Hotel & Motel Management - November 3, 2008 - (Page 59)

www.HotelMotel.com/digital_edition HotelMotel.com | H&MM November 3, 2008 Special Report AN INDUSTRY CONNECTED Property management 59 Internet operations Continued from page 31 burden of maintenance and support. In some cases, it saves space by relinquishing the need to house large servers and other hardware on site. Early on, hotels began using the SaaS model to streamline ev- eryday ofﬁce duties, such as accounting, purchasing and inventory tracking. “There are countless things you do on a daily basis that can be done on the Web, such as forecasting and budgeting, as well as With the Internet came new pricing strategies One of the unique challenges the hotel industry faces is that if a room isn’t sold, the revenue is lost forever. Because of this, if a guest comes into a roadside property late at night, he or she could conceivably negotiate a next-to-nothing rate. “It’s better to make $20 or $30 than nothing at all,” said Alaric Pratt, MIS director at Campbell’s Resort on Lake Chelan in Washington. Also because of this, the hotel industry is using the Internet to improve its revenuemanagement strategies by leaps and bounds. “We’re able to come up with a pricing strategy across several hotels with eclectic room sets,” said Mike Kennedy, president of SoftHotel. “One of the things that always stood in the way of revenue optimization was weak control of the property-management system and it’s lack of connectivity. We are now network-centric and can very easily plug into all the network capabilities that exist today.” “That’s where the system is really starting to shine,” Pratt said. “We can send e-mails that say ‘Oh, by the way, this weekend in July you can get a room with us for $119’ and it can help ﬁll in those soft dates. consolidating a lot of spreadsheets that people used to keep on their desktops,” Findley said. Adoption of the SaaS model in the property-management ﬁeld has made a major impact. With the advent of the Internet, hotels can now store their entire room inventory and control rates online. And because the information already is housed on a twoway network, room availability can be shared with online booking sites. Alaric Pratt has worked in the IT department at Campbell’s Resort on Lake Chelan in Washington for 25 years. He helped the property rollout a new PMS around 2000. “Guests are using it more because they don’t want to interact,” Pratt said. “The convenience of that is really nice.” jfreed@questex.com The application used by the hotel to control on-site activities such as folios, check-in/-out, guest proﬁles, room status, requests, etc. Two-way network When software can both transmit and receive data. Allows room availability to be updated at the property and online simultaneously. Yield management The process of understanding, anticipating and reacting to consumer behavior to maximize revenue. CIRCLE NO. 157 CIRCLE NO. 154 http://www.HotelMotel.com http://www.HotelMotel.com/digital_edition http://www.desireshotels.com http://www.source1purchasing.com http://www.desireshotels.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Hotel & Motel Management - November 3, 2008

Hotel & Motel Management - November 3, 2008 Contents The Rate Debate Accor Defines Motel 6 Prototype Rollout Holiday Inn Eyes Upscale, Timeshare Perspective Economy Sets Tone at The Lodging Conference Mellow Vibe Meets Bold Design at HD Boutique Expo IH/M&RS to Focus on Going Green Legally Speaking Sales Clinic On Finance Travel Trends Cornell Insights Franchise Law HotelWorld Update Trends & Stats Energy Star Update Energy Star Update An Industry Connected People on The Move Annual GM Survey Point-of-Sale Systems IH/M&RS Product Preview Outdoor Lighting Refrigeration Marketplace Ad/Editorial Index Classifieds Checking Out

Hotel & Motel Management - November 3, 2008

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