AUGUST 9 - 29, 2005
TOP O' THE NEWS
- Hilton, Marriott named to CIO magazines Top 100 epitomizing boldness in use of technology
- GetThere survey shows continued increase in online booking for corporate travel
This year’s CIO magazine Top 100 awards were given to companies that epitomized boldness (“the willingness to assume significant risk for the sake of great reward “) in their approach to and use of technology.
Two hospitality companies were included:
Hilton Hotels Corp., for “investing in technology during the post-9/11 hospitality industry downturn, creating a single, enterprise-wide view of guests in more than 2,200 hotels and offering a suite of e-services to customers.”
Marriott International, for “moving to a single-instance ERP model that supports all business units and brands globally, reducing complexity enterprise-wide and risking all the ills that massive change is heir to.”
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GetThere announced the results of its fifth annual Corporate Travel Benchmark Survey, which tracks business travel patterns at 150 American corporations. The survey reports that 65% of corporate travel reservations are now made online, up from 60 percent in 2004 and significantly so from the 26% reported in 2001. Cost savings are a major driver fort this trend; trips booked online averaged 49% lower agency fees and 14% lower airfares, together saving about $100 per booking.
Nearly 60% of responding companies have expanded online travel programs internationally, up from last years 41%. Large multi-national companies continue to report higher overall global adoption. Further, 73% reported using specialized e-fulfillment centers for online bookings to secure lower transaction fees from their travel agencies, up 26% over the last two years.
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PROPERTY MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS
- Intercontinental installing Brilliant PMS/POS in 35 Express by Holiday Inn hotels in Arabian Gulf
- Barnsdale Hall Hotel orders Visual One’s integrated Front Office suite
- L’Auberge du Lac in Lake Charles, LA adds handheld check-in to its LMS PMS
Intercontinental Hotels Group will install Brilliant Hotelsoftware’s PMS and POS systems in 35 Express by Holiday Inn hotels to be built in the GCC region (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates) over the next 5 years. IHG currently uses Brilliant systems in Holiday Inns and Express by Holiday Inn in the UK, Germany, Italy and Spain. Hospitality Management Services Middle East, IHG’s master franchise holder for the GCC, will open the first hotel, in Dubai, by the end of 2006, followed by properties in Qatar, Bahrain and a second one in Dubai in 2007. Twelve of the new hotels 12 will be in Saudi Arabia. Brilliant recently established an office in Dubai to support this effort. (www.ichotels.com, www.myhotelsoftware.com)
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England’s Barnsdale Hall Hotel, Rutland has order Visual One’s integrated Front Office, Sales Ledger, Sales & Catering and Web Bookings system. The 65-room property also includes 49 timeshare units, 9 meeting rooms, 2 restaurants, 3 bars, a spa and other leisure facilities. (www.barnsdalehotel.co.uk, www.v1s.com)
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L’Auberge du Lac Hotel & Casino in Lake Charles, LA has added Agilysys’ LMS Guest Express Handheld Check-In to its LMS PMS. (www.ldlcasino.com, www.agilysys.com)
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RESERVATIONS
- Carlson Wagonlit adds direct hotel inventory connections to Symphonie platform
- Pelican System releases Call Center Reservation System
- Distinguished Hotels International contracts with Pegasus for reservations services
- Pegasus adds Group Manager module to RateChecker, makes RateChecker available to all its hotel customers
Carlson Wagonlit Travel (CWT) has added direct connections to hotel inventory to its CWT Symphonie platform for business travelers and agents, which began with direct access to airline inventories in 2003. Not surprisingly, Carlson Hotels Worldwide is the first hotel group to implement the technology. (www.carlsonwagonlit.com)
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Pelican System has released its new Call Center Reservation System, which allows a hotel to check availability among all hotel members within a group hotel chain, and make reservations on behalf of a guest. Repeat guests are recognized and preferences displayed. (www.pelicansystem.com)
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Distinguished Hotels International has contracted with Pegasus Solutions for reservations services for its 130+ properties. Services to be provided include the RezView CRS, NetBooker Internet booking engine, and both private-label and Utell by Pegasus voice services.
Pegasus has added a Group Manager module to its RateChecker service for use by hotel groups, and has made RateChecker available from Utell by Pegasus members to all its hotel customers. Powered by Electrobug, RateChecker monitors competitors and Web sites selected by customers, enabling hotels to compare pricing metrics.
(www.pegs.com)
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MARKETING / MANAGEMENT
- TIG Global adopts Omniture’s SiteCatalyst Web analytics suite
- Intellistrand licenses ZDirect’s ZMail as Email Service Provider (ESP) for destination websites
- Worldspan contracts with VFM Interactive for still image and rich media content
- Sirata Beach Resort implements HIS’ epitome Business Intelligence & Analytics system
TIG Global is now using Omniture’s SiteCatalyst Web analytics suite to provide its hotel clients in North America, Europe, Asia and the Caribbean with real-time access to customer trends. Metrics include the class of rooms being booked, popularity of hotel sites by geographic location, and correlations between booking levels and calendar-related factors. Omniture also provides TIG Global with graphic dashboards of key performance indicators. (www.omniture.com, www.TIGglobal.com)
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Intellistrand has licensed ZDirect’s ZMail as its Email Service Provider (ESP) for its destination portal websites, and will extend it to the 300+ lodging and real estate clients participating in its Web development group. ZMail consolidates guest data from separate databases and for use in intelligent marketing communications and guest services. (www.intellistrand.com, www.zdirect.com)
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Worldspan has contracted with VFM Interactive for the distribution of still image and rich media content for thousands of hotel properties for use by travel agencies and eCommerce sites, becoming VFM’s first GDS partner.
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The Sirata Beach Resort & Conference Center in St. Pete Beach, FL has implemented Hotel Information Systems’ epitome Business Intelligence & Analytics system, on a remote-hosted basis. The BIA module extracts data automatically from Sirata’s epitome for Unix (CLS) PMS, consolidates it into a data warehouse at HIS’ data center, and provides remote access over the Internet for the resort to create custom reports and analysis. (www.sirata.com, www.hotelinfosys.com)
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REVENUE MANAGEMENT
- Athenaeum InterContinental, Athens, Greece migrates to IDeaS Revenue Optimization v5
- Rembrandt Hotel Bangkok selects Optims.Hotel
The 543-room Athenaeum InterContinental in Athens, Greece has migrated to IDeaS Revenue Optimization v5 ASP solution. (www.athens.intercontinental.com, www.ideas.com)
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The 407-room Rembrandt Hotel Bangkok has selected Optims.Hotel Revenue Management System, integrated with its Fidelio Property Management System. (http://rembrandt-hotel-bangkok.th66.com, www.optims.com)
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F&B/POINT OF SALE
- SRAC rolls out Direcway broadband services at 220 Burger King locations
- L'Auberge du Lac deploys MICROS’ 9700 HMS and iCare Gift Card system
- Chefette Restaurants deploys MICROS’ RES 3000 POS and mymicros.net to 15 stores
- Par Technology to buy PixelPoint
Strategic Restaurants Acquisitions Corporation (SRAC), the second largest Burger King franchisee, has rolled out Direcway broadband services from Hughes Network Systems at 220 Burger King locations. This will enable the franchises to offer credit and debit payment options to customers.
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Pinnacle Entertainment has deployed MICROS’ 9700 Hospitality Management System (HMS) and iCare Gift Card system at its 750-room L'Auberge du Lac Hotel & Casino, in Lake Charles, Louisiana. The 9700 HMS will be used to manage food & beverage and retail operations. L'Auberge will also issue iCare Gift Cards to select employees, to allow them to comp guest charges for customer satisfaction and recognition purposes; iCare will track comping activity and enforce limits.
Caribbean QSR chain Chefette Restaurants has deployed MICROS’ RES 3000 POS system with Workstation 4 touch-screen terminals, an Enterprise Management centralized database and mymicros.net, to its 15 stores. Deployment was completed in mid-June 2005.
(www.pnkinc.com, www.chefette.com, www.micros.com)
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Expanding its stable of POS products, Par Technology has signed a letter of intent to acquire Toronto-based POS vendor PixelPoint Technologies. PixelPoint will continue to be managed by its senior management team; it currently has over 5,000 installations in full-service restaurants worldwide. (www.partech.com)
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SPA/GOLF/LEISURE
- Hilton Garden Inn Scottsdale North/Perimeter Center contracts with GolfHero
The Hilton Garden Inn Scottsdale North/Perimeter Center, Arizona has contracted with GolfHero for dynamic, real-time packaging of golf vacations utilizing HOTELPAR on its web site, and to market its rooms bundled with tee time inventory through affiliate golf courses that work with GolfHero. (www.hiltongardeninnscottsdalenorth.com, www.golfhero.com)
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GUEST SERVICES
- Aruba's Amsterdam Manor Beach Resort installing ResortLynx Infotainment system
- Adaco Services now offering SCLogic’s package tracking system
- StayOnline partners with SpectraLink to offer voice over Wi-Fi communications
- Radisson SAS the first international hotel chain to offer free Broadband across EAME
- Sanctuary at Kiawah Island installs Gold Key Solutions’ Concierge Assistant
Aruba's Amsterdam Manor Beach Resort is installing Insystcom’s ResortLynx Infotainment system. (www.amsterdammanor.com, www.insystcom.com)
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Adaco Services is now offering SCLogic’s package tracking system with its other hospitality software. SCLogic can be scaled to serve one location or an entire multi-national chain.
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StayOnline has partnered with SpectraLink to offer voice over Wi-Fi communications, using SpectraLink’s NetLink wireless telephones integrated with a property’s existing StayOnline Wi-Fi and telecom infrastructure. StayOnline technicians will sell, deploy and support the NetLink phones. (www.spectralink.com, www.stayonline.net)
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Radisson SAS claims to have become the first international hotel chain to offer free Broadband across hotels in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, both wired and wireless. Radisson SAS had installed wireless access at most of its hotels in early 2005; most will also offer free wired access by September.
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The 225-room Sanctuary at Kiawah Island has installed Gold Key Solutions’ Concierge Assistant to automate its guest service operations. (www.thesanctuary.com, www.goldkeysolutions.com)
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ENGINEERING
- Two Dallas-area Hyatt Regency hotels buy all-green power
Two Dallas-area Hyatt Regency hotels have agreed to buy all of their power from pollution-free sources. The Hyatt Regency Dallas at Reunion and Hyatt Regency DFW International Airport, will buy a combined 34 million kilowatt-hours of power a year from Austin-based Green Mountain Energy Co., which sells electricity generated from wind, water, the sun and other renewable sources. Both hotels are owned by Hunt-Woodbine Realty Corp.
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SECURITY
- Wyndham designates Safemark Systems as a preferred vendor for in-room safes
Wyndham has designated Safemark Systems as a preferred vendor for in-room safes at properties across North America.
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