Resort Collection Leverages SMS|Host Across Multiple Beach Resorts
“The ability to use SMS|Host PMS and SMS|Touch POS from multiple locations, across many miles of beach – and to do that well – is a real success story,” Rick Arrington, Director of Technical Operations for Resort Collection.
The Gulf Coast of Florida attracts vacationers to their wide sandy beaches, shopping outlets, dining venues and many kinds of outdoor recreational opportunities. Each year more than 11 million visitors come to Panama City Beach to enjoy the on-average 320 days of sunshine and 74-degree year-round temperatures.
With 11 resort properties spanning 15 miles of the coastline, the Resort Collection of Panama City Beach offers one of the premier vacation destination experiences in the region. As a property management company, Resort Collection relies on their more than 30-years of experience to enhance the daily administration of the 900+ units in their rental pool while delivering a seamless experience to their guests. In addition, they operate club and HOA management divisions, a shopping center and a real estate organization.
Resort Collection approached SMS in 2011 looking for a solution that would help them more effectively manage their growing collection of properties. They needed sophisticated tools for multi-property management including on-line booking and an integrated food and beverage system.
“SMS is a robust system that complements our often-complex operation,” said Eve Phillips, Director of Revenue Management for Resort Collection.
All of the units in each property are individually owned. In the process of maximizing revenue, Resort Collection employs one of SMS|Host’s usage rotation formats to optimize the equitable distribution of bookings across their rental program. Additionally, the SMS|Work Order Management module enables the resort to provide a rapid response to guest’s needs by logging maintenance requests and facilitating their completion in a timely manner. The integrated billing, parts and labor tracking and real-time service monitoring supports a positive relationship with their owners by providing access to statements and detailed invoices through their on-line Owner Portal.
The Gulf Coast of Florida periodically experiences high volumes of visitors, summer being the most popular time of year. This seasonality, combined with the large number of room types across the properties, requires advanced rates and packages functionality. The enhanced tools available with the latest version of SMS|Host help create efficiencies when managing these complicated pricing structures.
“We like that SMS releases regular software updates with enhancements and new features,” commented Rick Arrington, Director of Technical Operations for Resort Collection. “The continuous product improvement demonstrates that SMS is responsive to our needs.”
Resort Collection also leverages the enhanced interface between the SMS|Host property management system and the SMS|Touch point-of-sale to serve guests at their 14 food and beverage outlets across the resorts. The full integration with the POS ensures seamless room charging and recognition of member discounts.
The seasonality and scope of the property’s business requires adding many staff members to serve guests in the high season. Onboarding employees is often a pain point for the hospitality industry, but Resort Collection has developed a process that works well. After a full organizational orientation, employees who will be using SMS|Host take the Springboard Online Learning course offered by SMS to discover best practices and quickly gain insight into navigating the system. They also send multiple staff members to the annual Host Users Conference, encouraging participation in numerous training sessions and helping to ensure a high level of system knowledge in-house.
“We get a lot out of the users’ conference,” commented Rick Arrington. “Because we use SMS|Host in so many ways across the resort, we send people from multiple departments. Every year it helps us get better at maximizing the system and managing our business more efficiently.”