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Rotana Hotels and Resorts: How Planet delivered a successful OPI Cloud transformation across 21 properties
Rotana Hotels and Resorts: How Planet delivered a successful OPI Cloud transformation across 21 properties
At a glance
- Planet migrated 21 hotels to OPI Cloud in six months
- Strengthened payment security and PCI compliance across the UAE portfolio
- Removed sensitive cardholder data from Opera Cloud PMS through Tokenization
The challenge
As one of the Middle East's leading hospitality groups, Rotana Hotels and Resorts embarked on a major cloud transformation initiative across its UAE portfolio. A key priority was replacing legacy on-premises Opera Payment Interface (OPI) infrastructure with Oracle's OPI Cloud architecture across 21 properties.
The program required careful planning and coordination to ensure a seamless transition with no disruption to hotel operations. Alongside the migration, Rotana also wanted to modernise its payment environment, standardise payment processes across properties, strengthen PCI compliance, and remove sensitive cardholder data from its PMS environment.
The solution
As Rotana Hotels and Resorts' payments partner, Planet led the rollout of OPI Cloud across the group's UAE hotel portfolio. The program was carefully executed over six months, with 21 properties successfully migrating between December 2025 and May 2026.
Beginning with a pilot deployment at Centro Barsha, one of Rotana Hotel’s properties in Dubai, UAE, the project established a proven migration framework that could be replicated across the estate. Planet worked closely with Rotana's Finance, Front Office and IT teams, as well as the PMS provider, to ensure every property was fully prepared for go-live.
Throughout the project, Planet provided end-to-end support, from initial scoping and configuration through to terminal deployment, acquirer coordination, and live cutover assistance.
The result
A successful OPI Cloud migration at scale
Rotana successfully migrated all 21 UAE properties to OPI Cloud within six months, retiring legacy OPI infrastructure and transitioning to a modern cloud-to-cloud architecture. The phased rollout minimised operational disruption while creating a scalable foundation for the group's wider cloud strategy.
A centralised cloud architecture
The move to OPI Cloud removed local OPI machines and reduced on-premises infrastructure requirements at every property. With a cloud-to-cloud integration model in place, Rotana Hotels and Resorts now benefits from a simpler and more scalable architecture.
Improved operational consistency
Standardising payment processes across all UAE properties created a unified approach to tokenisation, pre-authorisations, and refunds. This consistency reduced operational variation and delivered a simpler support model for hotel teams.
Stronger security and PCI compliance
By implementing tokenisation throughout the payment journey, Rotana eliminated the need for sensitive cardholder data to reside within the PMS environment. This significantly reduced compliance scope while strengthening overall payment security across the portfolio.
Greater efficiency for hotel and IT teams
A standardised integration framework has reduced support overheads and accelerated reconciliation processes for hotel teams. Corporate IT teams can also now focus on broader strategic cloud initiatives rather than managing legacy systems.
Modernised guest payment experiences
The deployment of modern PAX A920 Pro terminals has improved transaction reliability and consistency across hotel operations, supporting smoother payment experiences for both staff and guests.
A partnership built on collaboration
For Rotana Hotels and Resorts, the success of the project was about more than technology. Close collaboration between Planet's onboarding, customer success, and account management teams, alongside Rotana's stakeholders and PMS consultants, ensured every property had the support needed for a successful activation.
The project was delivered through a shared commitment to achieving a common goal: creating a secure, future-ready payment environment across the UAE portfolio.
"Migrating to OPI Cloud across our UAE portfolio has been a defining step in Rotana's payment transformation journey — and Planet's partnership made it possible. Their professionalism, responsiveness, and shared ownership turned a complex, multi-property rollout into a seamless success." Bivin Babu, Centralised IT Services Manager, Rotana Hotels and Resorts
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