Challenge
Scaling operations across multiple properties: As Rambla grew from one property to five, they needed a way to take on new locations without adding an onsite front office team for each one. From centralizing their front office and reservations team, they’re able to manage 172 units across five properties as one operation for more consistent coverage and better service around the clock.
Identifying and resolving guest friction points proactively: Without face-to-face interaction, it’s harder to catch when a guest is confused, frustrated, or needs help. Rambla worked to prevent small issues from becoming negative reviews.
Solution
Rambla adopted Akia as the backbone of their guest communication and service delivery. They approached Akia the way a traditional hotel would approach training a front office team, with ongoing attention and iteration.
Akia is now fully embedded in Rambla’s tech stack across the portfolio and rolled out in all new properties moving forward and has set the foundation for guest communication, making both new property launches and day-to-day operations far easier to manage.
“We run five properties with about 10 people managing everything around the clock, without a need for a full team at each property because of Akia.”
Fully customizable guest journey.
Rambla built out a fully automated guest communication flow in Akia. Every touchpoint is mapped and automated. Messages can be organized by guest status (in-house, arriving today, reserved) so the team can prioritize responses and ensure no guest falls through the cracks.
The intuitive interface makes it easy for the Rambla team to refine their guest journey as they go. They can quickly spot “sticking points” — moments when guests frequently reach out with questions or confusion, and update their messaging to address them before they become issues.
From there, they can easily adjust scheduled messages, reiterate key details, or refine content across the journey. This might mean adding a YouTube instructional video, tweaking message timing, or reworking copy for better clarity, all without needing technical support or a complicated setup.
Using AI Agents to automate tasks across properties.
Rambla leverages Akia’s AI response capabilities to handle a significant portion of guest messaging and review responses. The AI is trained to match Rambla’s brand tone of voice for consistent communication across all five properties without requiring every response to be individually written.
The team operates in supervised mode, reviewing and approving AI-generated responses before they go out to maintain quality control while dramatically reducing the time spent managing routine guest communication. Andrew Hewitt, Group Manager at Rambla shares:
“We don’t have to go in and type every response anymore. It copies the tone of voice we’ve always had, keeps everything consistent across the brand, and with the AI and automation it just fully takes care of itself.”
By letting AI handle the first draft of most messages, the team can respond faster without sacrificing brand standards. This balance between automation and oversight has helped Rambla maintain a Guest Review Index of nearly 90% across its properties.
Rambla also built in a human escalation protocol:
“If someone wants to speak to a human, it stops immediately and goes straight to a person.”
When Rambla implemented AI Agents, automation initially handled about 60% of outbound guest messages. As adoption expanded across properties and workflows were refined, AI now consistently handles over 80%, peaking at 92% during high-volume months.
Proactive reputation management.
Rambla uses automated post-stay correspondence to encourage guests to leave reviews on Google, while also providing a private channel for guests who experienced issues to reach out directly before posting a negative review. Combined with Akia’s real-time sentiment flagging, allows the team to catch and address negative experiences before they become public.
