Mobile phones are key
Some of the country’s largest accommodation sites are very distant from the most popular tourist attractions. They house thousands of men and women while they are working on building new infrastructure and making major contributions to industry. In order to facilitate the best possible conditions for workers, both small and large innovations often need to be found.
The year in summary
“In terms of revenue and profitability, this has been our best year ever,” said Division Director for Accommodation at 4Service Stian Stenlund proudly.
“That is true of both our camps and offshore, which we are particularly pleased about.”
The Accommodation teams have delivered both small and large projects at home and abroad over the year just past.
“Much of the key to our success is that we are market leaders when it comes to quality. Even though 2023 could easily be classified as a hectic year with little time available, we never made compromises. I know our customers notice this, and our employees also appreciate delivering high-quality services.”
In terms of revenue and profitability, this has been our best year ever.
Another important success factor is a work culture that promotes a real drive to succeed.
“I have always believed that people won’t get bored if they are able to tackle exciting challenges. We are a team that wants to achieve something together. We have a strong sense of community, and we are incredibly ambitious.”
2023 was not all positives for Stenlund and his colleagues, there were plenty of challenges too.
“Like everyone, inflation and increased costs were challenges for us. But even with these major external challenges, we managed to deliver impressive results!”
As a manager, Stenlund’s task is to keep an eye on things and let operations handle everyday tasks.
“We have been successful in offering employees freedom. It is an important part of our development work, and I am personally convinced that this is a major reason behind the good results and our strong sense of camaraderie.”
At the end of the year, Accommodation had 850 employees and operations in a number of countries.
“An interesting piece of information that puts our operations into a little perspective is that the camp at Rosenberg has 1,200 rooms. Norway’s largest hotel has ‘only’ 800,” smiles Stenlund.
Smart booking
Geir-Inge Seim grew up in Sotra, but today lives on Askøy and describes himself as a Bergenser.
“I started at 4Service in 2018. Today I am director of camp development, a position I have been in for a year,” he explains.
Before Seim became director of development, he worked as operations director. Despite a hectic work life, he not only found time to carry out his regular tasks, but he also found time to complete a side project on the booking system.
“In many ways, you could say that I started to create my next role at the company. The innovations turned out to have many exciting opportunities, and when the project was formalised, it was natural that I would lead it forwards.”
The side project developed and quickly became a major digital booking system where 4Services customers could make bookings in a simpler and easier way.
“All checking in and out, cleaning and other necessary communications with our guests now take place through this platform.”
An added benefit is that 4Service’s many operations managers are now more in tune with their customers’ needs and desires.
“Simply put, the system puts everything in one place,” Seim explains.
“Increased digitalisation can often lead to greater distance between the customer and provider, but we have had the exact opposite experience here. This technological development has given us the opportunity to communicate better and more frequently with our guests.”
The market has welcomed the new booking system. In addition to making the booking itself easier, the system also includes a digital cleaning programme, the ability to send SMS notifications to individual guests and dedicated customer portal with access to reports and status updates, as well as invoicing information for customers. The fact that the new system does not cost customers’ anything extra to use is obviously a nice bonus.
“Another exciting solution we have developed through this process is replacing our many physical keys with mobile phone functionality.”
Since the Nineties, industry chatter has focused on tackling the challenge of offering individual keys to every guest. The solution was resource-intensive in terms of time and money, and it also often created much frustration amongst guests if they forgot or lost keys, or if a misunderstanding led to a delivery not taking place at the right time.
“Anticipating entirely digital key systems, we decided to implement a solution to face this, and the first trial was at our Flesland camp in September 2021. All keys are now hung in locked key cabinet that guests can open through the mobile booking system. The cabinet and system are connected to our 24-hour reception at Stord, which ensures assistance if any issues emerged.”
The new digital key solution has been a success. Feedback from guests has been positive, and 4Service’s offering has increased further.
“This means that we can set up new camps without all the staffing and customer service needing to be in place from day one. We can collaborate between camps and make aspects of deliveries more seamless. This is a positive for both our clients and for us as a company.”
The digital keys have become a further competitive advantage for 4Service, and they have also driven development for further innovations. In September 2023, our camp in Stord adopted a solution from Salto that turns phones into a digital key. In the not so distant future, it will also be possible to control the heating in rooms with just the press of a button, no matter where you are.
“At the start of 2024, we began testing remote heating and power management in sleeping and living areas. The solutions allows us to automatically turn the heating down when a guest checks out, and automatically turn it up again in good time before the next guest arrives. This not only leads to financial savings, it also delivers on our customer’s and our own sustainability ambitions. I often say that phones have become an effective weapon for avoiding wasting heat,” chuckles Seim.
The road ahead
Creativity is in bloom at 4Service, and Stian Stenlund and his colleagues in Accommodation are looking at many exciting innovation opportunities in the years ahead.
“Of course, I can’t disclose everything we have in the works,” he smiles.
“But I can share something. We have real faith in our Stay concept, a commuter housing concept that will be an alternative to our other camps.”
Stay will be similar in offering accommodation to industry, but just for a little longer and with even better facilities. Thomas Brekke first launched this idea in 2022.
“Thomas led this and used 2023 to conceptualise the offer and set up the framework. Today he is the director of Stay, and we are really excited to show off this new solution to the market. Geir-Inge and Thomas are just two of the many examples of how we at 4Service think in our working life. When we see an opportunity to do something better today than we did yesterday, we jump on it! It is better to try one too many times than one too few,” Stenlund concludes.