Sunsail, Resort Club Operator, Gains Multi-Site Management with Integrated NFS Hotel Software

Keen to provide good customer service and to avoid time-consuming questions about guest bills, Sunsail cast aside its ageing in-house systems and installed roomMaster and Aloha EPOS, both from NFS Hospitality. Sunsail is part of the activity sector of First Choice Holidays Group.

How do you manage a string of resort clubs with hundreds of guests running tabs for a week or more?

With difficulty – unless you have the right systems in place.

"We were migrating from a previous in-house system and needed a more robust platform to get a higher level of reliability," says Sunsail’s Commercial Director, Andrew Bex. "We had tender responses from six vendors and chose NFS as the ‘best fit’ for our design."

Look to customised and integrated multi-property management software from NFS

Given Sunsail’s unique multi-property operation, with rooms booked from company headquarters in Portsmouth but with each resort autonomous in terms of billing, Andy knew that bespoke software would be required. NFS solved the problem with a custom-made interface that links roomMaster to Sunsail’s own property management system and all guest bar and restaurant bills through Aloha to roomMaster.

"It was important to us to get the system right and to have the level of flexibility that encourages staff to think more commercially," Andy notes. "Once this attitude is established, the benefits should flow automatically."

To date Sunsail has installed the two systems at six of its resort clubs in Greece and Turkey. Its newest club in Turkey – Phokaia – is also installing the systems, as will Sunsail’s club on the Caribbean island of Antigua. All of the properties are run on a leased basis.

Simple to use but reliable systems benefit both staff and guests

The main benefits for Sunsail from the core NFS systems include reliability and simplicity of use, especially as the resorts tend to have seasonal staff turnover. To ensure smooth operations, Commercial Director Andy Bex wants systems that new staff can use with minimal training.

"Some are large 400-500 room resorts and our staff tend to be young and fairly mobile. So we need reliable systems that people can use with ease," he says. "We’ve found NFS to be responsive to the issues that arose in the first season and we all know they are there to help at all hours."