Apicbase is Crucial for Our Rapid Expansion
Tosca Eggenhuizen
Product Owner F&B Systems
Operation Size
30 properties in Europe, United States & Asia
Pipeline: 40 locations by 2024
Business type
Hotel chain
Modules
Menu engineering
Procurement
Inventory Management
Sales Analytics
Accounting
Barcode scanner app
More Guest Experience. Less Stock Counts
CitizenM is in a class of its own. The fast-growing hotel chain is all about delivering an unparalleled guest experience.
‘A new breed of hotel for modern travellers’, Tosca Eggenhuizen, Product Owner F&B Systems, says about citizenM.
What’s different is their approach to operations. Rather than working in departments, citizenM is set up horizontally to match the way guests naturally interact with a hotel.
The staff’s duties, for example, aren’t limited to one specific area, such as the kitchen. Ambassadors, as they are called, assist the guests in every aspect of their stay, from check-in to cocktails, breakfast and everything in between.
When the focus is guest experience, employees must be able to dedicate their full attention to the people staying at the hotel. CitizenM doesn’t want staff worrying about admin or spending hours on counting stock and checking F&B purchases.
What makes citizenM stand out even more is the blistering pace of their expansion. In the last seven months alone they rolled out Apicbase to 16 properties spread out over 3 continents and trained over 300 people.
2% food cost decrease across the chain
"We quickly saw a significant improvement. Apicbase ensures we never miss out on the details that really impact our bottom line", says Tosca Eggenhuizen.
Boost F&B Performance
‘We were preparing for rapid growth’, Tosca says. ‘We had to bring F&B performance under control.’
When businesses scale, inefficiencies tend to scale with them. The trouble was, Tosca had no solid data to go on.
‘I was trying to reconcile data from invoices, purchase orders, emails and trying to retrace the purchasing behaviour of our hotel teams’, she remembers. ‘And in the end, we barely got any actionable insights because there were so many variables.’
We needed to shift our focus from Google Sheets to automation.
‘We realised that if we wanted to meet our expansion targets, we should focus on automating F&B management and not spend so much time trying to make sense of Google Sheets.’
The Stakes Are High
Firstly, Tosca wanted to unburden the hotel teams from time-consuming admin. ‘They should be able to focus on the guest experience.’
Secondly, she needed to reduce the margin for error. ‘With so many people working in F&B operations, it was difficult to keep track of who did what.’
Thirdly, HQ needed access to actionable data. ‘We manage all properties centrally. Clean data allow us to continuously improve processes and catch errors before they spiral out of control.’
Finally, new software needed to be able to cope with the rapid pace of expansion, while seamlessly integrating with citizenM’s tech landscape, and F&B vendors.
Clear Understanding. Increased Engagement
We asked Tosca Eggenhuizen what the impact has been so far of using Apicbase.
‘We quickly noticed big improvements’, she replied.
- Increased engagement of staff. ‘F&B is our second source of income. Since Apicbase, the hotel teams are noticeably more involved, making sure we never run out of stock and always offering high-quality products. They even look forward to doing stock counts these days’, Tosca smiles. ‘It’s so fast.’
- A clear understanding of margins. ‘We have visibility into both our theoretical and actual margins in all markets. Whether it’s our hotel in Seattle or our hotel in Copenhagen, we have real insight into our pricing, can easily anticipate costs and tailor our assortment based on what guests really want.’
- Enabled rapid growth. ‘Onboarding and training new people usually takes up a lot of time and energy. Not with Apicbase. We were able to roll it out to 16 properties across 3 continents and train 300 people in under 7 months.’
- End-to-end visibility of F&B. ‘We can follow a product through its entire flow, from procurement to inventory and sale. It has given us an in-depth understanding of the relationship between the three, allowing HQ to quickly intervene when something is wrong.’
The Apicbase customer success team is amazing
The speed and quality of service is very high. And they're so eager to learn and improve. That's truly great. It really is a super valuable relationship where we both grow.
If you're managing a fast-growing F&B operation, then Apicbase is definitely crucial for your growth.
Modules in use
CitizenM hotels is able to grow rapidly, manage operations centrally and unburden hotel staff by deploying five Apicbase modules.
