Case Study: Cru Hotel Shows How Smart Tech Helps Boutique Hotels Operate Efficiently on a Small Team
- Anu Metsallik
- Apr 24
- 4 min read
Updated: Aug 26
Right in the heart of Tallinn’s Old Town, down a quiet cobbled street surrounded by centuries-old architecture, sits Cru Hotel—a 15-room boutique hotel. It's the kind of place travelers choose for its character, cozy atmosphere, and excellent location. Cru Hotel is also home to Osteria il Cru, a well-known Italian restaurant regularly ranked among the best in Tallinn.
What many don’t know, though, is just how lean the hotel operates behind the scenes.
Cru Hotel is managed by a team of just two full time employees (plus housekeeping). That means no reception team working around the clock, no departments to delegate to, and no room for inefficiencies. And yet, guests enjoy a seamless, high-quality experience from the moment they book to the moment they leave.
The Challenge:
Full-Service Expectations, Minimal Team
Cru Hotel needed a setup that could manage of all guest-facing and back-office operations without anyone physically present:
Operations and guest communication without a full-time front desk
Last-minute bookings, check-ins, check-outs, payments—even outside office hours
Secure, contactless room access with no need for manual key handovers
A simple workflow that a small team could manage day to day
The Solution:
One Ecosystem, Three Smart Tools
To achieve this, Cru Hotel runs on a simple, integrated tech setup made of three key parts:
HotelTime PMS-The Operational Backbone
HotelTime became the central hub for managing reservations, guest profiles, housekeeping tasks, reporting, and payments. Its clean interface and responsive customer support were major upgrades over the hotel’s previous system.
“All the things I needed to get done—I could do with HotelTime. And when I needed help, there was always someone to talk to. That’s what made the difference.”— Art Peep, Cru Hotel Manager
HotelBuddy–The Guest-Facing Layer
To make guest arrivals fully autonomous, Cru Hotel integrated HotelBuddy, a self-service platform that ensures the guest journey stays seamless and efficient even when no staff member is physically present.
Online Check-In & Prepayments: Guests check in before arrival and settle payments in advance and everything flows directly into the PMS.
Upselling Add-Ons: Guests can book transfers, snack plates, or other extras through HotelBuddy during check-in or later in their stay—creating revenue without additional staff effort.
Digital Room Key: Once checked in, guests get their digital keys and can open the hotel main door and their room door from their phones.
Two-Way Chat: Guests and reception can exchange quick messages via the built-in chat.
Digital Check-Out: Guests can check out on their phones and receive invoices generated from Hoteltime automatically.
“Now, even if I’m not at the hotel, everything still works. Guests book, check in, check out, and pay — all on their own.”— Art Peep, Cru Hotel Manager
WebLock– Smart, Contactless Room Access
For access, WebLock brought in the final piece of the puzzle: WebLock automatically syncs with reservations to generate unique door codes for each guest, removing the need for key cards or front desk handovers. Guests receive their access code via HotelBuddy and can head straight to their room on arrival.
“We used to create codes manually. Now it’s all automatic and faster. Guests get their WebLock code via HotelBuddy and can enter without any help from us.” — Art Peep, Cru Hotel Manager
The Impact:
Small Team, Big Efficiency
Since implementing this setup, Cru has seen real improvements—not just in time saved, but in the quality of the guest experience:
Higher rate of last-minute bookings
Time and cost savings, less need for on-site staff during off hours
Better guest experience: no waiting, no paperwork, everything available online
More positive reviews and fewer complaints
What makes this setup effective isn’t just that it uses great tools—it’s that all the tools work together. Each solution handles a specific part of the guest journey, and together they eliminate manual work, reduce errors, and allow a two-person team to manage an entire hotel without sacrificing service quality.
Cru Hotel proves that automation isn’t just for big chains with big teams. With the right tools and a willingness to embrace smart tech, even a small, independent boutique hotel can run efficiently, cut costs, and still deliver a guest experience that feels warm, thoughtful, and completely stress-free.
About The Providers
This joint case study has been conducted in collaboration with HotelTime Solutions, HoteBuddy and WebLock.
HotelTime Solutions offers a comprehensive, feature-rich cloud platform used by hotels, restaurants, SPAs, and conference venues in 20+ countries. With 23 years in the industry and over 650 properties onboard, they bring solid and innovative tech to day-to-day operations — from PMS to ePOS, SPA, MICE, and beyond.
HotelBuddy is an all-in-one hotel self- service platform offering online check-in, digital keys, QR kiosks, upselling, and guest chat. Fully web-based and PMS-integrated, it reduces queues, minimizes front desk workload, and supports paperless, eco-friendly operations.
WebLock provides smart access solutions for accommodation providers, so they can
automate and simplify the guest journey and enable seamless online check-in. They
help hotels and co-living operators in 12 countries across Europe cut operational costs with innovative hardware and cloud tech, fully developed in Estonia.
Cru Hotel
