The Don CeSar came for a mobile app and found a full operations platform

Thank you to Esther Hertzfeld at Hotel Management for covering The Don CeSar's 2022 Innspire deployment. The article captures a dynamic that comes up often with properties that come to us with a specific brief and then discover a broader scope.

The brief was a mobile app

The Don CeSar, the iconic pink resort on Florida's Gulf Coast, approached Innspire to build a branded mobile app. The initial scope covered mobile check-in and check-out, digital key access to guestrooms, and F&B Everywhere, a feature that lets guests order food and drinks from the pool deck and have the order delivered to their exact location, using a pin drop on a map inside the app. Beach service was planned as a next phase.

What the process surfaced

Thomas Fraher, General Manager of The Don CeSar, described how the scope evolved: "Although we were originally focused on developing a mobile app and approached InnSpire primarily for that purpose, we quickly realized the impact that their integrated solutions suite could have on our ability to provide the same unprecedented service our discerning guests expect while at The Don CeSar but in a new way. They sat down with our team for an entire day to fully understand the challenges experienced by our operations, housekeeping and F&B teams, and worked to solve them."

That day spent with the operations team is not unusual for how Innspire works. The brief rarely captures the full picture until you look at how the actual departments interact with each other and with guests. Once you see that, a mobile app becomes a surface for a much more connected system.

F&B Everywhere

The F&B Everywhere feature is worth noting on its own terms. A resort with a pool deck and beach access has a specific problem: guests want food and drinks delivered to wherever they are, but "wherever they are" is imprecise. The pin-drop delivery model solves it directly. Staff know the exact location. Guests do not need to describe where they are sitting. The operational logic is simple; the guest experience is noticeably better.

The Don CeSar has continued to build on the Innspire platform since 2022, adding Innspire ONE AI capabilities and, in 2024, the Optii integration for back-of-house service delivery. The mobile app was where it started.