, three
years in a row. So they'rereally, really famous, but five
years ago they were not sofamous yet. But we were already
(04:20):
really convinced that was reallythe best PMS for us. And I'm so
happy that we chose them and didthe life goal or the change of
the PMS really in the middle ofCorona. That was really awful
because Corona itself wasalready awful for everybody in
hospitality.
You knew all the hotels wereclosed. You didn't know if you
(04:40):
could keep on going, we're evergonna open again. And it was
really hard times. And we choseto, in these different times, to
also change the PMS on top. Butactually, it was good because
the hotel was quite empty and sohappy that we did it.
I think we wouldn't havesurvived without Muse or a cloud
based PMS because just this way,we were able to cancel
(05:01):
reservations from anywhere, eventhe hotel was closed or do
payments and refunds andeverything, not having to be
on-site. So that was really thebase and the first step.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
What about Muse made you choose that system? Were
there features you liked?
Speaker 1 (05:20):
So I would say it's a sexy tool. So it's really
intuitive. Looks nice, but itdoesn't only look nice, it also
works really smoothly. And theworkflows are just intuitive. So
you can just put a person here,a new front office agent, you
can put them here.
And, like, within a day, theycan do check-in, check out,
(05:40):
invoice, invoice changes,booking products. And with an
old, complicated system, youwould need, like, two weeks to
explain to a person until theyare first allowed to do the
first check-in by themselves.It's really nice to use and
intuitive. And the best part isthat it has all the open APIs
that you can add all the othertools for the tech stack.
(06:03):
Because with the old PMS that wehad, of course, they didn't have
any APIs, so I couldn't addanything.
I heard about so cool tools thatwe could use, but we couldn't
because we couldn't add them.And with Muse, it's so nice that
you don't pay for extrainterfaces. It's just like open.
And of course, what you have toknow, and I think it's very
important to know that Musedoesn't know or have everything,
(06:27):
but you need to add differenttools for whatever needs you
have. Muse is a PMS and it's areally great PMS with open APIs
for different tools.
But I think you cannot ask of aPMS to be already to have
everything and be able to doeverything. You will need to add
some extra tech, but that's whatI like about it.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
So what have you added on top of Muse? What are
some of those integrations?
Speaker 1 (06:54):
So we added so many things that I divided them into
themes. So the first theme islike prices and revenue, of
course. So the first one, whichgoes without saying, but I'm
saying it anyway, it's of coursea channel manager. But
remembering five years agobefore we had Muse, we didn't
even have a channel manager. SoI was doing the prices for all
(07:16):
the OTAs and the website forevery day of three sixty five
days per hand.
So I cannot even imagineanywhere how that was. It was a
lot of time that I was using forthis. So of course, the first
thing of all, if I have tocancel all the interfaces, the
only one I would, of course,have to say is SiteMinder. We
(07:36):
have SiteMinder as a channelmanager to connect to the
different OTAs, and theconnection is really good. And
yeah, I set it up five years agoor then for the new property at
the East Side like it was twoyears ago.
You set it up once and then it'sworking flawlessly and really no
need to do anything. If you wantto change, you can change
things, but it's really justgoing quite well by itself.
(07:58):
Actually, what's interestingthat Muse is now adding they're
a little bit trying to undercutthe channel managers because
they're having directintegrations now with, for
example, booking.com andExpedia. But they didn't have
when we started with Muse. So weconnected everything with
SiteMinder.
But when we started, they didn'thave Expedia or Booking direct
connections. But now they dohave. So you can actually save
(08:20):
the money for the channelmanager if you only use Expedia
and booking.com. But as soon asyou also use other OTAs, then,
of course, you need the channelmanager to sell as many rooms as
possible on the different OTAs.So that's the first four prices
and revenue.
Then since about one year, wehave an RMS for making the
(08:41):
prices. Because even now that Ididn't have to do the channels
anymore, I still had a lot ofwork with doing the prices.
Because actually it's reallyhard to do by hand for all the
days, you cannot be everywhereor maybe I was on a Saturday at
home and there was like that aconcert would be in Berlin or
something and then the priceswent up and then I had to react
(09:01):
even on the weekend but now Ihave this RMS. It's called Room
Price Genie. I'm really happyabout it.
It's really nice for hotels ofour size because it's also very
intuitive. It's not toocomplicated. You don't need like
three months to set up all therules. It's really easy, nice.
And yeah, for me, it's alsosexy, this tool, because it's
just so nice and intuitive andso good to use.
(09:24):
I would really recommend. Andthen I go on with the revenue to
get some extra revenue. I alwaysrecommend to have an upsell
tool, which shows Upsell Guru,which is put into the presale
message. And then the clients,they can choose if they want,
for example, extra breakfast ora parking space or some flowers
(09:44):
on the room or whatsoever.Actually, you could also do the
room type upsell.
Like if they booked a comfortroom, they could get a junior
speed. But we are not doing thisbecause we have so many
different room types. We have 11room types already, and then it
would be a little bit too much.So it may work for anybody else.
For us, it doesn't.
(10:04):
But we do the upsell for therooms.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
And are the prices for the upsell items, like
parking, for instance, that'sjust a static price that Mhmm.
Like, you enter that price once.You're not
Speaker 1 (10:18):
Exactly. Yeah. In that case, as it's only
products, it's a static price.So there's a fixed price for
breakfast or for parking. Whatis nice that people who already
have breakfast included in theirrate, they do not get the
breakfast offered, for example.
So it's a little bitpersonalized. But what they do
have, if we would do the roomupsell, they could, like, bet
on, like, how much they wouldlike to pay for. Like, some
(10:40):
airlines also have this that youcan bet on how much you want to
add for the upgrade. And thenalso for extra revenue, we have
voucher card as a voucher tool,which is really nice. We started
this also in corona timesbecause this way we were able to
get some extra revenue withouthaving people stay here because
you just sell the voucher.
(11:01):
And as we all know, at least onethird or almost half of the
vouchers never get redeemedbecause the people just forget
about it. So, yeah, we have therevenue without them staying
here. And this is really nice.We have, for example, vouchers
for our pool because I didn'tmention we have a really big
pool in a big, big swimming poolhall, which was built in
(11:24):
nineteen o two. So it's a reallynice event to be here swimming.
And, also, we have a midnightswim. So you can go, just you
and your favorite person, twopeople from 10PM till midnight,
alone in the pool with nicelights and music. And, yeah,
it's really nice things. You canjust, like, sell events on
voucher card and even do somemarketing like this for your
(11:47):
venue.
Speaker 3 (11:48):
Were all of these systems implemented after you
implemented news?
Speaker 1 (11:52):
Yeah. So it was of we are talking about a timeframe of
five years. So of course, youcannot add 20 tools at the same
time. So Muse was the firstthing together with SiteMinder
that was already there at thebeginning. And VoucherCard was
also quite fast.
But then, I don't know, I thinkyou cannot really do more than
one or two tools per year. Ithink you should maybe give the
(12:14):
also the team and the staff sometime to adapt to the new tools.
So I I wouldn't do it more thanone every six months, to be
honest. So you will need somethis tech stack was built over
the last five years. And also wetried now I'm getting to the
guest relation tools.
What's really nice that you canalso so Muse, as I said, is the
(12:35):
base. But then the tools thatyou add on Muse, you can change,
of course. So you're doingcontracts for one year or two
years. And what I like so muchis that you can just try if you
like them or if they are wellfor you. And if not, not, you
just cancel and try another one.
So this is really plug and play,I would say. It's your tech
stack, so you can try as many asyou like.
Speaker 3 (12:58):
And in Muse then, does the staff enter like
comments about the guests? Likeif someone in the restaurant
learns about an allergy or afavorite type of wine or
something, like they would makea note in the guest profile and
that can be pulled into anemail.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. In the guest profile or or maybe
they said, oh, they absolutelydon't like Room 306. Please
never again give Room 306 or soon.
And then in the next arrival,it's already displayed as an
information of the guest. So theguest profiles are actually
getting richer, I would say. Sowe get a lot of more
information. Before, it got lostsomewhere in the system, and now
(13:38):
it's really getting put alltogether. And so we got really
good information about theguest.
And then we also have Trust Youas a customer reputation
management system because ithelps us to get all the reviews
together, and then we can answerthem directly in the tool. So
it's it's really helping a lotto get because we get a lot of
(13:58):
reviews on all the differentchannels, TripAdvisor, Booking,
Google, Expedia, whatsoever. Andthen it's so nice that you can
have them all together. You cansee your scores. You can see
where you need to improve orwhat's going well.
You can put also for thehousekeeping team, can say your
aim is to have nine point zerofor this year for housekeeping
(14:19):
as the review score. And so youcan really work with those
scores. And for the person whois replying to all the reviews,
it's also easier to have it alltogether in one place. And also
here, we are not because thething is, you have to pay
actually, of course, for everytool that you're using, and the
better you want them to have orto be, the more you pay. So
(14:41):
there's also an option to havean AI on the reply of the
reviews.
And I think this is also greatthat you don't have to answer
everything again every day byyourself, but you can also get
AI help, which saves a lot ofstaff time. Yeah, that's about
the review tool. And then what Iwould also count into guest
(15:04):
relation management system isour we have digital information
in the rooms with better space.We have tablets in the rooms. So
the in room tablets with all theinformation about the hotel, the
guests find the times ofbreakfast, of the pool,
restaurants nearby, or eventsgoing on.
And they can even watch TV ornewspapers in the tablet. That's
(15:25):
a really nice add on. And alsothe tablet is saying, hello,
mister da da da, when thecheck-in is done. And what we
added recently, I think like twoyears ago, is the better energy
with the tablet. So the tabletis actually talking to the
heater via Wifi.
So it's connected and it's alsoconnected to Muse. So we were
(15:48):
able to save a lot of energy anda lot of money thanks to this
because we were so as it'sconnected to Muse, like the
heater knows if it's gonna be acheck-in today or not, if the
room is occupied or not. Anddepending on that, the
temperature goes up or down. Andthen when the check-in is done
at reception, there's like aboost of heat. While the person
(16:11):
is walking to the room, it'sgoing up.
And the guests can also changethe temperature on the tablet,
of course, within parameters youput in there. But it's really
nice that if a room maybe forsome reason is not occupied for
three days, then you're notheating there because Muse is
telling the tablet and thetablet is telling the heater
about the status of the room.
Speaker 3 (16:33):
Can guests also communicate with the staff
through the tablet?
Speaker 1 (16:37):
There's a button and they can ask for an extra pillow
or tell us something and theycan communicate with the
reception by tablet, yes. Andnow coming to guest
communication, some of myfavorites at the end. One, of
course, is the chatbot that wereally love. We implemented, I
think, now three years ago. Andwe have Dialogue Shift as the
(16:58):
chatbot on our website, and itreally helps so much.
So you see, I'm having a coldbecause the winter started here
in Berlin. And I really don'tlike the winter, and that's why
I spent normally January orFebruary or maybe both in Madera
Island, on Madera Island. And soI was implementing I remember
this so well. I was implementingthis tool in December. And then
(17:20):
I went for my stay workingabroad on Madera Island.
Thanks to all the tech tools,it's possible. So I'm so happy
and grateful for all our techtools because I can be in the
summer, the sun, in thewintertime. And then I came back
and I was like, is our telephonebroken? There's something wrong
with the telephone. We're notgetting any more calls.
I'm going crazy. What's thematter? We have to call the IT
(17:41):
department. And then it turnedout, I cannot tell you numbers
because I actually asked the ITdepartment if they could, like,
track how many calls we hadbefore per day. And now,
unfortunately, they can't.
But just from the feeling, it'sunbelievable how much less
telephone calls we are having.It's unbelievable. So the team
really loves it. And the peopledo start the conversation with a
(18:04):
chatbot. And normally, I think98% of the conversations from
the chatbot are done by itself,and only 2% of the chatbot
doesn't know something, they'relike diverted to the team.
And what we will try now, weneed it because the new thing
now is telephone AI, also fromthe chatbot, from DialogShift,
(18:24):
but we couldn't do it so farbecause our telephones were not
up to date. So first, we had tochange the whole telephone IT
setup with the hardware andeverything and make new
contracts. And now we're readyfor the next step to have
telephone AI in the winter. ButI'm already using also from the
chatbot is the DialogShift emailAI. So all the information
(18:49):
that's in the chatbot, so it'sgetting more and more
intelligent over the timebecause with every question and
every answer, of course, itlearns more and more.
And now I love so much the emailAI. So if I have, for example, a
complaint or also with yeah,even I'm doing it internally
with my colleagues here in thelanguage school. Think that
they're not even aware that notme who's answering, but it's the
(19:13):
AI. So it's really saving somuch time even for complaints.
If you don't use the answercompletely, you can still change
something.
But it's really, for me, a gamechanger to use AI in the email
communication.
Speaker 3 (19:27):
How do you continually evaluate your tech
stack? Like how do you make sureevery tool is still working for
you, working the way you intendit to work? Is there a point
where you would replace a toolif it's not working? How do you
keep that feedback loop going?
Speaker 1 (19:45):
Actually, I have to say I keep using the tools also
myself. So basically, almost allthe tools, I use them in my
daily business. Or if a staffmember has a question, I'm
looking Actually, I'm doing toomuch in the tools myself. I know
I have to delegate a little bitbetter. That's one of my not so
good points.
I need to delegate more. But asI'm still inside the tools, as I
(20:09):
set them up, if somebody has aquestion or wants to change
something, I'm doing it. So Iwould say I'm kind of like the
digitalization manager who'shaving still to do with the
tools. And then if I see, ofcourse, that something is not
working anymore, or maybe I findout that we're not really using
it anymore, it would be more notthat it's not working, but that
(20:30):
the question is, if they allcost money, I have to say this,
because some hoteliers heardabout, oh, you're having so nice
tools. I would also like them.
And then they were like, oh, butI have to pay each and every one
of them? I'm like, yeah, youhave to. I'm always surprised
every end of the month about allthe invoices I get. What you
have to check, because they willkeep on working, but what you
(20:50):
have to check if you really usethem and if there's still a
return on investment for you. Imean, it doesn't make sense if
you pay €500 per month for onetool and then the outcome is not
so great, it's maybe just onehour per month, then you should
maybe think about eitherchanging it or getting rid of
it.
And then also the support, likeif the colleagues tell me, oh,
(21:13):
we wrote to them so many times,they don't respond. I think
that's really important to havea good support, good return on
investment, and they don't stopto function or malfunction. But
maybe you hear what can happenthat because where I hear about
the tools and where I get toknow the names is in the
networking events that I'mtaking place. So here we have,
(21:35):
for example, we have a museregulars table where we meet
with different muse hotels orthen the ladies revenue table,
as we not only have few ladiesin tech, in hotel tech, we also
have few ladies in revenuemanagement positions. So we
created a ladies revenue tablein Berlin.
So we meet and we also talkabout tools. And also we have a
(21:56):
boutique regulars table where Imeet other GMs from other
boutique hotels. And there, ofcourse, we talk about the tools
and we say, oh, did you hearabout this? This is really
great. Oh, no, this is Iwouldn't take this.
It's really a lot aboutreputation or information inside
the network evenings, I wouldsay.
Speaker 3 (22:16):
We talked all about your current tech stack, but I'm
curious to know what's on yourwish list? Is there like a new
Muse integration that you'rethinking of adding?
Speaker 1 (22:25):
Yeah. Actually, I'm always so happy when I have one
more tool done. So Flex skippingwas the last one. I was like,
tick, it's done. But of course,we have to get ongoing and get
better every day.
So the next steps actually wouldbe to have a POS from Muse
because we do have a point ofsale system for the F and B
outlets. We do have one, butit's a little bit outdated. It
(22:48):
also has an integration to Muse,which I set up five years ago.
It's called Hypersoft, but we'rethinking about changing to the
POS of Muse directly because theinterface is a lot better. And
also, you can do digitalordering with QR codes from the
table.
So you can just be at the tableand the client can order with
the telephone and do the order.And they also can pay for the QR
(23:12):
code that's on the table. Sothat would also save a lot of
staff time. So that's actuallythe next thing we're thinking
about. And then we have theproject because I told you that
we have the language school.
And so the Hotel Oderberger isbasically digitalized and in a
really good status. But now themanagement or the owners asked
me to put all this TxTag also inthe language school. So that
(23:35):
would be my work for next yearto digitalize also the language
school. They want to change thecheck-in for mobile check-in and
self check-in. So I'm actuallytalking now to some key
companies.
So they also have integrationswith Muse. So we want to do the
mobile key possible, and we wantto have the self check-in
possible for the students. And,yeah, basically, that's it for
(23:58):
the plans for next year. Sowe're never getting a board in
here. So we're always aiming fornew features and new, yeah,
things.
But but, like, the basic techstack here in Oderbergh, it will
stay the same because I'm veryhappy about it. And yeah, just
the POS and then on for the newprojects. And we're also having
a new building coming up in2027. The owners will build a
(24:23):
new building. Then we will alsoimplement the tech stack.
So yeah, never getting bored.
Speaker 3 (24:29):
Well, still have a couple of minutes left. I know
you mentioned that you're veryhappy to be a woman in this
space where there are not a lotof women. I'm curious if you
have any advice orrecommendations for a woman who
wants to move up in the hoteltech space, what advice you
would offer.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
Well, the advice would be just do it. I mean,
don't be afraid of doing itbecause, like, I was never into
tech stack. I was neither intotech. And I was one of the last
ones at my school to have acomputer. I remember a long time
ago.
And it's not hard. As I said,the tools nowadays, they're
really easy to use. They're sointuitive and that you don't
(25:11):
have to have like techuniversity degree in order to
use them. I mean, if you can useWhatsApp on your phone, you can
use any of those tech stacktools. And so I would say, just
go for it.
Just do it. Don't know why. Liketoday, we had a meeting with the
key providers and it was all menin the room. And I was the only
woman. We had two meetings.
(25:32):
It was the same situation twice.And I was like, why am I the
only woman here? But I don'tknow. Just do it and don't be
afraid of it. And it's not yeah,I don't know.
Yeah, it's really hard to say. Idon't know why. Men, they always
or a lot of times they think,oh, I can do it. I'm so good. I
can do it.
And the women, they are morecritical about themselves. They
(25:52):
may be afraid. Maybe I cannot doit so well, then I will rather
not do it. So my advice is youcan just do it, be brave, and we
should be more women out therein the hotel tech world.
Speaker 3 (26:05):
Thank you so much for walking me through the Tech
Stack. It was great chattingwith you. I really appreciate
all of the advice and bestpractices that you shared.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
That's all for today's episode. For listening
to Hotel Tech Insider producedby hoteltechreport.com. Our goal
with this podcast is to show youhow the best in the business are
leveraging technology to growtheir properties and outperform
the concept by using innovativedigital tools and strategies. I
encourage all of our listenersto go try at least one of these
strategies or tools that youlearned from today's episode.
(26:40):
Successful digitaltransformation is all about
consistent small experimentsover a long period of time, so
don't wait until tomorrow to trysomething new.
Do you know a hotelier who wouldbe great to feature on this
show, or do you think that yourstory would bring a lot of value
to our audience? Reach out to medirectly on LinkedIn by
searching for Jordan Hollander.For more episodes like this,
(27:02):
follow Hotel Tech Insider on allmajor streaming platforms like
Spotify and Apple Music.
Don't be afraid of doing it because, like, I was
never into tech stack. I wasneither into tech. And I was one
of the last ones at my school tohave a computer, I remember.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
From Hotel Tech Report, it's Hotel Tech Insider,
a show about the future ofhotels and the technology that
powers them.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
Today, we're talking with Tini Dijklin, the hotel
director at Hotel Oderberge, a70 key hotel in Berlin. In this
episode, Tini walks us throughthe Tini tech stack. We cover
foundational software like thePMS, as well as some interesting
and valuable add ons. You won'twant to miss this one, so let's
dive in. Well, thank you somuch, Tini, for being on the
(00:45):
podcast today.
I'm really looking forward tochatting with you. And to get
things started, I would love foryou to introduce yourself and
tell us a bit about your hotel.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Yeah. Thank you, Adrienne. I'm very happy to be
on the podcast today. I'm thehotel director of Hotel
Oderberge, which is a boutiquehotel with 70 rooms in the heart
of Berlin, Prenzlauer Berg, aquite trendy district. And
actually, the hotel is just partof a company which basically
consists of a language schooland three hotels.
(01:17):
So Hotel Oderberge is here inBerlin. We have another small
property on the East Coast inOsedom. It's called Villa
Bleichroder. And then we havethe language School, which has
another 48 studio apartments.I'm responsible for the part of
the hotel.
I'm basically the hoteldirector. I'm also director of
sales, revenue, distribution, soeverything that has to do with
(01:41):
the rooms section. I'm notresponsible for the F and B
part. I have colleagues who aredoing this, but I have enough
work with all the fields. Andyeah, I'm always open to new
things.
I think we get more in detailinto that later on, I think. But
our tech stack changed a lot inCorona. So we did the PMS change
(02:01):
in the middle of thethunderstorm of Corona five
years ago. That was in 2020. Andthen after changing the PMS, we
added a lot of more tech tools.
And yeah, I'm happy to talkabout this. Thank you for having
me.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
Absolutely. Well, let's jump right into it. I
understand that you have asignature tech stack, and I
would love for you to walk methrough the vendors you use and
also why you chose them.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
Yeah. Actually, the name came up. I thought this is
so funny because it goes wellwith my name. So it's the Tiny
Tech Stack, we call it. And Ican just say that I chose those
tools.
So they're my particularopinion. Doesn't mean they're
the best on the market. They'rejust the best on the market for
me. So I think the tech stackyou choose is very personal
because for every area, there'sso many options, like at least,
(02:52):
I don't know, five options foreach area that you could choose.
So I think nowadays, the techstack became really personal
because it's really mysignature.
So I chose this, and that'sexactly what I would recommend
for anybody having, of course, ahotel of my size. You know, I
wouldn't recommend this maybe toa hotel with 500 rooms. They
have other needs and concerns.But like for a boutique hotel in
(03:15):
a city, I would really recommendthis. But of course, there are
other options.
Well, the first thing to startwith, so that's really like the
base, is of course the PMS. It'sthe heart of the tech stack. And
when I started in this hotel tenyears ago, we had the self built
PMS, which was from the languageschool. It had all the language
data, the students, theteachers, and all this. And then
(03:38):
we added this hotel with 70rooms.
And of course, the system gotslower and slower and slower,
and then it didn't work anymoreat all. So it was like a really,
really old fashioned and noonline payment. And I can't even
imagine how we worked for thisfive years ago. But then,
fortunately, we decided tochange the PMS and we did a big
(03:59):
selection. We had differentvendors here in house and we
decided for Muse five years ago.
So nowadays they're reallypopular and they always voted on
your site for best PMS, I thinknow, I don't know, two, three
years in a row. So they'rereally, really famous, but five
years ago they were not sofamous yet. But we were already
(04:20):
really convinced that was reallythe best PMS for us. And I'm so
happy that we chose them and didthe life goal or the change of
the PMS really in the middle ofCorona. That was really awful
because Corona itself wasalready awful for everybody in
hospitality.
You knew all the hotels wereclosed. You didn't know if you
(04:40):
could keep on going, we're evergonna open again. And it was
really hard times. And we choseto, in these different times, to
also change the PMS on top. Butactually, it was good because
the hotel was quite empty and sohappy that we did it.
I think we wouldn't havesurvived without Muse or a cloud
based PMS because just this way,we were able to cancel
(05:01):
reservations from anywhere, eventhe hotel was closed or do
payments and refunds andeverything, not having to be
on-site. So that was really thebase and the first step.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
What about Muse made you choose that system? Were
there features you liked?
Speaker 1 (05:20):
So I would say it's a sexy tool. So it's really
intuitive. Looks nice, but itdoesn't only look nice, it also
works really smoothly. And theworkflows are just intuitive. So
you can just put a person here,a new front office agent, you
can put them here.
And, like, within a day, theycan do check-in, check out,
(05:40):
invoice, invoice changes,booking products. And with an
old, complicated system, youwould need, like, two weeks to
explain to a person until theyare first allowed to do the
first check-in by themselves.It's really nice to use and
intuitive. And the best part isthat it has all the open APIs
that you can add all the othertools for the tech stack.
(06:03):
Because with the old PMS that wehad, of course, they didn't have
any APIs, so I couldn't addanything.
I heard about so cool tools thatwe could use, but we couldn't
because we couldn't add them.And with Muse, it's so nice that
you don't pay for extrainterfaces. It's just like open.
And of course, what you have toknow, and I think it's very
important to know that Musedoesn't know or have everything,
(06:27):
but you need to add differenttools for whatever needs you
have. Muse is a PMS and it's areally great PMS with open APIs
for different tools.
But I think you cannot ask of aPMS to be already to have
everything and be able to doeverything. You will need to add
some extra tech, but that's whatI like about it.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
So what have you added on top of Muse? What are
some of those integrations?
Speaker 1 (06:54):
So we added so many things that I divided them into
themes. So the first theme islike prices and revenue, of
course. So the first one, whichgoes without saying, but I'm
saying it anyway, it's of coursea channel manager. But
remembering five years agobefore we had Muse, we didn't
even have a channel manager. SoI was doing the prices for all
(07:16):
the OTAs and the website forevery day of three sixty five
days per hand.
So I cannot even imagineanywhere how that was. It was a
lot of time that I was using forthis. So of course, the first
thing of all, if I have tocancel all the interfaces, the
only one I would, of course,have to say is SiteMinder. We
(07:36):
have SiteMinder as a channelmanager to connect to the
different OTAs, and theconnection is really good. And
yeah, I set it up five years agoor then for the new property at
the East Side like it was twoyears ago.
You set it up once and then it'sworking flawlessly and really no
need to do anything. If you wantto change, you can change
things, but it's really justgoing quite well by itself.
(07:58):
Actually, what's interestingthat Muse is now adding they're
a little bit trying to undercutthe channel managers because
they're having directintegrations now with, for
example, booking.com andExpedia. But they didn't have
when we started with Muse. So weconnected everything with
SiteMinder.
But when we started, they didn'thave Expedia or Booking direct
connections. But now they dohave. So you can actually save
(08:20):
the money for the channelmanager if you only use Expedia
and booking.com. But as soon asyou also use other OTAs, then,
of course, you need the channelmanager to sell as many rooms as
possible on the different OTAs.So that's the first four prices
and revenue.
Then since about one year, wehave an RMS for making the
(08:41):
prices. Because even now that Ididn't have to do the channels
anymore, I still had a lot ofwork with doing the prices.
Because actually it's reallyhard to do by hand for all the
days, you cannot be everywhereor maybe I was on a Saturday at
home and there was like that aconcert would be in Berlin or
something and then the priceswent up and then I had to react
(09:01):
even on the weekend but now Ihave this RMS. It's called Room
Price Genie. I'm really happyabout it.
It's really nice for hotels ofour size because it's also very
intuitive. It's not toocomplicated. You don't need like
three months to set up all therules. It's really easy, nice.
And yeah, for me, it's alsosexy, this tool, because it's
just so nice and intuitive andso good to use.
(09:24):
I would really recommend. Andthen I go on with the revenue to
get some extra revenue. I alwaysrecommend to have an upsell
tool, which shows Upsell Guru,which is put into the presale
message. And then the clients,they can choose if they want,
for example, extra breakfast ora parking space or some flowers
(09:44):
on the room or whatsoever.Actually, you could also do the
room type upsell.
Like if they booked a comfortroom, they could get a junior
speed. But we are not doing thisbecause we have so many
different room types. We have 11room types already, and then it
would be a little bit too much.So it may work for anybody else.
For us, it doesn't.
(10:04):
But we do the upsell for therooms.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
And are the prices for the upsell items, like
parking, for instance, that'sjust a static price that Mhmm.
Like, you enter that price once.You're not
Speaker 1 (10:18):
Exactly. Yeah. In that case, as it's only
products, it's a static price.So there's a fixed price for
breakfast or for parking. Whatis nice that people who already
have breakfast included in theirrate, they do not get the
breakfast offered, for example.
So it's a little bitpersonalized. But what they do
have, if we would do the roomupsell, they could, like, bet
on, like, how much they wouldlike to pay for. Like, some
(10:40):
airlines also have this that youcan bet on how much you want to
add for the upgrade. And thenalso for extra revenue, we have
voucher card as a voucher tool,which is really nice. We started
this also in corona timesbecause this way we were able to
get some extra revenue withouthaving people stay here because
you just sell the voucher.
(11:01):
And as we all know, at least onethird or almost half of the
vouchers never get redeemedbecause the people just forget
about it. So, yeah, we have therevenue without them staying
here. And this is really nice.We have, for example, vouchers
for our pool because I didn'tmention we have a really big
pool in a big, big swimming poolhall, which was built in
(11:24):
nineteen o two. So it's a reallynice event to be here swimming.
And, also, we have a midnightswim. So you can go, just you
and your favorite person, twopeople from 10PM till midnight,
alone in the pool with nicelights and music. And, yeah,
it's really nice things. You canjust, like, sell events on
voucher card and even do somemarketing like this for your
(11:47):
venue.
Speaker 3 (11:48):
Were all of these systems implemented after you
implemented news?
Speaker 1 (11:52):
Yeah. So it was of we are talking about a timeframe of
five years. So of course, youcannot add 20 tools at the same
time. So Muse was the firstthing together with SiteMinder
that was already there at thebeginning. And VoucherCard was
also quite fast.
But then, I don't know, I thinkyou cannot really do more than
one or two tools per year. Ithink you should maybe give the
(12:14):
also the team and the staff sometime to adapt to the new tools.
So I I wouldn't do it more thanone every six months, to be
honest. So you will need somethis tech stack was built over
the last five years. And also wetried now I'm getting to the
guest relation tools.
What's really nice that you canalso so Muse, as I said, is the
(12:35):
base. But then the tools thatyou add on Muse, you can change,
of course. So you're doingcontracts for one year or two
years. And what I like so muchis that you can just try if you
like them or if they are wellfor you. And if not, not, you
just cancel and try another one.
So this is really plug and play,I would say. It's your tech
stack, so you can try as many asyou like.
Speaker 3 (12:58):
And in Muse then, does the staff enter like
comments about the guests? Likeif someone in the restaurant
learns about an allergy or afavorite type of wine or
something, like they would makea note in the guest profile and
that can be pulled into anemail.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. In the guest profile or or maybe
they said, oh, they absolutelydon't like Room 306. Please
never again give Room 306 or soon.
And then in the next arrival,it's already displayed as an
information of the guest. So theguest profiles are actually
getting richer, I would say. Sowe get a lot of more
information. Before, it got lostsomewhere in the system, and now
(13:38):
it's really getting put alltogether. And so we got really
good information about theguest.
And then we also have Trust Youas a customer reputation
management system because ithelps us to get all the reviews
together, and then we can answerthem directly in the tool. So
it's it's really helping a lotto get because we get a lot of
(13:58):
reviews on all the differentchannels, TripAdvisor, Booking,
Google, Expedia, whatsoever. Andthen it's so nice that you can
have them all together. You cansee your scores. You can see
where you need to improve orwhat's going well.
You can put also for thehousekeeping team, can say your
aim is to have nine point zerofor this year for housekeeping
(14:19):
as the review score. And so youcan really work with those
scores. And for the person whois replying to all the reviews,
it's also easier to have it alltogether in one place. And also
here, we are not because thething is, you have to pay
actually, of course, for everytool that you're using, and the
better you want them to have orto be, the more you pay. So
(14:41):
there's also an option to havean AI on the reply of the
reviews.
And I think this is also greatthat you don't have to answer
everything again every day byyourself, but you can also get
AI help, which saves a lot ofstaff time. Yeah, that's about
the review tool. And then what Iwould also count into guest
(15:04):
relation management system isour we have digital information
in the rooms with better space.We have tablets in the rooms. So
the in room tablets with all theinformation about the hotel, the
guests find the times ofbreakfast, of the pool,
restaurants nearby, or eventsgoing on.
And they can even watch TV ornewspapers in the tablet. That's
(15:25):
a really nice add on. And alsothe tablet is saying, hello,
mister da da da, when thecheck-in is done. And what we
added recently, I think like twoyears ago, is the better energy
with the tablet. So the tabletis actually talking to the
heater via Wifi.
So it's connected and it's alsoconnected to Muse. So we were
(15:48):
able to save a lot of energy anda lot of money thanks to this
because we were so as it'sconnected to Muse, like the
heater knows if it's gonna be acheck-in today or not, if the
room is occupied or not. Anddepending on that, the
temperature goes up or down. Andthen when the check-in is done
at reception, there's like aboost of heat. While the person
(16:11):
is walking to the room, it'sgoing up.
And the guests can also changethe temperature on the tablet,
of course, within parameters youput in there. But it's really
nice that if a room maybe forsome reason is not occupied for
three days, then you're notheating there because Muse is
telling the tablet and thetablet is telling the heater
about the status of the room.
Speaker 3 (16:33):
Can guests also communicate with the staff
through the tablet?
Speaker 1 (16:37):
There's a button and they can ask for an extra pillow
or tell us something and theycan communicate with the
reception by tablet, yes. Andnow coming to guest
communication, some of myfavorites at the end. One, of
course, is the chatbot that wereally love. We implemented, I
think, now three years ago. Andwe have Dialogue Shift as the
(16:58):
chatbot on our website, and itreally helps so much.
So you see, I'm having a coldbecause the winter started here
in Berlin. And I really don'tlike the winter, and that's why
I spent normally January orFebruary or maybe both in Madera
Island, on Madera Island. And soI was implementing I remember
this so well. I was implementingthis tool in December. And then
(17:20):
I went for my stay workingabroad on Madera Island.
Thanks to all the tech tools,it's possible. So I'm so happy
and grateful for all our techtools because I can be in the
summer, the sun, in thewintertime. And then I came back
and I was like, is our telephonebroken? There's something wrong
with the telephone. We're notgetting any more calls.
I'm going crazy. What's thematter? We have to call the IT
(17:41):
department. And then it turnedout, I cannot tell you numbers
because I actually asked the ITdepartment if they could, like,
track how many calls we hadbefore per day. And now,
unfortunately, they can't.
But just from the feeling, it'sunbelievable how much less
telephone calls we are having.It's unbelievable. So the team
really loves it. And the peopledo start the conversation with a
(18:04):
chatbot. And normally, I think98% of the conversations from
the chatbot are done by itself,and only 2% of the chatbot
doesn't know something, they'relike diverted to the team.
And what we will try now, weneed it because the new thing
now is telephone AI, also fromthe chatbot, from DialogShift,
(18:24):
but we couldn't do it so farbecause our telephones were not
up to date. So first, we had tochange the whole telephone IT
setup with the hardware andeverything and make new
contracts. And now we're readyfor the next step to have
telephone AI in the winter. ButI'm already using also from the
chatbot is the DialogShift emailAI. So all the information
(18:49):
that's in the chatbot, so it'sgetting more and more
intelligent over the timebecause with every question and
every answer, of course, itlearns more and more.
And now I love so much the emailAI. So if I have, for example, a
complaint or also with yeah,even I'm doing it internally
with my colleagues here in thelanguage school. Think that
they're not even aware that notme who's answering, but it's the
(19:13):
AI. So it's really saving somuch time even for complaints.
If you don't use the answercompletely, you can still change
something.
But it's really, for me, a gamechanger to use AI in the email
communication.
Speaker 3 (19:27):
How do you continually evaluate your tech
stack? Like how do you make sureevery tool is still working for
you, working the way you intendit to work? Is there a point
where you would replace a toolif it's not working? How do you
keep that feedback loop going?
Speaker 1 (19:45):
Actually, I have to say I keep using the tools also
myself. So basically, almost allthe tools, I use them in my
daily business. Or if a staffmember has a question, I'm
looking Actually, I'm doing toomuch in the tools myself. I know
I have to delegate a little bitbetter. That's one of my not so
good points.
I need to delegate more. But asI'm still inside the tools, as I
(20:09):
set them up, if somebody has aquestion or wants to change
something, I'm doing it. So Iwould say I'm kind of like the
digitalization manager who'shaving still to do with the
tools. And then if I see, ofcourse, that something is not
working anymore, or maybe I findout that we're not really using
it anymore, it would be more notthat it's not working, but that
(20:30):
the question is, if they allcost money, I have to say this,
because some hoteliers heardabout, oh, you're having so nice
tools. I would also like them.
And then they were like, oh, butI have to pay each and every one
of them? I'm like, yeah, youhave to. I'm always surprised
every end of the month about allthe invoices I get. What you
have to check, because they willkeep on working, but what you
(20:50):
have to check if you really usethem and if there's still a
return on investment for you. Imean, it doesn't make sense if
you pay €500 per month for onetool and then the outcome is not
so great, it's maybe just onehour per month, then you should
maybe think about eitherchanging it or getting rid of
it.
And then also the support, likeif the colleagues tell me, oh,
(21:13):
we wrote to them so many times,they don't respond. I think
that's really important to havea good support, good return on
investment, and they don't stopto function or malfunction. But
maybe you hear what can happenthat because where I hear about
the tools and where I get toknow the names is in the
networking events that I'mtaking place. So here we have,
(21:35):
for example, we have a museregulars table where we meet
with different muse hotels orthen the ladies revenue table,
as we not only have few ladiesin tech, in hotel tech, we also
have few ladies in revenuemanagement positions. So we
created a ladies revenue tablein Berlin.
So we meet and we also talkabout tools. And also we have a
(21:56):
boutique regulars table where Imeet other GMs from other
boutique hotels. And there, ofcourse, we talk about the tools
and we say, oh, did you hearabout this? This is really
great. Oh, no, this is Iwouldn't take this.
It's really a lot aboutreputation or information inside
the network evenings, I wouldsay.
Speaker 3 (22:16):
We talked all about your current tech stack, but I'm
curious to know what's on yourwish list? Is there like a new
Muse integration that you'rethinking of adding?
Speaker 1 (22:25):
Yeah. Actually, I'm always so happy when I have one
more tool done. So Flex skippingwas the last one. I was like,
tick, it's done. But of course,we have to get ongoing and get
better every day.
So the next steps actually wouldbe to have a POS from Muse
because we do have a point ofsale system for the F and B
outlets. We do have one, butit's a little bit outdated. It
(22:48):
also has an integration to Muse,which I set up five years ago.
It's called Hypersoft, but we'rethinking about changing to the
POS of Muse directly because theinterface is a lot better. And
also, you can do digitalordering with QR codes from the
table.
So you can just be at the tableand the client can order with
the telephone and do the order.And they also can pay for the QR
(23:12):
code that's on the table. Sothat would also save a lot of
staff time. So that's actuallythe next thing we're thinking
about. And then we have theproject because I told you that
we have the language school.
And so the Hotel Oderberger isbasically digitalized and in a
really good status. But now themanagement or the owners asked
me to put all this TxTag also inthe language school. So that
(23:35):
would be my work for next yearto digitalize also the language
school. They want to change thecheck-in for mobile check-in and
self check-in. So I'm actuallytalking now to some key
companies.
So they also have integrationswith Muse. So we want to do the
mobile key possible, and we wantto have the self check-in
possible for the students. And,yeah, basically, that's it for
(23:58):
the plans for next year. Sowe're never getting a board in
here. So we're always aiming fornew features and new, yeah,
things.
But but, like, the basic techstack here in Oderbergh, it will
stay the same because I'm veryhappy about it. And yeah, just
the POS and then on for the newprojects. And we're also having
a new building coming up in2027. The owners will build a
(24:23):
new building. Then we will alsoimplement the tech stack.
So yeah, never getting bored.
Speaker 3 (24:29):
Well, still have a couple of minutes left. I know
you mentioned that you're veryhappy to be a woman in this
space where there are not a lotof women. I'm curious if you
have any advice orrecommendations for a woman who
wants to move up in the hoteltech space, what advice you
would offer.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
Well, the advice would be just do it. I mean,
don't be afraid of doing itbecause, like, I was never into
tech stack. I was neither intotech. And I was one of the last
ones at my school to have acomputer. I remember a long time
ago.
And it's not hard. As I said,the tools nowadays, they're
really easy to use. They're sointuitive and that you don't
(25:11):
have to have like techuniversity degree in order to
use them. I mean, if you can useWhatsApp on your phone, you can
use any of those tech stacktools. And so I would say, just
go for it.
Just do it. Don't know why. Liketoday, we had a meeting with the
key providers and it was all menin the room. And I was the only
woman. We had two meetings.
(25:32):
It was the same situation twice.And I was like, why am I the
only woman here? But I don'tknow. Just do it and don't be
afraid of it. And it's not yeah,I don't know.
Yeah, it's really hard to say. Idon't know why. Men, they always
or a lot of times they think,oh, I can do it. I'm so good. I
can do it.
And the women, they are morecritical about themselves. They
(25:52):
may be afraid. Maybe I cannot doit so well, then I will rather
not do it. So my advice is youcan just do it, be brave, and we
should be more women out therein the hotel tech world.
Speaker 3 (26:05):
Thank you so much for walking me through the Tech
Stack. It was great chattingwith you. I really appreciate
all of the advice and bestpractices that you shared.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
That's all for today's episode. For listening
to Hotel Tech Insider producedby hoteltechreport.com. Our goal
with this podcast is to show youhow the best in the business are
leveraging technology to growtheir properties and outperform
the concept by using innovativedigital tools and strategies. I
encourage all of our listenersto go try at least one of these
strategies or tools that youlearned from today's episode.
(26:40):
Successful digitaltransformation is all about
consistent small experimentsover a long period of time, so
don't wait until tomorrow to trysomething new.
Do you know a hotelier who wouldbe great to feature on this
show, or do you think that yourstory would bring a lot of value
to our audience? Reach out to medirectly on LinkedIn by
searching for Jordan Hollander.For more episodes like this,
(27:02):
follow Hotel Tech Insider on allmajor streaming platforms like
Spotify and Apple Music.
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