405 rooms, zero doubts: How Vegas Resort is building the future of hospitality with Cloudbeds’ Open API

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 a portfolio of six properties and nearly 580 units across Malta, with his team set to grow to over 100 employees.

The biggest of them is Vegas Resort. Opened in August 2025, the resort is being developed in phases toward a total of 405 rooms. During its first twelve months, the property added approximately 300 rooms, bringing new sections online every three to four months.

And despite the challenges of welcoming guests while construction continues, guest satisfaction has steadily improved, with the resort achieving an 8.6 rating on Booking.com.

Behind the scenes, Alessio and his team are building something equally ambitious: a custom operational ecosystem powered by the Cloudbeds API, connecting virtually every department across the resort.

For Alessio, choosing the right system has always been about what he could build on top of it.

Finding a foundation for rapid growth

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 major distribution channels was an immediate benefit, but the real opportunity lay in Cloudbeds’ open API.

“I chose Cloudbeds because it was already available with so many API connections,” Alessio explains.

The platform’s cloud-native architecture also stood out. “I think being born as cloud software makes a difference, instead of moving an old PMS online that has a totally different mentality behind it.”

For Alessio, Cloudbeds offered the freedom to develop technology around the way his properties actually operate. And as his portfolio grew, that freedom would become increasingly valuable.

From two custom apps to 41 modules: Building beyond the PMS

What began with two custom applications has evolved into an entirely connected hospitality ecosystem.

Working alongside its US-based sister company, Smart Auto Solution, Vegas Resort has developed Mr. Hotel, a proprietary operational platform built around the Cloudbeds API.

The software started as an automated rate management tool before expanding into housekeeping, maintenance, reservations, finance, security, F&B, HR, and guest experience.

Today, it comprises 41 custom modules, supporting virtually every department across the resort.

“We’ve basically based all our workflows on the software that we developed using the Cloudbeds API,” Alessio explains. “Every department of the hotel, not only reception, but also housekeeping, maintenance, and finance, is using this tool.”

Rather than introducing another standalone application whenever a department identifies a new requirement, the team can build that functionality directly into its existing ecosystem.

The result is a connected operational platform designed around the resort’s specific needs, with Cloudbeds providing the core reservation and property data.

“This is thanks to the Cloudbeds API that enables us to exchange data and have everything connected under one platform,” Alessio says.

The approach also simplifies onboarding. Instead of learning six or seven applications, new hires work in two, with access tailored to their role.

“We have Cloudbeds, and then we have Mr. Hotel,” Alessio tells staff. “You have two accounts, and you can manage everything there.”

Because the software is built alongside the people who use it, it also changes quickly. Departments take feedback straight to the developers, and smaller fixes often ship within days.

“The workflow to modify and update the software is so fast here,” he says. For a growing resort with hundreds of rooms, the ability to keep adapting its own technology has become a competitive advantage.

Three hours down to 15 minutes: Housekeeping on autopilot

One of the clearest examples of the Cloudbeds API’s impact is housekeeping. Assigning cleaning schedules across hundreds of rooms means balancing room types, floors, arrivals, maintenance issues, and inspection priorities. Managers used to arrive up to three hours before their shift to build those assignments by hand. Now it takes about 15 minutes.

Vegas Resort’s Cloudbeds-connected housekeeping module allocates rooms by floor, estimated cleaning time, and each worker’s daily minutes. A smaller room might be set at 20 minutes and a larger one at 45, and the system distributes the work accordingly.

“They literally just click a button,” Alessio explains. “Then they do some small adjustments, knowing that one room is dirtier than another.”

The same module connects guest preferences, room configurations, inspection history, and maintenance requests. When a guest sets “make up my room” or “do not disturb” on the in-room controls, that status feeds straight into the day’s assignments, with no re-entry in a separate app. When a maintenance task is complete, the system can notify the guest that it’s been resolved.

From five minutes to 90 seconds: A faster welcome, built in-house

The Cloudbeds API also let Vegas Resort rethink check-in. On a busy Sunday, the resort can welcome 200 arrivals, and at five minutes a guest, the queue builds fast.

So the team built its own self-check-in kiosks, connected directly to Cloudbeds. Each kiosk pulls up the reservation, shows the registration card, offers optional extras, and takes payment for any balance, all in one flow. Check-in now takes about 90 seconds.

“Imagine how long the queue can be if you take five minutes instead of one,” Alessio says.

The lobby has room for only three kiosks, so receptionists use one too, guiding guests through the automated steps before handing over keys and scanning IDs. The result is a front desk that handles peak arrivals without doubling its staff.

The journey continues after check-in. Cloudbeds Guest Experience sends guests a link to the resort’s custom-built app, where they can book amenities and see targeted offers.

Smarter rates, stronger revenue: Letting the data do the work

Vegas Resort’s custom rate system adjusts prices daily based on the team’s settings, sales pace, local events, and competitor rates. Rather than tracking a fixed list of rivals, it builds a dynamic comp set each day from location, star rating, review score, amenities, and who actually has availability. In Malta, where new properties open constantly, that keeps the picture current.

Publishing rates is automated too. Managers set a base rate, and the software applies the adjustments for every room type and rate plan.

The clearest proof came from sister property Miami Apartments, which has seven apartment types. With the team focused on opening Vegas Resort, the property was largely left to the software, and summer sales still rose about 25%.

“The software did all the rate adjustments itself,” Alessio says. “This 24-25% increase, I think, was done only by our rate management.”

The same logic extends beyond rooms. Guests can book restaurant tables, pool access, and spa treatments through the resort’s guest app, which connects to both internal systems and outside partners. And when tomorrow’s restaurant looks quiet, the app can offer the €15 breakfast buffet for €9.50.

One source of truth. A whole resort connected.

As Vegas Resort’s custom ecosystem has grown, keeping information consistent has become critical, and for Alessio the answer is simple. Cloudbeds is the source of truth.

“You need to have one source of truth, or else the system cannot work well.”

Reservations and every change to them live in Cloudbeds, and Mr. Hotel reads what each module needs through the API. Because the team can’t hit the API constantly, it caches data and sets the refresh rate to match the job. Sales reports update every 24 hours, while food and beverage data refreshes about every ten minutes.

That matters in a full restaurant. When a guest buys dinner in the app and walks straight to the restaurant, staff see the updated meal plan on their tablets rather than a printed list that went stale at check-in.

“Having everything connected live is really useful, and it improves the guest experience,” Alessio says. The same approach keeps maintenance, housekeeping, room allocation, and guest messaging in step, without anyone re-entering details or reconciling separate systems.

An API that grows with the ambition

Building custom software around a PMS requires reliable documentation, the right functionality, and a technology partner willing to evolve. For Alessio, Cloudbeds delivers on those foundations.

“The Cloudbeds API platform, when it comes to documentation, is super detailed,” he says.

When a department requests new functionality, Alessio’s first step is often to consult the Cloudbeds API documentation to determine whether the required information or capability is available.

And when something is missing, the team works directly with Cloudbeds to explore a solution.

One example involved room assignment locks. Vegas Resort’s custom allocation tool automatically optimizes room assignments to accommodate back-to-back bookings, preserving longer periods of availability elsewhere in the property.

However, the reservation system also needed to recognize when reception staff had locked a specific room for a guest.

Initially, that information wasn’t available through the API, meaning the custom allocation software could inadvertently move reservations that staff had intentionally locked.

After Alessio raised the issue, Cloudbeds added the relevant information to the reservation data, enabling Mr. Hotel to respect those room assignments.

“The team is pretty responsive,” Alessio says.

The next big bet: An AI-powered resort

With 41 custom modules already supporting daily operations, Vegas Resort has no intention of slowing down.

The team is developing an AI-powered reception agent designed to access information from both Cloudbeds and Mr. Hotel.

The vision is to give guests a 24-hour digital assistant capable of answering questions about room rates, availability, restaurant reservations, and resort amenities.

A guest with flexible travel dates, for example, could ask for the lowest available room rate over the next 30 days.

Another could ask about restaurant availability or the price of reserving a sunbed.

The team is also exploring AI-assisted telephone support, with the possibility of transferring more complex calls to reception staff when human assistance is needed.

Meanwhile, plans are underway to expand the functionality of the resort’s custom in-room TV application, allowing guests to order food, request services, and add purchases to their rooms directly through their televisions.

And the ambition doesn’t stop at Vegas Resort.

Together with Smart Auto Solution, Alessio is exploring the possibility of offering Mr. Hotel to other hospitality businesses, initially focusing on properties already using Cloudbeds.

What began as an internal solution to one resort’s operational challenges could eventually become a product for other large-scale hospitality operators.

For Alessio, this reinforces why choosing the right technology partner matters.

“Nowadays, all the software handles check-in, handles this, handles that. But it’s how they do it and how fast they can adapt that really makes a difference.”

Ready for tomorrow’s possibilities.

From eight apartments to nearly 580 units across six properties, Alessio’s journey with Cloudbeds has been one of continuous growth.

What began as a search for a stable, user-friendly PMS has evolved into a technology partnership that enables his team to build, automate, and innovate on its own terms.

At Vegas Resort, that means an ecosystem of 41 custom modules, housekeeping assignments completed in minutes rather than hours, check-ins measured in seconds, and new revenue opportunities powered by connected data.

Cloudbeds’ intuitive interface has also supported rapid staff onboarding, with new receptionists becoming comfortable and independent on the system in as little as two weeks.

Meanwhile, the team’s use of Cloudbeds Whistle for post-stay surveys has helped it proactively manage guest feedback, with Vegas Resort’s Booking.com rating improving to 8.6 as the property continues to expand.

For Alessio, the most important consideration when choosing hospitality technology is no longer simply what a platform can do today.

It’s what it will enable tomorrow.

“You need to look ahead,” he explains. “The companies that are your partners need to be smart enough and fast enough to adapt.”

And that’s what Cloudbeds has given Vegas Resort: the confidence to grow, the flexibility to build, and the freedom to keep pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in hospitality.