Customer Stories Ô De Casa

Cloudbeds' connectivity and experience with hostels boost Ô de Casa's operations

Key Insights

Powerful API and integrations

Unrivaled functionality for hostels

Reporting capabilities provide valuable occupancy & pricing insights

We really wanted to work with a company that was robust and also concerned about being very attentive to the hostel market. This is essential for us.

Marina Moretti, founder and co-owner of Ô de Casa

When one dormitory closes, a hostel opens (so the saying goes – kind of). And so, too, begins the story of Ô de Casa. After hearing about the closure of the dorm where she once lived, and with a love for hostel culture, Marina Moretti decided to turn her old home into a hostel, becoming the founder and co-owner of ‘Ô de Casa’, São Paulo’s first hostel in 2007.

A historian and passionate traveler, Marina is proud that her hostel is a meeting point for people from all over the world – and a benchmark in Latin America. The local culture is very present in her guests’ experience: mortadella sandwiches, Brazilian music, plants from the Atlantic Rainforest. It’s this connection between Brazilians and foreigners that sets Ô de Casa apart. As Marina puts it,“It creates a community that is very interesting, where beautiful stories come out that we are very proud of.”

The dormitory was home to the hostel for the first four years. What began with just 6 beds now has 140, with room options of 4, 6 or 8 beds, all-female dormitories, pod rooms, and private rooms. To keep Õ de Casa running with excellence, Marina has a team of 30 people, including volunteers, partners and operational staff.

The hostel market and the switch to Cloudbeds

Before Cloudbeds, Ô de Casa used another property management system. After much analysis and comparison with other providers, Marina decided to sign up with Cloudbeds.

Cloudbeds’ robust and precise system weighed heavily on her decision. In addition, Marina considers Cloudbeds to be a solution that caters well to the hostel market, which for her is a great differentiator.

“We really wanted to work with a company that was robust and attentive to the needs of the hostel market. This is essential for us,” explains Marina Moretti.

For Marina, it didn’t make sense having a solution that didn’t understand the specifics of the hostel business, such as selling rooms with different layouts (separate beds or quadruple rooms, for example).

“Knowing that we can count on a partner who is also thinking of hostels together in these other things, not just in terms of support, but as a bigger partner for ‘hostel causes’,” adds Marina.

Systems integration with Cloudbeds simplifies operations and improves the guest experience

Connectivity with other solutions, especially POS, was another decisive factor in switching to the PMS, as it allowed the system to be turbocharged in a way that other solutions could not.

Currently, Ô de Casa’s tech stack includes Glow POS for points of sale, Flexkeeping for housekeeping management, and Asksuite as a service chatbot. With these connected systems, the São Paulo hostel has managed to make its guests’ experience even more powerful.

According to Marina, the integration of systems also improves the quality of the employee experience and operational management:

“Cloudbeds’ open API has allowed us to boost our system in a way that other systems could not. Having a POS system connected to Cloudbeds removes human error and optimizes our operation so that we don’t have to, for example, pass a bar bill onto a system bill. It also gives guests the experience of being able to easily place an order. Once they’re there, they don’t have to pay for everything on the spot.”

Each of the integrated systems brings operational benefits to the property. Whether it’s responding to a booking request, a housekeeping request or maintenance reminders, the integration that Cloudbeds offers with other technology providers simplifies operations, saves costs, and improves the guest experience.

Guiding strategic success

Marina explains that Cloudbeds’ reports are a fundamental part of Ô de Casa’s management. With them the hostel is able to forecast occupancy, which provides a basis for pricing.

As for guest data, booking channels, demographic data, length of stay or booking time frames are also essential for a good strategy. As Marina puts it,“Understanding who is coming so that we can prepare ourselves.”

She believes that you can only offer an incredible accommodation experience if you know your guests well. That’s why monitoring the data and reports from the Cloudbeds Platform is fundamental to the strategic success of Õ de Casa.