Eoin Little, General Manager
The Challenge
The Lakeside had the service. What it was missing was a channel.
More and more guests would rather send a quick message than have a face-to-face conversation. When something was wrong - a heating issue, a maintenance problem, a noise complaint - guests would often say nothing. They would check out. And then, within 24 hours, a review would appear online.
By then, the chance to fix it had passed. What the hotel needed was a simple, private, digital way for guests to raise small issues in the moment, without having to find a member of staff or pick up the phone.
The Solution
In April 2025, The Lakeside Hotel began working with I Left You A Note. Branded glass QR holders were placed in the guest rooms. From that one QR code, guests could:
- Send a private note to the hotel team - flag an issue, make a request, or simply give a satisfaction rating
- Use the hotel's digital directory - WiFi, parking, spa times and local information
- Book the restaurant
No app download. No registration. One scan.
Each note went straight to the right department, so staff could respond and resolve it before the guest reached checkout.
The Results
| Metric | Result | Context |
|---|---|---|
| Guest scans | 3,514 | About 67 a week |
| Private guest interactions | 208 | Notes sent through the portal |
| At-risk stays caught | 76 | Flagged before checkout |
| Overall reputation score | 89 → 94 | +5 points; #1 in its competitive set |
| OTA reputation score | 90.15 → 91.32 | +1.17 points |
| Restaurant tap-throughs | 191 | From inside the guest portal |
| Directory interactions | 625 | WiFi, spa, parking, local information |
"We used to find out what went wrong after the guest had gone. Now we find out while they're still with us. That changes everything."
Eoin Little, General Manager, The Lakeside Hotel76 Stays at Risk - Caught Before Checkout
Of the 208 private interactions in the first year, 76 came from guests who flagged something that needed attention: a rating below five stars, with or without a written note.
In each of those 76 cases, the hotel had something it rarely gets: a second chance. The guest was still in the building. The stay was still in progress. Whatever was wrong could still be fixed.
Most were the ordinary issues every hotel deals with - a heating system that wasn't responding, a maintenance job that had been missed, a room that wasn't quite right on arrival. Some notes gave the team enough detail to send the right person to the right room straight away. Others were a simple signal that a guest wasn't fully happy, and prompted a call from staff to check in and help.
Without the platform, those 76 conversations would not have happened. The guests would have checked out with the issues unresolved, and some of those stays would have become negative reviews. Instead, the hotel had the chance to step in on every one.
"Guests are genuinely blown away that they can raise something and we appear and fix it straight away. Potential negatives that might have ended up in a public review are turned around on the spot and become positives instead."
Kasia Gowran, Revenue Manager, The Lakeside HotelReputation: From 89 to 94, #1 in the Competitive Set
Over the first year, The Lakeside Hotel's overall reputation score rose from 89 to 94. That five-point gain moved it to number one in its competitive set. Its average OTA score also rose, from 90.15 to 91.32.
The Estimated Value
Research from the Cornell School of Hotel Administration links each 1% improvement in reputation score with an increase of about 1.42% in revenue per available room (RevPAR). Applied to the Lakeside's room revenue, along with the restaurant and front-desk activity through the portal, the estimated value of year one was:
- ~€34,860 from the RevPAR improvement (OTA score +1.17 points)
- ~€2,280 in restaurant revenue from 191 portal tap-throughs
- ~€365 of front-desk time saved by 625 directory interactions
Total estimated value: ~€37,500 in year one.
These are estimates, not measured revenue. The measured results are in the table above.
The hotel did all of this without switching on the AI digital concierge, the room service and upsell module, or the CRM features. In year one, it used only part of the platform.