The Gale Miami Hotel & Residences is a lifestyle property in downtown Miami, Florida, known for combining luxury hospitality with boutique-style living. Before working with Canary, the hotel was still using paper registration cards despite its desire to provide a modern check-in experience.
The Gale’s VP of Information Technology Seth Wasserman initially implemented Canary’s Mobile Check-In to replace paper forms. Since then, the property has adopted several solutions to digitize the guest journey. We spoke with Seth to understand how Canary has impacted its operations.
The hotel previously used another provider for digital registration cards, but had to go back to paper when the product was phased out. Both staff and guests were frustrated by the manual paperwork and long lobby lines. With Canary, the benefits are two-fold: guests can now complete registration before arrival or on-site, allowing The Gale to more effectively meet every guest’s preference.
“They fill out all their information before they’re on property,” said Seth. “By the time they get to the front desk, the registration card is filled out, and at most we have to ask for a signature. It takes seconds instead of minutes.”
The Gale Miami’s prime location puts it in the middle of the action when major events come to the city. But higher demand also means busier arrival periods. With Canary’s Tablet Registration, the hotel adds check-in stations wherever they’re needed, equipping team members with tablets in the lobby to keep guests moving and prevent lines from forming.
“It’s great for when we’re so busy, like if there are major events in the area,” said Seth. “It’s so easy to scale up and down. Whether we have two, four or eight people at the front desk, we never end up with a lobby line.”
Before Canary, the hotel accidentally overwhelmed travelers with updates from their various systems. During their stay, guests could receive updates from the hotel app, the PMS and RMS at different points in the journey. Because Canary’s AI Guest Messaging met every messaging need the team had, they decided to consolidate all guest communication through Canary.
“We can't have guests getting texts from multiple systems all the time,” said Seth. “So we made a decision to only use one, which was Canary.”
The Gale Miami's phone system used to greet callers with the standard “Press 1, press 2” menu. Canary's AI Voice instead answers the phone with a conversational greeting, making the call feel more personal from the start. Seth himself has tested it in German, French and Italian, and was pleased to find the response featured a distinct voice and accurate accent.
“I was really excited to hear it speak so well in different languages, because we get a lot of international travelers,” said Seth. “I loved that the follow-up text and any future communications are automatically sent in the right language, too. Whether it's calls or texts, talking to Canary AI feels natural.”
