Hotel & Motel Management - September 15, 2008 - (Page 54)

54 Technology MINIBARS H&MM September 15, 2008 | HotelMotel.com www.HotelMotel.com/digital_edition BY JASON Q. FREED, SENIOR EDITOR Communication leads to efﬁciency The key to a more efﬁcient minibar system is communication. A system of interconnected minibars throughout the hotel that “talk” with the back of the house provides tremendous savings. Automated minibars offer a number of advantages: They post charges to a guests’ folio in real time, saving the cost of sending another bill after the guest has left; they provide reports to food-and-beverage department leaders, improving inventory tracking; and they reduce the number of employees needed to check for empty minibars, saving labor. “Basically, the moment you are online, you improve the efﬁciency,” said Marc Cohen, EVP of sales for Bartech Systems. “One day we’ll have only automatic minibars.” The technologies to allow this process of communication differ. First, the minibars are rigged to sense when the door has been opened, and then when a product has been removed. Minibar vendors differ on which system is best. Minibar Systems uses infrared technologies that trigger when an item is moved. “All of our products sit on infrared sensors that are smart enough to know if an item is taken off quickly,” said Walt Strasser, SVP of sales and marketing for Minibar Systems. “Mechanical things tend to break.” Peter Kuzyk, national sales S EM manager for Dometic Corp., said ST SY Dometic uses a weight-sensitive system AR IB IN called e-ﬁeld that senses when an item has M been removed. “We used to have infrared, but it meant the interior of the bar had to be black,” Kuzyk said. “That’s ﬁne, but sometimes you can’t tell when cleaning has to be done.” Different minibar systems also use different techniques to network and ultimately communicate data to the back of the house. The most popular communication tools are Ethernet and coaxial cable, Strasser said, because wireless networks are simply not reliable enough. “Ethernet is the best,” Cohen said. “A lot of rooms already have this installed, and with more hotels switching to voice-overInternet protocol phones, the Internet is deﬁnitely the best option.” DOMETIC tech TALK Milestone Partners acquired Safemark Systems. Safemark Systems is a provider of in-room safes to the hospitality market in North America, having installed more than 500,000 safes in hotels and resorts over the past 25 years. Telkonet, a provider of centrally managed solutions for integrated energy management, is now supporting more than 200,000 guestrooms with its differentiated HSIA guest support services. Telkonet’s hospitality network has grown by 38 percent in the last 12 months and serves 2,500 hotel properties, including Choice Hotels International, Destination Hotels & Resorts, Marcus Hotels & Resorts, AmericInn and Vantage Hospitality. Visual Management Systems released its TrueHybrid Surveillance Platform, providing a security solution compatible with analog, IP and even USB cameras. The TrueHybrid SP boasts state-of-the-art video compression and analytical software. Amadeus and Expedia teamed to provide a direct connection between the Amadeus PMS and Expedia. The solution, which allows hotels to sell their rooms on Expedia direct from their Amadeus PMS, will help Amadeus open up new sales channels to the hotel industry. The Westin St. Francis introduced two wellness initiatives: the installation of Nintendo’s interactive, virtual-reality Wii Console and “BrainBody Fitness,” a program connecting mental and physical ﬁtness for guests. Compiled by Jason Q. Freed, jfreed@questex.com New technology for transmitting data Already having inﬁltrated other hospitality sectors such as electronic locks, lighting, room temperature and audio/video, a new standard in wireless communication is making its way to minibars. Both Bartech Systems and Dometic Corp. have introduced models that communicate via ZigBee, a wireless technology that creates its own network by passing data from one access point to another and eventually to a main server in the back of the house. Transmitters are placed on each minibar, and data is passed on down the line to a hub on a main server. The main server collects the data, organizes it and passes it on to the property-management system for billing. “The challenge that hotels have is a lack of bandwidth, especially with the increasing popularity of streaming video,” said Peter Kuzyk, national sales manager for Dometic. Dometic’s newest model, HiPromatic, uses ZigBee to operate on an independent network separate from the hotel’s WiFi system, Kuzyk said. Bartech will introduce one of the largest ZigBee-run operations when it outﬁts a majority of the guestrooms in MGM Mirage’s CityCenter project in Las Vegas, including all of the rooms in the ﬁrst tower to open, Aria. Walt Strasser, SVP of sales and marketing for Minibar Systems, isn’t sold yet. “There’s going to be some growing pains for ZigBee,” he said. “We’ll let ZigBee hash this out ﬁrst.” MINIBAR SYSTEMS Quotable “ Wireless is a communication of last resort. When we go out to a hotel, we check to make sure the signal works everywhere. We haven’t been to one that didn’t have a deadspot.” For more info Company Circle No. Bartech Systems . . . . . . . . . 294 Dometic Corp. . . . . . . . . . . . 295 Ember Corp.. . . . . . . . . . . . . 296 Minibar Systems. . . . . . . . . . 297 TeleAdapt. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298 WALT STRASSER, SVP of sales and marketing for Minibar Systems http://HotelMotel.com http://www.HotelMotel.com/digital_edition

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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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