JULY 14 - AUGUST 2, 2004
TOP O' THE NEWS
- Tax changes encourage systems upgrades
There are all kinds of operational benefits from investing in upgrades to your systems; it's an added bonus of you get a tax break as well. A recent tax research paper from PKF suggests that "this may be the time for investing in the latest computer software and for remodeling projects associated with the installation of hardware." Changes to tax incentives provide for more generous depreciation schedules, increase the amount of property that can be expensed directly, and expand the definition of property qualifying for accelerated depreciation to include off-the-shelf computer software purchased during tax years 2003, 2004, or 2005.
Also increased is a bonus depreciation deduction from 30 to 50 percent for qualified property placed in service after May 6, 2003 and before January 1, 2005. "Qualified" means tangible property with an estimated class life of less than 20 years, including "leasehold improvements such as the cost of office reconfiguration to install technology hardware."
More details from Kevin Reilly and Robert Mandelbaum at PKF's Washington DC branch. (www.pkfc.com)
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PEOPLE ON THE MOVE
- Bryan Steele elected to HTNG Board of Directors
- Carl Crockett joins InfoGenesis as Major Account Executive in South Carolina
- Dr. Daniel J. Mount named to UniFocus' Research Advisory Board
- Skip Rafferty hired by RoomLinX as Director of Strategic Partnerships
Bryan Steele, CIO at Thistle Hotels, has been elected to the Board of Directors of Hotel Technology-Next Generation (HTNG). Mr. Steele joined Thistle Hotels in May 2002, and implemented the central hosting of their property management systems, sales and catering systems, and all other desktop applications. In partnership with Wyndham Hotels, Mr. Steele was also instrumental in establishing and developing a User Group for the MICROS Opera suite of products. Prior to joining Thistle Hotels, he worked for two years in the Internet sector as European IT Director for CMGI, and earlier had held a variety of IT roles within Unilever, including senior international IT assignments based in the USA and The Netherlands.
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Carl Crockett has joined InfoGenesis as a Major Account Executive in South Carolina. Mr. Crockett has more than 24 years of sales experience, most recently position as a National Account Manager for Manugistics. He had earlier spent ten years with Kronos, managing their north Texas operations.
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Dr. Daniel J. Mount, an associate professor in the Penn State School of Hospitality Management, has been named to UniFocus' Research Advisory Board (RAB). Dr. Mount brings over twelve years of hospitality industry experience; he currently teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in Advanced Hotel Operations, International Hotel Operations and Service Management at Penn State. Dr. Mount's major areas of research include service quality, employee satisfaction, and the development of new methods to apply survey data.
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Skip Rafferty has been hired by RoomLinX as Director of Strategic Partnerships. Mr. Rafferty has lengthy experience in telecommunications systems sales to the hospitality industry.
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PROPERTY MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS
- Grand View Lodge Resort orders suite of systems from Visual One
- PRR Soft releases FORS software for fractional ownership resort management
- RDP annual conference in Vail to focus on RDPWin
- NORTHWIND installs Maestro systems at four properties totaling over 1,500 rooms
- Hilton rolling out self-service kiosks in 45 North American properties over next year
Grand View Lodge Resort, near Brainerd, Minnesota, has ordered a suite of systems from Visual One for installation this fall. Modules to be provided include property management, sales & catering, restaurant POS, retail POS, spa reservations, golf course management (the resort includes four courses), condominium accounting, activity scheduler and dining room reservations. (www.grandviewlodge.com, www.visualonesystems.com)
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PRR Soft has released its Fractional Ownership and Reservation System (FORS), designed to streamline fractional ownership resort management. In addition to the rotating priority reservation system characteristic of these operations, FORS includes management of owner profiles and preferences, charges and payments, owner requests and spa management. FORS is sold with its source code to allow for customization by purchasers. (FORS@prr.net)
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Resort Data Processing's annual conference will take place September 20-23 in Vail, Colorado, and will focus on the release of its Windows based PMS system, RDPWin. (www.resortdata.com)
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NORTHWIND has recently installed various modules of Maestro systems at four properties, totaling over 1,500 rooms. The new installations include three lodges and 33 cabins operated by Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park, California (PMS), the 162-room Gainey Suites Hotel in Scottsdale, Arizona (PMS, S&C), the Park Vue Inn at Disneyland, California (PMS), and the nearly 1000-room International Mission Board missionary housing facility in Richmond, Virginia (PMS, S&C, Club/Spa and Work Order Maintenance). (www.maestropms.com)
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Hilton is rolling out 100 self-service kiosks in 45 of its North American properties over the next year, following pilot projects with the new Web-based IBM units in New York and Chicago. (www.hilton.com)
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RESERVATIONS
- OTA participating in HTNG workgroup on Property/Distribution Solutions
- Maksoud Plaza in São Paulo, Alexander All-Suite Oceanfront Resort in Florida select iHotelier
- TravelCLICK's total customer base now over 1,300 properties worldwide
- Breckenridge Central Reservations chooses Inntopia for online reservation system
- eRevMax Technologies' RateTiger releases RTAllocator rate management application
- Reservations Gateway releases one-step Internet booking engine, RezHotel
The OpenTravel Alliance (OTA) is participating in the newly-launched HTNG workgroup on Property/Distribution Solutions. The workgroup, initiated by Cendant, Wyndham, IDeaS and Maxim, will define solution sets that bridge processes and systems across properties, central reservations systems, and distribution channels, pragmatically addressing issues involved in the implementation of OTA standards and related technologies. (www.opentravel.org, www.htng.org)
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The 416-room luxury Maksoud Plaza hotel in São Paulo, Brazil and the Alexander All-Suite Oceanfront Resort in Miami Beach, Florida have selected TravelCLICK's iHotelier booking engine for GDS and Internet connectivity.
Since acquiring the iHotelier booking engine last year, TravelCLICK's total customer base has grown to over 1,300 properties worldwide, with 150 hotels signing up in the last few months in the USA, UK and South America.
(www.maksoud.com, www.alexanderhotel.com, www.travelclick.net)
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Breckenridge Central Reservations in Breckenridge, Colorado, has chosen Inntopia as its online reservation system. Breckenridge area hotels, activity providers, equipment rental shops and transportation companies will use the Inntopia Supplier Extranet to update availability via an XML-enabled interface with the Breckenridge Central Reservations in-house system. Implementation I scheduled for early August. (www.gobreck.com, www.inntopia.com)
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eRevMax Technologies' RateTiger has released its RTAllocator rate management application. Complementing the RTShopper online rate shopping tool, RTAllocator allows users to manage multiple online distribution channels such as Expedia, Hotels.com, Lastminute, Bookings, etc. through one interface. RTAllocator has been beta tested for 6 months at 24 sites in 10 countries. (www.erevmax.com)
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Reservations Gateway has added a one-step Internet booking engine (RezHotel) to its range of on-line reservations products. RezHotel allows online hotel shoppers to book hotel rooms with a minimum number of clicks, and includes an interface to inventory distribution systems, integration to property and channel management systems and comprehensive reporting tools. An additional three-step booking engine offers dynamic packaging capabilities that allow guests to book hotel amenities and third party travel activities as well as hotel rooms. (www.rezgateway.com)
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MARKETING / MANAGEMENT
- Blizzard Internet announces Professional and ROI editions of its Blizzard Tracker software
Blizzard Internet Marketing announced two new editions - Professional and ROI - of its Blizzard Tracker software. For smaller properties, the Professional Edition reports on the number of unique and repeat visitors, the referring web site, keywords used, pages viewed and more. The ROI Edition adds campaign tracking and conversion tracking features, to identify which campaigns are attracting customers and which result in booking. (www.blizzardinternet.com)
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REVENUE MANAGEMENT
- Three Eden Hotelgroup properties in Amsterdam install Optims RMS' City.Optims
- Wynn Las Vegas, London's Langham Hotel select IDeaS Revenue Optimization
Three Eden Hotelgroup properties in Amsterdam have installed Optims RMS' City.Optims to consolidate information from the 3 properties. Implemented by Optims' distributor SP Networks BV (Netherlands), the installation plans to extend the system to include the Group's three additional properties outside of Amsterdam. (www.edenhotelgroup.com, www.optims.com)
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Wynn Las Vegas has selected IDeaS Revenue Optimization v5 for revenue management, working in conjunction with MICROS' OPERA PMS. The property is scheduled to open in April 2005.
The 429-room Langham Hotel in London has also ordered IDeaS Revenue Optimization.
(www.wynnlasvegas.com, www.ideas.com)
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SALES & CATERING, MEETING PLANNING
- CEO Software signs exclusive distributor agreement for MeetingMatrix software
- Pegasus implementing Lanyon's RFP Content Control Center (3C) at Utell by Pegasus hotels
- Wyndham adopts private-label version of Interactive Sites' ShareIt Online for group sales lead referrals
CEO Software has signed an exclusive distributor agreement for the full line of products from its erstwhile rival, MeetingMatrix International. Newmarket International acquired CEO Software's Optimum Settings graphical room layout application in June 2003, re-labeling it Delphi Diagrams, but CEO Software retained the right to sell, install and support Optimum Settings in non-hospitality vertical markets. Now under new ownership, CEO Software has developed an XML interface between its Scheduler Plus software and MeetingMatrix, and will promote MeetingMatrix products and services into the university and healthcare marketplaces. (www.ceosoft.com, www.meetingmatrix.com)
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Pegasus Solutions is implementing Lanyon's Content Control Center (3C) to streamline the RFP process at its Utell by Pegasus hotels by joining all relevant data and processes in one view. The system combines rates, property information and bid information on the "3C" home page, identifies bids approaching their deadline, allows negotiated rates to be compared to Rack and Corporate Rates, provides a "bid wizard "to reduce the time required to complete and approve a bid, and checks to ensure that all required information is completed. (www.lanyon.com, www.pegs.com)
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Wyndham International has adopted a private-label version of Interactive Sites' ShareIt Online product for group sales lead referrals, and is extending that referral program to its partners Kempinski, Pan Pacific and Rydges. (www.wyndham.com, www.interactivesites.com)
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F&B/POINT OF SALE
- InfoGenesis wins 2004 Microsoft Partner Program Customer Experience Award
- The Keg implementing Squirrel's latest systems in corporate stores across North America
InfoGenesis has won a 2004 Microsoft Partner Program Customer Experience Award; these awards recognize Microsoft Certified Partners that delivered exemplary solutions for their customers during the past year. InfoGenesis won based upon its entry for the Brookfield Zoo, an InfoGenesis customer. (www.infogenesis.com)
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The Keg Restaurants is implementing Squirrel's latest restaurant management systems in its corporate stores across North America, and has named Squirrel as a preferred vendor for its franchise stores. A Squirrel customer since 1988, The Keg's rollout includes Squirrel Version 1.3, the Squirrel e-BIS Enterprise Information Solution for data aggregation and processing, Squirrel Corporate POS Manager for remote site management and upgraded hardware, as well as FOOD-TRAK. (www.squirrelsystems.com)
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SPA/GOLF/LEISURE
- PRR Soft releases FORS system for fractional ownership resort and spa management
PRR Soft has released its Fractional Ownership and Reservation System (FORS), designed to streamline fractional ownership resort management. In addition to the rotating priority reservation system characteristic of these operations, FORS includes management of owner profiles and preferences, charges and payments, owner requests and spa management. FORS is sold with its source code to allow for customization by purchasers. (FORS@prr.net)
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GUEST SERVICES
- Le Royal Méridien in Mumbai implements wireless high-speed Internet access (HSIA)
- Hilton announces business technology standards for all US Hilton hotels
- Two Handlery Hotels (San Diego, San Francisco) to install wireless HSIA from Wayport
- Best Western half-way through rollout of free HSIA to all its North American hotels
Le Royal Méridien in Mumbai, India has implemented wireless high-speed Internet access (HSIA) in al 171 rooms and the public areas, claiming to be the first hotel in Mumbai offering such service.
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Hilton Hotels announced new business technology standards to be available at all Hilton hotels across the U.S. by June 2005. The Hilton Integrated Business Solution consists of six service features: HSIA in guestrooms and meeting rooms (85% of the portfolio already offers this), wireless HSIA in public areas (STSN has been designated the preferred vendor), 24-hour self-service business centers (LogicLink), secure remote guest printing services (PrinterOn), mail & shipping services in the 24-Hour Self-Service Business Center (using USPS for mailing and shipping needs and stamps.com for PC postage), and comfortable workspaces in guestrooms. (www.hilton.com)
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The Handlery Hotel & Resort in San Diego and the Handlery Union Square Hotel in San Francisco have ordered Wi-Fi wireless service from Wayport.
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Best Western has reached the half-way point in its rollout of free HSIA to all of its North American properties with more than 1,100 hotels now equipped. The remaindeare scheduled to be completed by fall.
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ENGINEERING
- Wyndham to implement WinTrack PM in 50 of its owned, full-service hotels
Wyndham International is implementing Mintek Mobile Data's WinTrack PM in 50 of its owned, full-service hotels over the next six months. A pilot test was conducted at the Wyndham New Orleans at Canal Place. (www.wyndham.com, www.mintek.com)
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COMMUNICATIONS
- Interstate designates O'Neal/Gaj as preferred vendor for telecommunications audits
Interstate Hotels & Resorts has designated O'Neal/Gaj as a preferred vendor for telecommunications audits for all of its 300 hospitality properties. (www.ihrco.com, www.onealgaj.com)
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