April 22, 2022
Siegel Sez
From what has been shared with me, group business is scaling upward amazingly fast for the remainder of the year. Finally! We have all heard that we shouldn’t wait to plan those summer vacations, but then again who am I to ever listen to advice that makes sense? Last year we had a family reunion in Saratoga, N.Y. (no surprise there) and since there were eight of us getting together for the first time in ages, we decided to go the Airbnb route. It was a great time and we said let’s do it again this year. Booking in April for July was amazing. Airbnb and hotels are already in limited supply and the rates are beyond belief. Then everyone looked at airfares and you would think we were planning trips around the world! Of course, with demand through the roof, this is great for the travel industry and especially for hotels. What a long road back this has been — so here is my advice that I ignored, if you are planning for summer travel, book now!
In two weeks, I will be attending the Expedia Explore ‘22 Conference in Las Vegas. I have never been to this event before, so this should be interesting with the travel industry where it is today. Having been to so many events by the brands, it will be exciting to see what Expedia shares. I am always up for learning new things!
If you haven’t seen one of the most creative videos ever done for an event, then you should right now. Liz Vogan, our videographer extraordinaire did an amazing job putting together a two-minute video that absolutely captured what happened in Frisco, Texas, a few weeks ago. This is what happens when you bring the leading hotel technology vendors and many senior hotel tech leaders together with a plan to embarrass me. They did a great job. Also, it was much appreciated that many who were not in attendance sent some
very funny video roasts as well. I have met so many great people along the way and when people who have left the industry like Todd Thompson the former CIO at Westin Hotels and Tom Murphy the former CIO from Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines sent in their funny comments, everyone enjoys it. This industry keeps people connected in the strangest way. To see the two-minute EVS video
please click here and for the roast videos,
please click here. I hope you will laugh as much as everybody in attendance at our Executive Vendor Summit and 30 Year celebration dinner did. Some big thank yous go to co-hosts Gregg Hopkins from PROVision Partners and Richard Tudgay from Highgate Hotels along with HFTP for being a great partner. What an experience!
Doug Rice now has his third installment of how hotels should be using guest feedback to improve guest satisfaction. We thank Doug for the great job he does sharing his views on such important issues and how technology comes into play addressing many of these needs. I will see you at the end with this week’s attempt at you-know-what. I hope you enjoyed the video. It was truly an amazing night for me!
Rich
rich@hospitalityupgrade.com
Definitely Doug
Using Feedback to Improve Guest Satisfaction
There are three main reasons why hotels solicit feedback from guests. The first is simply to get a “report card” of how your hotel is doing vs. competitors or other hotels in the same brand or management group. This is interesting information and may help make or break someone’s management career, but otherwise is not very actionable. The second is to identify ways to channel capital funds or operating expenses to projects that will have the greatest impact on overall guest satisfaction and, through it, revenue and profit. The last is to get insights into what specific guests liked or disliked about your hotel so that their next-stay experience will be better, increasing their preference for your hotel.
This week’s article concludes a three-part series on collecting and using guest feedback to improve guest satisfaction. The
first installment addressed feedback provided by online reviews. The
second part focused on guest satisfaction surveys. This third segment, which is meant to be read in tandem with the first two, ties it together by connecting feedback to individual customers and market segments. This will allow you to use it to identify actions that will improve guest satisfaction.
The techniques described here cannot usually be implemented in any one system. They require coordination across multiple systems or modules: customer relationship management (CRM) systems, property management systems (PMS), online reputation management (ORM) systems, guest satisfaction survey (GSS) systems, and possibly work order management systems and guest texting solutions (chatbots). Some CRM solutions offer ORM and GSS modules, which can reduce the complexity of cross-system coordination but rarely eliminates it. Such solutions may be a good choice if you have control over all three systems. It may, however, be impractical if your brand mandates specific solutions for one or two of them but doesn’t cover all three.
Any evaluation of solutions must consider whether they can work with your other systems
to produce the desired result. I emphasize those last four words because many vendors will say “we have an interface with x.” An interface implies that
some data can move between two systems, but not whether the data that
you need can be moved, and at the relevant point in time. The devil is in the details and few or no other hotels may have your exact combination of systems and operational needs. If you can find another hotel with the same systems, see if what they have will meet your needs. Otherwise, you need to map out the use cases that are critical to you, verify what data needs to move from one system to another, when it needs to move, and what the receiving system needs to do with it, and then get commitments from the vendors in writing that they can send, receive, and act on the data as required. Many projects like this fail because the hotel made assumptions about an interface that turned out to be wishful thinking.
The importance of interfaces and data exchange for managing and acting on guest feedback has become much more evident in recent years. One vendor I spoke with that offers GSS and ORM tools and that integrates with other CRMs said that just a few years ago, integrations came up “at step five” of the sales process, as an afterthought. Today they are raised at the first point of contact because they are understood to be critical.
In researching this article, I benefited from expertise provided by senior managers at several companies that have products in one or more of the CRM, ORM, and GSS categories, including
Cendyn,
dailypoint,
D-EDGE,
GuestRevu,
Medallia,
Revinate,
Shiji, and
Xperium. I thank them for sharing their valuable perspectives. While there are several hundred companies that provide one or more of these products in the market, I chose these both because I find their products credible, and because they are representative of a broad range of capabilities in the market.
Click here to read more of Doug’s column on Using Feedback to Improve Guest Satisfaction?
CORPORATE NEWS
- Fullsteam Acquires IQware Inc and Megasys Hospitality Solutions
Fullsteam, a holding company acquiring software and payments businesses, announced its March 2022 acquisition of IQware Inc and Megasys Hospitality Solutions, leading providers of hospitality management solutions.
www.fullsteam.com
PEOPLE ON THE MOVE
- Nomadix Appoints Michael Gray, Hospitality Networking Technology Executive, as Global VP of Strategic Partnerships
Nomadix Inc​., a technology leader in hospitality and multi-tenant industries, today announced the appointment of Michael Gray as global vice president of strategic partnerships focused on building deeper relationships and programs for hospitality brands, management companies and ownership groups.
nomadix.com
GUEST MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS
- Stayntouch and D-EDGE Partner to Optimize Global Distribution for Hotels in Europe and Around the Globe
Stayntouch, a global leader in cloud hotel property management systems (PMS) and guest-centric technology, today announced that its flagship cloud PMS platform now integrates with D-EDGE central reservation system, the leading hotel distribution technology provider in Europe.
www.stayntouch.com
- Stayntouch Partners with Main Street Hospitality, Deploys Intuitive Cloud PMS Across Seven Properties in New England
Stayntouch, a global leader in cloud hotel property management systems (PMS) and guest-centric technology, today announced a partnership with Main Street Hospitality, a Massachusetts-based boutique hotel management group, delivering its flagship mobile PMS across seven properties in the New England area.
www.stayntouch.com
- Visual Matrix Expands Reach to 3,000 Properties Worldwide with New Complete Hospitality Operating System
Visual Matrix, an industry-leading provider of advanced technology solutions for the hospitality industry, today announced it has expanded its reach to more than 3,000 properties around the world. At the 2022 Asian American Hotel Owners Association (AAHOA) Convention & Trade Show in Baltimore, Visual Matrix aims to showcase the many new features that it has incorporated to enhance its other well-known property management solutions.
visualmatrix.com
RESERVATIONS & DISTRIBUTION
- UpStay Continues Global Growth Momentum with Expansion into North American Hospitality Market
UpStay, a leading provider of advanced ancillary upselling technology solutions for the hotel industry, today announced the expansion of its global operations to serve the revenue growth and experience-enhancing needs of hoteliers throughout the North American market.
www.upstay.tech
REVENUE MANAGEMENT AND ANALYTICS
- IDeaS and RMS Cloud Enhance Technology Partnership to Further Automation of Pricing Decisions
IDeaS, the world’s leading provider of revenue management software and services, and RMS Cloud, a provider of property management software and scalable technology for the hospitality industry, have today announced an
enhanced partnership to maximize occupancy and increase revenue for hoteliers through an advanced technology integration that provides superior visibility into rate strategy and drives smarter decisions to achieve greater revenues.
ideas.com rmscloud.com
GUEST FACING TECHNOLOGY
- MCOMS and Cablenet offer unique solution to The Orient Hotel Jakarta
MCOMS has partnered with Cablenet Fiber Data, a Multi-Service Operator Network Provider based in Jakarta, to provide The Orient Hotel Jakarta with MCOMS HOTstream unique guest-facing solution.
mcoms.com
- The Don CeSar Provides "InnSpired" Luxury and Convenience with Guest Experience Mobile App and Integrated Technology Suite from InnSpire
Iconic Florida property teams up with leading hotel technology provider to empower guests with unrestricted access to luxury amenities through a comprehensive mobile-based Digital Guest Journey that provides convenience at every touchpoint.
www.innspire.com
- Empeiria High Sierra Hotel Selects INTELITY for Mobile Guest Experience
INTELITY®, provider of hospitality’s broadest guest experience and staff management platform, announced today a new partnership with Empeiria High Sierra Hotel in Mammoth Lakes. The destination hotel for outdoor adventurers will implement the INTELITY guest-facing suite of tools, including a branded mobile app, mobile check-in, mobile key, and guest messaging.
www.intelity.com
SALES & CATERING, GROUPS & MEETINGS
- Omni Hotels & Resorts Becomes First Brand to Launch Seamless Instant Booking Experience for Both Group Rooms and Meeting Space
Omni Hotels & Resorts and Groups360 today announced that Omni is the first ever hotelier to offer instant booking for both group rooms and meeting space on GroupSync™. GroupSync is Groups360’s proprietary online booking marketplace, with instant booking capabilities that enable anyone organizing a meeting or event to book both group guest rooms and event spaces online.
omnihotels.com groups360.com
- Knowland Webinar Presents Q1 2022 Meetings Industry Recovery Update
Knowland, the world’s leading provider of data-as-a-service insights on meetings and events for hospitality, will hold a webinar on April 20, 2022, at 1:00 pm ET to share the latest data for the meetings and events industry. In this webinar, attendees will see the status of meetings and events for Q1 2022 and what it looks like by market and segment, as well as an updated forecast through 2024.
www.knowland.com
BACK OFFICE
- Castlerock Asset Management Achieves Enhanced Performance Forecasting Capabilities with ProfitSword Business Intelligence Technology
Hospitality real estate development and asset management enterprise leverages ProfitSword partnership for seamless access to real-time business analytics, ensuring both swift and informed decision-making abilities that lead to sustainable company growth.
www.profitsword.com
- Infor Provides Digital Transformation for the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians
Infor, an industry cloud company, today announced that the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians in California has decided to implement the newest iteration of Infor CloudSuite Financials & Supply Management and Infor d/EPM to transform its back-office strategy for growth.
www.infor.com
COMMUNICATIONS & INFRASTRUCTURE
- Somerset on the Pier Partners with Liveport to Deploy Advanced Guest Wi-Fi Network Connectivity
Liveport, a leading provider of internet services and IoT-based technology, has been credited with dramatically enhancing Wi-Fi service and network quality at Somerset on the Pier, a luxury serviced apartments property in Hobart, Australia.
www.liveport.com.au
FOOD & BEVERAGE
- Swire Hotels Teams Up with Agilysys to Provide Smarter, Faster, Greener Guest Experiences
Agilysys, Inc., a leading global provider of next-generation end-to-end SaaS and on-prem ready hospitality software solutions, today announced that Hong Kong-based Swire Hotels has activated Agilysys solutions in all its Hong Kong properties and plans to extend these across its entire property portfolio.
www.agilysys.com
OPERATIONS
- Optii Solutions Announces Two-Way Integration with RMS Cloud
Optii Solutions, a leading cloud-based hotel operations software, announced a two-way integration with RMS Cloud, the property management and hotel management system for luxury hotels, resorts and boutique city hotels.
www.optiisolutions.com
- SP Square Selected by OYO Hotels & Homes as the Company Standard for Operations Management Platform
SP Square, provider of the industry’s fastest-growing platform for true asset management, operations management and AI-powered guest engagement, announced today that OYO Hotels, Inc. has selected SP Square’s advanced operations management platform as its Company Standard.
www.spsquaresystems.com
SECURITY
- VENZA Expands Proctored Training Program
In October 2021, VENZA’s Customer Success Team piloted a novel training method that certifies large amounts of team members at once. As of this month, the VENZA Proctored Training program has certified 4000 staff members all over the world.
www.VENZAgroup.com
- M7 Selected to Deploy Mobile Key Technology at 1,500 North American Hotels and Resorts
M7 Services, a leading provider of managed IT services for the hospitality industry, today announced that the company has been selected to execute the technical aspects of a continued rollout of mobile phone-based digital access solutions at over 1,500 hotels and resorts in the North American market.
www.m7services.com
HOSPITALITY EDUCATION
- Cloudbeds Releases New Guide for Future-Proofing Every Type of Lodging Business
Cloudbeds, one of the hospitality industry’s fastest-growing technology providers, announced the release of a new book titled, More Reservations, Happier Guests: The Ultimate Guide for the Modern Hotelier, as part of the company’s growing initiative to make hospitality education and resources more accessible.
www.cloudbeds.com
HOSPITALITY EVENTS AND ASSOCIATION NEWS
- HFTP Announces PROVision Partners as Exclusive Sponsor of Entrepreneur 20X Orlando
The hospitality technology start-up pitch competition will present innovative solutions to a panel of judges and audience at HITEC Orlando on June 29, supported by PROVision Partners as this year’s sponsor.
provision-partners.com
- Nishant (Neal) Patel Becomes Youngest Chairman in AAHOA History
Texas hotelier Nishant (Neal) Patel, CHO, CHIA, is the new Chairman of AAHOA’s Board of Directors. Patel became chairman at the conclusion of the 2022 AAHOA Convention & Trade Show in Baltimore, which was the second major convention AAHOA has held since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The convention was held at the Baltimore Convention Center.
www.aahoa.com
- Vizergy® Teams with Sabre Hospitality at AAHOACON 2022 in Baltimore
Vizergy® Digital Marketing, a leader in digital marketing and sales for the hospitality industry, today announced that they will be joined by Sabre Hospitality at AHHOACON 2022 this week in Baltimore. The joint effort is an extension of a strategic alignment announced in August of 2021, which brings together the two best-in class platforms in digital marketing and hotel distribution.
vizergy.com
MARKET REPORTS
- Knowland Issues Quarterly Event Activity Forecast
Knowland, a world leading provider of data-as-a-service insights on meetings and events for hospitality, released an update to its U.S. Meetings Recovery Forecast (MRF) and associated Top 25 U.S. Meetings Recovery Forecast (MRF25) to provide the hospitality industry with predictive insights into event recovery over the next three years.
www.knowland.com
PIQUED OUR INTEREST
- Return of US Group Business Drives Latest Wave of Hotel Hiring
- AHLA Projects $20B Business Travel Revenue Drop from 2019
- Guest Preparation Like Never Before
- citizenM Plans Metaverse Land Purchase, Virtual Hotel
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For more information on Piqued Our Interest for 4/22/2022
And now for the You-Know-What...
Wayne was returning home from a business trip, bags in hand, and slowly making his way to his vehicle in the crowded airport garage. Suddenly a large dark car screeched to a stop in front of Wayne, and the driver pointed menacingly at him. "Get in," the driver ordered. "I'll take you to your car."
Startled, Wayne took a step backward. "Ah...no thanks," he answered. "I can get there myself."
"No!" the man barked back as he threw open his passenger side door. "Get in!"
Wayne's eyes now darted around the garage, hoping to find a security guard.
Just then, the driver's face softened. "Please," he said, "I've been driving up and down for two hours. I can't find a space to park, and I want yours."