How ONDA Built a Custom PMS for Ananti

interviewee/ A-PMS team: Elly, Tessa, Summer

interviewer/ Content team: Rachel

This past June, ONDA launched a custom PMS (property management system) for Ananti — a project years in the making. It's our first PMS targeting premium hotels, and the milestone runs deeper than that.

We sat down with the A-PMS team — the crew that led the Ananti PMS from March 2021 to June 2022 — to hear the full story.

Q. Let's start with quick intros!

🦄 Elly/ Hi, I'm Elly, PM Lead for the A-PMS team. I've been with the Ananti project since day one, handling overall planning and project management.

🐯 Tessa/ Hi, I'm Tessa, on the product team for A-PMS. Like Elly, I've been here from the start — I own the golf vertical.

🌞 Summer/ I'm Summer, quietly becoming an ONDA veteran at this point. 😂 I recently moved to the A-PMS team and handle product planning.

Q. The PMS you've worked on for so long just launched! What's the backstory? How did ONDA end up building a custom system for Ananti?

🦄 Elly/ ONDA started as a GDS (global distribution system) — basically, we helped accommodations sell rooms across channels. But as we listened to our partners, we built PMS products too: ONDA Plus for guesthouses and pensions, ONDA Wave for small-to-midsize hotels. Since our GDS partners were mostly smaller properties, that's where we focused.

Then COVID hit. Larger hotels started rethinking their ops infrastructure. We got inquiries — one of them from Ananti.

Ananti is a top-tier membership resort in Korea, always pushing boundaries to deliver new value to guests. They wanted a custom PMS that could reflect that operating philosophy.

Beyond the symbolism — Ananti is an innovation leader in Korea's resort industry — this was also a methodology play.

To build a great PMS for large hotels, we realized we had to see hotel operations up close. You can't just guess what customers need — you have to know.

Building a custom PMS for Ananti would teach us what it takes to serve enterprise hospitality. We won the competitive pitch, and the project began. We successfully launched the system at Ananti at Gangnam, and it's running smoothly. Gangnam is just the start — we'll roll it out to Ananti Cove (Gapyeong), Namhae, and other properties soon.

Q. So what is the Ananti PMS? Give us the elevator pitch.

🦄 Elly/ Ananti PMS includes all the features hotels expect from legacy systems (think O-company or S-company) — but with a completely redesigned UI/UX that's clean and intuitive.

It covers front desk essentials, group bookings, currency exchange, membership management, housekeeping, inventory, rate code management — everything a large hotel needs.

This launch focused on room operations. Soon we'll add golf course and tee-time management for golf resorts, making it a true all-in-one system.

Q. What's the biggest advantage of Ananti PMS?

🌞 Summer/ ONDA's earlier PMS products were tightly coupled to our GDS — so they were built more for selling rooms than managing guest stays. We didn't realize it at the time, but they only captured basic info.

Ananti PMS is different. A single reservation contains the guest's entire journey. The depth is on another level. I'd say powerful reservation management built for the stay experience is the main advantage.

🐯 Tessa/ When we were designing it, we kept several goals in mind. But from the hotel's perspective, usability is the standout feature.

Legacy hotel PMS (O-company, S-company) are taught in university hospitality programs. You need a semester to learn how to use them.

Our PMS is web-based and intuitive. That's the biggest win.

🦄 Elly/ What they said, combined, is the real advantage.

We pack in the incredibly detailed, complex administrative workflows hotels need — but we designed it with consumer-web ease of use. Deep functionality, simple experience.

Honestly, I want to brag about our developers. We launched a system for a large hotel, and a month in, we've had zero errors. Props to Django and Jay for building something rock-solid. 👍

Q. How did Ananti at Gangnam respond after launch? What surprised or impressed them?

🦄 Elly/ Even the general manager, who'd used legacy PMS systems before, said "It's easy to use" and "It's intuitive." No one struggled with usability. But people familiar with legacy systems would sometimes ask, "In X system, this feature was under Y menu — where do I find it here?"

Interestingly, staff who hadn't used legacy PMS could navigate ours intuitively, like any web app. "If I click this menu, this should happen" — and it did.

Existing hotel PMS have a certain cliché menu structure. We wanted to organize menus by job-to-be-done. Maybe there was a reason for the old structure once — but that doesn't mean it's still optimal.

We merged or restructured menus based on purpose. That led to some unexpected questions. But those questions gave us great ideas for our training materials.

Q. Internally, what feedback came up after seeing the system in action?

🦄 Elly/ We stayed on-site at Ananti at Gangnam for four nights, five days — 24-hour standby during launch. Watching staff check in guests and run end-of-day close was invaluable. We understood the workflows faster than we ever could remotely. We're already planning updates based on what we learned there.

Here's an example: the reservation list view. Early in the project, Ananti asked us to shrink row spacing so they could see more info at once. Our designers pushed back — they had strong opinions about visual balance. 😉

We kept insisting on the most aesthetically pleasing ratio. But after watching front desk staff in action, our designer Hanna immediately understood the pain point. She figured out how to increase information density without sacrificing visual stability.

That on-the-ground experience has been crucial for refining the PMS.

Q. Big project, probably big challenges. What was the hardest part? And what helped you push through?

🐯 Tessa/ Low domain knowledge was probably the biggest challenge. It came up a lot in our retrospectives.

I owned the golf module — but I'd never been to a golf course before. 🤣

We visited Ananti Cove (Gapyeong) and Namhae to do on-site interviews and build context. We also studied other golf management systems. Interviews helped the most, but every industry has its jargon. Sometimes we'd ask an operator what an acronym meant, and they didn't actually know — they just used it.

Or we'd design something based on one property's workflow, only to find out other properties don't do it that way.

At first, I didn't even understand the terms being explained to me. The only way forward was relentless self-study — absorbing interview notes, researching constantly.

🦄 Elly/ There are different ways to overcome low domain knowledge.

Personally, I think business and IT platforms have fundamental structural patterns. So instead of going detail-first, I try to grasp the big picture — the core architecture — then fill in the details.

Tessa learned fast by diving deep. Another PM on our team, Sally, connected with operators on the ground and filled in the granular gaps. We complemented each other.

It also helped a lot when people with hotel or PMS experience joined the team.

Q. We hear other hotels are asking about your PMS! What's the long-term vision for ONDA's hotel PMS?

🦄 Elly/ To serve other hotels, we'll need to bundle the PMS with ONDA's core business — our GDS.

Right now we integrate with the door lock Ananti uses. But to enable full smart hotel workflows, we'll integrate with more hardware vendors and IoT devices.

Also, the current system is on-premise — custom-deployed for Ananti. Long-term, we're planning a SaaS architecture. SaaS is more cost-effective and easier to maintain and update.

That said, large luxury hotels often prefer on-premise for security and control. So we'll keep the on-premise option for five-star properties. But for mid-tier 3- or 4-star hotels, a SaaS model will unlock scale.

Q. What does this Ananti PMS launch mean for the hospitality industry?

🦄 Elly/ It feels a bit presumptuous to say one PMS can change an industry 😅, but we did have a north star when building it.

A PMS reflects how hotel staff work. So ultimately, it should serve as a foundation for hotels to deliver the best possible guest experience.

Legacy hotel PMS were built 20, 50, even 100+ years ago. They embody the service philosophy of that era. Some of that is outdated.

Guest expectations have evolved. Hotel operating systems should evolve too.

IT can meaningfully improve the guest experience. Through this PMS, we want to enable a holistic smart hotel experience. I hope this Ananti launch signals that shift to the industry.

Ananti is a trendsetter. When they change how they operate, other hotels notice.

Q. Last question: what's the A-PMS team's long-term direction?

🦄 Elly/ First, the product goal: integrate the PMS with ONDA's GDS. When operations management and sales distribution live in one system, hotels can work more efficiently and manage revenue more effectively.

Internally, yes, our GDS (commission-based) has better unit economics than PMS. But having both makes ONDA far more attractive to hotels. We'll contribute to ONDA's goal of expanding distribution — while continuously winning hotel trust.

On a bigger level, we want to be the starting point for smart hospitality. Through this PMS, we'll help hotels operate more efficiently and improve the guest experience. Our ambition is to set a new global standard.

Want to learn more about how ONDA works?

👉 How ONDA's hotel-tailored PMS found its 'WoW' moment

👉 How ONDA ran live commerce for hospitality

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