The brand

The AAA Four Diamond Portola Hotel & Spa at Monterey Bay is a premier bayfront destination on California’s central coast, located near downtown Monterey and Fisherman’s Wharf. The hotel offers a luxury escape for families, couples, and adventurers alike. Approximately half of the hotel’s guests are corporate, enjoying access to 60,000 square feet of meeting space and proximity to the Monterey Conference Center. Named among the Top Twenty Hotels in Northern California by Condé Nast Traveler’s readers, Portola Hotel offers two on-site restaurants, a spa, and a fitness center, making it an ideal vacation spot. As the first LEED® Certified hotel on the Central Coast, it also leads in environmental responsibility.

The challenge

With 379 guest rooms and suites and a full range of luxury services and amenities, the staff at Portola Hotel & Spa — especially at the front desk — stays busy serving guests throughout the day. Some years ago, the hotel introduced a mobile platform for guest engagement, but the tool lacked key features like question templates and AI responses. Without these capabilities, staff prioritized the guests physically present, often overlooking the messages piling up in the app. Over time, they stopped using the platform entirely as they saw engagement metrics decline.

The solution

Despite being disappointed by their previous mobile vendor, the hotel’s Marketing Director Jackie Olsen pushed Director of Operations Troy Reil to look at Revinate Ivy. Long-time users of other Revinate solutions like Guest Feedback and Marketing, she trusted Revinate and could envision the AI-powered solution improving guest experiences on-property. In particular, she loved how Ivy could answer frequent guest questions automatically, leading to better interactions and more spending while giving staff more time to handle complex guest interactions.

Early in 2024, the hotel signed a contract for Reservation Sales and Ivy. Revinate came on-site to train the hotel prior to launch, ensuring they were set up for success. Troy says, “The support we get from Revinate is outstanding. Our Customer Support Manager is amazing and feels like an extension of the team.”

In addition to automatically answering guests’ questions, Ivy has become instrumental in proactively reaching guests with critical information. For example, during power outages, Ivy can quickly text all checked-in guests with instructions for staying safe. Or, for guests trying to check in early, Ivy can let them know as soon as their room is ready, cutting down on calls to the front desk for status updates.

The results

After switching to Ivy from their previous mobile messaging solution, the hotel’s staff are better positioned for success and guests are delighted during their stay. Now, guests are serviced quickly and efficiently, without bogging down the front desk team. In fact, the automation rate for Portola Hotel is 45%, well above the collective customer average of 37%, which means that employees spend less time and effort manually replying to guest questions. And, guests are thrilled with the support, regularly bringing up Ivy’s helpful and friendly support in post-stay feedback. Just a couple of examples:

• “The communication with the text (Ivy) was very useful and helpful and convenient and excellent.”
• “The virtual assistant Ivy was pretty cool too. A big thank you to the ladies who brought us extra tea and towels when I asked Ivy for them.”