Alpenpark Neuss - A Customer Story, starring, HRS Hospitality & Retail Systems and Open New Media

July 08, 2022

Alpenpark Neuss offers leisure experiences and food for families and groups. These services include tickets for their adventure worlds, combined theme park and catering packages, public and private courses at the ski school, and much more. The company, which had worked with Open New Media (ONM) in digital communication for many years, engaged HRS Hospitality & Retail Systems (HRS) in 2020 to update its digital organization.

Objectives

The main objectives were to digitize and automate key processes, simplify the customer journey, and improve the entire system. Visitors needed to be able to book all services online and redeem them on-site via the use of contactless technology.

Another goal was the expansion of marketing activities. With the help of the TNG loyalty module, customer details had to be available for future marketing activities, and a loyalty card system introduced.

Challenge

Alpenpark spent many years working with different companies and software platforms to try and find a digital solution for ticket sales and the scheduling of ski instructors, but this had not been achieved. Reducing the effort required at the ticket counter and having better control of visitors also remained a problem, as did the creation and storage of customer profiles for future marketing campaigns. No provider had been able to master these complex issues.

Implementation

TNG from HRS was chosen as the underlying solution; a suite of software that had been originally designed for the management of entire wellness facilities. After receiving a long list of requirements, HRS programmed custom extensions for Alpenpark Neuss. In addition to standard ticket sales, combination passes, ski courses, staff training, and a multi-level loyalty program for the creation/redemption of vouchers and promotional codes were all incorporated into the solution.

For hotel reservations, conferences, and company celebrations, Oracle Suite8 remained unchanged. This property management system handled the park’s accounts and reports, with an interface between TNG and Suite8 for reservations.

ONM's task was to create an application that combined all the data from the different APIs into an individual and user-friendly ticket store.

In addition to selling tickets, ski courses, equipment rental, and other extras had to be included. A link to the website was created and the ticket store integrated with the existing course finder.

The e-mail marketing solution hotelsuite MAIL from ONM, which was already utilized in several areas of the Alpine park to communicate with guests, is used to send individual confirmation e-mails.

Although neither Alpenpark Neuss nor ONM had any previous experience with TNG, the first online ticket store went live after several months of programming and testing. At the same time, the new customer card was released as a marketing tool.

Climbing park at Alpenpark NeussImage: Climbing world at Alpenpark Neuss

Results

Over the first ten months, Alpine Park posted a significant increase in its performance. This improvement was primarily due to the new ticket store, which now had control over capacity and supported the targeted display of marketing campaigns. Per capita sales also increased noticeably because of additional services, such as the rental of equipment, and the sale of souvenirs, which could be added during the second booking step.

It is not only the increased sales that benefited the company; the complexity of planning and execution had all been significantly reduced due to the smaller number of interacting systems. With TNG, just one system is needed for ticketing, admission control, rental, and bonus programs.

In addition to better planning for the operational departments, visitors benefit from simplified communication through individual e-mail confirmations and links to other options. Finally, guests can book and plan their entire stay at Alpine Park from home, and benefit from special promotions.

The loyalty program has attracted over 12,000 new customers in recent months. These customers now enjoy benefits and receive regular information about Alpine Park.

For the company, targeted marketing via newsletters is used for different customer groups. An interface between TNG and the cash registers enables the use of reward points which can be collected both online and off. But even without a loyalty card, online purchases allow access to additional customer information from background and purchasing behavior. This information is key to the development of new products and promotions.

Conclusion

Because of the collaboration with HRS and ONM, Alpenpark Neuss became the company’s first ski park to launch a digital solution for the complex requirements of the leisure sector. But even though the goals have been achieved, further developments are still ongoing. Currently in development is an app for aligning instructors with the booked courses. This app will be available to all employees and will significantly simplify planning for the ski school and the employees themselves.

 

About Alpenpark Neuss:
Alpenpark Neuss (allrounder mountain resort gmbh & co.kg) is a year-round active leisure park in the heart of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Its four adventure worlds - ski slope, alpine golf, fun soccer, and climbing park - offer active fun for the young and old. The park has several alpine restaurants, a party location with a view of the slopes, and the 4-star Superior Hotel Fire & Ice, which offers overnight stays in a mountain setting and under the treetops. Thematically, the entire park offers an alpine ambiance, enabling short vacations to be taken in the province of Salzburg, right on the doorstep.

About Open New Media GmbH (ONM):
Open New Media was founded in 1997 as a classic internet agency and has developed over the years into a specialist provider for digitization processes in the hotel industry. Besides individual developments based on Oracle Suite8 PMS and Opera Cloud, ONM operates with "hotelsuite" its product line with software solutions specially designed for individual software solutions. These include: hotelsuite IBE (Modern Booking Engine), hotelsuite GO (digital check-in/out solution), and hotelsuite MAIL (e-mail marketing system).

 

Image credits: Alpenpark Neuss (allrounder mountain resort gmbh & co.kg)

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