One For The Money
Hotels discover that a single property management solution can effectively meet the needs of multiple properties.
By Joan Marsan, Technology Editor -- HOTELS Magazine, 1/1/2001
Centralization often provides a company’s key to cost-cutting and efficiency. On an individual basis, hotels demonstrate this principle when they consolidate F&B operations, and the single prep kitchen metes out produce to a number of F&B outlets with fewer staff members and in less time. Chainwide, hotels prove centralization’s efficacy when a corporate office manages payrolls for member properties. Efforts to use technology to unify reservations-taking promise properties lower costs and increased visibility, whether these efforts take the form of a single central reservation system (CRS) serving multiple properties or Internet sites consolidating information on several hotels and disseminating it to the public through one URL. Now, the centralization of property management systems (PMSs) promises properties new levels of efficiency.
Wyndham’s ASP-Style Solution
With Wyndham Hotels & Resort’s shift from a real estate investment trust (REIT) to a branded hotel operating company, technology purchasing priorities changed. As a REIT, Dallas-based Wyndham wasn’t concerned with having a system-wide CRS, and properties relied on seven different PMSs. But as a branded operating company with a desire for seamless connectivity between properties and a CRS, Wyndham began to have difficulty cost justifying the licensing of seven PMSs and developing seven interfaces to a CRS.
Because Wyndham owns 90% of its hotels, it makes sense to employ a centralized PMS system to which individual properties subscribe on an application service provider (ASP) basis, says Mark Hedley, senior vice president and chief technology officer. Wyndham acts as the central ASP provider of the OPERA PMS by Columbia, Maryland-based MICROS Systems, loading and configuring software on a single server that is linked to every property in the system. Updates to the server can upgrade all properties overnight, reinvigorating systems in a manner that would take a chain with decentralized, on-property PMSs countless hours of labor.
While the acquisition of the ASP-style system costs about the same per property as purchasing a decentralized system, Hedley says the reduced need for IT staff and the immediacy of upgrades, which happen three times per year, increase the return on investment. Wyndham, in fact, employs no technical support staff on the property with the exception of such unique properties as its large resorts located outside the continental United States, including the San Juan, Puerto Rico hotels. This reduced staffing requirement means Wyndham has on the payroll one-third the IT staff it did during its REIT days, Hedley says.
The lack of on-site support staff might worry some hoteliers, but General Manager Doug Mertz of the Wyndham Dallas Market Center says the remotely administered ASP-style system saves time, money and trouble. It is more problem-free than the previous system, Mertz says, which required a two-hour downtime each night while an IT-savvy employee performed backups. And although complaints surface about the limited ability of large technology manufacturers to provide sufficient support to clients, Mertz says he has been satisfied with the combination of management company and vendor support he receives.
New Systems, Added Support
Centralization ultimately will prove the worth of the Onamia, Minnesota-based five-hotel Grand Casino Hinckley group’s new open access database PMS system by Aremis. When the Hinckley, Minnesota’s 154-room Grand Hinckley Inn needed a replacement for its proprietary PMS in 1999, David Livingston, chief information officer, knew what he wanted. Only a Windows-based system would be acceptable, so Livingston’s IT staff would not need to develop new skill sets. The solution had to be Y2K compliant. Web reservation capabilities were on Livingston’s wish list. And, the PMS needed to integrate with a CRS.
To guarantee buy-in, everyone interacting with the PMS contributed to Livingston’s list of system requirements. And key to the staff’s successful adaptation was a champion, Livingston says. "You need someone from the end-user community who thinks the system is the greatest thing in the world," Livingston says. That individual encourages others to learn the system and make it work for the hotel and guests.
Livingston’s approach garnered him more than an improved PMS. Front desk personnel is more comfortable with the new system, reports Dianne Ouradnick, hotel manager, and employee turnover has decreased. And customer relations are enriched. The solution includes the integration of the PMS with a CRM system that allows marketers to learn more about guests and direct revenue-enhancing campaigns.
Most importantly to Livingston, the system works as well at other Grand Casino Hinckley properties, and when linked to a CRS in the spring, will allow front desk personnel to cross-sell rooms when one hotel is fully booked. With more than 700 rooms split among five properties, that feature alone is invaluable to Livingston, who says desk staff are regularly forced to transfer calls to other properties, risking losing the reservation altogether. Centralization also works in the properties’ favor when it comes to hiring. Staff can be transferred easily between properties and positions without requiring additional training. Further capitalizing on ownership of the new system, Livingston anticipates opening a local central reservation office, drawing from an ample pool of prospective applicants in a job-poor region in a winning solution for the hotel group and the community.
ASPs For Everyone?
Users of PMSs big and small have become increasingly interested in ASP models similar to Wyndham’s, which have the potential to reduce cost to the property by placing the burden of equipment procurement and maintenance in the hands of the software vendor. But users still divide into separate camps over issues of how much information they want disseminated into the CRS, with chains and independents often requiring different information distribution methods.
Hotel chains seek centralized solutions that allow a corporate entity to control reservations, rates, Web bookings, yield and customer relationship management (CRM) facets across all properties. Member properties access these systems through thin clients and browsers. Not only does this method allow the chain to reduce hardware, training and data management costs, it also assures consistency from property to property.
On the other hand, independent hotels, and even those that are franchisees or run by management companies, demand ownership and control of the data collected by the PMS, although they may report a subset of information to franchisors or management companies. In these cases, some say stand-alone systems are preferred, as long as the system can replicate data for a third party. But ASP models don’t necessitate a loss of data control. They may, in fact, provide even these independents with untold boons, as the promise of reduced hardware and training costs appeals to hoteliers at every level.
Tech Briefs
- The Grand Hyatt Shanghai deployed the Bank of China’s Bank Merchant POS, a credit card processing system developed in alliance with MICROS-Fidelio, Columbia, Maryland, to enhance credit card processing in China...
- Wyndham International, Dallas, selected cordless phones by Teledex, San Jose, California, as their brand standard. Wyndham also agreed to add all hotels to the San Mateo, California-based WorldRes.com property database... Columbia, Maryland-based MICROS’ OPUS2 was selected to provide the Flamingo Las Vegas Resort & Casino with a comprehensive revenue management solution...
- NewspaperDirect, New York, has agreed to supply newspapers from around the world to all Kempinski Hotels and Resorts... Hotel Data Systems, Westport, Connecticut, will install its xenonCRS at Grupo Chartwell’s Mexico City call center and Imperial Hotels & Resorts’ City of Guatemala call center...
- Hogatex, Munich, will install its Starlight Front Office and the InfoGenesis Revelation POS systems in all Accor Poland and Czech Republic properties. Accor Brazil entered into an agreement with Dallas-based Pegasus Systems Inc. for the provision of transaction and commission processing services...
- Chicago-based Preferred Hotels & Resorts Worldwide subsribed to TravelCLICK’s PHASER and Hotelligence Reports data product lines, providing detailed rate and reservation reports specific to their competitive set...
- CAIS Internet, Washington, DC, announced their intent to provide high-speed Internet access and wide area network (WAN) data services to all properties in the Hilton Hotels Corp. portfolio...
- Atlanta-based Bass Hotels & Resorts joined Marriott International, Hyatt Hotels Corp. and ClubCorp USA in the launch of the newly named Avendra LLC Internet-enabled business-to-business (B2B) hospitality procurement company to be headquartered near Washington, DC...
- Carlson Hospitality Worldwide, Minneapolis, unveiled the patent-pending MACH-1, a wireless, portable information system providing instant access to management information, such as customer satisfaction trends, revenue management and key productivity indicators, and VIP guest details...
- Helmsley Hotels, New York, called on Phoenix-based Utell to provide marketing and reservations services for its five New York properties...
- UK-born AremisSoft Corp., makers and suppliers of the AREMIS PMS, acquired Atlanta-based Eltrax, developers of the Medallion PMS. The unified company will be head-quartered in the United States...
- Telematrix, Colorado Springs, will provide Euro Series guestroom telephones to all Hilton International properties worldwide...
- Bacara Resort & Spa, Santa Barbara, California, selected the Revelation POS by InfoGenesis, Santa Barbara.
- Correction: The name of Santa Barbara, California-based InfoGenesis was misspelled in the October 2000 technology section. The correct spelling is InfoGenesis.
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