The Shangri-La Country Club is located at the tip of Monkey Island, in northeast Oklahoma. It currently features 27 holes of Championship golf, a large 240-slip marina, three restaurants, and a membership of over 300. But by April 2017, the country club is set to transform into a full resort, with a 120 room lodge and conference center, 3 more dining venues, a luxury spa, and a brand new resort pool.

Jon Davidson, Shangri-La Resort’s Vice President of Operations, decided a change in systems was necessary to meet their goals and objectives not just as a resort, but to push the boundaries on the private club aspect of the property that has, and will continue to be, a main focus of the business. “Today, our system is inadequate to grow our customer database and profile to meet our goals and objectives.”

While Davidson and the executive team vetted many club and resort management systems while making their final decision, ResortSuite stood out amongst the crowd. “ResortSuite stood out to us because of its powerful integration and guest-centric design, along with very positive user feedback,” said Davidson.

While spending the time to view product demonstrations, the Shangri-La team also took the time to visit a similar property to what the resort will be, to gain a better sense of ResortSuite in action within a full resort environment. “The trip left us even more excited to implement ResortSuite. Watching the cross-property integration in action, and the availability of guest and member information from anywhere, really helped seal our decision.”

ResortSuite’s fully integrated suite of modules includes Club, SPA (Services Programs Activities), GOLF, PMS (Property Management System), F&B, Sales & Catering, Retail, Ski and Concierge. While each module can stand alone as best-of-breed, the true niche of ResortSuite is in its management of horizontally complex properties such as a private club with golf, classes, lessons, accommodations, dining and more.

One extensible aspect of ResortSuite that the Shangri-La team are looking forward to making available to their members and guests, is the ability to book their entire experience online including reserving rooms and booking tee times at the three, 9-hole golf courses. “We also selected ResortSuite for it’s tech-focus on the guest/member experience. Members want to be able to book a tee time from their mobile device these days, and we’re excited that we will now have the ability to offer this service.”

Having mobility will not only benefit the members and guests and the new Shangri-La Resort come 2017. With ResortSuite’s PMS Check-In App and TabletSide POS App, staff will be able to check a guest into the lodge or marina, as well as take an order anywhere on property (even the golf course!) with these staff-facing tablet applications.

Shangri-La’s online booking platform will allow guests to book their entire experience online.