APRIL 27 - MAY 10, 2005
TOP O' THE NEWS
- Business travelers using travel agents more often
Business travel continues to recover slowly but there are some noticeable changes in booking habits, according to the 2005 National Business Travel Monitor report. This annual survey of 1,200 active business travelers by Yesawich, Pepperdine, Brown & Russell states that significantly more business travelers are using the services of a travel agent (32%, up from 25%), reversing the trend of the past few years. This appears to be due to growing suspicions about the integrity of travel pricing across the multiple distribution channels, and to business travelers limiting the time they’re willing to spend tracking down the best prices on their own.
Nonetheless, almost seven out of ten (68%) business travelers used the Internet or an online service to plan some part of a business trip last year, and 54% actually booked a reservation online. And these folk are worth tracking; those doing the most planning and booking online are reported to be the most affluent business travelers (those with an annual household income over $100,000 per year).
Significant declines were reported in international business trips and extended (5+ nights) business trips, but 42% of respondents still expect to take more business trips in next twelve months, versus 24% who expect to take fewer. The most common reason for taking fewer was a "cut back on my need to travel for business," which is consistent with the 33% of all respondents who said they are trying to use technology as a surrogate for face-to-face communications.
However they get there, life on the road continues to be a challenge for many business travelers: 41% report they don't get enough sleep, 35% eat too much, 23% feel stressed out, and 18% get lonely.
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PEOPLE ON THE MOVE
- Barry Gersten promoted to Vice President of Technology at Avendra
Barry Gersten has been promoted to Vice President of Technology at procurement services company Avendra. Mr. Gersten has been with Avendra since 2001, most recently serving as Director of Application Development. Before joining Avendra, he held various positions in IT and operations management in the Washington, D.C., area.
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PROPERTY MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS
- Serenata released @folio web-based utility for e-mailing folios from Micros-Fidelio PMSs
- Carson Valley Inn (Minden, NV) selects HIS’ epitome for Windows PM
- Brilliant releases Leisure Module and update to PMPRO system
- Oasis Hospitality bringing Linux-based PMS/POS to HITEC, looking for distributors
- Sebasco Harbor Resort, Maine upgrades from ImagInn to Ramesys’ Entirety Enterprise suite
- Historic Sussex Hotels orders Ramesys’ Entirety PMS for all three hotels
- Mammoth Mountain Hospitality orders Visual One’s full suite
- Park Hall Hotel/Conference Centre orders Visual One’s Front Office and Sales & Catering
- Visual One developing two-way direct interface with Expedia
- Visual One’s 2005 User Conference set for Sep 20-23 at Ocean Reef Club, Key Largo, FL
- Ojai Valley Inn and Spa selects PAR Springer-Miller’s SMS|Host suite
- Tamarack Resort (Donnelly, ID) orders SMS|Host Hospitality Management System
- Candlewood Suites implementing MICROS’ OPERAXpress PMS to all properties, centrally-hosted
- MICROS Systems ranked #1 information technology company based in DC area
Serenata IntraWare has released its @folio utility, a web-based application for retrieving and selecting folios from a hotels Micros-Fidelio Property Management System (PMS), verifying the email address of the recipient, and sending the folio by email as a PDF attachment. A batch folio option is also available, which allows users to send selected or all invoices of one company, agent or guest at once. The new product also enables the viewing and printing of night audit reports of a selected date and the forwarding of these reports by email. Pilot properties for @folio are the Four Seasons Hotel Ritz Lisbon and the Four Seasons Hotel Sydney. (www.serenata.com)
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The 228-room Carson Valley Inn in Minden, NV has selected HIS’ epitome for Windows PMS. The resort includes a 59-site RV site, a casino, seven F&B outlets and over 6,000 sq. ft. of convention and banquet space. (www.cvinn.com, www.hotelinfosys.com)
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Brilliant Hotelsoftware has released its Leisure Module, to manage the scheduling and staffing of leisure time events such as workouts, tennis court rentals and lessons, spa therapies, etc. Leisure schedules can be included as part of a Brilliant PMPRO reservation.
Brilliant also released an update of its PMPRO system (v8.51.93), which includes enhancements to Yield Management, Rate builder, Accounts Receivable, Night Audit, Multiple rate handling, Room Blocks for Groups or Wholesalers, and multiple user access security levels.
(www.myhotelsoftware.com)
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Hong Kong-based Oasis Hospitality Software is looking for potential distributors in North and South America for its Web-based, integrated PMS, POS and call accounting system, which it will demonstrate at HITEC this June. Oasis runs on Red Hat Linux and uses the PostgreSQL database, and is offered in local and remote-hosted versions. (www.oasis2000.com)
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The 118-room Sebasco Harbor Resort in Maine has switched from its Ramesys ImagInn PMS to Ramesys’ full Entirety Enterprise suite for Windows. The suite consists of the Entirety Front Office, e-Res Internet Booking Engine, Entirety CRM and Integrated Sales and Catering module from Kinetics, Kx.
Britain’s Historic Sussex Hotels (HSH) has contracted with Ramesys for its Entirety PMS (with E.res online booking), plus Kinetic’s Kx Sales and Catering and Zonal’s Aztec POS, for all three of its hotels (Climping, Cuckfield and Midhurst, UK).
(www.sebasco.com, www.hshotels.co.uk, www.us.ramesys.com)
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Mammoth Mountain Hospitality has ordered Visual One’s full suite its 820-unit Intrawest property in Mammoth Lakes, California. Modules to be installed include PMS, sales & catering, back office accounting, condominium accounting, activity scheduling, web page booking for owners and guests, and multiple third-party interfaces.
England’s Park Hall Hotel, Leisure and Conference Centre has ordered Visual One’s integrated Front Office and Sales & Catering systems. The lakeside resort is adjacent to the Camelot Theme Park, and includes a unique hotel village with 140 guestrooms, conference and meeting facilities, a purpose-built 10 acre team building arena and a health club and spa.
Visual One announced development of a two-way direct interface between its PMS and Expedia. The XML interface, based on Open Travel Alliance specifications, will include the exchange of availability, rates, restrictions and bookings (reservations, modifications and cancellations).
Visual One’s 2005 User Conference will be held from September 20-23 at the Ocean Reef Club, Key Largo, Florida.
(www.mammothmountain.com, www.parkhall-hotel.co.uk, www.expedia.com, www.visualonesystems.com)
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The 315-room Ojai Valley Inn and Spa has selected PAR Springer-Miller’s SMS|Host suite for its hotel, spa, golf course, retail outlets and membership club. System modules to be installed include Spa/Recreation Scheduling, Golf Tee Time Scheduling, Retail Point-of-Sale, Frequent Guest Tracking, Activities Management, Baggage Handling and SMS|World for Internet reservations.
Tamarack Resort chose the SMS|Host Hospitality Management System for its property in Donnelly, Idaho.
(www.ojairesort.com, www.tamarackidaho.com, www.springermiller.com)
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Candlewood Suites, the extended stay chain acquired by InterContinental Hotels Group in October 2003, is implementing MICROS’ OPERAXpress PMS to all properties. For the 76 corporately managed properties, the system will be centrally hosted on an Oracle 9i Real Application Cluster running on Hewlett Packard's Integrity Servers at AT&T’s hosting facility in Douglasville, Georgia. Candlewood will deploy OPERAXpress throughout its existing 113 properties and at all future hotel openings, estimated at approximately 38 per year.
MICROS Systems has been ranked the #1 information technology company based in the Washington, DC area, in the 2005 Washington Post 200. the survey ranks all public and private companies by annual revenue, except for financial institutions which are ranked by assets.
(www.ichotelsgroup.com, www.micros.com)
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RESERVATIONS
- Larkspur Hospitality goes with SynXis for 19 properties
- Westmark deploys MICROS's OPERA Reservation System (ORS) for its 11 hotels
- Unirez signs 40 Italian and 28 Spanish hotels in first three months of 2005
- Marriott, Sol Meliá and Charming Hotels contract for Pegasus’ PegsTour service
- Seven airlines back G2 SwitchWorks’ low-cost airline booking system targeted at GDSs
- Amadeus adds Group Travel Planet's leisure group booking functionality to AgentNet system
Larkspur Hospitality has selected SynXis for GDS and IDS connectivity and Web bookings for its 19 hotels in Northern California and the Pacific Northwest. Larkspur will also use the SynXis Dashboard, which integrates competitive rate shopping and extranet rate management tools. (www.larkspurhospitality.com, www.synxis.com)
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Westmark Hotels has deployed MICROS's OPERA Reservation System (ORS) for its 11 hotels, along with OPERA Customer Information System (OCIS) for central guest history and OPERA Web Suite web bookings. (www.westmarkhotels.com, www.micros.com)
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Pegasus’ Unirez reservations service has signed 40 Italian and 28 Spanish hotels in the first three months of 2005.
Marriott International, Sol Meliá and Charming Hotels have contracted for Pegasus’ PegsTour service. PegsTour automates tour operator booking processes through an electronic interface connecting them to hotel central reservation systems.
(www.pegs.com)
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Seven airlines are backing G2 SwitchWorks’ new airline booking system, a low-cost service started last year by a former Orbitz executive and targeted at the existing GDSs. American, America West, Continental, Delta and Northwest have agreed to pay it more than $20 million in advance fees in exchange for discounts and an ownership stake; United and US Airways also intend to use the system, which is expected to be operational thus summer.
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Amadeus has added Group Travel Planet's leisure hotel group booking functionality and inventory for 10,000 hotels to its AgentNet travel agent system. Group Travel Planet provides automated tools for rooming lists, individual or group payment options and system-generated alerts for deadlines. (www.amadeus.com)
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MARKETING / MANAGEMENT
- Heavlin Management, Premier Hotel Management standardize on ProfitSword’s ProfitSage
Heavlin Management Company (Chandler, AZ) has chosen ProfitSword’s ProfitSage as its standard web-based intelligence and reporting platform. ProfitSage was installed at its San Marcos Resort & Conference Center in February; Heavlin plans on purchasing two additional hotels before year-end.
Premier Hotel Management has selected ProfitSage for business intelligence use at its 11 properties. ProfitSage consists of six modules that interface with the PMS, back office accounting, sales automation and payroll systems in order to warehouse and analyze data. It can also import Smith Travel data for comparisons to the competitive set.
(www.sanmarcosresort.com, www.profitsword.com)
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REVENUE MANAGEMENT
- TOP INTERNATIONAL, TOP City&CountryLine select RateTiger RTAllocator
TOP INTERNATIONAL Hotels and TOP City&CountryLine Hotels have selected eRevMax’s RateTiger RTAllocator for its hotels to manage extranet websites. (www.top-hotels.de, www.erevmax.com)
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SALES & CATERING, MEETING PLANNING
- Morgans Hotel Group implements integrated group lead handling from Daylight and StarCite
- Jamaica’s Half Moon Resort installs Daylight’s Sales & Catering system
- Newmarket announces full integration between MeetingBroker and StarCite
- Newmarket partners with SAP to integrate Delphi Sales & Catering with mySAP CRM
- TimeShareWare releases new version of its sales and marketing software
Morgans Hotel Group has implemented an integrated group lead solution from Daylight Software and StarCite for its nine properties, the first US hotel company to do so. Morgans has added StarCite’s private-label Group RapidRFP to its web site; all leads sent through StarCite to a Morgans property automatically populate its Daylight Advanced Sales and Catering system. All RFP responses entered into Daylight then automatically populate the planner’s custom site within StarCite. Morgans has also partnered with intermediaries including American Express and HelmsBriscoe, both of which use StarCite technology.
Jamaica’s Half Moon Resort has installed Daylight’s Sales & Catering system. The resort includes 32 Royal Villas with 197 sleeping rooms, a plantation-style hotel with 222 guestrooms, 26,000 square feet of indoor function space, four restaurants, eight bars, 54 swimming pools(!), a golf course, 13 tennis courses, a Dolphin Lagoon, spa, fitness center, equestrian center, four squash courts, a croquet lawn, putting green, jogging and cycling trails, and basketball and volleyball courts.
(www.morganshotelgroup.com, www.halfmoonclub.com.jm, www.daylightsoftware.com)
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Newmarket International announced full two-way web services integration between its MeetingBroker module and StarCite. Meeting planners’ RFPs originating from StarCite’s Online Marketplace will automatically flow into MeetingBroker where they will be instantly assigned and routed to the appropriate hotel sales person. Responses entered in MeetingBroker automatically and immediately populate relevant sections in StarCite.
Newmarket has partnered with SAP to integrate its Delphi Sales & Catering product with the mySAP Customer Relationship Management system. The joint initiative brings together CRM functions such as account and contact management, marketing campaign management and automated lead management, with Delphi functions such as function room management, guest room management, and catering and event management, based on a single workflow and a single view of the customer data. The goal is to provide a more seamless channel from the national or global sales office, a single view of an account across the enterprise, and the ability to service that account or event using more comprehensive information.
(www.starcite.com, www.sap.com, www.newmarketinc.com)
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TimeShareWare has released a new version of its sales and marketing software. Enhancements include automated screens that track tour guests real-time, tools to reduce wait and tour times, enhanced follow-up on sales leads after the tour and a more intuitive user interface. (www.timeshareware.com)
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F&B/POINT OF SALE
- Squirrel acquires source code rights to Lochinvar's suite of loyalty marketing software
Squirrel has acquired source code rights to Lochinvar's suite of loyalty marketing software, which are currently integrated into the Squirrel POS System. Effective immediately, Squirrel will develop, sell, train and support former Lochinvar software under the brand name Squirrel Customer Relationship Management (CRM). The suite includes Lochinvar's Gift Card, Customer Loyalty and Delivery modules. (www.lochinvarsoftware.com, www.squirrelsystems.com)
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GUEST SERVICES
- MTech relocates to new headquarters facility
- LodgeNet incorporating LG Electronics’ Pro:Idiom content protection in its HDTV offering
- Hotel Bel-Air in Los Angeles selects Bartech minibars for all of its 91 rooms
- Dometic releases HiPro in-room refreshment centers
- Hilton launches newly-designed Hilton Technology Room guestroom "laboratory"
- OTRUM to incorporate ATI’s XILLEON System-on-Chip (SOC) for interactive digital TV
- Starwood licenses EFI PrintMe mobile and Internet printing for its properties worldwide
- DataValet introduces bandwidth management for hospitality high-speed Internet services
MTech has relocated to a new 30,000-square-foot in West Perrine, Florida, from its former 10,000-square foot facility a few miles away in Kendall, Florida. (www.m-tech.com)
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LodgeNet has incorporated LG Electronics USA’s Pro:Idiom premium content protection technology into its high-definition television (HDTV) offering for hotel guest rooms. Pro:Idiom ensures security for satellite-delivered and video-on-demand content adhering to the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) digital transport standards, and will be licensed to commercial TV manufacturers and lodging video-on-demand providers on a non-discriminatory, non-royalty basis. The LodgeNet/LG HDTV platform also incorporates the digital tuning and video-on-demand system components into the flat panel plasma and LCD screens, eliminating the set-top box and providing a cleaner in-room presentation. (www.lge.com, www.lodgenet.com)
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The Hotel Bel-Air in Los Angeles has selected Bartech minibars for all of its 91 rooms and suites. (www.hotelbelair.com, www.bartech.com)
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Dometic has released its HiPro in-room refreshment centers, incorporating Fuzzy Logic II, an upgraded version of Dometic’s energy-regulating software which periodically runs a self-diagnostic program for peak efficiency and performance. The HiPro models include an LED door-opening indicator system and the CUC System, a sensor-controlled cooling unit monitor that continuously checks all functions. (www.dometic.com)
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Hilton Hotels Corp has launched its newly-designed Hilton Technology Room, a fully-functioning guestroom "laboratory" for gathering customer feedback on new and emerging technologies. Current technology-focused equipment includes a 16 x 9 format, 70-inch front projection screen, a Bose Lifestyle 28 Series II home theater system and speakers, ceiling-mounted front projector, a Philips MiraVision LCD panel next to the projection screen and serving as a television monitor or (when switched off) a mirror, an LCD flat-panel TV above the bathroom's whirlpool tub, an AMX Touch Panel wireless remote control (for the stereo, televisions, automated climate control, window coverings, lighting, security camera, and housekeeping status), a biometric safe controlled by guests’ fingerprints, an adjustable bed, a digitally-controlled shower and a hair dryer made from 100% crushed tourmaline mineral which combines ionic and infrared technology to decrease drying time by up to 60% and eliminate static electricity and frizz. (www.hiltonworldwide.com)
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OTRUM will incorporate ATI Technologies (Canada)’s XILLEON System-on-Chip (SOC) for its interactive digital TV. The first SOC product will be the OTRUM Fusion, which will offer full screen TV based web browsing, scaled video for ‘Picture in Browser’ and ‘Picture in Menu’, digital surround sound, and provide complex graphical processing capabilities to generate animated menus and Electronic Programming Guides (EPG). (www.ati.com, www.otrum.com)
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Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide is now offering EFI PrintMe mobile and Internet printing at its properties through a global licensing agreement. With PrintMe, guests can print from any mobile device to any PrintMe-enabled printer. (www.starwood.com, www.printme.com)
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DataValet has introduced bandwidth management functionality for its hospitality-focused high-speed Internet services. Bandwidth Management allows facilities to limit the amount of bandwidth consumed by each end user and to offer special service packages for users requiring additional bandwidth. Properties can also manage bandwidth usage in meeting and conference facilities so that the appropriate amount of bandwidth can be provisioned to presenters and exhibitors even during peak traffic hours. If DataValet-enabled facilities share an Internet backbone with operational systems, bandwidth management can limit end user consumption of the total bandwidth to ensure the stability of mission critical applications. (www.datavalet.com)
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INVENTORY/PURCHASING
- Adaco announces ten new Eclipse installations
- HEI Hospitality signs with Avendra for its 23 full-service hotels
Adaco announced seven new hotel clients for its Adaco Eclipse system, and three client upgrades to Eclipse. The new clients are Jumeirah International Bab Al Shams Desert Resort (Dubai), Sheraton La Caleta (Spain), Sheraton Paris (France), Franklyn D Resort (Jamaica), Aspen Meadows Resort & Conference Center (Aspen CO), The Willard Inter-Continental (Washington, D.C.) and the Westin Savannah (Georgia). Clients that upgraded are the Doha Marriott Gulf Hotel (Doha, Qatar), the Millennium Broadway (New York, NY), and the Vintage Inns of Niagara on the Lake (Ontario, Canada). Adaco currently serves more than 500 properties in 48 countries. (www.adacoservices.com)
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HEI Hospitality, owner and operator of Merritt Hospitality, has contracted with purchasing vendor Avendra for its 23 full-service hotels in the United States, which operate under such brand names as Marriott, Sheraton, Westin and Hilton. (www.avendra.com)
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ENGINEERING
- MTech celebrates 500th installation of PMWorks preventative maintenance software
MTech recently celebrated the 500th installation of its PMWorks preventative maintenance scheduling software, at the 121-room Best Western Steeplegate Inn – Davenport, Iowa. (www.bestwestern.com, www.m-tech.com)
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SECURITY
- Carlson Hospitality Worldwide designates Safemark Systems as a Preferred Vendor
Carlson Hospitality Worldwide has designated Safemark Systems as a Preferred Vendor for its range of in-room safes. (www.safemark.com)
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