Supporting Sustainable Event Revenue Growth Across One of the UK's Leading Independent Hotel Groups

The Challenge

The Cairn Hotel Group is a leading independent UK hotel owner and operator, overseeing a strategically located portfolio of properties nationwide, each contributing to a strong and continually evolving hospitality and events offering.

Events form a key component of the group's commercial strategy. From large-scale Christmas party nights to themed dining and entertainment experiences, Cairn Group hotels deliver a diverse programme of ticketed events designed to drive guest engagement and incremental revenue.

Over the past five years, Cairn Hotel Group properties have partnered with fango to support and scale their event business. During this time, the group has achieved consistent year-on-year growth in both ticket sales and pre-order revenue, strengthening event profitability while improving operational efficiency and financial control.

The Challenge

As event programmes and demand increased across the portfolio, managing bookings, guest pre-orders and revenue tracking became increasingly complex. Each property required a scalable solution capable of supporting high transaction volumes while maintaining accuracy and providing clear reporting at both property and group level.

Maintaining full visibility across ticket revenue, food and beverage pre-orders and event enhancements was essential, particularly where events were integrated with residential packages. Reducing manual administrative workload, while ensuring financial accuracy and operational efficiency, became a key priority for hotel teams.

The Solution

The implementation of fango provided Cairn Hotel Group properties with a centralised platform to manage event bookings, guest pre-orders and advance revenue capture.

Hotels retain full autonomy over their individual event programmes, while benefiting from consistent processes and consolidated reporting across the group. Guests are able to securely book tickets, pre-order food and beverage packages, and purchase event enhancements online, with payments collected in advance. This approach has strengthened cash flow, reduced financial risk and streamlined administrative processes for operational teams.

As the partnership has developed, the platform has scaled in line with the group's ambitions, supporting increasingly sophisticated event programmes and higher sales volumes.

In the past year alone, 46 percent of event orders were placed outside of traditional office hours, highlighting the growing importance of providing guests with convenient, always-available digital booking, while unlocking incremental revenue that would otherwise be missed.

Delivering Consistent Year-on-Year Growth

Since introducing fango, Cairn Hotel Group hotels have achieved sustained growth in both ticket sales and pre-order revenue.

Providing guests with a seamless digital booking journey has increased advance spend per guest, while significantly reducing manual administration for hotel teams. Advance payment collection ensures revenue is secured ahead of each event, supporting improved forecasting, cash flow management and financial planning.

This structured approach has enabled properties across the portfolio to scale their event programmes with confidence, while maintaining operational control.

Enhancing Operations with Opera Cloud Integration

Cairn Hotel Group properties are further strengthening operational efficiency through fango's integration with Opera Cloud.

Event ticket sales, pre-orders and enhancements are automatically posted into the property management system, eliminating manual reconciliation, reducing the risk of error and saving valuable administrative time.

For guests attending events alongside overnight stays, the integration also supports real-time room availability and automated revenue posting, ensuring complete alignment between event and accommodation data within the PMS.

Looking Ahead

With fango embedded across the portfolio and continued investment in system integration, Cairn Hotel Group has established a scalable and commercially focused approach to event management.

This foundation positions the group to continue growing event revenue, while maintaining operational efficiency, financial control and a consistently high-quality guest experience.