I was a founder of LeoFresh Resorts, a virtual company that seeked to provide the best attractions and facilities on “Habbo Retros” for players to roleplay in and pick up life skills.
Background
Habbo is a freemium online virtual world that enables a community of teens and young adults to come together to build rooms, chat and roleplay with each other. Alongside with the former gameplay environment, some players have gone beyond to distribute Habbo on private servers that mimic the style of an official Habbo site which is not operated by or affiliated with Sulake. These are known as “Habbo Retros”, and two popular ones were Fresh Hotel and Habboon Hotel.
Founding of LeoFresh Resorts
In 2011, I founded LeoFresh Resorts in Fresh Hotel, where I designed and built several tourist destinations including hotels, restaurants, airports, hospitals, etc. Of which, was the famous Royal Grand Hotel which often seen long queues of pixel visitors forming up at the concierge to rent a room using their in-game credits. My team and I used lamps beside each room door to indicate whether a room was vacant or occupied.
From 2012 to 2013, I introduced new facilities to refresh the visitors’ experiences in LeoFresh Resorts. Many players in Fresh Hotel resonated with our company acronym “LFR” and sparked positive comments about the creativity and fun at our facilities. In a short span of two years, LeoFresh Resorts attracted close to 1200 visitors and 70 permanent staff members.
To commemorate the rise in population at LeoFresh Resorts and appreciate the efforts of our key staff members, we held our first-ever awards ceremony in December 2013. Several official Fresh hotel staff joined the ceremony as our guests-of-honor too.
Rebranding and Relocation
However, this was not long before I decided to relocate LeoFresh Resorts to another Habbo Retro, i.e. Habboon Hotel. Habboon Hotel is the top rated Habbo Retro to-date because it boasts frequent server updates and latest furniture range that is aligned with the actual Habbo server. With the relocation, I onboarded a new co-founder, Brittany to facilitate in strategic planning and rolling out of additional destinations for our staff and visitors.
In 2014, we decided that LeoFresh Resorts should pivot to solely managing hotel and airline businesses so that we can channel all our resources to earning in-game credits and introducing new technologies. We started with building up a Golden Phynix Hotel which featured Wired and Habbo Group gates that allow our visitors to re-enter their rooms. The lamps that used to be beside each door have also been converted to ceiling lightings. These were innovative ideas which saw many potential opportunities for the expansion of LeoFresh Resorts.
Integration with G Suite and Habbo Wired
With re-entry to rooms as a new possibility, Brittany and I developed a simple Google Spreadsheet that allowed our staff to track in-game transactions at Golden Phynix Hotel and retain room records of each player for up to a week. Furthermore, the pay system allowed myself and Brittany to absorb 25% of each staff’s earnings to fund the building of new facilities.
To train our staff how to use the spreadsheet and the steps to operate Golden Phynix Hotel, we published a series of training videos, lesson guides and quizzes onto our website. New staff were able to assimilate themselves quickly to our workplace with training directives planned by one of our founders, RoyalArmy.
Crazy enough, our success did not end here. While our staff were busy handling the daily crowds at Golden Phynix Hotel, Brittany and I were working behind the scenes to launch a Venetian-themed experience in Habboon Hotel. This involved an additional six months of hardwork to build new features such as self check-in kiosks, a boat ride in Venice as well as an improved transaction spreadsheet.
The first edition of Venetian Hotel was the first time that we implemented semi-self check-in kiosks using improved Wired sets on a Habbo Retro. Visitors will step on the booths to choose their preferred room type and thereafter they will be teleported to the staff concierge to make payment. Once payment is made, the system will automatically teleport them to an available room with reference to the vacancy lights. On top of that, we grouped staff into different departments to manage our improved transaction spreadsheet which allowed us not only to track the payment records in Venetian Hotel and Vatentio Airport, but also the training records for each staff.
For continual training and easy reference, I created infographics in PowerPoint and published them onto the website. These infographics were visually powerful for our visitors and staff, gradually replacing the need for training videos.
Streamlining of Operations
Later, to streamline operations and narrate a kingdom story at Venetian Hotel, Brittany and I revamped the hotel into its second edition. Apart from a brand new look at the Venetian Hotel, staff were retrained and upskilled to serve our visitors with care and patience. There was no technical impact on the boat ride and semi-self check-in kiosks which were based on existing Wired.
To elevate the luxurious title and experience for our guests, suites were renamed to Bella, Rialto, Verona and Cielo. The rental rate of the Verona and Cielo suites were raised to limit the crowd.
Moreover, I introduced a premium loyalty programme for our frequent guests to enjoy free suites and express queue at all our facilities.
That was not all. Again, I upgraded the transaction spreadsheet and renamed it as an Identity Management System (IDMS). IDMS comprised the admissions and finance spreadsheets with enhanced filter formulas, allowing transaction entries to be retrieved faster than before. A new feature to retrieve forgotten pin in Google Form was introduced in the admissions spreadsheet for staff who forget it.
On the latter, the updated finance spreadsheet enabled seamless tracking of the funding allocation receipts for the founders of LeoFresh Resorts.
Forming of LeoFresh Group
With the new slate of improved technologies and facilities, Brittany and I were immensely grateful for the continued support from our visitors and staff. Thereafter, with constant efforts to bring in new things into LeoFresh Resorts, Brittany and I ventured into the building of modern-day tourist destinations in 2015.
Firstly, was the new Elounda Peninsula Hotel that was built with elegance and comfort combined with versatility. Nearly double the size of any other suites that can be found in hotels in Habboon, one can stretch out in an oversized, pillow-top kind bed, entertain in your distinct living room, or soak in an oversized tub. We introduced a next generation of self check-in kiosks which no longer required our staff to manually collect payment. Furthermore, there was a sky train that seeks to provide the same thrill as the former boat ride in Venice.
Next, was the City of Dreams Casino that featured a series of games such as “Rainbow and Your Lucky Number”, “Strike a Jackpot, Really?", “Big or Small” and “Blackjack”.
To make both the hotel and casino as exquisite destinations far far away, we brought in the Hakodate International Airport which boasts leading edge technologies for convenience. It offers quick options for passengers such as express check-in and self-immigration clearance system. A bridge across the airport boulevard extends the terminal to the runway, enhancing air-traffic controllers management of aircraft movements and facilitate quicker boarding for passengers.
Complementing with the airport, we have the Caribbean Airlines which was the first airline to fly the largest commercial aircraft, Airbus A380 on Habboon. It sets the standard for modern passenger comfort, broader seats and greater personal storage on a virtual world.
Additionally, the Venetian Hotel was not removed but it became a heritage of the LeoFresh Group.
Finally, a significantly improved user interface was rolled out for the Identity Management System (IDMS).
Today, the legacy of LeoFresh Resorts is etched in the memories of those who stood with with us, past and present. Without the strong support, LeoFresh Resorts would not have been a successful agency on Habbo Retros, and could have just been an empty decoration.
Check out videos of LeoFresh Resorts here:
