One very satisfied user of a modern Sales & Catering system is the Embassy Suites in Lynnwood, WA. Well-located near a busy freeway exit north of Seattle, the 240-room property has a large ballroom, four other function rooms and a large atrium used for smaller events. With 50% corporate business and a high demand for weddings, there's always heavy pressure to book these spaces.

"We've always had some form of S&C automation," reports Mary Berlin, Catering Manager, "but our original system turned out not to be Y2K compatible, so we upgraded (to Aggressive Banqueting Concepts' Event Master system) early this year." Any upgrade advice for other hotels? "Make sure you order enough training up front. The new system is a lot more powerful than the old one, and turned out to be very different to use, so we had a bit of a rocky start making the switch. But once we were familiar with the basics we were able to pick it up well and teach ourselves over the next few months."

Apart from making the Y2K issue go away, what impact has the new system had on the operation? "It's really fast!" responds Berlin. "We're not using the latest and greatest hardware - our PCs are 2-3 years old - but the response time of the system is great. And the extra functionality really helps, too; when we book a new piece of business, it makes a tremendous difference to be able to fax the contract directly from within the system and get it back, signed, in ten minutes!"

What you might call Suite Satisfaction.

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