Better Connections

Hotel companies find ways to use the Internet to deploy custom property management systems.

By Rebecca Oliva, Technology Editor -- HOTELS Magazine, 1/1/2002

With the Internet changing virtually every aspect

of property management systems (PMSs), hotels are finding more ways

to use their systems to produce custom results. An application service

provider (ASP), which offers hotels all the benefits of PMSs without

the hardware and high capital expenditures, is just one option that

allows hotels to use the Web to suit their needs. Traditionally, an

ASP model meant technology companies owned and leased software to

hotels. Now hotels large and small have found ways to broaden the

definition of an ASP. Some have found benefits to allowing only the

corporate office access the PMS via the Web. Others use ASPs as a

way to store PMS data and software with a third party. Still others

have developed their own ASPs. “People

only think of ASPs when it comes to property management systems, says

Paul Madden, sales & marketing manager, Innkeeper’s Lodge,

United Kingdom. “But there are a variety of ways in which hotels

can benefit from using the Web in conjunction with their

system.”

Here, we look at the ways three different hotel

companies used the Web to manipulate their PMSs, customize their systems

and redefine the term ASP. These new ways of deployment, which can

be adjusted to meet an individual property’s distinct demands

upon its system, are changing the way hotels operate.

Innkeeper’s Lodge: Multi-Property

ASP

There is

no hard and fast definition of ASP. Traditionally, the term refers to

an outside company running the system software for a hotel property.

That company maintains the software and data. But, there are ways to

define the term “ASP.” One solution

that seems to benefit mid-market chains is an ASP solution

that allows a third-party rather than a vendor to host the data. The

data is stored off site, but the software is owned rather than leased

by the hotel company.

“The real benefit is that we can actually reduce the cost of

the hardware onsite and control the data through Ramesys,” says

Madden of Innkeeper’s Lodge, part of Six Continents Retail. Innkeeper’s

Lodge is a collection of more than 43 hotel properties located throughout

the UK. The hotel chain is experimenting with Ramesys Chain Management

System (CMS), a single inventory, integrated PMS and central reservations

system (CRS) solution that allows customers to book rooms directly through

the Internet. The system allows Innkeeper’s Lodge to seemlessly

switch incoming reservation calls from the PMS to the

CRS.

Front desk operators access the CMS through a

Web browser, which is linked via ISDN to a central server. Since there

is no data or software located at the hotel, it allows for more manageable

software upgrades and faster implementation of policy changes. Of

course, the usual benefits to ASPs apply—all data is centralized, which gives Innkeeper’s

Lodge the chance to use its reservations system and guest

histories to enhance customer relations.

Madden says the company decided to outsource its

server to IBM to ensure a robust platform efficient and advanced enough

to ensure it could communicate data between the CRS and PMS. “We needed to make sure the Web

files were working with the property management system,” Madden

says. Innkeeper’s Lodge plans to rollout its online reservations

option shortly.

The Red Lion Inn: Independently Owned And Operated

The

benefits of traditional ASPs do not always outweigh the negatives when

it comes to PMSs. At least that’s

what Dennis Barquinero, director of operations, The

Red Lion Inn in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, believes. The Red Lion Inn

recently purchased Maestro Enterprise System by Northwind for its property

management, yield management and reservations systems for its property

and its sister property, The Porches, in North Adam, Massachusetts.

The Maestro Enterprise suite centralizes client management at the corporate

level, storing and providing immediate access to all existing and updated

information and profiles on each new account.

So The Red Lion uses a maverick version of an

ASP. Although the system is not set up as an classical ASP, data can

be accessed via the Web. In order to achieve this, access from the

corporate office was attained via a Wide Area Network (WAN) to each

property. From the corporate office, anyone with permission can get

into each hotel’s system. This

configuration, Barquinero says, allows the two hotels to maintain and

control their own data while the corporate company can access it if

necessary. Barquinero says the company’s motivation for obtaining

Internet access to its PMS was its future plans to create

a link between the two reservations systems to produce a joint real-time

central reservation center.

Being able to access the PMS through the WAN also

allows for better guest data management, a valuable marketing tool

according to Barquinero. “We

see the return on investment in staff training, customer records and

being able to use our database as a marketing tool,” Barquinero

says. “We save in labor dollars.” He estimates a three-to

five-year return on investment for both properties and

says the company plans to keep the system for about 11 years.

“One of the things we wanted was independence for each property,” says

Barquinero. “But we also wanted the ability to manage each property

from corporate lines.” As a result, each system is set up as its

own stand-alone PMS, which includes an IBM network box

that houses the software and database.

Since the properties are run as two separate entities,

Barquinero wanted to keep the data separate and in-house. “We had some concern about

ASPs because we wouldn’t be in control of the data,” Barquinero

says. “We still want to be in control and house it ourselves.”

Fairmont Hotels & Resorts:

The Ultimate ASP

Long

before ASP technology was entering the vocabulary of hotel operators,

Fairmont Hotels & Resorts, Toronto, was discovering

ways to become its own ASP. Armed with a US$30 to US$40

million IT budget, Fairmont is making headway by developing its own

ASP and Internet service provider.

The company has entered into ASP licensing agreements

with its vendors, allowing the corporate office to act as an ASP for

all individual Fairmont properties in the United States and Canada. “We believe it’s

the best of both worlds,” says Tim Aubrey, vice president of technology,

Fairmont Hotels & Resorts. Now all the data can be centralized,

housed at the corporate level, Aubrey says, and all properties

have the potential to run identical versions of the software.

But, Aubrey stresses, it didn’t just happen overnight. Fairmont

began this project about two years ago, laying the foundation and building

the network. “You have to build a network that has bandwidth,” Aubrey

says. “We are starting to layer in the applications which are

cost-effective.”

Fairmont’s goal is to get all properties running the same versions

of property systems. So it decided to confront the situation head on. “If

you are trying to get everyone on the same version, it may take two

budget cycles to get them to agree,” he says. “You end up

with aging systems.”

After the groundwork for the project was laid,

Fairmont started rolling out guestroom services via its ISP. “We now support the bandwidth

going into our hotels,” he says. “Whenever we sell Internet

access, either in the guestrooms or conference rooms,

100% of the revenue comes back to us.”

Fairmont will start implementing the PMSs this

summer. Aubrey sees standardization across properties and a better-equipped

sales system as the main benefits. In the end, all systems and guest

services served by Fairmont will put the company on the forefront

of PMS technology. “Right

now we are focused on systems that will help build a competitive

advantage.”