AUGUST 30 - SEPTEMBER 20, 2005
TOP O' THE NEWS
- Wi-Fi availability is becoming universal, but not everyone wants to be on-line, all the time.
Wi-Fi’s getting more universal than ever, but just because it’s available doesn’t mean that everyone who CAN use it WANTS to use it at every physically-possible opportunity. A recent Gartner survey of over 2,000 US and UK business travelers bemoans their findings that despite the growing availability of Wi-Fi hot spots both in transit and inside terminals, only 25% of U.S. and 17% of U.K. business travelers take advantage of it. Actually, I think that’s a pretty high percentage, considering that people have many other things to do than be connected. It’s certainly higher than the average take-rate for in-room Internet access or even in-room pay-per-view movies.
Gartner found that with the current crop of Wi-Fi-equipped laptops users forgo access for various cultural and financial reasons rather than through lack of technological familiarity, and wonders why they don’t connect more often. But while Gartner recommends that airlines (for example) could use in-flight Internet access as a beneficial differentiator (especially since it’s less costly than other in-flight enhancements), it’s nowhere near the top of travelers’ wish-lists; more personal space, bigger baggage allowances and better entertainment all have higher priority. Further, over 75% said they’d welcome the chance to be out of contact for a while whilst in the air.
Wi-Fi is not the only communications technology targeted at business travelers, of course. Gartner predicts that 3G could become more effective than Wi-Fi for some European users, especially as costs, roaming arrangements and coverage become more acceptable. A 3G contract can be cheaper than just a few hours' access at a commercial Wi-Fi hot spot, though for occasional access Wi-Fi is likely to provide a more satisfactory quality of service.
However we get it, let’s be grateful for access when and where we want it, but also acknowledge that we do have other interests. And pray that VoIP is banned from airlines just as surely as cell-phone usage…
**
Back to Top...
PEOPLE ON THE MOVE
- Timothy Mathews takes over as President and CEO of Daylight; Bill Duncan steps down
- Darrin Pinkham joins Ginn Clubs & Resorts as Vice President, Application Systems
- David Elton promoted to Chief Executive Officer of Leonardo
- Eric Danziger joins Kimpton’s Board of Directors
- TravelCLICK appoints Scott Smith to CFO and Todd Hinkel to CIO
Timothy Mathews has taken over as President and CEO of Daylight Software in addition to his roles as Chairman and Chief Financial Officer, replacing founder Bill Duncan, who has announced plans to step down. Mr. Mathews became involved with the company as an investor four years ago; he has been the majority shareholder for the past two years, and chairman of Daylight’s board of directors since November 2003. He is also a part owner of several hotels and a convention center. Mr. Duncan will continue to work with Daylight on a consulting basis for the next two years.
**
Darrin Pinkham has joined Ginn Clubs & Resorts as Vice President, Application Systems, a newly created position. He was most recently Chief Technology Officer for Loews Hotels at Universal Orlando, and has also worked for Boca Resorts, Hershey Resorts, and Inter Continental Hotels & Resorts in technology and finance management related positions.
**
David Elton as been promoted to Chief Executive Officer of Leonardo Media BV, based at its Headquarters in London. Mr. Elton has been with Leonardo for 5 years, most recently as Managing Director, EMEA and USA . He had earlier served as a Vice President at Starwood Hotels and Resorts, and has held appointments with Ritz-Carlton and the Forte organization in both corporate marketing positions and at property level.
**
Eric Danziger has joined the Kimpton Hotel & Restaurant Group’s Board of Directors. Mr. Danziger is currently Chief Executive Officer of ZipRealty, a residential real estate brokerage firm, but he is more widely known as the former President and Chief Operating Officer of Carlson Hotels Worldwide, and earlier as President and CEO of Starwood Hotels and Resorts and President of Wyndham Hotels and Resorts.
**
TravelCLICK has appointed Scott Smith to Chief Financial Officer and Todd Hinkel to Chief Information Officer.
Mr. Smith has over 25 years of executive financial, operating and investment experience, most recently as Vice President of Finance for PLM Transportation Equipment Corp. and earlier as CFO of Concept Shopping.
Mr. Hinkel has over 15 years of experience in strategic and operational information management. He was most recently co-founder and President at Customer Evolutions, Inc. and the Vice President of Customer Management Solutions of Tanning Technology Corp.
**
Back to Top...
PROPERTY MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS
- Radisson adds prior-stay folio reprint to Express Yourself online check-in process
- AmeriSuites transitions 43 hotels from MSI DOS to WinPM platform in 35 days
- Maple House Hotel, Dublin orders Visual One’s PMS, POS and Accounts Receivable
- Folio Hotels orders Visual One’s PMS, S&C, POS, Web Bookings and Spa Management
- Good Nite Inns orders Ramesys’ centrally-hosted Entirety PMS for 13 properties
- Woodfin Suite Hotels implementing HIS’ full range for 16 hotels, centrally hosted
- HIS partners with CondotelWare, develops close systems integration
- Beverly Hills Plaza, Sanibel Harbour Resort & Spa and The Inn at St. John's all order Springer-Miller
Radisson Hotels & Resorts has added the ability to reprint prior-stay folios to its Express Yourself online check-in process. Guests can now also specify their parking preference (valet, indoor, outdoor or long term) and type of vehicle (car/truck or RV/bus). (www.radisson.com)
**
AmeriSuites recently transitioned 43 corporate-owned hotels from Multi-Systems Inc. (MSI) DOS-based PMS platform to its Windows-based WinPM platform in just 35 days. The transition was made possible by MSI’s new ‘one-button’ data migration tool, which avoids the need for MSI trainers and hotel staff to re-enter information and validate the results. (www.amerisuites.com, www.msisolutions.com)
**
The 25-room Maple House Hotel, Dublin has ordered Visual One’s PMS, POS and Accounts Receivable modules, through RockSoft Hospitality Systems, Visual One’s Irish distributor.
UK-based Folio Hotels has contracted with Visual One for its integrated Property Management, Sales and Catering, Point of Sale, Web Bookings and Spa Management systems for its three and four-star hotels situated in the Lake District, Derbyshire, Devon and Surrey.
(www.v1s.com)
**
Good Nite Inns has ordered Ramesys’ Entirety multi-property PMS systems for its 13 properties, including PMS, CRM and Web booking, along with the MPower centralized reporting and data-mining tool. The system will be centrally hosted by Ramesys, and will also provide connectivity to electronic distribution channels including SynXis and Expedia. (www.goodnite.com, www.us.ramesys.com)
**
Woodfin Suite Hotels is implementing HIS’ full range of systems for its 16 Woodfin Suite Hotels and Chase Suite properties, hosted at a central data center. Systems to be provided include Hotel Information Systems core (including CRS and Corporate management), the epitome Property Management System, Point of Sale and Business Intelligence Analytics.
HIS has partnered with CondotelWare to provide its condo-hotel clients with management software. The two companies have developed an integration link that manages the reservation, fee allocations, revenue tracking and distribution, tax reporting, owner statements, and securities adherence.
(www.woodfinsuitehotels.com, www.condotelware.com, www.hotelinfosys.com)
**
The 116-room Beverly Hills Plaza Hotel has chosen PAR Springer-Miller Systems’ SMS|Host Hospitality Management System.
The Sanibel Harbour Resort & Spa has ordered SMS|Host for its resort in Fort Myers, Florida. The Resort, which includes a 240-room hotel, 107 concierge-style units and 54 condominiums, has also installed Springer-Miller's multi-property management and SMS|World Internet booking.
The Inn at St. John's has installed SMS|Host at its resort in Plymouth, Michigan. A Detroit-area landmark for more than half a century, The Inn includes 118 guest rooms, a 27-hole golf course, 25 meeting rooms and an 80-seat upscale restaurant. Modules installed include the PMS, Multi-Property Management, Retail Point-of-Sale, Golf Tee Time Scheduling, Touch Fine Dining POS and SMS|World for Internet booking.
(www.sanibel-resort.com, www.springermiller.com)
**
Back to Top...
RESERVATIONS
- Korman Communities chooses GenaRes as hotel reservations system provider
Korman Communities has chosen GenaRes Worldwide Reservation Services as the hotel reservations system provider for its 18 owned and operated apartment and corporate suite communities in New York, Washington, D.C., New Jersey, Pennsylvania and North Carolina. With more than 100 units per building, Korman’s furnished apartments are leased for extended stays as well as nightly stays. (www.korman1.com, www.genares.com)
**
Back to Top...
MARKETING / MANAGEMENT
- MarketingSherpa’s 2nd annual Search Engine Benchmark Guide defines top 3 trends
MarketingSherpa has released the 2nd annual edition of its Search Engine Benchmark Guide. The Guide defines the top three search engine marketing trends to watch in 2006 as:
- Top search engines will remain few but will compete more directly for customers instead of just fine-tuning their algorithms.
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to boost natural position in results pays off with 30% higher click conversion, but is greatly underutilized compared to less-effective paid position ads.
- Press releases being written to benefit from SEO and generate greater responses from a search engine-using public.
(www.sherpastore.com/store/page.cfm/p.cfm/2166?9023)
**
Back to Top...
REVENUE MANAGEMENT
- Langham Hotel Boston to implement Optims.Hotel Revenue Management System
- Radisson SAS Royal Viking Hotel, Stockholm implements EzRMS
- Groupe Lucien Barrière selects RateTiger’s RTAllocator to manage internet distribution
The historic Langham Hotel in Boston is implementing Optims.Hotel Revenue Management System. (www.langhamhotels.com/langham/boston/, www.optimsamerica.com)
**
The 459-room Radisson SAS Royal Viking Hotel, Stockholm has implemented EzRMS, the ninth Radisson SAS property to do so. (www.radissonsas.com, www.easyrms.com)
**
The Lucien Barrière Groupe has selected eRevMax’s RateTiger channel management solution, RTAllocator, to manage its internet distribution. RTAllocator allows a hotel to manage rates, availability, cut offs, MLOS restrictions, etc. from one screen for all distributors simultaneously, and interfaces to over 110 different 3rd party websites and tour operators. The Groupe Lucien Barrière runs 16 hotels, comprising 2300 rooms, 39 casinos, 169 restaurants, bars and night clubs. (www.lucienbarriere.com, www.ratetiger.com)
**
Back to Top...
F&B/POINT OF SALE
- Radiant Systems purchases MenuLink
- InfoGenesis acquires kiosk vendor e-Touch
- Tishman installs HSI Profit Series POS at Swan Hotel and Dolphin Hotel, Orlando, Florida
- Visual One announces sale of 500th restaurant POS system
Radiant Systems is purchasing MenuLink Computer Solutions, a provider of back-office software to the restaurant and foodservice industries with more than 9,000 restaurant sites across more than 280 restaurant chains. The acquisition is expected to close early fourth quarter of 2005. (www.menulinkinc.com, www.radiantsystems.com)
**
InfoGenesis has acquired e-Touch, a Princeton, New Jersey based provider of self service web and kiosk food ordering as well as cashless payment solutions. (www.infogenesis.com)
**
Tishman Hotel Corp has installed Micros subsidiary HSI’s Profit Series Point-of-Sale (POS) software for its Swan Hotel and Dolphin Hotel in Orlando, Florida. The system configuration includes 42 MICROS Eclipse terminals, 20 Dell terminals, 9 wireless tablet PCs and kitchen display systems, encompassing a total of 19 outlets across the two properties. (www.tishmanhotels.com, www.micros.com)
**
Visual One announced the sale of its 500th restaurant POS system, to Folio Hotels’ Richmond Hill Hotel in Surrey, England. The installation is scheduled for later this year. The first installation of V1 POS occurred in the summer of 1999. (www.foliohotels.com, www.visualonesystems.com)
**
Back to Top...
SPA/GOLF/LEISURE
- Rosen contracts with GolfHero for real-time golf vacation packaging at six sites
- Marriott Golf introduces golf resort reservation system with GolfHero and EZLinks for 19 properties
Rosen Hotels and Resorts has contracted with GolfHero to provide dynamic, real-time packaging of golf vacations utilizing HOTELPAR on all of its hotel web sites. Rosen currently owns and operates six properties in the Orlando market, with a seventh scheduled to open this fall.
Marriott Golf introduced a golf resort reservation system, Rounds & Rooms, in collaboration with GolfHero and EZLinks, operator of the world’s largest network for golf reservations. The system allows golfers to book tee times and hotel rooms simultaneously at 19 golf properties featuring 29 golf courses, worldwide. (www.rosenhotels.com, www.marriottgolf.com, www.golfhero.com)
**
Back to Top...
GUEST SERVICES
- Outrigger Waikiki on the Beach and Outrigger Reef on the Beach select GuestWare
- Fairmont announces free high-speed Internet access for President’s Club members from 2006
- Mar-a-Lago Club installs In-Systcom’s ResortLynx Infotainment system
- In-Systcom partners with SmartVideo deliver full motion TV to guest's cell phones, PDAs, etc.
- Sony signs deal with OTRUM to supply LCD TVs to hospitality industry in EMEA
- Wyndham Lisle / Naperville hotel installing Wayport’s wired/wireless Internet access
The Outrigger Waikiki on the Beach and Outrigger Reef on the Beach have selected Diversified Computer Corp’s GuestWare to manage their guest recognition, rapid response and incident tracking processes. GuestWare will be interfaced with Stellex, Outrigger’s proprietary PMS, to help both hotels recognize repeat customers and their preferences. GuestWare will replace existing manual systems at both hotels. (www.outrigger.com, www.guestware.com)
**
Fairmont Hotels & Resorts announced free high-speed Internet access throughout its portfolio to members of Fairmont President’s Club, starting January 1, 2006. (www.fairmont.com)
**
Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida has installed In-Systcom’s ResortLynx Infotainment system throughout its 118-room mansion and adjacent buildings. ResortLynx includes broadband Internet access, real-time financial data, Video-On-Demand, and customized concierge access.
In-Systcom has partnered with SmartVideo Technologies to combine ResortLynx’s IVOD (Interactive Video On Demand), HSIA (High Speed Internet Access), and Wi-Fi capabilities with the mobile TV Platform of SmartVideo, to deliver full motion TV to guest's cell phones, PDAs, or Pocket PCs and wireless laptops.
(www.trump.com, www.smartvideo.com, www.insystcom.com)
**
Sony has signed a partnership deal with OTRUM to supply interactive TV solutions to the hospitality industry in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The agreement covers the supply of LCD screens, in particular the BRAVIA S Series (23 inch to 40 inch models). (www.sony-europe.com, www.otrum.com)
**
The Wyndham Lisle / Naperville hotel is installing Wayport’s wired and wireless high-speed Internet access in all 242 guest rooms, and wired access in 17 meeting rooms. Wireless Internet access will also be available in the hotel’s lobby and lounge areas. (www.wyndhamlislehotel.com, www.wayport.net)
**
Back to Top...
BACK OFFICE
- Casino Windsor in Windsor, Ontario implements UniFocus’ Watson R.M.
The Casino Windsor in Windsor, Ontario, Canada has completed implementing UniFocus’ Watson R.M. Labor Management System for integrated business forecasting, labor planning, and scheduling. (www.casinowindsor.com, www.unifocus.com)
**
Back to Top...
INVENTORY/PURCHASING
- Cache Creek Casino selects EatecNetX
- Palms Casino Resort orders Agilysys’ Materials Management System
The Cache Creek Casino in Brooks, CA has selected Eatec Corp’s EatecNetX web-centric system for inventory and purchasing management of casino's warehouse, production kitchens, restaurants and retail shops. Accounting data will be exported from EatecNetX to Cache Creek's accounts payable and general ledger systems. (www.cachecreek.com, www.eatec.com)
**
The Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas has selected Agilysys’ Materials Management System (MMS) to streamline inventory and procurement operations at the 430-room property. (www.palms.com, www.agilysys.co)
**
Back to Top...
COMMUNICATIONS
- PhoneSuite installs 900th PBX system
PhoneSuite recently installed its 900th PBX system and supplemental lodging-specific telephone solutions at a 52-room Best Western in Canyon, Texas. (www.bestwestern.com, www.phonesuite.com)
**
Back to Top...
SECURITY
- Safemark announced orders for in-room safes from thirteen properties
Safemark Systems announced orders from thirteen properties for its in-room safes. These include the Alexis Suites Hotel, Seattle, Wash.; Desert Paradise Resort in Las Vegas; the Grafton Hotel on Sunset, West Hollywood, Calif.; Holiday Inn International Drive Resort, Orlando, Fla.; Marriot's Ocean Watch Villas, Myrtle Beach, S.C.; MVCI, Aruba Surf Club; Ramada Inn Regency in Hyannis,Mass.; Rio Grande Plaza in Salt Lake City, Utah; Southernmost Hotel, Key West, Fla.; The Arizona Golf Resort, Mesa, Ariz.; The Gainey Suites Hotel, Scottsdale, Ariz.; The Le Parc Suites Hotel, West Hollywood ,Calif.; and True Blue Bay Resort & Villas, Grand Anse, Grenada. (www.safemark.com)
**
Back to Top...
