Beyond the Front Desk: Transforming Hospitality at a 177-Room Resort
Mountain Creek Resort, a popular ski destination located 50 miles from New York City, bills itself proudly as “your mountain playground”. Considering what’s on offer at their 150+ acre location, it’s not an overly bold claim.
In addition to skiing, they also have a snow tubing park, zip lines, an alpine coaster, a bike park, and even a seasonal water park. While most of their guests are day visitors, they have a 177-room condo-hotel where owners of the individual units are responsible. The resort manages the rental program, the hotel’s front desk, and its various features.
Table of Contents
1. The Challenges
2. The Operto Solution
3. Implementation Process
4. Benefits & Results
5. What’s next for Mountain Creek Resort?
Even without ownership of the rooms, Mountain Creek Resort sought to enhance guest and owner experiences.
At the helm of this undertaking was Evan Kovach, General Manager at Mountain Creek. With 17 years of experience at the resort, Evan has seen their operations through various lenses. “I started in a frontline position and worked my way up. I came up through finance and accounting, and did revenue management for the entire resort, including lodging. From there, I moved to Director of Sales and Marketing, and eventually Director of Lodging which led to the GM role. I also have the unique role of being the vice president of the homeowners’ association that runs the building. Originally I thought, ‘I’ll work at the ski resort while I go to college, and when I graduate, I’ll go work in the real world’. Turns out, this has become the real world for me, which is amazing. I love it here.”
Evan’s in-depth understanding of Mountain Creek’s operational dynamics, and the intricacies of both guest and owner needs, placed him in a key position to implement a technology solution aimed at elevating operational efficiency and customer satisfaction.
Mountain Creek Resort reduced housekeeping overhead costs by 27%
The Challenges
Technology has been at the forefront of operations at Mountain Creek Resort for quite some time. Recognizing the importance of self-service and streamlined operations, they developed their own software to automate employee scheduling and lift ticketing for the resort.
“The relationship of things is something we’ve always been big on,” Evan told Operto in conversation. “The relationship between a person and their entire journey at the resort — whether they’re staying in lodging or not — is important to us. We’ve eliminated all ticket booths. We’re completely online. We’ve made the relationship between the person who wants to ski and getting on the chairlift way more direct since you don’t have to go to the ticket window first. Efficiency is everything.”
While the resort’s software had streamlined their employee and ski operations, the missing piece was lodging. When it came to property care automation, they recognized purchasing a purpose-built solution was the best way to go.
A few of Mountain Creek Resort’s key priorities were moving towards fully contactless operations, including online booking, self check-ins, and digital access to room amenities.
Moreover, they sought a technology solution that could provide:
- Digital room access for guests, removing the need for a front desk
- A modern check-in process, rivaling Airbnb for simplicity and convenience
- Reduced labor reliance and enhanced quality, particularly in housekeeping
- Technology-forward infrastructure to attract potential new owners
The Operto Solution
While considering various technology options for property management, nothing seemed to meet their specific needs. Every technology consideration was missing one requirement or another. So instead, Kovach and the team turned to their network and one name kept coming up.
“Every time I talked about how we wanted the relationship of our check-in to be more like an Airbnb where somebody just gets a code and they go right to the room,” Kovach related, “[My friends] kept saying Operto, Operto, Operto. And I’m like ‘What is this Operto thing?’”
“We knew we wanted to work with Operto, but it wasn’t a PMS. So we looked at which PMS providers Operto integrated with, that could accomplish what we wanted. That’s how we landed here. We fell in love with Operto, and were very hyper-focused on what we wanted.”
As it turns out, Operto’s suite of solutions was indeed the ideal solution for Mountain Creek Resort. From its ease of use and ability to integrate with various systems and locks, it precisely fit the bill. Mountain Creek was finally able to offer each visitor a seamless, simplified, and contactless check-in.
"[Operto's] technology has streamlined our core operations, freeing up our staff to focus their time and attention on providing exceptional guest experiences."
Implementation Process
Operto worked closely with the Mountain Creek team, ensuring they didn’t just implement technology, but also enabled their team to understand its full capabilities. The resort’s staff appreciated having a say in the decision-making, promoting the seamless adoption of Operto’s solution across the board.
To ensure a smooth transition from the previous system, the resort ran parallel systems for a few months. They also made sure to boost Wi-Fi connectivity across the property to support the new smart locks and technology needs. What really stood out was the level of support from the Operto team.
“We were trying to figure out the whole technology ecosystem, and the Operto team was so patient with us. We invested in Operto Services and had a service team member come on-site to help — that’s some of the most sensible money you’ll ever spend,” Kovach shared. “There was never any concern of ‘how is this going to work’ — the Operto team said, ‘these are the locks that work with what you have’ and figured out the hard questions for us.”
Benefits & Results
In Evan’s words, the implementation of Operto “has been overall, transformational in the way we operate. We no longer have a front desk. We wanted the person who was working the front desk to be more of a concierge and help people with the things they actually needed help with, not check them in — the technology can do that”
“Operto Guest has been a game-changer,” Evan shared. “No one else has as good of a Guest portal [as Operto], and that’s what it came down to for us.”
With unique digital access codes for each reservation, Operto has eliminated the need for keycards, which were costly and caused delays leading to negative guest experiences. The software also digitized their traditional printed informational booklets, reducing paper use and printing costs. As a result, Mountain Creek Resort now saves over $10,000 USD annually on keycards and booklets, improving operational efficiency and sustainability, all while providing an enhanced guest experience.
The resort achieved one of its key objectives — instead of a busy front desk area, guests can enjoy a comfortable lounge area. This restructuring has saved approximately 100 labor hours per week and over $110,000 annually.
The operational efficiencies extend beyond the front desk to property care automation. “[Before using Operto] we did a two-day exercise to determine our ideal lodging process,” shared Evan. “During that exercise, we came up with the idea that a housekeeper could take pictures [after turnovers] that could be approved. We didn’t know whether that technology existed anywhere. Turns out, Operto Teams does exactly that. We went from physically inspecting every single room to implementing a photo approval process.” This improvement has cut labor hours by 27%, improved cleanliness quality, and raised guest review scores.
Through the implementation of Operto, Mountain Creek has successfully:
- Fully automated their tech-first resort
- Reduced overhead costs by over $110,000 per year
- Reduced labor hours by 27% by streamlining housekeeping
- Eliminated the front desk by transitioning to a digital check-in experience
- Increased guest review ratings with enhanced self-serve, digital experience
- Became more attractive to prospective owners in the building with improved processes
- Increased ADR (average daily rates) by 22% year-on-year
What’s next for Mountain Creek Resort?
Now that the biggest goals have been met, Evan and the rest of the Mountain Creek team are happy to focus on providing genuine hospitality. “[Operto’s] technology has streamlined our core operations, freeing up our staff to focus their time and attention on providing exceptional guest experiences.”
When it comes to advice for operators thinking about implementing technology into their business, Evan said, “Just do it! I think that is important. I know the story has been told many times by many people but — change is hard. I’m sure a lot of operators might think, ‘Our lives are complicated enough, why change everything?’ But take the jump. It’ll save you so much time down the road. I feel so much weight off our shoulders from no longer having that old clunky system.”
Mountain Creek Resort’s story supports the ever-growing relevance of technology in reshaping the hospitality industry. The resort’s successful experience showcases the ease with which technology can be adopted, leading to invaluable efficiency gains for property management.
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