A Capital idea Why’s South Africa’s fastest growing hotel group appointed Ankerdata as their hotel software provider?  

The Capital Hotel Group, touted as South Africa’s fastest growing hotel group, with 10 properties in their portfolio, recently took the decision to change their data management and Point of Sale (POS) systems provider, in line with their growth plan and subsequent need for updated and advanced tools to complement their development.   Enter, Ankerdata, who supply protelâ hotel software for hotel operators and owners in Southern Africa, and is the partner of choice to over 14 000 hotels in 70 countries.  

Commenting on the reasons behind the groups decision to go with the protelâ MPE hotel software solution from Ankerdata, CEO and founder of The Capital Hotel Group, Marc Wachsberger says, “This is our 5th system since we started in 2008 – over the years our needs have changed so it was necessary to find partners that could compliment those changes and our subsequent growth trajectory.”    

He found that there were marked limitations to the initial systems they employed and coupled with a lack of innovation and exorbitant fees, led them to take the decision to find a company that could overcome all those shortfalls, and in this instance, not only flexible, professional and on trend with the latest technology, but also open to tailor-made solutions.  

The protel MPE hotel software solution is hosted by an IT Cloud which delivers Cloud technology and local ownership bringing with it significant savings.  Directors, Eben Marais and Ian Lumsden from Ankerdata, say, “You have one system which is able to manage multiple properties - protel MPE hotel software can transform a global hotel chain into a single unit. All connected hotels access the same information from a central database in real time.”  

Marc adds that the main reason for appointing Ankerdata was firstly to save money, “We feel that we are dealing with a company that is a bit more entrepreneurial, that have an understanding of the reality that we are an up-and-coming hotel group who might need a bit of development, and flexibility without bankrupting us before we even start.”  Secondly, the platform is guest centric regards the look and feel and is very professional.   

More importantly the group needed to go with a system that would not only work for them, but for their staff.  Wachsberger says that many companies are forced to stick with a particular provider as most of their employees are trained on that particular system, but with the logic and ease-of-use of the protel MPE during the on-site training the staff were more than happy to make the change.  

Ultimately what we were looking for was something simple and easy for our staff to use and solid in terms of audit and reporting so that we as a company can be freed up to focus on our growth without worrying about our management systems.   

In closing Marc says, “We were nobody to our previous provider – we got lost in the mire, but with Ankerdata we feel like they care, that we are somebody to them. protel is a solid choice - a capital idea in deed!”