APRIL 14 - 26, 2005
TOP O' THE NEWS
- HTNG making solid, visible progress
Last week’s HTNG Annual Meeting in Las Vegas highlighted the considerable progress that’s been made in the three years since the initiative was launched, and laid out the groundwork for branding HTNG-certified systems. The guest profile data exchanges shown at last year’s HITEC (linking PMS, VoIP phones and guestroom digital video entertainment systems) have now been put into service, most notably with Mandarin Oriental hotels, and the three current workgroups on Web-services messaging standards, in-room technology and distribution technology (putting OTA’s travel industry work into hotel-focused implementations) are on track to demonstrate examples of their work at this year’s HITEC in Los Angeles. The encouraging turnout of over 160 attendees showed the support the initiative has gathered from both hoteliers and vendors, and interest was high in identifying and sponsoring further workgroups.
The two main impressions left after the presentations were first, the very real improvements in flexibility, power and supportability of this Web services-based approach to systems interactions, especially when focused on practical product sets that hoteliers commit to buy, and secondly, how much work still remains to be done. While the high-level approach has been well-defined – for the techies, XML messages wrapped in a SOAP envelope over an IP network – defining the data sets and event-driven functions that make sense in the real world takes a lot of painstaking, cooperative effort. The signs are good that the patient, dedicated work of the original workgroups will continue to grow, but the group needs to be careful that the current high levels of enthusiasm don’t lead it to spread its efforts and resources too thin.
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PEOPLE ON THE MOVE
- StayOnline hires Barry Parrish as Vice President of Western Sales, Patrick Lewis as Vice President of Operations and Allan Watkins as Director of Development
StayOnline has hired Barry Parrish as Vice President of Western Sales, Patrick Lewis as Vice President of Operations and Allan Watkins as Director of Development.
Mr. Parrish brings more than 30 years of successful marketing, sales, and advertising experience, most recently as Vice President of Corporate and Strategic Marketing for Sunterra. He has also held positions with Cunard Cruise Lines, American & Mexicana Airlines, American Express Travel Service, Reno and Lake Tahoe tourism, Hyatt Hotels, and others.
Mr. Lewis comes from wireless network consulting firm Promasa, LLC, where he served as President and CEO. He had earlier directed account and partner relationships for enterprise clients for Cisco Systems in the southeast.
Mr. Watkins joins StayOnline from cruise ship systems provider Lighthouse Integrated Computer Systems, which he founded. He had earlier worked in the Professional Services department on wireless application development for AppForge.
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PROPERTY MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS
- Visual One installs Web-based V1Net PMS at four sites
- Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Las Vegas selects Agilysys’ LMS, DataMagine, ResNet, ARTS and Spa
- Agilysys incorporating Group 1’s Universal Coder address hygiene software into LMS
- Agilysys releases LMS version optimized for IBM eServer iSeries 550 Solution Edition
- Ronald McDonald House in Phoenix alpha-testing MSI’s new Enterprise PM
- MSI moves headquarters to new building in North Phoenix after ten years in original location
- Kempinski Hotels & Resorts implementing MICROS’ OPERA Central Systems Suite
- Protea Hospitality piloting MICROS's OPERA Enterprise Solution in eight hotels
Visual One has installed V1Net, its web-based PMS software, at four sites in the Mid-Atlantic area of the United States, ranging from 128 rooms to 268 rooms. V1Net operates within a standard Internet browser and is designed for hotel chains and management companies that prefer to maintain all of their properties’ data on a central server. (www.visualonesystems.com)
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The 668-room Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Las Vegas has selected Agilysys’ Lodging Management System (LMS) and DataMagine, along with the ResNet Web-booking engine, ARTS activities tracking and Spa booking modules. The DataMagine imaging and archiving module will be used to scan and link color IDs (such as driver’s licenses and passports) to the casino applications, and to burn CDs containing group bill and related charge data such as folios and point-of-sales slips.
Agilysys is incorporating Group 1’s Universal Coder address hygiene software into its LMS application for online real-time ZIP+4 verification. A pop-up window with the guest’s address will be shown to the user for verification.
Agilysys also released a new IBM eServer iSeries 550 Solution Edition, optimized with LMS for the hospitality industry through Capacity on Demand and IBM Virtualization Engine technologies like Micro-Partitioning. Processing capacity can be turned on as needed to handle business demand spikes; Micro-Partitioning helps a single processor act like multiple processors to share resources, making server and application consolidation more manageable.
(www.hardrockhotel.com, www.g1.com, www.ibm.com, www.agilysys.com)
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The Ronald McDonald House in Phoenix is alpha-testing Multi-Systems Inc.’s (MSI’s) new Enterprise PM property-management system. The new Web-based system is targeted at properties with fewer than 75 guestrooms.
MSI recently moved its headquarters to a new building in North Phoenix after ten years in its original home, combining operations previously housed in five suites across two buildings into a single new facility.
(www.msisolutions.com)
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Kempinski Hotels & Resorts is implementing MICROS’ OPERA Central Systems Suite, comprising the OPERA Reservation System, Customer Information System, Web Services, Sales Force Automation, and the Vision Central Reporting / Enterprise Reporting tool. Installation is scheduled to begin during the second half of 2005 with final cutover planned for January 1, 2006. Kempinski has been a MICROS customer since 1991, with 28 properties using various MICROS products including OPERA, Fidelio Suite V6, Food & Beverage, Fidelio Sales and Catering and MICROS 3700 & 8700 Point-of-Sale.
Protea Hospitality has begun deployment of MICROS's OPERA Enterprise Solution in eight hotels, in the Johannesburg area (Waterfront, Midrand, Wanderers, and the African Pride Melrose Arch Hotel), Cape Town (Victoria Junction, Sea Point), Kruger National Park (Kruger Gate) and Durban (Edward Durban). Protea operates 104 properties under its five brands, which include hotels, economy lodges, self-catering lodges and the luxury African Pride group.
(www.kempinski.com, www.proteahotels.com, www.micros.com)
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RESERVATIONS
- AAA Travel extends contract with Pegasus for hotel commission processing
- priceline.com adds airline, hotel, car and package options from named providers
- Kayak Network search engine allows vendors to place ads based on actual search parameters
- Salem Waterfront Hotel & Suites adopts LuxuryRes for Internet and GDS booking services
AAA Travel has signed a contract extension with Pegasus Solutions for hotel commission processing services. Nearly 70 percent of AAA agencies currently use the services. (www.csaa.com, www.pegs.com)
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priceline.com has expanded its approach to travel reservations by adding airline tickets, hotel rooms, rental cars and packages from named providers (at negotiated and published prices) as well as its original Name Your Own Price option. The move was prompted by the success of its retail airline tickets service, introduced in 2004, which increased its full-year gross travel booking by 52%. (www.priceline.com)
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Comparison shopping website Kayak.com has launched its Kayak Network search engine, which allows vendors to place ads based on the consumer’s actual search parameters, rather on general keywords. These parameters include city or city pairs, trip dates, length of stay, and specific airline or hotel brands, allowing hoteliers to focus their ad purchases on specific low-occupancy periods, or airlines to target specific city pairs and trip date ranges. (www.kayaknetwork.com)
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The 86-room Salem Waterfront Hotel & Suites has adopted LuxuryRes for Internet and Group booking services, offering direct Website booking and links to Internet-based and GDS reservations networks. (www.salemwaterfronthotel.com, www.luxuryres.net)
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MARKETING / MANAGEMENT
- Blizzard releases Tracker ROI Edition website analytics version for Visual One Web booking
Blizzard Internet Marketing has announced a version of its Blizzard Tracker ROI Edition website analytics solution customized for Visual One’s online reservations booking engine, allowing Visual One users to evaluate the effectiveness of their online marketing campaigns by seeing the source of their internet bookings. Reporting data includes conversion (look-to-book ratios and revenue results for paid internet advertising, including pay-per-click, ad banners, e-mail campaigns, and other paid referrers, as well as free search engine traffic), drill-down analysis of all search terms used by site visitors, individual sales transaction details (including referring campaign, search term, visit path in the web site, reservation number, and dollar amount), and Scenario Analysis (to define specific paths through the web site to conversion and determine the abandonment rate for each step along the path). (www.blizzardinternet.com, www.visualonesystems.com)
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REVENUE MANAGEMENT
- Clarence Hotel, Dublin and Orchard Hotel Singapore install Optims
- Mandarin Oriental Macau launches IDeaS Revenue Optimization
The five-star Clarence Hotel, Dublin has installed Optims Revenue Management System (RMS).
The 674-room Orchard Hotel Singapore has implemented Optims.Hotel Revenue Management System.
(www.theclarence.ie, www.millenniumhotels.com, www.optims.com)
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The Mandarin Oriental Macau has launched IDeaS Revenue Optimization, the eleventh Mandarin Oriental property to do so. (www.mandarinoriental.com, www.ideas.com)
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F&B/POINT OF SALE
- Atlantic Hotel Condominium, Fort Lauderdale, installs HSI Profit Series POS
The Atlantic Hotel Condominium in Fort Lauderdale, Florida has completed installation of Hospitality Solutions International’s (HSI’s) Profit Series point-of-sale (POS) system. The 124-room Atlantic is the first hotel condominium in Starwood’s Luxury Collection; all rooms are condominium units, whose owners can live there full time or part time, or rent out their unit. The Profit Series system includes thirteen POS terminals at the Trina Restaurant and Spuma Poolside Bar, and is interfaced directly to Starwood's property management system. (www.starwoodhotels.com, www.micros.com)
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GUEST SERVICES
- Guest-Tek’s owner acquires Singapore-based MagiNet
- Extended Stay Hotels, La Quinta sign with Guest-Tek for high-speed Internet access
- St. Regis Hotel, Houston, installs GoConcierge
- Bartech develops custom minibar for 300-room south tower of The Palms, Las Vegas
- U. S. Hospitality acquires hotel business center vendor Uniguest
Tokyo-based MP Technologies (MPT), majority shareholder of Calgary-based Guest-Tek Interactive Entertainment has acquired 65% of MagiNet Private Ltd. (MagiNet) of Singapore, a provider of video on demand (VOD) and high-speed Internet access (HSIA) in Asia. MagiNet currently supplies services to approximately 500 hotels, 130,000 rooms with VOD and 60,000 rooms with HSIA. Guest-Tek provides its wired and wireless broadband Internet access to over 320,000 rooms in more than 2,200 properties worldwide.
Both Extended Stay Hotels and La Quinta Inns have signed purchase and services contracts with Guest-Tek for high-speed Internet access.
(www.guest-tek.com)
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The 232-room St. Regis Hotel, Houston, has installed the Web-based GoConcierge concierge operations system. (www.starwoodhotels.com/stregis, www.goconcierge.net)
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Bartech Systems has developed a customized automatic minibar for the new 300-room south tower of The Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas. The all stainless steel minibar is sized to fit the existing television armoire, but has been modified to include a third product row inside the door, increasing its capacity to 24 mini bottles up from 16. The minibar is also linked to the Palms’ property management system via an Ethernet link. (www.palms.com, www. bartech.com)
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U. S. Hospitality has acquired 51% of hotel business center vendor Uniguest, whose Concierge Station Web-access PC is installed at over 160 properties in the US. Uniguest will continue to focus on hotels, aiming to increase the number of Concierge Station installations to more than 500 by the end of 2005. U. S. Hospitality publishes in-room hotel guest directory products for about 2000 hotel customers annually. Uniguest has moved its operations center from Memphis, TN to the U.S. Hospitality corporate headquarters in Nashville.
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BACK OFFICE
- Choice signs exclusive three year agreement for Shift4's $$$ ON THE NET
- M3 passes 100-client milestone for its ASP-based M3 Hotel Accounting Software
Choice Hotels International has signed an exclusive three year agreement with Shift4 Corp to provide Shift4's $$$ ON THE NET software to Choice Hotels franchisees, allowing them to process credit card transactions from their property management systems through any processor they select. Initial installations will be completed by September 30; phase two of the project will include the installation of hundreds of additional properties and the development of additional functionality such as check verification and debit features. (www.choicehotels.com, www.shift4.com)
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M3 announced that 100 hotel management companies representing over 700 hotels are now using its ASP-based M3 Hotel Accounting Software. The service includes accounting, operations, payroll, time and attendance, budget/forecasting, tracking and data mining software. (www.hotelaccounting.com)
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SECURITY
- Accor chooses Elsafe as exclusive global supplier of in-room safes for its 4,000 hotels
Accor has chosen Elsafe as its exclusive global supplier of in-room safes for its 4,000 hotels. The three-year agreement covers Elsafe’s Infinity Digital, Sentinel Advanced and Xtra Advanced in-room safes. (www.accor.com, www.elsafe.com)
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