Rockenue: Unlocking the potential of independent hotels with Cloudbeds

Rockenue was founded with a clear mission: to level the playing field for independent hotels competing against major chains. Its founder, Karol Zymek, a seasoned hospitality expert, recognized a gap: smaller hotels needed expert support and modern tools without the high costs and constraints of large global brands. Rockenue was built to provide just that—hands-on, strategic assistance to help independent properties thrive.

“I’ve worked in the hotel industry for nearly 20 years, across both revenue management and the OTA side. What always stood out was how tough it is for independent hotels to compete. Big chains have the advantage—teams, tools, and resources—while smaller properties are often left to figure things out on their own.”

That insight drove the launch of Rockenue, starting with just five hotels to test the model: delivering hands-on support without the burden of corporate overhead. The early results were undeniable — revenues grew, and hotel owners felt they finally had a true partner.

Today, Rockenue operates as a hotel asset management company, supporting 44 properties across multiple countries. They’ve become a flexible, smarter alternative to brand affiliation — helping independent hotels compete, grow, and thrive.

Scalability has been essential to Rockenue’s growth. With Cloudbeds, onboarding a new group of hotels takes just days — a process that’s become critical to their expansion strategy.

As Karol puts it, “We can roll out Cloudbeds to a group of hotels in a matter of days. Go-live is particularly important. We can’t be held back by tech that should actually enable us. Data migration is flawless with Cloudbeds, and that’s normally the biggest pain point. 

He continues, “Also, staff training—the system is really, really intuitive. My team even trains hotels on the PMS themselves; it’s that simple.”

Cloudbeds’ reliability has been another game-changer. Since onboarding, Rockenue has experienced near-zero connectivity issues or overbookings:

“Cloudbeds gives us the reliability we need—not just from the system itself, but from the channel manager too. We connect to hundreds of OTAs and wholesalers without a hitch. I honestly can’t remember a single case of overbooking or connectivity failure in the past year.”

Cloudbeds also delivers operational efficiency, drastically reducing the need for manual intervention and freeing up 40% of Rockenue’s team time for higher-value work. And when it comes to training new staff, Cloudbeds’ intuitive design and helpful learning resources have proven instrumental:

“This is one of the biggest wins for us. With high staff turnover, especially in Europe, we’re training new people almost every week. Cloudbeds makes it incredibly easy. The interface is intuitive, and the Cloudbeds University and Knowledge Base are great resources.”

Cloudbeds’ reporting capabilities have also proved invaluable—offering everything from easy daily reports to advanced analytics, tailored to the needs of each property. “We really like how Cloudbeds offers two tiers of reports – Classic Reports that are self explanatory and easy to use for less advanced users and very flexible Advanced Reporting feature that lets our data scientists slice and dice the data – a big reason why we are rolling out Cloudbeds in bigger hotels that have much bigger needs when it comes to data analysis.” 

As Rockenue continues to expand its reach, helping independent hotels thrive in a competitive market, Cloudbeds remains a key partner. Together, they’re transforming how independent hotels operate—unlocking new levels of growth, efficiency, and guest satisfaction.