Melia Hotels International
Melia International wanted a mobile-ready system that simplified bookings, offered robust reporting features, and provided hotel guests with the ability to make appointments wherever and whenever they wanted.
Building a Better Guest Experience
with Operational Excellence Behind the Scenes
The need for luxury spa services has never been
greater. People from every walk of life crave
relaxation, human connection, and respite from
their day-to-day lives, and they seek solace in our
therapeutic and wellness services. For an hour, a
day, or even a week, our guests are pampered so
they can go back to the world refreshed, recharged,
and full of energy
Arabelle Rosario
Spa & Wellness Director Dominican
Republic at Meliá Hotels International
I’m in charge of spa operations for Meliá Hotels International’s Dominican Republic resorts. We operate four
hotels, including the Meliá Punta Cana Beach, Meliá Caribe Beach, Paradisus Palma Real, and the Paradisus
Grand Cana. Each of our properties is like several hotels in one, with separate facilities that cater to different
groups, including families, couples, and singles. Our Yhi Spa brand offers wellness services that target a
diverse clientele, and every location has a unique, welcoming theme to delight our guests.
I’m incredibly proud of how Yhi Spas work to bolster local economies and protect fragile ecosystems.
We source earth-friendly products from within 100 kilometres of each of our locations. It’s a way to add
authenticity to the spa experience while helping surrounding communities.
A cloud based booking platform that gives providers flexibility, and eliminates the need to maintain servers.
Committed to our guests’ enjoyment
Our founder and CEO Gabriel Escarrer likes to say
that Meliá is as deeply committed to our guests’
enjoyment as we are to our excellence in business.
There are many moving parts in creating the ultimate
wellness experience, which is why I’m shocked to
see so many established spas and big hotels using
outdated management tools like Excel. You can
crunch some numbers using spreadsheets, but
you can’t track activities, make reservations, book
services, or establish trends unless you’re creative
with macros. And even then, there’s only so much
you can do.
I’ve worked in the spa industry for 18 years. In that
time, I’ve moved from spreadsheets to dedicated
spa management software, but even purpose-built
platforms can have their limitations. Yhi Spa’s first
spa management suite wasn’t mobile. I had to log into
my office computer or the desktop in our reception
area. If a client wanted to book an appointment, our
wellness team couldn’t do it for them. Instead, they
had to ask our receptionist. If I was talking to a guest
on the beach, and they asked to change a booking, I
had to walk back to our front desk.
There was no self-service option, and visitors
couldn’t book a spa treatment at their convenience. If
that weren’t enough, the software kept crashing and
could only generate two or three reports. The system
was only marginally better than Excel and hampered
our ability to improve the guest experience.
Finding a better spa management platform
About three years ago, we started looking for a
replacement spa management platform. We wanted
a mobile-ready system that simplified bookings,
offered robust reporting features, and provided
hotel guests with the ability to make appointments
wherever and whenever they wanted. We narrowed
it down to a few other candidates and ultimately
decided on Book4Time.
Book4Time offers online and mobile booking, 200
sales and financial reports, revenue and inventory
management, along with guest experience and
marketing tools. It’s a powerful solution that
integrates with various hotel systems, including the
Meliá Hotels International’s primary platform.
We ran a six-month pilot here in the Dominican
Republic and, after putting Book4Time through its
paces, rolled it out to all our spas in Mexico and
Jamaica. We’ll soon be rolling it out in other Meliá
properties. Book4Time is so powerful that I am still
learning about new features and capabilities three
years later.
Real Time Updates and Insights
Book4Time works in real time. The second we make
or change a reservation, the information is instantly
available to every user and every Book4Time module,
including the reporting module. It’s like having X-ray
vision. I can track every aspect of the business at
all our Dominican Republic locations from my office,
and I can make changes to our operations on the fly.
I review our business with my Spa Managers
on a daily and weekly basis. I can measure our
performance and take action every single day. For
example, I can look at tomorrow morning’s bookings
before I go home, and if there are too many open
slots, I might want to offer a promotional price or
give guests who have already booked services an
extra 10 or 15 minutes of treatment as a thank you.
I recommend that every spa manager do this type of
analysis at least on a weekly basis. We can always
improve our operations, but only if we’re actively
looking for opportunities.
With my weekly reviews, I can see what’s selling
and what isn’t, including items like chocolate and
aromatherapy oils in our spa shops. I can discount
products that aren’t moving and order more of the
ones that are. I can look at short-term and longterm
trends in our wellness treatment bookings and
adjust pricing and scheduling to meet demand.
A powerful tool for everything
Spa managers should think of their spas like a
mini hotel, except we book by the hour—not the
day—and every empty slot is a missed opportunity.
Book4Time’s analytics give me the insights I need to
have conversations with our guests, my managers,
and our wellness team on improving services and
bookings. My favorite reports include treatment
booking per type of guest and product sales by
SKU. The executive summary feature is incredibly
useful because it gives me an overview of specific
elements of our operations at a glance.
I can now actively monitor operations at all our
Dominican Republic spas in a single window. But
Book4Time’s primary users are our receptionists,
who use it to book 40 to 100 treatments per spa every
day. Usually, your receptionists are the customers’
first interaction. They can help gauge the type of
experience a customer is expecting and provide a
welcoming environment. Book4Time allows us to
make their job more seamless and stress-free. I
highly recommend that spa managers equip their
receptionists with the right tools and training to help
keep operations running smoothly and efficiently.
Building a better guest experience with book4time
When I said I’m still learning about all of the features
three years later, I meant it. There’s still a great
deal for me to implement to help improve guest
experience and operate more effectively.
I plan to start using Book4Time’s membership
and marketing tools by the end of 2021. Repeat
customers present a golden opportunity in the spa
industry—in any industry, for that matter. For that
reason, I want to add a membership component to
our services. It’s a way to build loyalty and allow our
guests to embark on a long-term wellness journey
by seeking out treatments on an ongoing basis. I
also want to use Book4Time’s marketing tools to
track our social media mentions, author customer
surveys, and run incentive, gift card, and spa package
programs. These are all ways of building a better
guest experience using a single platform.
With Book4Time, I can manage every aspect of our
operations and craft unique experiences tailored to
families, couples, singles, and guests from every
walk of life. I can tweak our products and services
to create a welcoming spa environment. Mielá
Hotels International built the Yhi Spa brand on guest
enjoyment, but incredible guest experiences only
happen with a well-run business behind the scenes.
Now, we have the complete package.