OCTOBER 1 - 18, 2005
TOP O' THE NEWS
- Cost replaces location as key hotel selection criterion
- HTNG launches Architecture workgroup
Cost has replaced location as the key factor in selecting a hotel, according to Accenture’s latest semi-annual survey of 500+ US business travelers. This might reflect the increased use of the Internet for pre-trip planning, which would highlight the trade-offs between price and location for various hotel options; the survey reports that 90% of respondents use the Internet for research, and 74% book trips online (up from 61% in 2004 and 57% in 2003).
Whatever the cause, respondents stated that price - not location - is the top influencer in their choice of hotel, followed by location, staff service, and hotel brand/reputation. More are staying in mid-range hotels, too, up to 84% from last years 72%.
In a nod to technology’s convenience, two-thirds (65 percent) check in for their flights and/or hotel online. At the airport, 89% use self-service kiosks to check in and get boarding passes. No word on the usage of hotel check-in kiosks yet; maybe next year, when they’ve become more widespread.
Highlighting a lost marketing opportunity, 30% of the travelers stated that their preferred hotel does not recognize them as frequent customers, and another 15% are recognized but receive no special services. Only 37% said that their preferred hotel recognizes them and some of their basic preferences.
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Hotel Technology Next Generation (HTNG) has announced a new Architecture workgroup, tasked with defining an open-standards architecture (applications, data and integration) for the hospitality industry. The initial sponsors are Agilysys, Borgata Hotel Casino and Spa, IBM, SAS, Sea Island Company, SSA Global/Infinium, and Station Casinos. Applications from other interested workgroup participants will be accepted through November 9.
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PEOPLE ON THE MOVE
- Philip Wolf joins Spa Finder’s board of directors
- Jocelyn Valley joins Hotel Booking Solutions as Senior Demand Management Strategist
- Matt Heller hired as Vice President of Technology by TIG Global
- Eric Chapman joins Blue Square Studios as Vice President of Sales
Philip Wolf has joined Spa Finder’s board of directors. Mr. Wolf is founder and CEO of PhoCusWright; he had earlier served as president and CEO of Travelmation, a travel booking engine pioneer which was later sold to Rosenbluth International. He first entered the travel commerce arena in 1989 as head of a small agency.
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Jocelyn Valley has joined Hotel Booking Solutions as Senior Demand Management Strategist. Prior to joining HBSI, Ms. Valley worked with Walt Disney World on its electronic distribution efforts and managed WDW’s relationship with Internet aggregators, wholesalers, and technology partners. She had earlier served as a consultant at PricewaterhouseCoopers Management Consulting Services in the Hospitality & Leisure Practice.
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Matt Heller has been hired as Vice President of Technology by TIG Global. Mr. Heller was previously was founder and president of Text'd Inc, which provided outsourced CIO support and technology consulting services. He had previously served as a managing consultant at International Network Services, vice-president of operations at Overture, and in various senior positions at Network Solutions, Booz Allen Hamilton, and Fox Broadcasting Company.
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Eric Chapman has joined Blue Square Studios as Vice President of Sales. Mr. Chapman brings sixteen years of experience, most recently as Director of Sales for Internet distribution provider Datalex. He had previously served as Vice President for Tickets.com, and as Sales Manager -- National Accounts at Worldspan.
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PROPERTY MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS
- Enablez receives Hotelier magazine’s 2005 Supplier of the Year Pinnacle Award
Enablez Inc., makers of ResortSuite, has received Hotelier magazine’s 2005 Supplier of the Year award at the 17th Annual Pinnacle Awards. The Pinnacle awards recognize individuals and companies that have made outstanding contributions to the hospitality industry, based on their impact, significant innovations and accomplishments achieved over the course of the last year, and how the company has contributed to the community at large. (www.resortsuite.com)
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RESERVATIONS
- Vantis announces contracts with multiple hotels internationally
- Italy’s Hotel Marketing Solutions signs multi-year contract with GenaRes
- Chouinard & Myhre develops two way interface between Opera Express and InnLink CRS
- Chouinard & Myhre an IBM Premier Business Partner for the 14th consecutive year
- Travelocity enhances TotalTrip with multiple room booking and package savings calculator
- Big Bear Lake Resort Association switches to InntopiaCRS
- Golden Tulip, Active Hotels offer on-line booking for PDAs and Internet-enabled mobile phones
- Thompson Hotels selects Pegasus Systems’ Web Services for three properties
Vantis announced contracts with multiple hotels internationally as it celebrated its first year under the Vantis name. In addition to the 210-property Historic Hotels of America (HHA) organization, Vantis has signed more than 360 hotels in North America in the past six months. Another 70 in Latin America include the Dazzler Tower in Argentina, the El Tropicano in Mexico, and the Gamboa Rainforest Hotel in Panama. Amongst 100 new clients in EMEA are the Knightsbridge Hotel in London, the Accento Hotel Leipzig in Germany and the Barcelo Eresin Topkapi in Istanbul. More than 40 clients were added in Asia Pacific, including Meriton Apartments in Sydney, The Oasis Resort in Cairns and Federal Hotels and Resorts in Tasmania. (www.vantiscorp.com)
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Italy’s Hotel Marketing Solutions (HMS), a hotel representation and marketing company, has signed a multi-year reservations processing contract with GenaRes Worldwide Reservation Services for its 130 hotel customers. GenaRes now handles all HMS’ GDS and Internet-based reservations, including those originating through HMS’ Web site. (www.bookitalyhotels.com, www.genares.com)
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Chouinard & Myhre has developed a two way interface with the Micros’ Opera Express property management system for its largest central reservation client, InnLink. The XML-based interface handles reservations as well as rates and availability restrictions.
Chouinard & Myhre has also been designated as an IBM Premier Business Partner, IBM’s highest Business Partner level, for the 14th consecutive year, a recognition given to less than five percent of IBM Partners. The Premier level is based on the number of technical and sales certifications a firm holds, the revenue contribution to IBM, and the results of a customer satisfaction survey conducted by IBM.
(www.cm-inc.com)
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Travelocity has enhanced its TotalTrip dynamic shopping engine to book up to four rooms in a single hotel or TotalTrip reservation, with mixed room preferences such as a king bed in one room and two doubles in another. Travelocity also added a calculator to the flight + hotel TotalTrip booking process to show travelers the savings on a flight and hotel package versus individual components. (www.travelocity.com)
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The Big Bear Lake Resort Association has switched to Sterling Valley Systems’ ASP-based InntopiaCRS for its central reservations call center technology. The Big Bear Lake resort community, 100 miles northeast of Los Angeles, includes 21,000 full-time residents, a solar observatory, public zoo, nine-hole golf course and seven public campgrounds. (www.bigbearinfo.com, www.inntopia.com)
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Golden Tulip Hotels, Inns & Resorts has launched a service for users of PDAs and Internet-enabled mobile phones to search and book any of its 257 hotels online. The service uses XML technology over GPRS to deliver real time rates and availability from the group's Central Reservations System Goldres. (mobile.goldentulip.com)
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European online hotel reservation provider Active Hotels has partnered with mobile shopping service Reporo to offer on-line booking to users of PDAs and Internet-enabled mobile phones for over 3,500 hotels across the UK, from rural B&Bs to five star city center hotels. Active Hotels’ complete European inventory of over 11,000 hotels is due to become available on Reporo over the coming months. Reporo can be used on over 145 GPRS phones from 12 manufacturers, and can be used over multiple mobile networks including O2, Orange, Vodafone, T-Mobile, and Virgin. (www.activehotels.com, www.reporo.com)
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Thompson Hotels has selected Pegasus Systems’ Web Services by Open Hospitality for its 60 Thompson property in New York, the Sagamore in Miami and the Hollywood Roosevelt in Los Angeles. The hotels will continue to use Pegasus’ Utell platform to manage their web rates but will now also use Open Hospitality’s customizable web services, including an Internet booking engine. (www.thompsonhotels.com, www.openhospitality.com, www.pegs.com)
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MARKETING / MANAGEMENT
- Clairvoyix makes integrated marketing suite available as three separate modules
- Leonardo and ICE Portal combine their internet content distribution services
Clairvoyix is making its integrated marketing suite available as three separate modules, to target independent hotels and small chains. The modules are the Knowledge Factory (guest data consolidation, cleansing and enhancement), Hospitality Solution (targeted marketing to select guest groups) and Guest Intelligence (analytical reporting engine with Web-based reporting, including a dashboard of key marketing metrics, a feeder market analysis and guest demographic profiles). (www.clairvoyix.com)
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Leonardo and Florida-based ICE Portal have partnered to offer a combined internet content distribution service to over 20,000 travel websites and the four Global Distribution Systems. The combined companies’ central database now includes static and moving images from 50,000 hotels, 4,500 videos, and over 10,000 virtual tours. (www.leonardo.com, www.iceportal.com)
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REVENUE MANAGEMENT
- IDeaS integrates TravelCLICK's RateVIEW data into its revenue optimization system
- Kimpton Hotels signs with IDeaS
- Fastbooking integrates Electrobug technology for rate checking/updating
- Oceana Hotel group orders EzRMS for three properties
- Channel Boss opens branch office in Frankfurt, Germany
Integrated Decisions and Systems (IDeaS) has integrated TravelCLICK's RateVIEW data into its IDeaS revenue optimization solution, providing hoteliers with access to competitive rate-shopping information from more than 130 travel, brand and GDS sites for use in their pricing decisions.
Kimpton Hotels has signed with IDeaS Revenue Optimization. The product is being initially rolled out to 3 of its 39 hotels. Those hotels are, The Sir Francis Drake Hotel in San Francisco, the Hotel Monaco in Chicago and the Hotel Monaco in Denver.
(www.travelclick.net, www.kimptonhotels.com, www.ideas.com)
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European on-line booking provider Fastbooking SA is integrating Electrobug’s rate management technology into its Fastbooking Checker and Fastbooking Updater systems, supported by Fastbooking. Hotels using the services will be able to check online and GDS rates in realtime without leaving their usual CRS system, with a single point of contact for support. (www.fastbooking.com, www.electrobug.com)
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The Oceana Hotel group has ordered the EzRMS system for its two properties in Santa Barbara and Santa Monica and the Roger Williams Hotel in Manhattan, New York. The system will interface to the RDP PMSs in the California hotels, and to LANmark at the Roger Williams. (www.oceanahotelgrup.com, www.easyrms.com)
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Channel Boss has opened a branch office in Frankfurt, Germany to serve European customers of its Channel Management Platform, which was launched in Europe last June. Channel Boss allows hoteliers to change rates, availability and allocation simultaneously across multiple Internet channels from a single master screen. (www.channelboss.com)
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SALES & CATERING, MEETING PLANNING
- Doral Arrowwood implementing KoolConnect interactive television system
- ConventionPlanit.com and Lodging Interactive partner to help hotels and meeting planners
The Doral Arrowwood Conference Resort is implementing KoolConnect’s interactive television system both for guestroom digital movies and for custom applications for group participants and meeting planners. The latter include GEM (Guest Electronic Messaging, which allows the hotel or group meeting planner to send messages to the guest via their television) and Dynamic Group Itineraries (allowing the guest to view their group/function schedule on the television). Guest-oriented services include pay-per-view movies, Virtual Concierge, TV-based High Speed Internet Access, a digital TV Art Gallery and Free -To-Guest channels over a digital IP-based network. (www.doralarrowwood.com, www.koolconnect.com)
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ConventionPlanit.com and Lodging Interactive are partnering to help hotels reach meeting planners with current and accurate information, and to help the meeting planners with more hotel choices and a faster RFP process. ConventionPlanit.com provides a platform of meeting planning process services, including access to the Express RFP service. Lodging Interactive supplies hotel Internet marketing services, including website design/hosting, search engine marketing, email services and Internet planning services. (www.lodginginteractive.com, www.conventionplanit.com)
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F&B/POINT OF SALE
- San Manuel Indian Bingo and Casino selects InfoGenesis’ POS
The San Manuel Indian Bingo and Casino in Highland, California has selected InfoGenesis’ POS to manage all its food and beverage transactions. The newly-expanded facility includes two restaurants, upgraded bingo and slot areas, a banquet and meeting facility, and over 500,000 square-feet of public space. (www.sanmanuel.com, ww.infogenesis.com)
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GUEST SERVICES
- Two-thirds of North American hotels offer broadband services (In-Stat survey)
- Accor contracts with Telstra for wired and wireless high-speed Internet access in Australia
- Doral Arrowwood implementing KoolConnect
- Mandarin Oriental implementing Tangerine Global’s HDTV services
- LodgeNet to distribute high-definition versions of major Paramount motion pictures
- Uniguest offers remote PC clean up and security for hotel business center computers
- Montana’s 320 Guest Ranch installs StarBand 484 Earth Station wireless HSIA
Two-thirds of North American hotels now offer broadband services, according to an In-Stat survey. In-Stat predicts that medium-term growth will focus on two and three-star properties in North America and increased deployment in Europe and Asia Pacific, and estimates that broadband hotels will more than triple from 14,300 properties in 2004 to nearly 54,000 properties in 2009. The percentage of hotels offering high-speed internet connections in guest rooms jumped from 23% in 2001 to 50% last year. In higher priced rooms, the percentage is even higher.
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Accor has contracted with Telstra for wired and wireless high-speed Internet access at nearly 100 Sofitel, Novotel, Mercure, All Season, Ibis and Formule 1 hotels in Australia. Telstra will provide its Wireless Hotspot service and a wired service through inter-touch. The first of the installations commenced last month, with the full rollout progressively being completed over the rest of the year. (www.accorhotels.com.au, www.telstra.com.au)
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The Doral Arrowwood Conference Resort is implementing KoolConnect’s interactive television system both for guestroom digital movies and for custom applications for group participants and meeting planners. The latter include GEM (Guest Electronic Messaging, which allows the hotel or group meeting planner to send messages to the guest via their television) and Dynamic Group Itineraries (allowing the guest to view their group/function schedule on the television). Guest-oriented services include pay-per-view movies, Virtual Concierge, TV-based High Speed Internet Access, a digital TV Art Gallery and Free -To-Guest channels over a digital IP-based network. (www.doralarrowwood.com, www.koolconnect.com)
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Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group is implementing Tangerine Global’s High Definition Television (HDTV) programming services, starting with the new Landmark Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Hong Kong, and its Washington D.C. and New York properties. Tangerine Global services include satellite, international and HDTV channels; for international properties where HD cannot otherwise be received, Tangerine Global’s systems store, playback and manage programming that delivers HD channels indistinguishable from those received from HD broadcasters. (www.mandarin-oriental.com, www.tangerineglobal.com)
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LodgeNet has signed an agreement to distribute high-definition versions of Paramount’s major motion pictures on its sigNETure HDTV systems before they are available for consumer purchase or rental in HD resolution. (www.lodgenet.com)
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Uniguest has announced a national service to provide remote PC clean up and remote installation of its security software offering for hotel business center computer workstations. Clean up includes spyware removal, removing of unwanted software, virus checks and removal if possible, and general PC clean up, as well as operating system and office application updates. (www.uniguest.com)
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Montana’s 320 Guest Ranch has installed a StarBand 484 Earth Station wireless system for Wi-Fi high speed Internet access from points throughout the ranch, via Wi-Fi compliant Access Points linked to the Earth Station. The 320 Guest Ranch, close to Yellowstone National Park, offers 87 sleeping rooms. (www.320Ranch.com)
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BACK OFFICE
- Sentry Hospitality implements Aptech’s Profitvue and Webvue accounting systems
- Shift4’s tokenization technology avoids need to store credit card numbers
Sentry Hospitality has implemented Aptech’s Profitvue and Webvue ASP back office accounting systems for its business destinations, conference centers, golf club resorts, lifestyle communities, entertainment attractions and learning centers throughout the U.S. The Profitvue and Webvue applications are remotely hosted at Aptech’s data center. (www.sentryhospitality.com, www.aptech-inc.com)
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Shift4 has developed tokenization technology to avoid the need for merchants and payment application vendors to store credit card numbers after the initial authorization request. Instead of returning credit card data to the originating merchant after authorization or settlement, Shift4 now sends an encrypted token representing the transaction, allowing the merchant to perform incremental authorizations without storing the card number itself. (www.shift4.com)
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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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