As a premier mountain resort company, Colorado’s Vail Resorts (www.vailresorts.com) promises its guests “An Experience of a Lifetime” – no easy task considering the company’s vast operations and growing portfolio. According to an interview with Toshiba, technology is helping Vail manage its diversity and growth, in particular through the use of a single, integrated point-of-sale (POS) system that allows the company to easily bring new properties online while still offering uninterrupted service to guests. The POS network at Vail Resorts is accessed by a variety of users across diverse locations, often in challenging weather conditions with a high degree of wear and tear. Vail has successfully used Toshiba SurePOS terminals for the past seven years. Some of the terminals are located outdoors and are used in snowy and cold conditions.
Extreme weather conditions also require a flexible plan in the event of a power outage. Vail runs off a central server in Denver, and if connectivity to one of their mountain properties is interrupted, the POS system offers a standalone mode to keep transactions running smoothly. When the server connection is restored, Vail simply batch processes the transactions that occurred while the connection was lost.
The POS system allows Vail to incorporate data with its enterprise resource planning and financial reporting systems to create any type of report the business needs, such as restaurant performance and customer activity.
Vail and Agilysys further partners to create a “Resort Charge” capability for season pass holders. The integration securely links a guest’s ski pass, complete with payment credentials, across the POS network. “If a guest visits a dining location at one of our properties, the point-of-sale system will recognize that person’s ski pass as a form of payment,” says Ian Buxton, Vail’s director of IT. “It’s been a huge win for us from a guest service perspective.”
Buxton believes the capabilities of its POS solution are vital to the company’s growth. “The InfoGenesis POS system has allowed us to scale, even with our many inherent integration points. It continues to be a solid system for us, streamlining efficiency across our entire operation.”
Vail Resorts is pleased with the service and support it receives from the two companies.