405 rooms, zero doubts: Launching Malta's Vegas Resort on a platform built for big bets

For Vegas Resort’s Alessio Ripanti, hospitality wasn’t the original plan. With a background in software engineering, he moved to Malta to develop mobile applications. After successfully building and selling a marketing technology company, he identified a new opportunity: investing in and developing properties.

Today, Alessio manages an impressive portfolio of six properties and nearly 580 units across Malta, with his team set to grow to over 100 employees. His journey from a handful of apartments to the impending launch of the 405-room Vegas Resort is a testament to a tech-first approach to hospitality management.

As Alessio expanded from his first two apartment blocks to a 24-unit property, the limitations of his early software became a critical bottleneck. He needed a system that was not only reliable and easy for his staff to learn but also powerful enough to connect seamlessly with the essential OTAs he relied on, like Booking.com, Airbnb, and Expedia.

“The first software we used was very basic,” Alessio recalls. “It didn’t have the options we needed for payment processing, guest profiles, or even adding multiple users easily. When we started to grow, we knew we needed a professional, stable platform to build our business on.”

After researching the market in 2017, Alessio chose Cloudbeds. His engineering background gave him a unique perspective on the selection process. “I looked at it as both a hotel manager and a software engineer,” he explains. “Cloudbeds was incredibly user-friendly; we didn’t need any special training to get started. But I was also impressed by its stability and reliability as a software.”

The seamless integration with top distribution channels was an immediate benefit, but the true potential was unlocked through Cloudbeds’ open API. “As a software-oriented company, we use Cloudbeds’ APIs a lot,” says Alessio. “We found the API documentation very easy for our developers to use.”

This flexibility enabled his team to develop two bespoke applications on the Cloudbeds platform. One, a housekeeping app, leverages occupancy and check-in/out data to optimize housekeeping staff schedules. The other, a custom rate management tool, features a simplified interface that draws on competitor and internal occupancy data, allowing for swift, single-click rate adjustments across all rooms.

Even as other PMS providers approached him for the massive Vegas Resort project, Alessio remained with Cloudbeds. “At the end of the day, our staff is trained, our custom APIs are connected, and we are happy with the software. The user-friendly interface makes us and our staff happy.”

By centering his hotel tech stack on Cloudbeds, Alessio has driven remarkable growth and operational efficiency. He scaled his portfolio from eight apartments to nearly 580 rooms across six properties, while streamlining operations through daily rate management and custom-built apps.

Cloudbeds’ ease of use allows for rapid staff onboarding with new receptionists fully comfortable and independent on the system in as little as two weeks.

Furthermore, by using the Whistle for Cloudbeds integration for post-stay surveys, Alessio’s team has proactively managed guest feedback and improved their Booking.com review score to 8.5.

When asked what he would tell another hotelier considering Cloudbeds, Alessio’s advice is clear:

“Be smart and open enough to try it. Don’t get stuck on old-style software. Give Cloudbeds a chance to be your main software, because it will be worth it. We are really connected to it and really happy with the platform in general.”