Apartments
Birkelunden B&B
Birkelunden Bed & Breakfast is located in the heart of Rjukan, a UNESCO World Heritage city, with easy access to attractions such as the Norwegian Industrial Workers Museum, Gaustatoppen and Hardangervidda. With 42 beds and rooms sharing common toilet and bathroom facilities, Birkelunden is a practical option for travellers looking for a straightforward stay in the centre of Rjukan. The hotel is open year-round, though occupancy varies — summer is peak season, while winter brings extended periods with few guests.
Birkelunden is also a work inclusion enterprise, focused on providing adapted workplaces for its employees. This means that resource allocation and staffing are not purely operational considerations — they are about people
«For us, Invite is not just about achieving more efficient operations — it’s also about directing our resources where they matter most: alongside our employees.»
– Åsne Hardang Strand, Manager
The challenge
Like many smaller accommodation providers, Birkelunden found that physical keys created unnecessary friction — lost keys, late-night enquiries and extra administration for a small team. During periods of low occupancy, staffing the reception desk in the evenings and on weekends was not cost-effective — yet guests still needed to be taken care of.
Using Invite
By adopting self-service check-in with Invite, Birkelunden was able to shift staff resources away from evening and weekend shifts with significant downtime, and towards daytime work alongside their employees. The hotel uses VisBook as its PMS and has Salto locks integrated with Invite’s InStay guest portal.
Although staffing is reduced during shorter periods, the hotel remains reachable by phone around the clock.
«The digital key is more accessible for guests than the physical keys we used before. On top of that, we no longer have to deal with guests losing their keys,» says Åsne.
Onboarding
Birkelunden launched the solution approximately one year ago. The first few months brought some technical challenges related to the Salto integration, but by June last year the onboarding had been approved and operations had stabilised.
And the results
The experience has been positive: fewer guests request physical keys, more guests understand how to use the digital system without assistance, and the reception desk receives fewer enquiries.
The situation has improved considerably, and there are now very few issues in day-to-day operations, says Åsne.
