Antwerp Harbour Hotel
- Antwerp, Belgium
- Oracle Hospitality OPERA Cloud PMS
About Antwerp Harbour Hotel
The Antwerp Harbour Hotel is located on the seaport of Antwerp, the second largest port in Europe. The hotel is home to many sailors but also serves the leisure market. ‘More than 60% of our occupancy is harbour-related and (port)workers,’ says Dominique Maes, Hotel Manager of the Antwerp Harbour Hotel. ‘We therefore have a strong affinity with the maritime sector and the Antwerp harbour with its rich heritage.’
An exceptional partnership
In the past, the port authorities responsible for the welfare of seafarers were scattered across Antwerp. Like trade unions, hospitals, churches and the old seamen’s hostel, which served as a hotel. At a certain point, the municipality decided to unite all these organisations and relocate them to a single location. They were brought together under an umbrella organisation taking overall responsibility.
‘Nowadays, the offices of Antwerp Seafarers’ Welfare are located next to our hotel. It’s home to the Anglican, Filipino and Swedish churches, Stella Maris, the seafarers’ mission, Mediport and our own organisation, the International Seafarers’ Centre Antwerp. We have a shop where seafarers do their shopping and a minibus that drives around the ports selling basic products at reasonable prices.
In the hotel we have the Harbour Lounge with a bar, TV corner, billiards and table football for relaxation. Every year, we jointly organise various events at the hotel, such as Easter and Christmas. We have excellent contacts with the shipping companies and they primarily book at our hotel. All things considered, it is a unique collaboration that only exists here,’ Dominique states.
‘The specific requirements of the maritime industry call for a smart and suitable PMS solution.‘
Specific requirements call for an appropriate IT solution.
‘The guests we welcome at the Antwerp Harbour Hotel are waiting to be boarded, repatriated or are technicians working on ships in the harbour. Reservations are made by harbour-related companies, which have very specific VAT and invoicing terms and conditions.
For example, a ship in international waters is completely exempt from VAT. If the maritime company books overnight accommodation for crew members in transit (on their way home or back to the ship), that overnight stay on the mainland is also exempt from VAT.
Sometimes, a ship is contracted by a maritime company and then subcontracted to another foreign company. The subcontracted company also requires additional invoicing details on the invoice, which can result in a long list of specific invoicing details that we have to process. Not every PMS-system can handle this!
Because we process a lot of specific data, we compared various PMS systems during our search. OPERA Cloud PMS came out on top and Van Hessen’s 24/7 support was decisive. Just a moment ago, I contacted Van Hessen about a setting that needed to be adjusted, and they got right on it. You don’t see that everywhere’, Dominique says.
‘OPERA PMS enables us to effectively automate our invoicing process and personalise invoices to fit our requirements. Other PMS systems are much more limited in this regard, as we need to include a considerable amount of text on our invoices.
Van Hessen provided a training which enabled me to set up the back-office configurations myself. We linked all VAT conditions to specific price codes and assigned them to the market segments that are exempt from VAT. For these segments, a text box is automatically added to the invoice stating that the company is exempt from VAT in accordance with the relevant article in European legislation.
Our front office staff is working here for an average of 15 years, and they had to get familiar with the system. But they quickly got used to it. Now, they only need make the reservation, attach the profile and ship name and the correct rates and invoicing details are automatically linked. This allows us to work quickly, in a structured and efficient manner.’
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