Industry
Hospitality
Challenge
Before switching to Alkimii, Cahernane House Hotel managed rostering, timesheets, and HR files using disconnected systems on paper across departments. Managing requests, checking availability, and keeping track of team documents was time‑consuming, disruptive and prone to error. The team needed a single, seamless platform to save time and provide a complete view of team and operations.
Results
With Alkimii, Cahernane House Hotel streamlined its people and property management, eliminated paper‑based delays saving substantial administration time. The hotel gained real‑time insights into team and payroll, making it easy to forecast costs, manage compliance, and focus more on delivering an exceptional guest and team experience.
Key Product
Alkimii People
“What I liked was that Alkimii came from the industry. They understand that night porters have different shift patterns, how break times work, and in general how hotels operate. There are a lot of great systems that might not understand these industry‑specific issues.”
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“With Alkimii, incidents go straight to our insurance company. Before, we were filling out a paper form, sending it to head office, and then it could be three or four days before the insurance company had it. Now it’s instantaneous. As soon as I upload and approve an incident, the insurance company has it. Peace of mind for us, and for our team.”
“People can request time off through the app, and we can approve it quickly. What used to take a week now takes a day or two. It’s seamless for the team.”
The Story of Cahernane House Hotel
Cahernane House Hotel, a Small Luxury Hotel (SLH) member in Killarney, Co. Kerry, is a beautiful 48‑bedroomed heritage property dating back to 1877. To support its growing team and complex operations, General Manager Emer Corridan sought a solution to replace fragmented, paper‑based HR and operational processes. Since adopting Alkimii People and Alkimii Property, the hotel has saved countless hours every week and gained seamless oversight across departments.
The Challenge at Cahernane House Hotel
Before switching to Alkimii, Cahernane House Hotel managed rostering, timesheets, and HR files using disconnected systems using paper across departments. Managing requests, checking availability, and keeping track of team documents was time‑consuming and prone to error. The team needed a single, seamless platform to save time and provide a complete view of team and operations.
“We were so paper‑based - everything was typed in an Excel file, then someone would type over it and ruin a roster. It was just a nightmare. Timesheets, requests for days off - every department had its own book. We were checking the accommodation book to see if someone could take a weekend off.
"Everything was all over the place. We were doing too much paperwork, with too many departments running their own files. We needed a way for the team to share more information.” - Emer Corridan, General Manager, Cahernane House Hotel
Why Cahernane House Hotel Chose Alkimii
Cahernane House Hotel considered various solutions but found many providers didn’t fully understand the complexities of hospitality operations. What stood out about Alkimii was not just the functionality of the platform, but the fact that it was built by people with first-hand experience in the hotel industry.
“What I liked was that Alkimii came from the industry. They understand that night porters have different shift patterns, how break times work, and in general how hotels operate.
"There are a lot of great systems that might not understand these industry‑specific issues. Alkimii being from within the industry made the real difference for us.” - Emer Corridan, General Manager, Cahernane House Hotel
How Alkimii Responded
With a deep understanding of hotel workflows, Alkimii was able to support the Cahernane team with a smooth onboarding and implementation process. From the first training sessions to full platform adoption, the system quickly became a reliable part of day-to-day operations.
With Alkimii People in place, the team quickly embraced a single, user‑friendly app for rostering, timesheets, and HR records:
“When we started doing our packs [with Alkimii Onboarding], that was a real game‑changer for us as well in terms of being able to do the contracts online and setting up all that side of it. It was just brilliant.
“We went from about ten cabinets of files in the office to one cabinet. It’s more space for everybody, but I think that’s it - just having so much of the employee’s information in one system. There’s no messing, everyone knows where it is if you need to find information on somebody.
The Results
Since adopting Alkimii, Cahernane House Hotel has seen measurable improvements across its operations - from time savings and cost control to better communication and compliance. The implementation of Alkimii brought significant benefits to Cahernane House Hotel:
1. Time Savings:
Digitising HR and team member records has eliminated countless hours of printing, chasing, and filing, making onboarding and rostering far more efficient for the team.
2. Cost Control:
With real‑time payroll forecasting and weekly reviews, the team can align workforce costs with revenue projections, making it simple to spot trends and adjust accordingly.
3. Better Communication:
Integrated shift notes and team member messaging have replaced fragmented paper‑based books, making it easy for departments to stay connected and informed.
“People can request time off through the app, and we can approve it quickly. What used to take a week now takes a day or two. It’s seamless for the team.” - Emer Corridan, General Manager, Cahernane House Hotel
4. Compliance and Peace of Mind:
Incidents now go straight to the insurance company from Alkimii, removing delays and ensuring accountability, while centralised HR files give the team one trusted source for all team member information.
“With Alkimii, incidents go straight to our insurance company. Before, we were filling out a paper form, sending it to head office, and then it could be three or four days before the insurance company had it.
"Now it’s instantaneous. As soon as I upload and approve an incident, the insurance company has it. Peace of mind for us, and for our team.”
The Impact
Alkimii has transformed operations at Cahernane House Hotel, replacing fragmented paper systems with a streamlined digital platform. HR processes are now faster and more accurate, saving valuable administrative time across departments. Real-time payroll forecasting helps managers control labour costs in line with revenue, while digital onboarding has reduced manual paperwork and improved the employee experience. Communication has also improved, with shift notes and team messaging keeping everyone connected. Compliance tasks - such as incident reporting - are now handled instantly, giving the management team greater peace of mind.
“The biggest time saving we’ve seen is the onboarding. Before, we were printing and chasing six different documents. Trying to get 55 team members to sign those papers would take weeks.”
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