When Carlson Hospitality Worldwide went looking for a standard PMS for its Country Inns & Suites brand two years ago, it focused exclusively on Windows-based products. "We believed this was the way everyone was going, the undisputed trend," says David Sjolander, Carlson's Senior Director, Hotel Systems, "so we selected one product and made it the standard for this segment."

Reactions were mixed, especially since the system proved to be less reliable than had been hoped. For many Country Inn hoteliers this wasn't a problem; they accepted the extra care the system needed, since they saw and appreciated the extra benefits they were getting from the Windows environment. For others, the benefits of Windows weren't important, but simplicity and stability were non-negotiable.

"We found that, in this market tier, with smaller properties and fewer staff who are not always familiar with Windows, training could be an issue and reliability was paramount," says Sjolander. "In addition, several of our property owners also franchise other brands and were accustomed to simpler, less prominent PMSs; they preferred to keep the technology at a level where they didn't have to think about it very often. So we went back to the market, this time looking only at non-Windows products, in order to offer our franchisees a choice to suit their management style."

The criteria this time were stability, straightforward functionality and a well-designed set of user screens; the product chosen was MCorp's Unix-based ImagInn. The results: a better system match for more properties, while still keeping the number of choices to a minimum to simplify Carlson's CRS interfaces and data consolidation. A good balance.

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