Intercontinental Real Santo Domingo

Converting from manual processes to implementing a software system to manage spa operations can seem complicated but it doesn’t have to be. In fact, it helped Intercontinental put better processes in place and also generate more revenue.

The Challenge

Moving from analogue to digital. Finding a software with the flexibility to access the system from anywhere, online booking, accurate reports, a user friendly platform, and fast technical support.

THE Solution

Book4Time cloud-based software with reporting dashboards, user friendly platform, and the best technical support in the business.

THE RESULTS

Time saved on reporting and payroll, business insights, increased revenue, and more.

An oasis of tranquility and serenity in the city of Santo Domingo

The InterContinental Real Santo Domingo is located in Downtown Santo Domingo, in the Piantini district, just across the street from Acropolis Center and steps from the Blue Mall. The hotel features unique concept restaurants, two bars, a state of the art fitness center, and an outdoor infinity pool overlooking the city.

The Spa at the InterContinental Real Santo Domingo is an oasis of tranquility and serenity in the city, designed for a journey of wellbeing and relaxation through massages, facials, body treatments and sensory experiences. The spa features five individual treatment rooms and a room for couples or groups that can accommodate up to four people, each with their own therapist. Guests of the spa who are receiving a treatment or service also enjoy use of wet areas, including sauna, steam room, jacuzzi and the infinity pool.

Spa Director, Judi Rodriguez, studied business administration, accounting, and administrative management. She has always been interested in helping people with their physical and emotional wellbeing, starting in the hotel industry while independently running a beauty and physical image consulting business, JR Skin and Makeup. In 2018, she joined the first InterContinental Spa in the Dominican Republic as Marketing Manager and has positioned the spa as the number one wellness center in the city of Santo Domingo.

More accurate reports, a user friendly platform, and fast technical support

Rodriguez and her team were doing all of their administrative work manually, including appointment booking, reports, inventory, and payroll, with tools like Excel, Word, and pen and paper. They wanted to move to a digital platform and started shopping for a spa software that offered the flexibility to access the system from anywhere, online booking, more accurate reports, a user friendly platform, and fast technical support.

“Our biggest interest was to be able to move to a digital platform that would allow us to save time, space, and money, and that offers online booking,” Rodriguez explains. “At the same time, we needed more accurate reports to be able to keep track of our metrics and KPIs.”

Book4Time is even better than expected

Book4Time solved all Rodriguez’s issues, she says, “Even more than we expected!” She goes on to list the following benefits of implementing the spa software:

Our customers can book online at any time that’s convenient for them, even when the spa is closed.
Commission reports used to take us hours to do manually, even days. Now it takes much less time.
The executive summary report allows me to see specific and instant data about the customers who have visited us, like how many of them are new clients, revenue,and best-selling services.
We can see the most in-demand services and our most profitable hours, and we can schedule more therapists during these hours.
Because the system is in the cloud, I can access it from anywhere, even my cellphone, and see what’s happening in the spa when I’m not there.
Being able to access the platform from anywhere and on any device has allowed us to save significant time and solve problems.
The variety of reports makes it faster to search for information to which we previously didn’t have access and that we can now quantify, evaluate, and share with our stakeholders.”

“Commission reports used to take us hours to do manually, even days. Now it takes much less time.”

In the first six months after implementing Book4Time, the Spa at InterContinental Real Santo Domingo received 61 online appointments without investing in additional employees, “basically doing nothing,” says Rodriguez. She adds that “customers who reserve online almost always book an additional service, which also increases revenue.”

Despite all this, what Rodriguez has been most impressed with is “the automatic confirmation sent to the customer at the time they make an appointment and the automatic confirmation that the system sends 24 hours before the appointment, the time that we have saved working on therapist commissions, and all the detailed available reports.”

“Customers who reserve online almost always book an additional service, which also increases revenue.”

Without Book4Time, Rodriguez says her team’s workflow and process would be “slow and with incomplete information.”

The investment in Book4Time was well worth it, she says. “It offers a lot of tools that we did not have before.”

Her advice to others who might be considering implementing Book4Time spa software is: “They should do it. If they need a change to improve their business process,