A winning stay for Valor Hospitality with Troncmasters
Valor Hospitality is an award-winning hotel management company, overseeing a portfolio of 36 prominent hotels across the UK and Europe, featuring renowned global brands like Hilton, IHG, and Marriott. To efficiently manage its extensive network of properties and streamline the distribution of tips and service charges, the company uses Troncmasters by IRIS.
Highlights
- A net saving of around £85,000 since using Troncmasters
- Six hotels implemented onto Troncmasters each month
- Troncmasters comes out on top for expertise, adaptability, and compliance across 36 hotels within Valor Hospitality
Choosing the right partner for your business
When the government introduced a new TRONC legislation, Valor Hospitality started looking for the right partner. “Right from when we first started hearing about the new legislation, we were exploring our options. I attended a tronc event at the BT Tower where an employee from Troncmasters was speaking, and I was immediately impressed,” says Richard Newbery, Valor Hospitality’s Employee Relations Manager for UK & Europe.
At the time, the company was considering whether to partner with an existing provider or pursue an independent route. After evaluating several options, they chose to work with Troncmasters. “There were a number of reasons that drew us towards Dataplan, now IRIS, and everything has been a really positive experience since then,” adds Richard.
Flexibility, a sense of fairness, and compliancy
Since partnering with Troncmasters, Valor Hospitality has experienced a smooth and efficient implementation process. “If anything, any challenges have come from our own learning process rather than from the team! They’ve been really receptive to the changes and the way we’ve rolled this out,” notes Richard. The flexibility Troncmasters provides was a key factor for Valor when choosing who to partner with. “Each hotel has its own approach to distributing the tronc numbers. So that flexibility in adapting to these differences really stood out to us as going above and beyond,” Richard adds.
The company was committed to ensuring minimal disruption for their hotels while focusing on the positive impact of the changes. “We didn’t want there to be a massive change in the way things were done. We wanted to focus on the benefits, like employees receiving more of their money, the sense of fairness, and compliance with the new legislation that came into force last year. It all went really well.”
Scaling Troncmasters across 36 hotels
Initially, Valor Hospitality embarked on a careful pilot project for their tronc distribution process. “We’ve got 36 hotels in the UK, including three new hotels opening between February and March 2025. When we started off, we thought, if we’re going to break it, we’re going to break it with this one particular hotel, which had a convoluted way of distributing service charge and tips,” says Richard. With complex calculations around hours worked, this hotel became the pilot site in December 2023.
“The Troncmasters team spent a lot of time with me and my team at the hotel, making sure that as we transitioned to Troncmasters, we could still replicate the same distribution. This went really well and then ever since, we rolled out six or seven hotels each month until June last year,” Richard adds. While most of the hotels adopt a simple distribution method based on hours worked across restaurant, bar, and kitchen teams, a few locations required more flexibility. “There are probably three or four other hotels that distribute it over more departments or have a weighting. It’s that flexibility Troncmasters has which has really enabled us to accommodate all of that.”
The five-star service
Valor Hospitality chose Troncmasters not only for their flexibility but also for their expertise and commitment to compliance. “It’s the compliance and the confidence it gives the senior leadership team, knowing that if we get this wrong, it could be a major issue. Partnering with someone experienced and knowledgeable about the legislation was crucial. The Troncmasters team were incredibly helpful throughout the process, and what really stood out was their expertise in agency work, understanding how it could impact our business and helping us find ways to mitigate those risks while still remaining compliant,” explains Richard.
Valor explored several other providers but ultimately chose Troncmasters for their “great all-round package,” noting that the aftercare, support, and customer service offered by competitors were either not as good or more expensive. “The fact that Troncmasters has been able to integrate seamlessly with our systems, along with the excellent support, has all been a major advantage. Each of our hotels has team members handling payroll on-site, and it all funnels through our payroll manager. Whether it’s the payroll manager, an on-site payroll team member, or even one of the hotel managers, the response is always really quick if we need support. They address the situation directly, there’s no backwards and forwards. They understand the issue, resolve it, or provide us with the necessary advice. That level of aftercare has been invaluable,” says Richard. The team’s flexibility and willingness to work with varying levels of knowledge was another standout feature for Valor: “They’re able to work with our varying levels of knowledge across our business while still ensuring we achieve our goals. I’d say there’s a lot to like about working with IRIS.”
Achieving a net saving of £85,000
Valor Hospitality saw significant improvements as a result of their partnership with Troncmasters. “Our reward and recognition metric on our engagement survey went up by maybe one and a half to two percent from last year, and I’d say this partnership has contributed towards that,” says Richard. From a financial perspective, the partnership proved highly beneficial, with Valor estimating a net saving of around £85,000, even after accounting for the cost of Troncmasters. “That’s quite a big tick from a business perspective!” Richard notes. He’s optimistic about further improvements, adding, “The contribution level is going up this year, so that’s only going to get better. It was very much a win-win situation. We’re extremely pleased with the product and the team, and would highly recommend it.”
With significant cost savings, seamless integration with other systems, and successful implementation across all 36 hotels, the partnership between Troncmasters by IRIS and Valor Hospitality has proven to be a great success.
