Book a Demo
There’s something special about operating a hotel onMackinac Island. Every spring, Chippewa Hotel Waterfront and Lilac Tree Suitescome back to life, welcoming families, vacationers, and small groups foranother busy season.
For these independently owned boutique hotels, thatseasonality brings a unique operational challenge. The Chippewa Hotel has 57rooms, while Lilac Tree Suites offers 39 rooms plus a private guest house.During peak season, the properties grow to a team of approximately 250employees compared to the smaller crew during the off-season.
Keeping that many people, rooms and moving parts coordinatedtakes more than great hospitality. It takes technology that can keep up.
We spoke with Bart Berkshire, Front Office Manager, abouthow Jonas Chorum helps the properties stay organized and connected throughoutthe season, from reservations and guest management to housekeeping andmaintenance.
The hotels have relied on Chorum PMS for over eight years.Today, Chorum helps the team streamline operations across both properties, getseasonal employees up to speed, keep housekeeping and maintenance moving inreal time, manage groups and deliver the personalized service their returningguests expect.
With two boutique hotels operating in the same destination,consistency is essential. Jonas Chorum gives the Chippewa Hotel and Lilac TreeSuites a standardized way of working while still allowing each property tomaintain its unique room categories, layouts, and configurations.
“Our properties operate independently, and Chorum gives usconsistency in how we manage things,” explains Bart. “Having the same processesand tools at both properties makes it easier for our teams to work efficiently.If someone needs to cover the desk at the other property, they can head overand get started without additional training.”
During their busy season, this gives their team some muchneeded flexibility.
The result is a more flexible workforce and a smoother wayto cover shifts during a busy season. What’s more, as a seasonalproperty, getting a large team trained and ready for opening day is a majorundertaking. Chippewa Hotel and Lilac Tree Suites begin onboarding theirseasonal employees in April, while they are living in disparate locations offthe island.
The cloud-based nature of the system as well as Chorum’sextensive resources makes it easy to include the PMS as part of their two weeksof virtual training before staff arrive on Mackinac Island. By the time theyarrive, staff have already logged into the system and learned the ins and outs.
“With it being a cloud-based system, it works out reallywell,” Bart explains. “The layout of everything, it looks appealing. It’sintuitive, it makes sense for staff. It’s also so easy to navigate forday-to-day tasks.”
For a hotel that needs to onboard a large seasonal workforceevery year, accessibility makes a meaningful difference.
With hundreds of employees working across the propertiesduring peak season, communication between departments needs to happen quickly.
They rely heavily on Chorum’s mobile app as well as MessageManager within it to keep housekeeping, maintenance, and the front deskconnected. Housekeepers can log room requests directly, while maintenance teamscan receive and respond to issues without relying on paper notes or verbalmessages.
The system also creates a record of when issues are loggedand when they are resolved.
That can be particularly valuable when a room needs to beturned around quickly. For example, if housekeeping discovers a carpet thatneeds to be cleaned between guests, the team can immediately communicate theissue and dispatch the appropriate employee.
“We're definitely saving time, saving paper, all that kindof stuff,” says Bart. “Between small requests and quick emergency fixes, havinggood communication is so important. It automatically creates a log withoutneeding a physical paper trail, so we have a historical record to refer to.”
For a boutique property with many repeat visitors, knowing aguest's preferences is essential to making guests happy.
They use the robust guest profile sections on Chorum PMS to recordpreferences and requests from returning guests. Many of their repeat guests requestthe same room year after year because it has sentimental significance for theirfamily.
Others have recurring requests that the team can anticipatebefore they arrive. For example, a guest who regularly requests wine glasses intheir room during every visit now can just find those glasses in their roombecause it was on their profile.
The more the team uses Chorum PMS, the more valuable thathistorical information becomes.
“Because we have a lot of guests who come back year afteryear, we want to make sure we can provide that same great experience every timethey visit,” Bart explains. “Keeping detailed notes about their preferenceshelps us get ahead of their needs, whether that’s assigning their preferredroom or having something they always request ready for them before they arrive.It’s those little details that help create that traditional, personalized feelwhen they come back.”
While summer is dominated by families and leisure travelers,Chippewa Hotel and Lilac Tree Suites also welcome tour groups during theshoulder seasons in May and October.
Jonas Chorum helps the team manage multiple groups at onceby allowing them to upload rooming lists, access group profiles, and maintaindetailed staff notes.
When a group calls with a question or requests an update,staff can review the notes associated with that group and quickly see what hasalready been discussed.
“It's always good to keep detailed notes,” the team membersays.
That centralized information helps the team stay organizedwhen multiple groups are arriving and departing around the same time.
The Chippewa Hotel team also relies heavily on Chorum'sreporting capabilities. Reservation forecasts are reviewed almost daily anddiscussed during weekly department-head meetings to help the team anticipateoccupancy and staffing needs.
Other frequently used reports include guest name lists,emergency reports, night audit reports, and deposit due sheets.
Because Mackinac Island is a unique destination with nomotorized vehicles, emergency preparedness is particularly important. The teamrelies on emergency reports to quickly see who is currently in-house, who isarriving, and who is departing.
The team also creates custom saved reports when the standardreporting options don't meet a specific need.
One of the biggest benefits of moving away from paper-basedprocesses and an older, on-premise system has been having important informationin one centralized place.
That’s particularly valuable when the team is managingmultiple groups, returning guests, and hundreds of seasonal employees. Staffcan upload group rooming lists, access group profiles, and use staff notes tokeep track of conversations and requests. When a group calls with a question oran update, the team can review the notes and quickly see what has already beendiscussed rather than relying on memory or searching through paperwork.
“We have always kept detailed notes,” explains Bart. “Now wehave them in one place.”
Chorum also gives the team a centralized record ofday-to-day operational activity. Staff notes can be reviewed through reports,while reservation forecasts, guest lists, emergency reports, night auditreports, and deposit due sheets give the team quick access to the informationthey need to run the properties.
“The more you use Jonas, the more benefit we're seeing longterm from it.”
Chorum’s robust reports is essential to the hotel’sday-to-day operations. Reservation forecast help the team anticipate occupancyand determine staffing needs, while the concierge team uses it to plan luggageschedules around expected arrivals and departures. Easily accessible guestlists are particularly important on an island property with occasionalemergency response needs, as it gives the team a quick view of who is in-house,arriving, and departing. Night audit reports and deposit-due sheets supportdaily operations.
“I don't know if there's a report that honestly we don'tuse,” Bart says. The team has also created many of their own custom savedreports when the standard options don’t cover a specific need, then have thosereports automatically sent by email through Message Manager or keep themreadily accessible from their Chorum login.
It becomes a shared record of what the team has learned: informationthat can be accessed, built upon, and put to use season after season.
For Chippewa Hotel and Lilac Tree Suites, the value ofChorum comes down to making hotel operations easier. It gets a large seasonalteam up to speed, it keeps departments in sync and crucially it always gives staffthe information they need.
For other independent or seasonal hotels considering a newPMS, Bart says the ease of use, training resources, and communication toolsmake a real difference.
“Training, they're going to save a lot of time,” heexplains. “And just getting everybody and all the staff on the app is sohelpful. You're going to be able to improve that communication quite a bit. Havingeverything in the cloud, knowing that it's always there and you don't have toworry about losing anything is such a peace of mind for us.”
For a seasonal hotel, that peace of mind goes a long way.With Chorum, Chippewa Hotel and Lilac Tree Suites can spend less time chasinginformation and more time doing what they do best: taking care of their guests.
