September 9, 2002 - If you are up early you can just make out the whoosh and hum of an Orvis fly rod parting the lakeside mist, or the crisp ping of a driver against a soaring golf ball. It all depends on where you are at the Muskoka Sands Resort, ninety minutes from downtown Toronto, amid 1,200 acres of wooded shoreline on Lake Muskoka.
 

When owners of the privately held, 76 year old, Four-Diamond Muskoka Sands Golf Resort and Conference Centre decided to expand several years ago with a five-to-seven year, $400 million planned golf community that will feature nearly 200 condominiums, a new hotel, and a spa, they bought enterprise PMS technology with an eye on the larger picture and their own company hallmark:  service.  The prominent luxury resort is a place of

“We started with service, but we also understood we were beginning a development cycle that required an application that could grow with us,” explained Muskoka Sands’ director of operations, Richard Szilagyi.  Muskoka Sands completed Phase l of development in July with the opening of “Taboo,” a new championship golf course designed by Ron Garl and now the home course of Canada’s top-ranked PGA player, Mike Weir.  “Since Phases ll and lll will include up to a 150-unit condominium complex plus a 20, 000 square foot spa with 20 rooms above it, and another 120 room resort with 10,000 feet of meeting space, we needed to start with a flexible, scalable enterprise system.

“Just as important,” Szilagyi continued, “we wanted a vendor that provided good service and was willing to partner with us in our development project as we grew.”  In January 2001, the property installed the Maestro product suite including PMS, Yield Management, and ResEze Internet reservations from NORTHWIND.  Muskoka Sands will go live with their sales and catering system in November, and will utilize the NORTHWIND spa system during Phase ll.

Szilagyi explained that his company’s technology choice was based on scalability and service, plus three critical features: 

• The ability of Muskoka Sands’ 200 core employees to mine guest history data with user friendly, actionable reports to provide more personalized service to its discriminating clientele; 

• Real-time, Web based reservations to ensure guests receive accurate up to the minute availability information and will not be inconvenienced because of availability errors.  Ease of use and well done, logical booking flow and scripting are also essential.

• Robust yield management that allows the resort to maximize revenue through automation. 

Szilagyi noted, “For our Leisure market, we manage rates about three months out.  With Maestro’s Yield Management when occupancy reaches pre-set levels, our rates change automatically.  The system allows us to manage rates by day of week, by occupancy level, by date or all of the above.  It takes the day-to-day pressure off the reservation manager and provides excellent rate control.   When we install the sales and catering system in November, it will take over creating our banquet event orders, group resumes, meeting room lay outs and contract management.  As Phase II and III of our real estate development project are completed, it will be a simple matter to add our second hotel to the PMS software and bring the Spa system on line.”

Muskoka Sands Resort is also a prestigious high-volume conference center earning $7 to $8 million in annual group sales, and anticipates attracting new guests from markets as far away as Asia and Europe.  The resort’s year round recreation includes dog sledding, cross country skiing, canoeing, all-season tennis, squash, kayaking, and many other activities.  When Phase III of its real estate development is unveiled, Muskoka Sands Golf Resort and Conference Centre expects to be the premiere destination resort in Ontario. 

“In that regard, the resort is benefiting from a strengthening real estate development trend,”  says Carter Wilson, senior vice president of HVS International, a hospitality financial consulting firm. "Mixed-use, destination ventures that are near large metropolitan areas and offer a unique lodging experience with tournament golf courses and ownership could be funded in the current real estate market because of their diversified asset mix.  They are attractive to investors.” 

Szilagyi’s vision includes the possibility of Muskoka Sands becoming the site for an international political Summit.  “We can secure the area completely; we have a depth of experience with sensitive high-profile conference groups, and we already have planes and helicopters flying in.  Muskoka Sands is an ideal venue,” he concluded.  And that is exactly the type of discriminating international guest who might want to own part of one of the most pristine natural areas in the Northern Hemisphere.