Tipping Point Technology

Clubs and resorts are helping to drive the mixing of a myriad of technologies, in the quest to produce a total point-of-sale solution for optimum service.

by Tom Dulaney (editor@clubandresortbusiness.com)
February 2008
 

High-tech tools are successfully making their way into the club and resort world, as a growing number of properties believe the way to improve enjoyment and increase revenues is to embrace technology, not resist it.

“Ask for a strip steak sandwich on the 2nd tee, and we’ll have it to you by the time you get to the 5th,” says Tim Coolican, General Manager and PGA Pro at Magnolia Plantation Golf Club in Lake Mary, Fla.

The club recently purchased color-display, self-service ordering units for all of its  golf cars. The technology works wirelessly and allows golfers to place orders remotely. It does more than just that, though; an interface with a global positioning system (GPS) also displays pinpoint-accurate distances to the hole, as well as vibrant graphics of fairways, greens, hazards and other on-course geographical features.

“With the on-cart systems, courses are able to attract additional events and incremental profits,” says a leading Arizona-based software provider. “Technology such as this has become a necessary marketing and management tool for private, resort and daily-fee courses.”

POS in the Palm of Their Hands
Not so long ago, club and resort owners and managers dreamed of computer systems that would come “out of the box” to meet all of their facility needs. The systems would include property management, customer relations management, cashier operations, food service and reservations, and tee-time booking and management.

Instead, the tech industry went the opposite direction, turning its back on “single source does all” solutions.
As at Magnolia Plantation GC, widely diverse products and software from numerous system developers and providers became the order du jour. Purchasing was a la carte, specific to the needs of a particular department.

The POS technology used in the Grill at Magnolia Plantation allows staff to manage and report food and beverage orders remotely, much in the way of the on-cart ordering system. Servers enter each diner’s selection into a handheld wireless device (pictured above). The order is then sent to the kitchen through a wireless, Web-based platform, eliminating the pen-and-paper approach. Beyond ensuring accuracy, this system also prevents problems with delayed orders, Coolican notes.

Chip Off the Old Block
Browsing the worldwide panorama of nifty technology for resort and club use, the possibilities range from mundane to bizarre.

At the decidedly strange end of the spectrum is the Baja Beach Club in Barcelona, Spain. Dripping with Mediterranean sunshine and well-heeled jetsetters, the club now offers VIP clients the opportunity to have a syringe-injected microchip (pictured, above right) implanted into their upper arms—not only for special access to VIP lounges, but also to house a debit account to use for drinks, food and other amenities.

The chip is made of glass and is inert, so there is no risk of it reacting with the body. It sits dormant under the skin. The tube holds a passive RFID chip that responds to a signal when a scanner is held near it, supplying its own unique 16-digit number. The number is linked to the guests’ account, and all purchases are billed to the proper patron. Baja Club owners reason that since many of their clientele are tattooed, another “shot” won’t daunt them.

Not in the Cards
The 90-room La Jolla Beach & Tennis Club, one of only two beachfront properties in the exclusive La Jolla Shores section of California, is now using biometric readers to track time and attendance for up to 600 employees. The units replaced a card system that frequently fell victim to lost cards or 'phantom punch’ timekeeping.

“Before purchasing the units, we had numerous problems with lost cards,” explains Sara DeYoung, Marketing and Communications Specialist for the resort. “We had to archive the numbers of the cards, and particles inside the reader would make the barcodes unreadable.”

Since implementing the biometric timekeeping solution, the resort has not had to deal with 'phantom punches,' cards that do not take, or lost cards. The latter problem is especially prevalent during the summer season, when an additional 150 employees join the staff.

The units are located in employee access areas,  such as the kitchen and hallways, or the breezeways of employee entrance areas.

“We are very satisfied with the readers,” DeYong notes.

Boca Raton’s “Guest-Centric” Focus
Situated on 356 acres in the heart of Florida's Gold Coast, Boca Raton Resort & Club is one of the country's premier destination resorts and private club facilities. A member of the Leading Hotels of the World, the Resort & Club offers five choices of accommodation, plus the Boca Country Club, 146,000 square feet of conference space, a half-mile of private beach, two 18-hole championship golf courses, 30 tennis courts, a full-service marina, and an award-winning spa.
The resort is renowned for a wealth of recreation, acclaimed services and superior amenities, thus making it a perfect fit for a "guest-centric" focused technology.

A few years ago, the Resort & Club was searching for a tech application that could handle its bevy of needs in a fully integrated solution that would increase the number of ways the property could make guests feel remembered and special.
The technology selected by the pro-perty controls multi-property management, spa/recreation scheduling, golf tee time scheduling, activities management, retail POS, club membership management, and baggage handling, as well as Internet reservations.

"Thanks to an innovative partnership, our provider is able to bring our resort and our guests leading technology that has enhanced our operation and most importantly, our guest service," says Jon Carres, the Resort & Club's Chief Information Officer.

A Complex Landscape
Uses like these will continue to drive designers and inventors of high-tech gadgets to keep approaching clubs and resorts as target applications.

Jon Inge, an independent consultant out of Edmonds, Wash., boasts an eye for technology and, specifically, its usefulness in club and resort operations and management.

Author of three pamphlets on technology for the hospitality industry and author of numerous magazine articles on the subject, Inge has a list of club and resort clients from around the country that includes notable properties such as Boca Raton (Fla.) Resort & Club, The Greenbrier in White Sulphur Springs, W.Va., Hot Springs Resort & Pool in Glenwood Springs, Colo., La Jolla (Calif.) Beach and Tennis Club, and The Pinehurst Company Resorts in North Carolina.

“The tantalizing search for the all-encompassing resort system has been going on for many years,” says Inge. “We’ve caught glimpses of it as vendors have expanded their integrated systems to cover more functions and developed better integration with other products.

“However,” Inge adds, “clubs and resorts continue to push the achivement of that goal further away, as their operations become more complex.”

Resort management will only continue to become more complex over time. No matter how diverse or bizarre the technology may become in pursuit of this market, however, one thing will remain mandatory: Future systems must still be able to communicate with one another.

Total Solutions Ahead?    
Systems developers have been chasing down a total solution for clubs and resorts, says Inge. Developers have been doing a good job of serving the need, he feels—but, he adds, because resorts and clubs are always thinking of new services to offer, that presents an ever-moving target for developers.

Into this mix comes a special breed of technology supporters: system integrators that specialize in tying diverse systems together for the club, resort and hotel industries.

One particular integrator calls itself the “leader in device connectivity,” offering not only a wide variety of connectivity programs,  but also providing the computer innards needed to make it all happen—even input devices for customers who might want to literally “become one” themselves.