Central reservations investment for group

Leading North East pubco The Inn Collection Group has expanded its central reservations facility.

The Northumberland-based pub group has expanded its central offices in Alnwick while investing in additional staff and reservations technology to underpin its growing pubs with rooms model with a seven-day central reservations service.

The Inn Collection Group’s operations manager Paul Brown said: “The expansion of our central reservations facility is a milestone for us, providing our customers with more choice and convenience via a central point of contact for bookings or queries about each one of our growing family of inns.

“Along with an investment in reservations technology, we have employed additional highly-trained specialists who can process reservations and provide in-depth information to potential customers about services and facilities at every inn. This is invaluable in terms of building customer satisfaction and loyalty and has shifted the role of managing reservations from individual units as we continue to roll out our exciting ‘buy and build’ growth plans.

“Along with our online booking facilities and investment in web accessibility solutions, the introduction of a seven-day central reservations service is achieving a quicker customer response time, fewer abandoned or unanswered calls and higher overall customer service which is a key priority for us.”

The central reservations expansion has generated additional full-time employment opportunities within the group which now employs 300 across its ten-strong portfolio of inns in Northumberland, County Durham, North Yorkshire and Cumbria.

Its addition comes at a time of significant growth for The Inn Collection Group, following a successful bid to gain £10m of funding for future acquisitions as it aims to more than double its portfolio to 21 inns by 2022.

The Alchemy-backed group will continue to seek out new development opportunities to grow its portfolio in the Lake District and Yorkshire as well as across the north east of England.