A long-running property management partnership helps this independent Stowe hotel organize group room blocks, support front desk work, and reach real people when help is needed.
“roommaster has been amazing with group blocks. That's pretty much why we signed on to it in 2008, because we had so many groups coming through the inn here.”
Mandy Lowell, Front Desk Manager, Commodores Inn
An Independent Hotel With Complex Group Needs
Commodores Inn sits one mile south of the village of Stowe, Vermont, on a 15-acre property with a pond. Carrie Nourjian and her husband, Bruce, own the family-run hotel, which Bruce built in 1986. Its sailing theme reflects his background in ocean racing, while its location serves the skiers and groups who come to Stowe throughout the year.
Group business creates a different operational challenge from individual reservations. A hotel must keep each guest connected to the right block, preserve the agreed rate, and understand where members of several groups are staying. The work becomes more demanding when arrivals overlap or a property needs to place groups in separate areas of the building.
Commodores Inn has managed that complexity at meaningful scale. Carrie recalls hosting multiple British student ski groups, sometimes with four or five students in a room and as many as six schools in the hotel at once. The team needed a hotel property management system that could keep each school organized without adding unnecessary front desk work.
A Practical Choice Based on Peer Experience
When Carrie evaluated hotel management systems, she asked other hoteliers in the Stowe area what they used. After seeing roommaster in operation at another local property and hearing a firsthand recommendation, she concluded that it fit the hotel's needs. Commodores Inn adopted roommaster in 2008, with group booking management as a central reason for the decision.
That selection process still matters. Independent hotels often operate with lean teams and limited time for technology evaluation. A working example from a peer can show whether a system fits real front desk routines, especially for demanding use cases such as group room blocks.
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Keeping Group Bookings Organized
For Commodores Inn, the value of group booking software is practical: reservations can be placed directly into the appropriate block, while the associated group details and rates remain together. The front desk can add a guest to the correct group without recreating the surrounding booking information.
That structure helped the team manage multiple groups at the same time. Carrie could keep each school in its own group block and place groups in different parts of the building. The system gave the team a clear way to organize the relationship between the group, its guests, and its room assignments.
For an independent hotel, operational simplicity is less about removing every decision than about making routine decisions easier to execute. A well-structured room block reduces the amount of information staff must hold in memory and gives the front desk a consistent place to work from when plans change.
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Support That Extends Beyond the Software
The relationship has lasted since 2008 because the software is backed by people the hotel can reach. Mandy values having an account manager and a support team available for direct conversation. Carrie says the team can call or email support and receive a response when an issue arises.
The dedicated account relationship is also proactive. Commodores Inn's account manager checks in every few months to ask what the hotel needs and how things are going. For a property without a large internal technology team, that continuity provides a known path for questions, troubleshooting, and ongoing guidance.
“I would definitely recommend roommaster to any hotel property. They're there for us 24/7, any questions, any issues, and they've treated us very well.”
Carrie Nourjian, Owner, Commodores Inn
What This Story Shows Independent Hoteliers
Commodores Inn's experience highlights a useful standard for hotel technology: the system should fit the property's most important workflows, and the vendor should remain accessible after implementation. In this case, the defining workflow is group business. The defining service expectation is the ability to reach a person who understands the account.
The customer relationship also provides a form of evidence that short-term product claims cannot. Commodores Inn has used roommaster since 2008 across changing staff needs and years of hotel operations. Its continued use, together with the team's specific account of group blocks and support, grounds the story in an established operating relationship rather than a one-time endorsement.
See How roommaster Supports Independent Hotels
roommaster helps independent hotels manage reservations, front desk operations, and group bookings in one property management system, with 24/7 human support and dedicated account management.
The roommaster team have been able and willing to help us make sure all of our things are connected, that all of our channels are working together.
