Great hospitality has always been about creating memorable guest experiences.

Traditionally, that has largely been defined by offering amazing accommodations, quality amenities, value-add activities and attentive service. However, today's travellers are also increasingly expecting digital conveniences.

Critically, hospitality and travel companies can use technologies to:

• Segment customers to improve how they interact with and serve them.

• Surprise and delight customers, from providing personalized trip ideas and itineraries to quickly solving unexpected disruptions.

• Empower their own employees, freeing them up to focus on more personal customer interactions.

Done well, these value-added actions can unlock competitive advantages that can drive significant improvements to the bottom line. Indeed, according to McKinsey Digital, brands that capitalize on digital and analytics opportunities may see earnings improvements of up to 25%.

With all this in mind, we knew that aligning with these ever-evolving preferences is incredibly important and helped guide our decision to update our digital infrastructure, upholding our commitment to delivering exceptional guest experiences for many more years to come.

The current central reservation system (CRS) has really been key to the organization's success for the last 30+ years as it has contributed to the facilitation of the brands growth to 21 resorts throughout the Caribbean. However, we began to recognize the need to adopt a system that better complements the current digital age.

In order to continue digitising at a competitive rate and quality, we've created strong foundations to build from. With a flexible, modern CRS, we can seamlessly integrate new digital tools and create an effortless experience for our guests. We couldn't be happier to have chosen IBS Software as our new partners.

Revamping a CRS is a delicate process. It needs to be handled extremely carefully to avoid any disruptions to our day-to-day operations and most importantly, to our guests. If the CRS was to go down for an extended period, it would greatly affect efficiencies and negatively impact our levels of customer service, providing for an experience that does not align with our focus of consumer experience and brand reputation.

Selecting the right partner that we could really place our trust in was the key priority. We really needed someone that had the technical knowledge and experience of managing transformations for a business like our own, and truly understood what it was we were looking to achieve both now and into the future.

For these reasons, we quickly concluded that IBS Software would be an excellent choice for our business.

After showing a comprehensive understanding of the intricacies of the operation, their familiarity, knowledge and enthusiasm to put themselves in our shoes really gave us the confidence that they could help us navigate the transition smoothly.

We loved their attitude and approach. There was a real willingness to get to know our business – to go on site and sit down with our booking agents, understanding their day-to-day workflows. Also, IBS Software's iStay Central Reservation System stood out as an impressive reservation system that offered all the capabilities we needed.

As we continue the implementation process, we're thrilled about what this will bring. iStay has the potential to empower our guests to even more seamlessly personalize their vacations, from choosing their rooms to booking activities, flights and more, will all be in one place. We were also drawn to the fact that it is backed by a uniquely innovative revenue management system and data analytics capabilities.

As a brand, we embrace the fact that personalisation and customer experience are king in our industry. For us, this step represents our commitment to our guests to bring forward the latest technology and use it to complement their all-inclusive vacation experience. It's not just an update – it's an investment that will set the foundations for a much broader transformation, and we can't wait to get started. 

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