FEBRUARY 1-14, 2006
TOP O' THE NEWS
- On-line travel booking continues to grow, as does search engine use
A new survey from UK firm Hitwise reports that online travel bookings accounted for 5.8% of all online visits in mid-January, the highest level in the last 15 months and up 13% from a year ago. Total visits to travel websites (including bookings) were up 34% from the end of 2005.
Indicating the continued rise in the use of search engines, Hitwise reported an increase of 30% in the number of visits they sent to travel websites. Search now accounts for 38% of visits to travel sites, Google being the dominant engine with 73% of such visits in December.
Not surprisingly considering the timing of the survey, searches for “flights to Australia” and “flights to New Zealand” were up 96% and 74% respectively between Christmas and mid-January. (www.hitwise.co.uk)
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PROPERTY MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS
- Nantucket Island Resorts installs centralized Maestro for five properties and 240-slip marina
- UK’s Aston Hotel Group orders Visual One Systems for its three hotels
- Dolce implements 12th epitome PMS (at Zermatt Resort & Spa), 1st to include CondotelWare
- Softwear Group appoints ClubSoft its exclusive distributor for private clubs
- InterContinental has over 2,000 North American hotels using OPERA and OPERA Xpress
- Camino Real deploying OPERA Enterprise Solution and MICROS 9700 POS to all 20+ sites
Nantucket Island Resorts has installed Northwind’s Maestro Enterprise Multi-Property Front Office, ResEze Internet booking, and Marina Vessel Management for its five properties and 240-slip marina, running centralized on a single system and single-image database. The resorts include The Wauwinet, the White Elephant resort, the 104-room Harbor House Village, the historic Jared Coffin House, the 23 Cottages at Boat Basin, and the Nantucket Boat Basin full-service marina. (www.nantucketislandresorts.com, www.maestropms.com)
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The UK’s Aston Hotel Group has ordered Visual One Systems suite for its three hotels, with modules including Property Management, Sales and Catering, Point of Sale and Web Bookings. Initial installation will be at the group’s hotel in Darlington (due to open in the next few weeks), followed in September by its new hotel in Dumfries, Scotland and early next year by its property in Neath, Wales. (www.v1s.com)
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Dolce International is implementing HIS’ epitome PMS at its 226-room Zermatt Resort & Spa conference center/resort/condominium development near Park City, Utah. This is Dolce’s 12th property to use the system, but the first to use CondotelWare’s Condo Hotel Accounting and Management system, which is integrated with epitome under a partnership agreement with HIS. (www.dolce.com, www.condotelware.com, www.hotelinfosys.com)
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The Softwear Group has appointed ClubSoft, Inc. as the exclusive distributor of its Central Reservations/Property Management suite for the Private Club sector. The two companies will also collaborate on future enhancements for this market. (www.softweargroup.com, www.clubsoftinc.com)
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InterContinental Hotels Group now has over 2,000 hotels in North America using MICROS OPERA and MICROS OPERA Xpress systems, and another 300 internationally. Both products offer integration with IHG's HIRO revenue management system and HOLIDEX Plus central reservations system.
Camino Real Hotels is deploying the OPERA Enterprise Solution and MICROS 9700 Hospitality Management System (HMS) to all of its 20+ properties, including Property Management, Sales & Catering, Reservations, Customer Information, Web Services, and Revenue Management. The OPERA suite is being centrally hosted in a datacenter managed by Camino Real's staff. The first three properties to go live are the new Camino Real Ciudad Juarez, Camino Real Guadalajara, and Camino Real Mexico; deployment is scheduled to be complete in late 2006. The MICROS 9700 HMS is used throughout the various food and beverage operations.
(www.ichotelsgroup.com, www.caminoreal.com, www.micros.com)
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RESERVATIONS
- Shutters on the Beach and Hotel Casa del Mar implement iHotelier Web booking
- ONLINE-Reservation TTG Travel Club to launch in April with Pelican’s Reservation System
- Thirty-seven hotel brands sign up for Amadeus’ Best Available Rate programme
- Pocono Mountains Vacation Bureau implementing Blue Canopy’s 4pi Concierge hospitality system
- SECURE-RES clients’ online bookings up over 50% from 2004
- Peninsula implements SynXis’ RedX for all GDS, IDS and Voice channels
- IMS releases Calendar Driven Multiple Placement Selection Engine and new version of Enterprise Hotel Reservation Portal
Shutters on the Beach and Hotel Casa del Mar, in Santa Monica, have implemented TravelCLICK’s iHotelier Central Reservations System for website reservations. (www.shuttersonthebeach.com, www.travelclick.net)
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Asia’s ONLINE-Reservation TTG Travel Club is scheduled to launch in April 2006 using Pelican’s Online Reservation System. Membership is limited to travel trade professionals, specifically those from travel agencies, airlines, National Tourist Offices (NTOs) and selected travel media. (www.ttgasia.com, www.pelicansystem.com)
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Amadeus announced that thirty-seven hotel brands have signed up for its Best Available Rate programme, under which hotels guarantee to supply the GDS with rates equal to or lower than those available through other distribution systems, branded websites or their own call centre. (www.amadeus.com)
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The Pocono Mountains Vacation Bureau is implementing Blue Canopy’s 4pi Concierge hospitality system. Visitors will be able to view and reserve rooms at member hotels on the PMVB Web site, and create itineraries, purchase bundled packages and reserve golf, spa, restaurants and other events. (www.800poconos.com, www.bluecanopy.com)
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SECURE-RES reports that $176 million in consumer direct online bookings (for 1.2 million room nights) were generated through its Internet booking engine in 2005, a 51.7% increase from 2004. (www.secure-res.com)
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Peninsula Hotels has implemented its new private label chain code, PN, on SynXis’ RedX Distribution Management System, which provides a single image inventory of rates and availability across all GDS, IDS and Voice channels. (www.peninsula.com, www.synxis.com)
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Internet Merchandising Systems (IMS) has released its Calendar Driven Multiple Placement Selection Engine, which allows visitors to book hotel rooms (from floor/view maps), dining/concert seats, marina docking space, campground sites and other location-specific items. A graphical user interface provides color-coded seating or placement display (using customer-provided graphical layouts) for use with the IMS Voyager Reservation Management and Merchandising Software.
IMS also released an updated version of its Enterprise Hotel Reservation Portal, allowing individual properties to access a secure administrative area to control their rates, availability, photos and descriptive information, and to control rooms on allocation rather than in active inventory. Also included are extended abilities for travel agents to manage their account, commission and reservations data from a single user interface.
(www.imscart.com)
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MARKETING / MANAGEMENT
- Hyatt International signs with VRX Studios for online visual content for its 90 properties
- Sabre Holdings signs three-year global licensing agreement with VRX Studios
- WORLDHOTELS selects ICE Portal for rich media content for nearly 500 hotels
- TravelCLICK renews and extends multi-year agreement with Lanyon
- La Quinta contracts with VFM Interactive for still images for nearly 600 properties
Hyatt International has signed with VRX Studios for online visual content for its 90 properties in Europe, Asia, Australia, Mexico and the Middle East, following a similar agreement last year to cover Hyatt’s 120 domestic properties. Coverage of the international properties is due to be complete by year-end; VRX will create 360-degree virtual tours, still images, and interactive maps for each location.
Sabre Holdings signed a three-year global licensing agreement to offer VRX Studios’ archive of hotel, cruise and destination visual content on its affiliates' points of sale, including www.travelocity.com, www.lastminute.com and the World Choice Travel affiliate network.
(www.hyatt.com, www.sabre.com, www.vrxstudios.com)
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WORLDHOTELS has selected ICE Portal (ICE) to provide production, hosting and distribution of rich media content for nearly 500 hotels in 70 countries. ICE will provide all WORLDHOTELS with customized content delivery for their brand sites and to thousands of third party travel sites. (www.worldhotels.com, www.iceportal.com)
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TravelCLICK has renewed its multi-year agreement with Lanyon for its PropertyVault Content Control Center / RFPpublisher products, and has added HODpublisher and RatePublisher. TravelCLICK uses the Lanyon products to support the real-time content distribution capability of its iHotelier Central Reservation System. (www.travelclick.net, www.lanyon.com)
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La Quinta Corp has contracted with VFM Interactive to distribute still photographic images for the nearly 600 properties of its affiliated brands, which include La Quinta Inn, La Quinta Inn & Suites and Baymont Inn & Suites. (www.lq.com, www.vfmii.com)
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REVENUE MANAGEMENT
- Kempinski migrating to ASP version of IDeaS systems
- Best Western endorses TravelCLICK’s intelligence reports and marketing options
Kempinski has migrated to IDeaS’ V5i ASP Revenue Optimization system from IDeaS’ Enterprise system at several hotels. The move to the ASP product is intended to take advantage of IDeaS’ Best Available Rate functionality and integration with Rate Shopper price recommendations. (www.kempinski.com, www.ideas.com)
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Best Western International has endorsed TravelCLICK’s competitive intelligence reports (including Hotelligence, FuturePACE and RateVIEW), and is supporting the use of TravelCLICK’s marketing and media options and preferred placement products. (www.bestwestern.com, www.travelclick.net)
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SALES & CATERING, MEETING PLANNING
- Marriott re-launches event services group as Eventcom International by Marriott
- WorldTravel Meetings & Incentives (WTMI) to implement and offer StarCite technology
Marriott has re-launched its former EventCom Technologies service as Eventcom International by Marriott, offering EventStar event management, Eventcom Technologies & Production Services staging and broadcast services, and LaunchStar product launch services. (www.eventcominternational.com)
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WorldTravel Meetings & Incentives (WTMI), the meetings management division of WorldTravel BTI, is implementing StarCite's meetings management technology for its internal use, and will distribute the technology to its customers. The StarCite application will eventually replace WTMI's proprietary Plan2Attend meetings management tool. (www.wtmionline.com, www.starcite.com)
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F&B/POINT OF SALE
- Groupe Le Duff deploying MICROS RES 3000 and mymicros.net at 462 sites worldwide
- Camino Real deploying MICROS 9700 to all 20+ properties
- Del Taco selects Radiant’s Aloha QuickService POS and P1510 terminals for 250+ sites
- Hard Rock International orders MicroStrategy’s Business Intelligence Platform
- ReServe Interactive releases v9.0 of Reservation, Catering and Table Management system
- ‘wichcraft implements InfoGenesis’ Self-Service web ordering and wireless POS kiosks
- nuSable and WaiterPAD POS Systems merge
Groupe Le Duff is deploying MICROS RES 3000, mymicros.net, and 800 MICROS Workstation 4's (WS4) to 87 Pizza Del Arte and 375 Brioche Doree restaurants worldwide. The project will start in March, with completion due by year-end. Twelve pilot sites were deployed with RES 3000 POS and Enterprise Management for central management and control of store level databases for both POS and back office applications. In addition, mymicros.net provides web-based business intelligence using transaction data updated every 15 minutes.
Camino Real Hotels is deploying MICROS 9700 Hospitality Management System (HMS) and OPERA Enterprise Solution to all of its 20+ properties. The OPERA suite is being centrally hosted in a datacenter managed by Camino Real's staff; the MICROS 9700 HMS is used throughout the various food and beverage operations.
(www.groupeleduff.com, www.caminoreal.com, www.micros.com)
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Del Taco has selected Radiant’s Aloha QuickService point-of-sale (POS) running on Radiant P1510 terminals along with Aloha Centralized Data Management and the MenuLink back office suite for more than 250 corporate and franchisee locations in the USA. (www.deltaco.com, www.radiantsystems.com)
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Hard Rock International has ordered MicroStrategy’s Business Intelligence Platform for reporting and analysis of key performance metrics throughout its company-owned cafe locations. (www.hardrock.com, www.microstrategy.com)
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ReServe Interactive has released version 9.0 of its Reservation, Catering and Table Management system. Apart from a new look, enhancements include automated Catering and Event equipment lists (to include utensils, linens and serving equipment needed for each food or beverage item), automatic guest paging, wait time calculator, multiple server assignment and wait staff management for Reservations & Table Management, user-specific customer, event or reservation information listings, automatically-scheduled customer contact e-mails and user-specific Home Page configurability. (www.reserveinteractive.com)
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‘wichcraft, a New York-based gourmet sandwich company, has implemented InfoGenesis’ Self-Service web ordering functionality for food pick-up or delivery, and wireless point-of-sale kiosks in its Bryant Park location. (www.wichcraftnyc.com, www.infogenesis.com)
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nuSable and WaiterPAD POS Systems have merged. The new entity expects to do business as both Sable POS and WaiterPAD POS Systems in North America, providing ongoing support of its existing Sable POS installations and providing new systems and upgrades of the WaiterPAD products. (www.sablepos.com, www.waiterpad.com)
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SPA/GOLF/LEISURE
- Oakmont Country Club to install Northstar Technologies’ Club Management Software Suite
The Oakmont Country Club in Oakmont, Pennsylvania is installing Northstar Technologies’ Club Management Software Suite. Oakmont is considered to have one of the top five golf courses in the country, and is host to the 2007 U.S. Open Championship. (www.oakmontcc.org, www.globalnorthstar.com)
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GUEST SERVICES
- On Command, Philips license Pro:Idiom digital rights management from LG Electronics
- Fairmont contracts with Superclick to complement its technical support hotline for guests
- TeleAdapt selling Mobile Pro products through automated “Zoom Shops” at hotels, airports
On Command Video Corp has licensed the Pro:Idiom digital rights management (DRM) content security functionality from LG Electronics’ Zenith Electronics Corp for use with its interactive pay-per-view video offerings. Philips Electronics Business Display Solutions’ (BDS’) new LCD and Plasma FlatTV displays will also include Pro:Idiom encryption technology. (www.oncommand.com, www.bds.philips.com, www.lge.com)
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Fairmont Hotels & Resorts has contracted with Superclick to complement its technical support hotline for guests, which is currently manned by its own IT personnel. Superclick's Internet Management System (SIMS) server is currently installed in 58 Fairmont properties worldwide and a rollout to support the hotels from its Montreal-based call center will be completed in early February. Fairmont reports that high-speed Internet usage has grown “exponentially” over the last few years. (www.fairmont.com, www.superclick.com)
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TeleAdapt is now selling its products through Zoom Systems’ automated “Zoom Shop” retail stores at hotels and airports across the USA. Mobile Pro products available include an Inflight Power Inverter, USB MultiCharger Plus and All-in-one World Power Adapter. (www.teleadapt.com, www.zoomsystems.com)
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INVENTORY/PURCHASING
- Adaco Services announces three new hotel clients and two upgrades
Adaco Services has announced three new hotel clients and two upgrade orders. New Adaco Eclipse systems have been installed at the 83-room Hotel Alfonso XIII, Spain, the 406-room Sheraton Amsterdam, Netherlands, and the 117-room Brown’s Hotel, London. Adaco Eclipse SPE Windows upgrades were installed at the 1,590-room Delta Chelsea, Toronto, and the 166-room Salvatore’s Italian Gardens, NY. (www.adacoservices.com)
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ENGINEERING
- Consolidated Resorts Management orders Energy Eye for Kahana Beach Resort, Maui
- Pineapple Hospitality introduces compact fluorescent Fresh Bulb with odor-eliminating coating
Consolidated Resorts Management has ordered Energy Eye’s Wireless Radio Frequency energy-management system for its 84-room Kahana Beach Resort on Maui. Consolidated operates eight resorts in Hawaii and four resorts in Las Vegas. (www.consolidatedresorts.com, www.energy-eye.com)
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Pineapple Hospitality has introduced its Fresh Bulb, an energy-saving compact fluorescent lighting (CFL) lamp that claims to eliminate odors within ten minutes if being turned on, as the fluorescent lighting reacts with the lamps’ titanium dioxide coating. (www.pineapplehospitality.net)
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COMMUNICATIONS
- Mitel receives Technology Marketing Corp 2005 Product of the Year Award
Mitel has received the Technology Marketing Corporation's 2005 Product of the Year Award in recognition of its Mitel Navigator converged voice, video and data desktop communications unit, and the Mitel Messaging Server. (www.mitel.com)
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