Written by Sarah Connolly

Rapid Deployment, Proven Results: P3's Enhanced Custom Booking Engine 

The Challenge: Urgent Migration Needs in a Competitive Market

The ability to rapidly deploy sophisticated booking solutions without sacrificing quality now separates leaders from competitors in hospitality technology. P3 Hotel Software's enhanced Custom Booking Engine has proven this capability through successful implementations with two leading European hotel groups, demonstrating that speed and quality can coexist in large-scale software deployment.

Both Cabinn Hotels in Denmark and Sunborn Hotels in Finland faced similar challenges when their existing booking engine providers announced service discontinuation. Rather than viewing this as a crisis, both organizations saw an opportunity to upgrade to more modern, cloud-compatible solutions that could better serve their operational needs and guest expectations.

Rapid Deployment Without Compromise

P3 CEO Phelim Pekaar emphasizes the company's commitment to rapid deployment without sacrificing quality:

"It was essential for us to ensure our flagship product could be deployed quickly to our clients. Nobody wants to wait the better part of a year to see results from an investment. We set a goal to get our Custom Booking Engine live with new customers within three months – and we're delighted we achieved this with both Cabinn Hotels and Sunborn Hotels while maintaining the quality standards we're known for."

Cabinn Hotels, with 13 properties across Denmark, found themselves in a particularly time-sensitive situation. Their previous provider was shutting down operations entirely, leaving little room for extended transition periods. Mie Tedaldi Lohse, PMS Specialist at Cabinn Hotels, recalls the urgency of their search:

"We suddenly heard from our old provider that they were going to close everything down. We had to find somebody else, and we were looking around to find somebody who basically knew OPERA already and hopefully also knew OHIP because we wanted to go with OHIP connection on everything. We found P3 and went live in just three months. It was a big and quick shift."

The rapid deployment capability of P3's enhanced platform proved crucial for Cabinn's tight timeline. Within three months of initial contact, all 13 properties were successfully migrated and operational on the new system, a testament to both P3's streamlined implementation process and the platform's intuitive design.

Sunborn Hotels faced a similar predicament but with slightly more lead time. Rami Heino, Business Development and Revenue Manager at Sunborn Hotels, explains their decision-making process and the factors that led them to P3:

"Our previous provider said they would stop supporting OPERA Cloud after this year, so that was the main reason we needed to change. We chose P3 because of their deep integration with OPERA Cloud – that was a key factor. The booking engine has been working as planned with no downtimes, and it's been working consistently."

Measurable Performance Improvements

The performance results following implementation have validated both organizations' decisions to migrate to P3's platform. 

Prior to using P3's Booking Engine, Cabinn Hotels struggled to compete with OTAs because they couldn't offer the same flexible booking rules as matched by the OTAs. After implementing P3's Booking Engine, Cabinn Hotels can now match OTA pricing and rate rule strategies — a change that has driven substantial revenue growth. The new platform has also driven unprecedented engagement with property information and amenities, resulting in a 93% increase in bookings during Cabinn Hotels' first nine months on the P3 Booking Engine.

The impact on guest behavior at Cabinn properties was particularly notable. Mie Tedaldi Lohse observes a fundamental shift in how guests interact with their booking platform:

"We took all our old information from the other booking engine – pictures from the properties and all the descriptions about the rooms – and put it over to the new system. We've heard from every property because guests actually read what's there now. They look at the pictures and read about the rooms and everything. Properties were asking 'Why did you change what it says?' Well, we didn't change anything. I guess this has been a problem for years, or we just have more customers now who actually want to read about the property details."

This increased engagement suggests that P3's platform design successfully encourages guests to spend more time exploring property offerings, potentially leading to higher-value bookings and better-informed guest expectations upon arrival.

Operational Excellence and Corporate Efficiency

For corporate-focused operations like Cabinn Hotels, the platform's business travel features have delivered significant operational efficiencies. The negotiated rate functionality, integrated directly with company profiles, has streamlined processes that previously required extensive manual intervention:

"The negotiated rates built directly into the company profiles was a big relief for us. We can set yes and no permissions in the profiles for different allowances. It turned into a big success because the more we have directly from the system, the easier it is for us as PMS supporters to actually provide support, since it's easier to identify if there's an issue on our side before we contact P3"  –  Mie Tedaldi Lohse. 

The operational benefits extend beyond rate management to payment processing improvements. The system's pre-arrival credit card payment capability has transformed corporate booking management, reducing front desk workload and improving cash flow management.

Sunborn Hotels has experienced similar operational improvements, particularly in areas where their previous system created unnecessary dependencies. The ability to self-manage add-ons and packages has eliminated workflow bottlenecks and reduced response times for guest requests:

"One big downside with the previous system was that we couldn't manage the add-ons and packages by ourselves. We always had to send them an email and ask them to make changes, which always took a few days. The back office functions are much better than what we had previously. It's better, more modern, and up to date"  – Rami Heino. 

Superior Support and Reliability

Both organizations have highlighted P3's support quality as a distinguishing factor in their ongoing relationship. The combination of rapid response times and effective issue resolution has reinforced confidence in the platform choice. 

"The P3 support team responds very quickly, and the support portal is nice to use because you can see all the previous correspondence there" – Rami Heino. 

The reliability and performance consistency of P3's Custom Booking Engine has met the demanding uptime requirements of both hotel groups. Continuous operation without significant downtime has allowed both organizations to maintain their revenue streams during the transition period and beyond, validating the platform's large-scale stability.

Strategic Advantages and Future-Proofing

Beyond immediate operational benefits, both Cabinn Hotels and Sunborn Hotels have gained strategic advantages through their platform upgrade. The modern, responsive design has improved their competitive position in an increasingly digital marketplace, while the deep OPERA integration ensures they can leverage their existing property management investments without compromise.

The success of these implementations demonstrates that P3's Custom Booking Engine has achieved its design objectives: delivering large-scale functionality through accelerated deployment timelines. For hotel operators facing similar migration pressures or seeking to upgrade their digital booking capabilities, these European success stories provide compelling evidence that rapid deployment and superior performance are not mutually exclusive goals.

As the hospitality industry continues to evolve toward more sophisticated digital guest experiences, P3's platform positions its clients to adapt quickly to changing market demands while maintaining operational stability. The positive outcomes achieved by Cabinn Hotels and Sunborn Hotels serve as proof of P3's continued commitment to client success.