The story of Casa Tisaru, located in Lepșa, Vrancea County, begins in force in 2002, the year it was built and won the Debut Award at the Architecture Biennale.
Situated near the Tișița Gorges Natural Reserve, on the road between Focșani and Brașov, Casa Tisaru is one of the most beautiful guesthouses in Romania, a fact recognized through numerous awards at the Margareta de Aur Competition (2004, 2006, 2008).
The Solomon family, the second owners of the guesthouse, were among its first guests in the early 2000s. Looking for interesting places to spend their weekends near Focșani, they discovered Casa Tisaru and were captivated by its nature and the architecture of the inn. The family visited the area several times, being impressed by the energy of the place, and over time, formed a special bond with the original owner.
When the first owner decided to retire from the business during the pandemic, he invited the Solomon family to take over the guesthouse. Although they already had a business in the textile industry that demanded much of their time, the family had always entertained the idea of owning a small restaurant or accommodation unit.
In December 2020, just before Christmas, they decided to buy Casa Tisaru, along with the Andone family, their friends and business partners. Although they had no experience in the HoReCa industry, they had the courage, ideas, and desire to carry on the spirit of the place.
After taking over, they modernized the guesthouse by changing the furniture, installing high-speed internet for guests working remotely, adding espresso machines to offer free coffee throughout the day, and placing TVs in each room. They also introduced a POS system for card payments and extended the opening hours to seven days a week (the guesthouse initially operated only on weekends).
Currently, Casa Tisaru can accommodate 37 adults in 15 rooms, available with full board, half board, or breakfast included. Additionally, it has its own kitchen that serves traditional Romanian cuisine and offers various other facilities, including a fitness room with a Finnish sauna, a ping-pong table, a tennis court, and a conference room with a capacity of 70 seats for team-building events.
Business Challenges
After the initial modernizations, the real adaptation phase to the new business began. Initially, the guesthouse was not listed on Booking.com and was only available on platforms like Travelminit and Turist Info. Reservations were taken by phone and email and managed manually.
According to Mihaela Solomon, the manager of Casa Tisaru, the first year was a "testing" year, in which the team tried to understand what other improvements could be made to streamline the business.
In that year, reservations were managed on paper and in Excel, which was complicated and had a high risk of error. Eventually, an overbooking incident prompted the management to actively search for a solution to eliminate these problems once and for all.
The Casa Tisaru team also realized that they needed to expose the guesthouse on more online booking platforms to reach more customers.
The owners also wanted a solution that would allow them to process reservations more efficiently from a distance, as they were also managing their main business in Focșani.
The Solution
Mihaela Solomon found Pynbooking in May 2022, after asking for advice from some friends in the hospitality industry. These friends were already successfully using the Pynbooking platform and were very satisfied, including with the support team. Subsequently, Mihaela requested a demo, which convinced her that Pynbooking was the right solution for Casa Tisaru.
"Talking to friends who are entrepreneurs in the HoReCa industry, I found out about Pynbooking. They also showed me how it works and were very happy with both the solution and the relationship with the supplier. I contacted the Pynbooking team for a demo, and we were assigned a contact person who guided us from the beginning and helped us set up the account. The process was relatively simple, we didn’t need any technical knowledge or app installations," said Mihaela Solomon, manager of Casa Tisaru.
The initial setup of Casa Tisaru’s account in Pynbooking PMS involved defining the guesthouse’s structure, with the 15 rooms and the entire range of services offered to guests.
In the Channel Manager, several online booking platforms were integrated, more than the ones the guesthouse had been working with previously, with Booking.com being the most important.
Generator Hotel Website and Booking Engine were the solutions used to automate the collection of direct bookings. Casa Tisaru created a page dedicated to direct bookings, which was later natively integrated into the guesthouse's website.
Benefits
Pynbooking allowed the Solomon family to manage Casa Tisaru without the need for constant on-site presence and without installing a dedicated app on a PC at Reception. The Pynbooking platform is easily accessed from any device, directly via the browser. Currently, Mihaela Solomon can coordinate daily operations and address any issues from anywhere, saving valuable time for their textile business.
"Pynbooking helped us manage the guesthouse remotely. We have a functional team there and visit as often as possible, but we’re not always on-site. With Pynbooking, remote access is extremely easy, and we always have everything under control," added Mihaela Solomon.
Additionally, the guesthouse fully automated the management of direct bookings through its own website, which currently represents 5-6% of total bookings, with a growing trend. However, most direct bookings are still taken by phone and email but are processed centrally in Pynbooking.
In these cases, Casa Tisaru uses Pynbooking to quickly access data and differentiate bookings from various sources/channels, providing prompt responses regarding the availability requested by guests. Thus, booking registration is simplified, and the risk of overbooking is eliminated.
"The majority of direct bookings come through email and phone, old school. Younger guests prefer direct bookings via the website. Pynbooking helps us easily register them and avoid overlaps, which was our biggest concern. We differentiate them by source and offer a quick response on the phone for the availability guests are requesting," says Mihaela Solomon.
Casa Tisaru transformed its working process with the help of Pynbooking as follows:
- Simplified invoicing: Invoicing, which was previously done manually, has been greatly simplified. The process is now automated, saving time and reducing the risk of errors. The check-out process has also been simplified by sending invoices automatically to guests' email addresses.
- Simplified payments for guests: Casa Tisaru, through Banca Transilvania, sends payment links directly to guests for bookings made via Pynbooking. Guests have the option to pay online, including with holiday cards, improving the customer experience.
- Presence on multiple digital platforms: With the help of the Channel Manager integrated into Pynbooking, the guesthouse is now exposed on multiple booking platforms, including Booking.com, Travelminit, Turist Info, and Cazare Românească. This diversification allows them to reach a larger audience and increase the number of bookings. Additionally, data such as prices and availability are automatically synchronized across all partner platforms.
- Simplified check-in: Pynbooking simplifies the check-in process by automatically collecting guest data for completing accommodation forms, making the process much faster.
- Detailed reports: Pynbooking generates reports that provide Casa Tisaru's management team with an overview of bookings, channels used, and types of guests, including financial reports that forecast future revenue. All this information helps with better planning.
"The reports help me compare data over different time intervals, whether I look at previous months or even years. I can see differences in bookings from different channels, foreign vs. Romanian guests, availability reports, estimated revenue, etc.," added Mihaela Solomon.
- Improved reputation through reviews: Pynbooking automatically sends review invitations to guests, contributing to an increase in ratings and the business’s image. Currently, Casa Tisaru has a score of 9.2.
"Pynbooking helps us stay worry-free, all we have to do is update the prices. It is important for us that guests have a positive experience, from bookings to check-in and check-out. Any confusion affects our image. I’m very satisfied with how the platform works," concluded Mihaela Solomon, manager of Casa Tisaru, after more than two years of consistent use of Pynbooking.
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