What comes to mind when considering luxury resorts (other than The White Lotus)? Unparalleled service, amazing food, beautiful scenery, and really, really comfortable beds. 

Palace Company already has an extremely high bar for creating luxury experiences for its guests. Growing from a traditional family-run hospitality company in Mexico to a global brand with destinations in Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, Europe, and the Maldives, their commitment to elevated hospitality is clear. 

With two top-rated hotels on TripAdvisor, the company is at a key point in its evolution.

From project-based to product-led

“About a year and a half ago, Palace went through a major transformation, led by our VP of Technology, Anwar Chapur,” said Alberto Corral, head of product for Palace Company hotel operations. “We shifted from a project-based model to a product-based model.” 

Corral came from startups and was eager to apply his product learnings to the hospitality world. “We wanted to change how hospitality software is made,” explained Corral. “Not just building it, but deciding what we build and why. One of our first realizations is that we needed a tool like Pendo to support and amplify the level of digital excellence we expect from our brand.”

Using data to inform better customer experiences across 200+ digital products

To support guest experiences, Palace Resort’s digital ecosystem includes over 200 products or mini-products—everything from front-desk systems to restaurant bookings and vehicle access control. 

“We needed clarity on what was working, what wasn’t, and how each product was used,” Corral explained.

With Pendo Analytics, Guides, and NPS, that clarity arrived.

There were multiple use cases where the team used Pendo to gain visibility into product usage, validate hypotheses, and uncover data that led to better product decisions. Quantitative and qualitative data from Pendo painted a clear picture of how users navigated their products, where unknown bottlenecks existed, and where to make improvements. 

• Improving the restaurant booking process: Initially, the team assumed that guests only used the Palace Company app to make reservations, not explore the details of restaurants or menus. Using Pendo Analytics, they saw that only 1% of guests looked at menus. After redesigning the experience, that jumped to 30%, resulting in more informed reservations and higher customer satisfaction.
• Understanding room service needs: Corral wanted to understand possible issues with room service. Even though satisfaction was high—rated at 4.8—Corral assumed the long wait times would be mentioned as a negative. Using Pendo’s NPS surveys, he discovered that wait times were not the issue, but certain food items were. Uncovering this unknown problem helped the team address that issue and make menu adjustments.
• Adding waitlist functionality for services: Guests who wanted a specific service became frustrated when it was full and they had no recourse. “We found the issue wasn’t booking flow—it was availability,” said Corral. “We added a waitlist feature that alerts guests when a spot opens, drastically improving the perceived service.” Now, 90% of wait list requests are assigned, and Corral has data to understand why the remaining 10% were not. 
• Emergency communication with guides: Hand-delivering or printing safety notices was impossible during a hurricane. Corral’s team used Pendo Guides on the mobile app to send safety instructions that ensured all guests received the proper information. “It was a use case we hadn’t anticipated, but it proved how valuable this capability is,” said Corral. 

Data paves the way for targeted improvements and happier customers

Using Pendo has drastically changed how the team receives and understands customer feedback and behavior. “Before, it was all based on guesswork or isolated complaints. Now we have solid data,” Corral said. That data, both qualitative and quantitative, is crucial to scale the business while increasing customer satisfaction. 

Pendo is helping Corral’s team increase customer responsiveness and turn that feedback into product decisions. Before Pendo, they only had 27 room service reviews per month. With Pendo NPS surveys, that number has jumped to over 400 reviews a month—a 1640% increase. 

They’re also seeing an increase in post-stay surveys—57% of guests now complete surveys which is a huge increase from before using Pendo.