Historic Hudson Valley bed and breakfast, Buttermilk Falls Inn in Milton, N.Y., has selected Alice’s staff communications platform to improve employee communication and coordination across the 75-acre estate. Although the Buttermilk property had modernized and expanded its offering many times since erection of the main inn building in 1764 (recent additions include a spa, a farm-to-table restaurant, more accommodations, and a popular event space), improvements to the Inn’s technology infrastructure had not kept pace.
Prior to implementing Alice, the Inn’s staff relied primarily on walkie-talkies to relay tasks and updates to one another. Not only were there often not enough walkie-talkies to go around, but the property’s vast size and topography (a mix of elevations and trees) made communication by walkie-talkie unreliable. Other ways of communicating guest requests and keeping records, like verbal communication and paper logs were similarly fallible. An ailing property management system made matters even worse.
Now, with all staff departments using Alice, communication and task management at the Inn has improved substantially, Buttermilk GM CJ Hartwell-Kelly said in a statement. These improvements are evident in the level of service the Inn can now provide its guests, she adds. Despite only having 18 guest rooms, the Inn has a large staff (upwards of 100 during peak season) and a substantial number of facilities under management that were previously difficult to align without such a robust communications toolset.
Alice has additional benefits for Buttermilk beyond aligning staff on property. The Inn happens to own its own laundromat off-site, and Hartwell-Kelly can now coordinate laundry pickups and dropoffs at both locations through Alice, thereby streamlining necessary oversight.