Founded in 2008, citizenM is a global hotel group known for its modern, tech-based approach and design-focused hotels catering to contemporary travelers. The M stands for ‘mobile.’ With 36 properties primely located in 21 cities worldwide, citizenM offers an experience of affordable luxury, combining stylish, compact rooms with high-quality amenities. Public spaces feature vibrant living rooms, art-filled lounges, and co-working areas. The brand prioritizes self-service and efficiency, with a mobile app for check-in/out and 24/7 food and drink access. citizenM’s emphasis on convenience, creativity, and digital integration resonates with business and leisure travelers alike – it boasts a customer satisfaction score that is the envy of the industry.
citizenM embedded Slack as an integral part of its agile digital transformation, powering communication and collaboration, and supporting its journey to scale automation and personalization.
“Three times a year, we get 200+ people together in the same location for two days to plan the next cycle’s work, and we absolutely couldn’t do that without Slack.”
Taking an agile approach to transformation
With its strong brand and offering of affordable luxury, citizenM has always succeeded in creating memorable journeys for guests. But several years ago, the company recognized it needed to embark on a transformative journey of its own. Outdated tech tools, operational silos, and poor collaboration demanded a new approach.
The company set about implementing a streamlined, modern framework. Ever the innovator, citizenM developed its own tailored approach, Value Driven Agile (VDA), a unique framework with embedded tooling designed to align every aspect of the transformation with clear business value.
Central to that transformation was the strategic integration of people, processes, and technology. This holistic approach ensured all aspects of operations were aligned, avoiding the pitfalls of tackling only one element in isolation. Agile catalysts, experienced in agile practices, were identified throughout the company and tasked with helping to drive adoption, ensuring that ‘no one was left behind’ – a philosophy that underlined the transformation.
When it came to technology, there was little debate. “We knew we wanted Slack in our tooling,” says Rawson. “When you’re doing a digital transformation, it makes adoption super easy.”
JIRA and Confluence completed the ‘trinity’ of resources that covers around 80% of citizenM’s needs. Slack powers collaboration and communication, JIRA handles task management, and Confluence organizes information-sharing across channels.
Additionally, the company structured workspaces by domain, streamlining Slack channels to ensure employees engage only with relevant information. This setup optimizes workflows and keeps teams focused, with each tool playing a specific role in achieving their transformation goals.
“With Slack, we can ensure we’re taking everyone from the support office teams to the hotel floor, as well as externals, on the same journey. And on the same heartbeat.”
Streamlining collaboration through seamless integration
The company adopted Slack as its primary communication platform, enabling seamless collaboration and coordination across teams. “It’s the entry point, it’s the communication point, it’s completely ingrained,” says Rawson.
Distinctive channels allow team members to seamlessly move in and out of their respective areas, while also ensuring alignment at a top level — keeping everyone on the same footing. To support centralized key functions via teams in Voorschoten and New York, citizenM has set up structured domains – such as shared services and business operations – to consolidate channels and optimize their efficiency. This has also allowed the company to move from a vertical to a horizontal business model. “Quite a challenging thing to do,” says Rawson, “and again, Slack helps with that.”
The structure accommodates external contributors. They include key managed service providers for essential operations such as app and website management, as well as TVs. These core partners are embedded directly within citizenM’s Slack channels, ensuring streamlined collaboration and seamless integration across these critical services. Slack’s high familiarity and accessible setup allow them to onboard quickly and stay in sync with ongoing projects.
Notably Slack allows citizenM to organize triannual, large-scale, synchronized business-planning sessions – big room planning (BRP). The tenth such event has recently been completed. “It’s a pretty good milestone,” says Rawson. “Three times a year, we get 200+ people together in the same location for two days to commit to the next cycle’s work, and we absolutely couldn’t do that without Slack.”
With BRPs requiring thorough preparation, ensuring that teams complete all essential pre-work in advance of the events is driven through Slack, where progress can be monitored and deadlines met. Using Slack and JIRA in tandem, the team can surface key information directly. “Things like ‘definition of ready’, ‘definition of done’ – we might put that on JIRA,” says Rawson. “But we can monitor it in Slack.”
Powering migration with precision and transparency
Perhaps citizenM’s most ambitious exercise in – and of – Slack has been the migration of its Property Management System (PMS). “Our biggest and riskiest project in the last five years,” says Rawson. As the last customer on a very old PMS legacy system, a move was essential. citizenM chose Apaleo. “It was absolutely the tech stack we wanted,” says Rawson. Migrating PMS was no small feat – akin to replacing the very heart of citizenM’s operations. “Imagine driving 36 cars with a PMS engine and having to replace that engine while still driving,” as Rawson puts it. With a runbook outlining over 600 steps, citizenM needed a tool that could orchestrate this complex, global endeavor with precision and transparency, citizenM used Slack as the command center for the entire PMS migration project.
Each line item in the runbook became a live update, progress report, and discussion thread within designated Slack channels. Dispersed teams were united by this shared platform, fostering a sense of collective ownership and accountability. “We had up to 50+ people, onsite, remote, and hybrid, having to coordinate from four in the morning,” says Rawson. “Slack was how we made sure that those milestones were collaborated for everyone.” When challenges arose, Slack provided a space for real-time problem-solving. Subgroups could be spun off instantly to tackle specific issues, and their progress tracked transparently for all to see. “This minimized downtime and kept the migration moving forward. An exercise that would ordinarily take months was completed within eight weeks and 20-30% of issues were avoided,” says Rawson.
“Everyone was just rock solid on the page,” says Rawson. “By the time we started our sixth hotel, everyone knew with certainty how this worked and was led by Slack.”
The platform empowered the company to execute a seamless transition, ensuring every team member, regardless of location, was in tune and informed. Slack’s ability to provide a persistent record of the migration process also enabled those who had to step away and return to quickly catch up, fostering efficiency and eliminating the need for repetitive updates.
Migration complete – Apaleo is now another core partner that citizenM can collaborate with in Slack. “If I want to speak to the founder, I can go directly to him in that Slack channel,” says Rawson. “And so can the team – there’s no hierarchy; it’s basic productivity.”
Boosting productivity to drive growth
In its ambition to expand and emulate its unmistakable brand in yet more of the world’s cities, citizenM’s goals are clear. “Our North star is automation at scale for the employee and personalization at scale for the guest,” says Rawson. “Everything we do is about removing friction or adding value.”
Slack will go with them. “With Slack, we can ensure we’re taking everyone from the support office teams to the hotel floor, as well as externals, on the same journey,” says Rawson. “And on the same heartbeat.”
