H24 Hotels launches a digital guest journey with over 50% pre-check-ins from day one

Since 2014, H24 Hotels has stood for innovative hospitality: warm, straightforward, and built for the future. Today, the group operates eight unique properties across Germany, from classic hotels to fully digitalised boarding houses, holiday apartments, and vacation homes. Whether in Berlin, Brandenburg, the Black Forest, or soon in the Harz Mountains and along the Baltic Sea, each location embodies the H24 philosophy: “A stay among friends.” At the heart of this experience is technology, which is not just used, but purposefully integrated to enable genuine hospitality.

We sat down with Wilhelm Gruenewald, Managing Director, and Sebastian Hübsch, Head of Hotel Digitalisation Projects, to explore their digital vision for the diverse portfolio of H24 Hotels. They shared with us why they see Apaleo as such a powerful, open platform, and how its API-first approach and wide range of integrations helped them to create automated, scalable processes without ever losing the personal connection to their guests.

Challenge: Lack of integrations blocked a full digitalisation of the guest journey

From early on, H24 Hotels had a clear vision: to create a fully digital guest journey with self-check-in, mobile keys, automated room controls, and digital accounting. But their previous property management system (PMS) quickly proved to be a barrier. It lacked open interfaces, came with high integration costs, and offered little flexibility, making meaningful innovation nearly impossible. To make matters worse, the customer support was frustratingly slow or non-existent, with ticket responses taking up to 14 days or never arriving at all.

The tipping point came in 2015, when the team attempted to roll out their first digital check-in solution, which didn’t work with their old PMS. What they needed was an open, future-ready platform that could keep up with their pace. A standard all-in-one system thereby wasn’t an option; they needed true flexibility.

Solution: Switching to Apaleo, an open platform with an API-first approach

With Apaleo, H24 Hotels found their ideal solution: an open PMS with an API-first approach, enabling seamless integration with a wide range of third-party tools. This shift enabled them to fully digitalise the guest journey, while also automating and streamlining manual processes.

“Apaleo serves as the central hub of our tech ecosystem, giving us the freedom to build the right setup for each property. It’s completely concept-agnostic, so we can implement anything we imagine,” said Wilhelm.

To me, Apaleo is a pioneer, especially with its Apaleo Store. It’s fast, powerful, and the APIs are rock-solid. So far, we’ve had zero downtime,” added Sebastian.

A major milestone in their digital transformation was the integration of straiv, which powers the entire guest journey digitally, and WhatsApp, now fully integrating with Apaleo. Straiv thereby acts as the foundation, enabling automations that can be extended via WhatsApp.

For example, when a booking confirmation is triggered via email through straiv, a parallel confirmation message is instantly sent via WhatsApp. This is only possible thanks to Apaleo’s open API, which allows external tools to access data such as reservations and guest profiles, most importantly, the guest’s phone number, which is essential for WhatsApp communication.

Result: Streamlined operations and major time savings – over 50% of guests check in digitally before arrival

What began at H24 Hotels with a few simple automated emails has since evolved into a fully automated and personalised digital guest journey. Today, guests receive welcome videos, check-in guidance, and explainer content delivered via WhatsApp, all in their native language.

“Our oldest guests were 84 years old, and thanks to a simple check-in guidance via WhatsApp, they were able to check in independently at the terminal and they were incredibly proud of it,” shared Wilhelm and Sebastian.

More than 50% of all arriving guests now complete the digital registration form or check-in online before their arrival. This was evident from day one at the H24 Stadthotel Bernau, which had only recently been onboarded to Apaleo, where nearly half of all guests used the pre-check-in, entirely without any additional guidance.

“That really says it all,” Sebastian noted, “and it only worked because Apaleo ran smoothly from day one. The performance and stability of the interfaces are thereby far beyond from what we’ve seen from other PMS providers.”

Initially, the adoption of digital pre-check-ins at H24 Hotels started small, with just 25% of guests using this feature in the early days. Today, the adoption has more than doubled: 50% of guests now breeze through digital check-ins in under 30 seconds. In addition to that, in fully digital properties, the process is entirely front-desk-free as some H24 Hotels no longer have a reception team at all.

“This level of time saving gives our host teams the opportunity to refocus on what really matters: our guests,” added Wilhelm.

Challenge: Heavy manual workload for collecting and analysing market data

For years, H24 Hotels relied on manually gathering and analysing market data to define their pricing strategy. The team thereby needed to collect data from various sources, compile it themselves, and then manually enter the information into their old PMS to build pricing rules.

This process was not only tedious and time-consuming, but it also meant that market trends were often spotted too late or even not at all. As a result, rooms were frequently priced too low or too high, leading to missed revenue opportunities.

Because of this process, it quickly became clear that H24 Hotels needed a revenue management system (RMS) alongside Apaleo, one that could deliver dynamic, market-driven pricing recommendations using intelligent algorithms, and make relevant data both accessible and actionable in real time.

Solution: Automated revenue management through the integration of RateBoard and Apaleo

To optimise this process and solve this pricing challenge, H24 Hotels integrated RateBoard into their tech stack, an RMS that met all their needs for intelligent, dynamic, and data-driven pricing. The integration itself was incredibly simple: just a few clicks, and the systems were seamlessly connected and ready to use.

“Connecting Apaleo with RateBoard was really a breeze,” said Rico Eggert during a joint webinar with H24 Hotels, RateBoard, and Apaleo.

For more insights into how H24 Hotels uses RateBoard and Apaleo together, check out the dedicated webinar featuring Sebastian Hübsch and Rico Eggert from H24 Hotels, Anton von Verschuer from RateBoard, and Florian Montag from Apaleo.

Result: 15% revenue increase and significant time savings

By integrating RateBoard with Apaleo, H24 Hotels was able to drastically reduce the time that they spent on collecting and analysing market data. Having achieved these time savings, especially in the face of ongoing staffing shortages, allowed the team to focus more on what truly matters: engaging with guests and enhancing their stay.

Additionally, the impact on revenue has been equally impressive. Across all properties, H24 Hotels has seen an average revenue increase of 15% since adopting RateBoard. Even with lower occupancy rates at times, the team managed to grow revenue per property by increasing the average daily rate (ADR) by €5–10 per year, all thanks to smarter and more dynamic pricing.

Challenge: Managing cash payments and outstanding balances

Wilhelm and Michael Gruenewald, the managing directors of H24 Hotels, chose Apaleo back in 2019 to tackle two major challenges: building a reliable cash register setup and streamlining accounts receivable workflows.

While H24 Hotels is steadily moving toward a cashless future, some of their properties still need to accommodate guests who prefer paying in cash. These transactions must be accurately recorded in the end-of-day reports to meet tax requirements and ensure complete financial transparency.

To meet this requirement, H24 Hotels needed a system to transfer cash payments between registers: one to record the payment at the time of check-in, and another to track the total until the funds are deposited at the bank.

Solution: Open APIs enable seamless integration with sevdesk

Leveraging Apaleo’s open APIs, H24 Hotels developed a custom integration with sevdesk, a cloud-based accounting platform. Thanks to this custom integration, all cash payments recorded in Apaleo are now automatically exported into a digital cash ledger, ensuring a complete and audit-ready documentation.

But the benefits don’t stop there. The integration with sevdesk also significantly simplifies accounts receivavle management. Outstanding balances are automatically pushed from Apaleo to sevdesk, where an automated workflow sends reminders based on how long payments have been overdue.

Once a guest pays their balance, the folio is automatically closed in sevdesk via FinAPI, an interface that connects directly with bank accounts. Incoming transactions, including PayPal payments, are recognised, matched with the correct invoice reference, and booked automatically. The updated status is then sent back to Apaleo, ensuring the folio is also correctly marked as paid within the PMS.

Also, with their use of Apaleo Pay, H24 Hotels has been able to automate much of its payment handling. Payment links can now be sent directly from Apaleo, credit cards are automatically charged at predefined times, and invoices can be settled via card directly from the billing window, leading to minimised accounting errors.

Result: Automated payments and cash tracking, 7+ hours saved per property per week

With Apaleo’s open APIs and the seamless integration of sevdesk, H24 Hotels has established a fully compliant and automated system for managing cash payments across all properties.

Beyond that, the integration has automated the entire accounts receivable process, drastically reducing manual errors and saving valuable time. Whereas in the past, staff had to dedicate 5 to 8 hours per week (per property) to track payments, send reminders, manage bookings and guest follow-ups, today that workload has been reduced to just one hour — purely for quality checks.

Looking ahead: H24 Hotel Consulting and a strong focus on AI

H24 Hotels is currently in the process of migrating all of its locations to Apaleo, and building the ideal tech stack for each property, which also includes every new hotel joining the group. Over the next 36 months, H24 Hotels thereby plans to expand to 15 owned locations across Germany.

Additionally, as a logical next step, the group now aims to share its successful model with other independent and family-run hoteliers. Drawing from more than a decade of experience in PMS, software, and hardware selection, H24 Hotels is preparing to launch a consulting arm for hospitality businesses. Furthermore, a brand partnership model is in development for selected hoteliers.

On the technology front, Sebastian puts it succinctly: “Apaleo is not just a PMS that future-proofs hotels, it's also the first PMS truly built to be integrated and run with AI.”

Going forward, H24 Hotels will expand the use of artificial intelligence (AI) across all areas of its operations. Together with partners, they are currently developing an AI-powered phone system that can independently make and modify bookings in the PMS. Another project in its alpha phase is controlling the PMS via a large language model (LLM), which will transform the current front-end into a voice- or chat-command-driven backend for day-to-day operations.

“Our goal is to bring more human connection into our own hotels and into our partner businesses, with and through AI. In a digital world shaped by artificial intelligence, this is what will truly set us apart,” Sebastian concluded.

A dive into the tech stack of H24 Hotels:

Browse apps in the Apaleo Store:

• HotelNetSolutions – Booking engine and rate distributor

• straiv – Guest self-service check-in app

• chatlyn – AI communication hub

• Lighthouse – Pricing Manager

• WhatsApp for Business – Instant guest messaging

• myTraces – Trace manager

• Lightspeed Restaurant – Restaurant management solution

• RateBoard - Revenue management system

• Make – Visual automation platform

• SALTO Systems – Door locks

• n8n_webhook – AI workflow automation

• sevdesk – Accounting

• P-Labor TV – TV solution

• nuki_solution – Smart door lock system

• LLM APIs for AI-powered workflow automations

• Internally developed software solutions by H24 Hotel Consulting