Located in the heart of the lively Gaslamp Quarter in downtown San Diego, the Courtyard San Diego Gaslamp/Convention Center offers guests a one-of-a-kind experience. With its boutique-styled rooms, rooftop bar with skyline views, and close location to local attractions, this property caters to a variety of guests. During the weekend, the hotel is comprised of leisure and transient guests, while during the workweek, guests are mainly business travelers who frequent the Convention Center. The Courtyard San Diego Gaslamp/Convention Center has found Kipsu highly beneficial in connecting with all of their guests and offering an exceedingly personalized experience.

Juliana Meda, the Courtyard Gaslamp’s Director of Hotel Operations, brought Kipsu to Courtyard San Diego Gaslamp/Convention after utilizing Kipsu at her previous property. She experienced how successful Kipsu was and immediately knew she needed to introduce it to her new team at the Courtyard San Diego Gaslamp/Convention Center. “The team loves Kipsu, they love the idea of being able to create the first interactions with the guests.” The Courtyard team has made Kipsu a part of their daily routine and now prefers the efficiency of text messaging over phone calls.

"The team loves Kipsu, they love the idea of being able to create the first interactions with the guests."

Kipsu’s positive impact on the team has also been reflected through the increase of operational scores in surveys measuring guest satisfaction. Internally, Juliana also created a friendly competition amongst team members by awarding “Kipsu leader of the week” in which the team member who sends the most messages during the week wins an award. The team loves being able to connect with guests in a way that was not possible before Kipsu. Due to many guests being business travelers, guests have mentioned how nice it is to have the support of the staff through text messaging as they aren’t distracted while working. Whether wishing business clients “good luck” on upcoming meetings, or sending a personal farewell message, the team uses Kipsu to create a “home away from home” experience for their guests. In one particularly touching experience, Kipsu’s text messaging service allowed the Courtyard staff help a guest plan a surprise proposal! The staff was able to coordinate with the guest to order flowers and make dinner reservations for the special night. The guest was extremely happy and thanked the team for their “above-and-beyond” service.

"Rather than waiting to hear from them, we are reaching out first and extending a hand to let them know that we are here for them."

Juliana believes that the best guest service is all about “transparency” and being able to “exceed expectations, and limiting unpleasant surprises.” Juliana and the team feel that Kipsu is a huge contributor to their highly personalized service as they are able to assist guests immediately and effectively. Juliana stated, “Rather than waiting to hear from them, we are reaching out first and extending a hand to let them know that we are here for them.” Since implementing Kipsu, the Courtyard has also seen quantitative improvements in its operational and brand survey scores. Kipsu’s text messaging service has had a 95% approval rating among Courtyard guests, while hearing expressions of praise like, “how cool it is that they are able to text with their hotel,” over and over again. Juliana has also seen overall improvement in TripAdvisor scores. Prior to partnering with Kipsu, Courtyard’s average TripAdvisor score was a 4.0. Post-Kipsu, Courtyard’s TripAdvisor score climbed to 4.36.

Juliana believes the key to Kipsu’s success is how user friendly the product is. She states that “Kipsu is able to adapt seamlessly from property to property” as she has used Kipsu at a 340-room property and a 90-room property. In addition to scalability, Juliana has seen her team use Kipsu proactively to serve guests needs, resulting in an increase in repeat guests and brand loyalty. Juliana is very proud of her team for how proactive they are with their guests and has seen an increase in repeat guests and brand loyalty.

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