Aras Hotel Boutique

Background

Aras Hotel Boutique is a small 14-room hotel in the center of Villasimius, one of the most popular destinations in southern Sardinia.

Its strengths are its modern design, its experience-based offer, and its central location, which allows guests to enjoy both the town and the nearby beaches.

The hotel opened in 2017, entering a market that was already highly competitive. Tourist demand was strong, but the accommodation offer was already broad.

For a new, small hotel, the challenge was not only to gain visibility and build a reputation. It also needed to set up efficient processes from the very beginning.

The challenge

When Aras Hotel Boutique entered the market, the main priority was to build visibility quickly and start selling effectively.

As a new property, the team needed more than software to manage rooms and availability. They needed a partner who could support the hotel as it entered the market, shaped its distribution strategy and started to grow.

For Aras, this meant starting with tools that could help the team:

• manage availability and sales channels in a structured way
• make the direct booking journey easier
• approach pricing more strategically
• keep day-to-day operations as simple as possible

The solution

Aras Hotel Boutique implemented Smartpms and strengthened it with Smartcrs, the Smartness Central Reservation System dedicated to sales, distribution and direct bookings.

For a new property, Smartcrs became the foundation for organizing the commercial process from the start and managing sales channels more effectively.

The Booking Engine allows guests to book directly from the hotel website, while integrated availability management helps the team work with greater accuracy and consistency.

Smartcrs helps Aras:

• make the booking process easier, allowing guests to check availability and book directly online
• manage sales channels more effectively by keeping availability and rates aligned in one system
• grow direct bookings by turning the website into an active sales channel, not just a showcase
• bring more structure to daily work by simplifying the steps involved in managing reservations
• create clearer processes for sales, direct bookings and growth from the very beginning

The results

The partnership with Smartness helped Aras do more than increase revenue. It also gave the hotel a clearer way to manage sales, direct bookings and day-to-day reservations.

Revenue growth and a stronger offer

Over the period analysed, total revenue increased by +53%. At the same time, the overall average ADR grew by +15%.

This shows that growth was not driven by volume alone, but also by a higher average return. Aras was able to generate more revenue while selling at rates that better matched its boutique positioning.

A stronger digital direct channel

Smartcrs also helped strengthen the digital direct channel, with revenue from the Booking Engine increasing by +19%.

Traditional direct bookings, meaning reservations managed by phone, email and direct requests, also grew by +23%.

More structure in sales management

For Aras, the value of Smartcrs goes beyond the technical management of reservations. Together with Smartness’s strategic support, the software helps the hotel work with more structure: monitoring distribution, following market trends and making more informed commercial decisions.

This balance is especially important for a 14-room boutique hotel, where every booking matters and management needs to remain simple, accurate and sustainable.