Aruba Marriott Resort, Palm Beach - IRIS mobile dining
Hotel Overview
The Aruba Marriott Resort is a premier resort offering spacious accommodations and exceptional resort amenities on the beautiful Palm Beach sands. The world-class hospitality extends across a vast complex that includes a luxury resort, the Surf Club, and the Ocean Club.
With high occupancy across its 1625 bedrooms and a large beach area (with over 400 beach palapas), the resort sought innovative ways to enhance its food and beverage (F&B) operations, ensuring seamless service across its multiple dining venues, including in-room dining, a bustling Starbucks coffee shop, and beachside service at Waves Bar and Grill.
Challenges
As a busy resort, the team needed to streamline its order management processes to provide a more efficient service and improve guest satisfaction. Prior to implementing IRIS Mobile Ordering, they faced challenges including:
Manual processes: The call centre had to manually take and process orders, leading to potential delays, errors, and missed upselling opportunities.
Guest inconvenience: Guests had to call or flag down servers, leading to longer wait times and potential service gaps, especially on the beach.
High demand across multiple locations: Managing orders across the resort, including 120 sun loungers on the beach, required a system that could accurately track delivery locations and guest preferences.
Missed revenue opportunities: Without an automated system, upselling and customisation options were not consistently offered to guests.
Solutions
Mobile Dining - for in-room dining (for room service), Starbucks (for pick up and delivery) and Waves bar and Grill (for beachside service). The resort is now set to roll out mobile ordering at its Mexican restaurant and lobby bar, offering both pickup and delivery options.
“IRIS Mobile Ordering has transformed F&B operations at the Aruba Marriott Resort, enabling efficient service, boosting revenue, and significantly enhancing the guest experience. By embracing digital innovation, the resort has set a new standard for convenience and guest-friendly hospitality that works seamlessly across our resort.
Mobile dining is a fantastic solution - the future of F&B -and we are excited to continue expanding our digital offerings.”
Benefits
Enhanced guest convenience & experience
Guests can now order food and beverages with ease through their smartphones, mirroring the seamless experience they’re accustomed to from digital services like Uber Eats.
Orders are placed through the Marriott Bonvoy app or via QR codes positioned in guest rooms, on TVs, at Starbucks, and on sun loungers. There are no printed materials in the room - everything is digitised - enhancing sustainability and reducing printing costs.
Digital ordering eliminates the need for guests to speak over the phone or liaise direct with a server, ensuring a more convenient and hassle-free experience as well as fewer misunderstandings.
Higher guest spend & increased revenue
Upselling and modifiers allow guests to personalise their orders effortlessly. For example, at Starbucks, guests can add extra shots to their coffee or customise their drinks with different milk options and syrups.
Guests ordering through the app tend to add more items to their cart, increasing overall spend per transaction.
Operational efficiency & labour optimisation
Orders go directly to the kitchen, cutting out manual processing, reducing wait times and minimising errors.
Servers on the beach now spend less time walking back and forth between guests and ordering stations, improving efficiency and reducing their physical strain and time spent in the heat.
The call centre staff no longer need to manually input orders into the POS system, freeing them up for other guest service tasks.
Scalability across the resort
Mobile ordering is available at several outlets across the resort, providing a consistent digital experience irrespective of the guest’s location.
Plans to enable digital staff ordering via mobile phones using a 5G connection will further enhance service efficiency (and less reliance on Wi-Fi connections with their POS hardware).
Future expansion & innovation
The resort has ambitious plans to further maximise revenue by expanding mobile dining to additional venues like their Mexican restaurant and their lobby area (for pick up and delivery) to provide more mobile ordering options to guests.
They team are keen on doubling their revenue through the app by optimising promotions, menu availability and guest engagement.
Learn how to boost your F&B revenue with our free guide.
Book a customised Demo to see what's possible for your hotel.
For more information on the hotel, click here.
