Carmel Valley RanchBackend & Cost

The backend and the cost.

Q1How would this actually work with the systems (ie. backend) CVR already runs?
Q2What would it cost Carmel Valley Ranch?
The answers

How the backend works

The app connects to ClubHouse Online by Jonas, which keeps running the tee sheet, bookings, classes, and accounts exactly as it does today. Nothing is replaced.

The open question is whether Jonas will let an outside app connect. A path very likely exists, and Jonas can confirm that for us.

What it costs

My discovery is complimentary for CVR.

The first technical question is simple: can this be built on the Jonas backend?

CVT does not charge for discovery. We will need input from Jonas on technical feasibility, and on any additional cost to CVR. That is the next step.

The recommendation. One question decides everything: will Jonas let an outside app connect, and on what terms? All I am asking for is an email introduction to Jonas so I can ask it.
01

The app sits on top. Nothing underneath moves.

Where this comes from. What follows is what I have learned as a member: studying how the Jonas member app and online portal actually work, asking a few CVR staff how they operate day to day, and doing technical research against publicly available documentation. It is careful, but it is not verified. Some of it will turn out to be wrong, which is precisely why the next step is a conversation and not a proposal.

The app is a layer, not a replacement. Staff keep working in the systems they know.

WHAT THE MEMBER SEES One member app Tee times · Classes · Courts · Pool · Events · Account THE CONNECTION A secure key that lets the app read availability and write bookings back WHAT THE CLUB ALREADY RUNS · UNCHANGED ClubHouse Online Jonas Tee times · Pool & lap lanes River Ranch classes · Accounts Golf Genius RGA events Tournaments · Monthly medal Results & standings SpaSoft Also a Jonas company Tennis courts, booked today by the front desk, by phone

What "connecting" actually means

Software systems can open a door to each other. When they do, an app can look up what is available and send a booking back. A member taps a tee time in the app, and it lands on the same tee sheet the golf shop already watches. Nothing is duplicated, and no one has to learn a new system.

Jonas calls their door Jonas ARC. The only question that matters is whether they will open it for Carmel Valley Ranch.

Being straight about what I know and what I do not. Jonas describes Jonas ARC as connecting its systems to outside ones, and outside companies are connected to Jonas today, including accounts payable and inventory providers. So a path very likely exists.

But Jonas publishes no public documentation and no open sign-up. Every integration I can find is a negotiated partnership, granted on Jonas's terms. I cannot promise CVR can get that access, or say what it would cost, because only Jonas can answer that. Anyone who tells the club otherwise without having asked is guessing.

02

Start small. Keep operating as you are.

The prototype shows the full picture on purpose, but no one has to build the full picture. The club can run the current systems exactly as it does today and test a narrow slice of the new experience alongside them, with a small group of members.

Start here

Tee times and member communication

The two highest-value pieces, and the two with the clearest path. Book a tee time. Get told what is happening at the Ranch. Nothing else changes.

Then

Classes, courts, and the pool

River Ranch fitness, tennis and pickleball, and lap lanes. Same systems underneath, better front door.

Later

Events, dining, and spa

Golf Genius events, poolside ordering, spa booking. Added once the foundation is proven.

If the first phase does not earn its keep, the club stops, and has lost nothing. The existing systems never went anywhere.

03

Before spending anything, use what you already pay for

A review of the live member portal, done from my own member account without completing any booking, payment, or profile change, turned up something worth saying plainly: Jonas already sells the club a good deal more than CVR has switched on.

Members are sent out to Tock to book a table. The spa page is a phone number. There is no online court booking at all. There are no saved payment methods and no autopay. Jonas sells all of it.

Some of this may be a matter of switching modules on rather than buying anything new. That is the cheapest improvement available to the club, and it involves no one but Jonas. Discovery would confirm what is already in the current agreement and what is not.

04

So why not just use Jonas's own member app?

A fair question, and it deserves a straight answer: possibly you should. Jonas sells a member app, and it is a capable product with a configurable home screen, digital door keys, and an AI concierge in beta.

Two things it does not solve. It is a template, configured rather than designed, so the club gets a competent app that looks like every other club's app. And members still leave it for Tock, for Golf Genius, and for the Hyatt ordering page, because those sit outside Jonas entirely.

Whether that trade is worth it depends on what Jonas charges, what it can be made to look like, and how much the club cares about the difference. Nobody knows those answers today. Discovery gets them, and if Jonas's own app turns out to be the right call, that is what will be recommended.

05

What it costs

On the table today

Discovery

Two to three weeks. Sit with your operators, map the systems, get straight answers from each vendor.

No cost
Complimentary · no commitment

It is offered free because Carmel Valley Ranch is the client Carmel Valley Technologies wants, and because the honest thing is to learn what is possible before anyone discusses money. If the club later wants CVT to keep going, that is a separate conversation.

What comes after

No vendor in this category publishes prices, so precise figures do not exist until each one is asked. The shape, however, is clear.

For reference: US agencies bill roughly $120 to $250 an hour for senior engineers, and a build with this many connections is a six-figure project running four to nine months. And the cost does not stop at launch. Maintenance typically runs 15 to 25 percent of the build cost, every year, forever. That is the line clubs most often forget, and it is worth putting in the budget before anyone signs anything.

Option 1 · Cheapest

Turn on what you own (with Jonas)

Shape
Possibly included
  • Dining, spa, and court booking may already be in the Jonas agreement
  • No new vendor, no new contract
  • Still a portal, not a modern app
Option 2

Buy a better platform

Shape
Six figures · months
  • Jonas's own member app, or Whoosh, which already integrates Golf Genius
  • Proven and fully supported
  • A template. You get their roadmap, not yours
Option 3

CVT-led project, 3rd party vendor built

Shape
Vendor cost · better result
  • Someone defines what good looks like and holds the vendor to it
  • The vendor still carries long-term support
  • Two parties to coordinate
Option 4 · Fastest

CVT builds the app

Shape
Low five figures · weeks
  • The product already exists. You have used it
  • Local, on property, and a member
  • A small firm, so a support partner covers round the clock
06

A commitment

Why you can trust the recommendation

Discovery ends with the right answer for CVR, not the one that pays best.

If the best path for the club and its members is an established vendor rather than Carmel Valley Technologies, that is what gets recommended. If the club should wait, that gets recommended too.

Nobody at CVR is chartered to own the member experience end to end. The golf staff know operations. Hyatt IT knows infrastructure. That seat is empty, and filling it well is worth more than winning a build.

Separately, and with no strings attached, CVT is glad to run a short session for CVR staff on using AI tools like Claude and ChatGPT in day-to-day operations. That stands regardless of what happens here.

Start with the proposal

The concept, the working prototype, and what members can do with it.

View the proposal Open the app
The ask

An email introduction. That is all.

If Travis is willing, introduce me by email to Jonas and to the team that supports Carmel Valley Ranch. I will take it from there.

1Understand what CVR already pays for
2Map the capabilities the club has but is not using
3Identify the real gaps, and what closing them would take
4Find what can be improved with no additional spend at all

No contract, no commitment, no cost. If the honest answer is that CVR should stay exactly as it is, I will say so.

Start the conversation