Villa Schiatti: 200 Years of Tradition Managed Digitally from a Single Platform

Who we are

Hotel Relais Villa Schiatti is a boutique villa-hotel with nearly two centuries of history, founded in 1832, set on the panoramic hills of Montecchio, between Cortona and Castiglion Fiorentino, in the province of Arezzo. We are a family-run, carefully restored property: 20 rooms and apartments with panoramic views, a pool with bar service and music, a spa area, a restaurant serving traditional Tuscan cuisine from local ingredients, and a sought-after venue for weddings and private events.

The challenge

Before Pynbooking, we managed reservations manually across multiple channels — our own website, Booking.com, Expedia, Airbnb — in different languages (Italian and English), for a diverse audience: couples, families, wedding groups. For a 20-room boutique with an integrated restaurant and standalone apartments, syncing inventory across channels was a constant source of risk — and every direct booking lost to OTAs meant commission.

For a family-run boutique like ours, every overbooking means a guest relationship lost before it even started. And every OTA booking means commission we could be reinvesting in the guest experience.

We needed a system that would centralise rooms, restaurant and event calendar in one place — and that would help us capture more direct bookings, without intermediaries.

The solution

In 2018 we moved the entire operation to Pynbooking: PMS Cloud for accommodation, Channel Manager to sync with Booking.com, Expedia and Airbnb, a multi-language Booking Engine on our website (Italian / English), the Restaurant POS to post guest consumption directly to the room folio, and Guest App for in-stay services (room service, spa bookings, pool orders).

The results

After 8 years:

• +45% direct bookings via the Booking Engine — zero commission, reduced dependency on OTAs
• +30% additional revenue via the Guest App — guests order in-room, poolside and at the spa directly from their phone, everything is automatically posted to the room folio
• Zero overbookings — the Channel Manager keeps inventory synchronised in real time across all OTAs
• Restaurant integrated with the PMS — no manual steps to charge consumption to the room
• Unified calendar for individual reservations, groups and events (weddings, private events)

The +45% direct bookings on the Booking Engine changed the economics of the operation. What we used to pay in OTA commissions, we now reinvest in the quality of the experience.

The Guest App opened a revenue channel we didn't have before — guests order more easily, and in-stay revenue grows without needing extra reception staff.

What's next

We continue to grow on the events and weddings segment, with Pynbooking as the stable infrastructure for the next phase of the operation. For a villa with nearly 200 years of history, it matters to have a platform that supports you for the long term.