Sodexo Leverages SmartLodge to Lift Room Occupancy and Drive Efficiencies at Cedar Valley Lodge

Sodexo streamlines operations at Cedar Valley Lodge by leveraging SmartLodge to maximize room occupancy, streamline check-ins and meals management, and to facilitate various other daily camp operations.

Meet Sodexo: An integrated services provider offering best-in-class remote accommodations

Sodexo is a food services and facilities management company dedicated to providing a superior experience for their clients across a wide variety of industries including energy, mining, education, and health. With its wide range of services, Sodexo provides comprehensive catering and facilities management services that meet the unique needs of each industry. They go above and beyond by seamlessly managing camp room reservations, crew check-ins, housekeeping, maintenance, and on-site dining, allowing their clients to focus on their core business while enjoying top-notch support services.

Historic large-scale energy project takes shape in Kitimat, British Columbia

The LNG Canada Project in Kitimat, British Columbia, is a joint venture between JGC Corporation and Fluor Corporation, representing the largest energy investment in Canadian history. Tasked with constructing a state-of-the-art liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminal, this project marks a significant step towards supplying cleaner energy to Asian markets. At its core, the project features a comprehensive LNG processing facility, storage, and marine terminals on 400 hectares. The project operator partnered with Sodexo Canada to oversee and manage operations at Cedar Valley Lodge, the accommodation facility built to house the large workforce at the site.

Sodexo tasked to manage a 4,500-room camp serving remote LNG project

Since Cedar Valley Lodge (CVL) began welcoming its first guests in July 2020, Sodexo has been at the forefront, delivering unparalleled hospitality, food, and maintenance services. Despite the unforeseen delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, CVL reached full operational status by July 2021, showcasing Sodexo's adaptability and commitment to the project’s success.

At the Cedar Valley Lodge, Sodexo is responsible for:

• Efficiently managing accommodations for 4,500 workers, ensuring comfort and privacy for each worker.
• Providing a seamless and comfortable experience for camp residents, from the moment they arrive on site to the moment they leave.
• Overseeing the upkeep of the lodge’s extensive facilities, including routine housekeeping and maintenance.
• Delivering comprehensive hospitality and food services, including high-speed internet and expansive dining options.
• Maintaining onsite healthcare, recreational and entertainment facilities to support the physical and mental wellbeing of guests.

Sodexo works with Camps & Crew to get ahead of operational challenges endemic to large camps

Understanding the project's scale, Sodexo proactively partnered with Camps & Crew to address the common challenges of large-scale camps. Ahead of implementation, the companies engaged in discussions related to the anticipated challenges such as large crew arrivals, the high volume of camp rooms needing regular service, among various other considerations. More specifically, the discussed challenges included:

• Extended wait times during check-in due to the bottleneck created by large crews arriving at once and limited staffing of the front desk
• The lack of visibility into real-time room availability, potentially leading to suboptimal utilization of accommodations across the camp’s 18 dorms
• Difficulties monitoring meal consumption, potentially leading to inaccurate food projections and contributing to avoidable food wastage
• Communication breakdowns between teams–common at camps of this size– that hamper how quickly rooms can be logged as clean and assigned to the next incoming worker

Sodexo implements SmartLodge to streamline operations at Cedar Valley Lodge

Sodexo addressed the anticipated challenges of managing Cedar Valley Lodge (CVL) by implementing SmartLodge upon its launch. This system has unlocked various operational efficiencies across CVL as outlined below.
Key operational metrics achieved with SmartLodge include:

• Room utilization up to 98% during peak demand by simplifying reservation management for over 4500 rooms. The system makes it simple for multiple parties internal and external to Sodexo to create, change or cancel room reservations.
• Average check-in wait times under 60 seconds, facilitated by the Sodexo MyWap app and on-site kiosks. The MyWap app enables workers to begin their check-in process while en route to camp, which they can complete at kiosk upon arrival at camp. SmartLodge’s seamless integration with CVL's electronic key system (Visionline by Assa Abloy) gives returning residents the ability to reactivate their keycards at the kiosks, ensuring a swift check-in process even for large crews.
• 1100+ room cleanings conducted daily, facilitated by SmartLodge’s Mobile Housekeeping feature. This innovative solution equips more than 240 housekeepers at CVL with the ability to easily update room statuses on their tablets after each room cleaning. With immediate visibility of room statuses, front desk staff can swiftly assign newly cleaned rooms, enhancing the rate of room turnover.
• Accurate meal tracking and reduction of food waste is achieved through SmartLodge Meal Scanning. Workers' meal swipes at buffet line tablets provide valuable data for meal reconciliation, billing back of appropriate parties, and forecasting of food needs for future periods, significantly minimizing food waste.
• A fully integrated tech-stack across systems. With SmartLodge as the central platform, Sodexo is able to ensure data from other specialized technologies that support on-site operations seamlessly flows into SmartLodge. These systems include an electronic key system powered by Assa Abloy’s Visionline and a point-of-sale system used at CVL’s bar to track alcohol consumption (Volante).