We were delighted to sit down this month with Merlin Software CEO and chief architect, Mike Pnematicatos. With such a wealth of experience and knowledge, we asked him about Merlin Software, his thoughts on the timeshare and fractional industry and what he has planned for Merlin Software in 2020.

1 Mike, tell us a little about you and your background in the industry.

It’s personal. Let’s just say I’ve been in this industry for many years and understand how it works.

2 What is Merlin Software?

Merlin provides software for timeshare resorts and hotels. The software is provided over the internet, so no need to have your own servers and your data is accessible from anywhere in the world. All data is securely stored and backed up on our cloud servers.

The software caters for virtually every need of our clients which means that they can literally have one single software application that does everything for them including marketing, sales, front desk, property management and accounting.

3 What sets Merlin Software apart from other providers in the marketplace?

We understand the business of our clients, their products, product rules and business processes. We have done what they do. We are not just software developers.

4 As a resort developer yourself, why should resorts chose Merlin Software in 2020 as their software provider?

Probably because, as said above, we understand their business and can interpret their needs.

5 What advice do you have for today’s developers?

Keep ahead of the curve. That means you need products and services that offer your clients what they want and that are supported by technology.

But more importantly, keep it simple.

Too many developers try to make their product offering unique by making it more complicated to the point that only they understand what the rules are. Consumers don’t have the time to study and then remember all the complicated rules of your product offering.

Keep it flexible and keep it simple. And finally, make it easy for consumers to do business with you.

6 You’ve been in the industry for such a long time, what changes have you seen?

The product offering keeps changing, which is good. From rentals to fixed week timeshare to floating timeshare to fractional to points and now back to rentals. It’s gone full circle.

But what has really changed is the technology that businesses use to manage their products and the technology their clients use to transact with them. If your clients cannot transact with you online or on their mobile, then you are going to very quickly fall behind.

7 We know technology evolves all the time, what do you think we’ll see in 2020 and beyond?

I see many third-party companies coming into the market with custom, niche, mobile apps for hotels and timeshare resorts. While hotels and resorts will have excellent Property Management Systems (PMS), third party companies will come to market with Housekeeping Apps or Guest Apps etc., all of which will need to connect to the PMS via Application Program Interfaces (API).

These Apps will include Artificial Intelligence (AI) and many other features. Our challenge as a software company that includes a PMS in its offering is to ensure we are open to connectivity with these third-party specialists or that we can offer an App ourselves that does what they do.

With our suite of Web Services, we are well positioned to provide API integration with these third-party apps and with our own development team we are also well positioned to provide these Apps ourselves. The benefit of us providing the Apps is that they are tightly integrated with our software and database.

8 How is Merlin Software in 2020 preparing for these developments?

We have expanded our development team to include mobile App developers and have focused specialists within the company to pay attention to the design of Apps that our clients will need.

9 What new enhancements does Merlin Software have planned for the next twelve months?

We are busy designing and building a range of mobile Apps that will include Guest, Maintenance and Housekeeping and Front Desk Apps.

We are particularly excited about or Guest App which will allow self Check-In and Check-Out as well as many other features to allow guests to manage their stay and get the most from their holiday experience.

10 Can you explain for the non-techies among us what webapps are and the benefits for clients and their customers?

Webapps are like Mobile Apps, except they run in a browser. They look like a Mobile App and are extremely responsive because when they load, a lot of data is cached locally meaning fewer calls to the server to get data.

These server calls slow down the user experience. They work as if the data is held locally. They are fast and responsive. They are also known as Single Page Applications.

What pleased me was reading the technology predictions someone was making at the end of 2019 for 2020 and Single Page Applications was up there as one of the top ten technology growth points.

At Merlin we’ve been using Single Page Applications for our Webapps for many years now. I guess that means we are ahead of the curve.

To find out more about Merlin Software and how it can work for your resort business, complete the contact form and a member of the team will be in touch as soon as possible.