Hotel & Motel Management - September 15, 2008 - (Page 24)

24 News briefs The American Hotel & Lodging Assn. announced the ﬁndings of its “2008 Current and Future Technology Use in the Hospitality Industry” study. Major ﬁndings from the survey revealed: Among responding properties, there is an overwhelming agreement that information technology is important for increasing customer satisfaction (82.4 percent); increasing employee efﬁciency (79.9 percent); H&MM September 15, 2008 | HotelMotel.com www.HotelMotel.com/digital_edition and generating revenue (71.3 percent); Wi-Fi services were, by far, the IT system that guests care about most, according to 82 percent of respondents; and 86 percent of responding hotels offered Wi-Fi services, and 20 percent of those not offering it plan to do so within the next ﬁve years. Homewood Suites by Hilton’s online Suite Selection tool now is available to all Hilton HHonors Members. Suite Selection, available at www. HomewoodSuites.com, allows guests to view the hotel ﬂoor plan and images of the suites available, choose the exact location of a requested suite and check-in online before arriving at the property. DiscoverAmerica.com, the United States’ ﬁrst ofﬁcial travel-and-tourism website, launched. The website targets consumers in the ﬁve countries that account for 75 percent of all inbound travel to the United States: Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, Japan and Germany. Interactive content for all 50 states, the ﬁve territories, dozens of cities and attractions and ofﬁcial entry information from U.S. government sources are presented in the native languages of each market. Orient-Express Hotels Ltd., owners and managers of 51 luxury hotels, restaurants, tourist trains and river cruise businesses in 25 countries, signed a letter of intent to establish a 50/50 strategic partnership with The Related Group, a real estate developer in the United States, initially to develop hotels and residences in Miami; Cartagena, Colombia; and Panama City, Panama. The American Hotel & Lodging Assn. hired two new employees: Robert Baylor, director of legislative communications, and HotelPAC coordinator Jon Simons. Marriott International launched Global Language Learning, an online resource provided by Rosetta Stone that will offer up to 30 languages to choose from. Marriott will begin offering the program throughout the U.S. at its company-operated hotels, regional ofﬁces and Bethesda, Md., headquarters. The program will debut at Marriott’s subsidiaries, The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Co. and Marriott Vacation Club International, by year-end 2009. The International Facility Management Association formed the Hospitality Facility Managers and Engineers Community. The community provides a network for hospitality professionals to connect, share resources and take advantage of continuing education opportunities. Choice Hotels International launched its Collection program in North America and the Caribbean. The program offers upscale independent hotels the opportunity to afﬁliate with Choice and leverage the company’s global distribution network. Hotels that afﬁliate with the Ascend Collection program beneﬁt from marketing services tailored speciﬁcally to drive property-level occupancies and revenues. The target Ascend Collection hotels are upscale independent, unique, boutique or historic properties with strong local brand equity. \Compiled by Stephanie Ricca, sricca@questex.com Putting all the puzzle pieces together so you don’t have to. We are your complete information source for all facets of the hotel and lodging industry across the globe: Operations Design Luxury Development Contact us at 216-706-3700 for more information. Presented by http://HotelMotel.com http://www.HotelMotel.com/digital_edition http://www.HomewoodSuites.com http://www.HomewoodSuites.com http://DiscoverAmerica.com

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Hotel & Motel Management - September 15, 2008 Contents Microtel, Hawthorn Settle in at Wyndham Is it Black or Red for Green Hotels? New City on the Strip When in Doubt, Purchase some Seashells Legal FAQ Consultant's Corner Sales Clinic On Finance Travel Trends Franchise Law Guest Column Events Cornell Insights HotelWorld Update Trends & Stats Top Hotel Companies Survey Awards Lending Requires Knowledge, Preparation Casegoods Minibars Historian to Keynote Leadership Forum at IH/M&RS Fitness Equipment The Lodging Conference Preview Accent Lighting Awards Vacuums Supplier News Transactions People Ad/Editorial Index Marketplace Classifieds Checking Out

Hotel & Motel Management - September 15, 2008

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