This week’s Partner News is highlighted by PMI reopening its Las Vegas office and hiring a VP to oversee it; Gillis Sales reporting $23 million in revenue for hospitality clients in 2021; and Virdee partnering with Mews. Read about all that and more below.
PMI reopens Las Vegas office, adds VP
PMI has reopened the company’s Las Vegas office, according to Bill Langmade, the company’s president/CEO.
The PMI portfolio includes such Las Vegas properties as CIRCA Resort & Casino, Bellagio Las Vegas, City Center, Caesars Palace Las Vegas, The Mirage Las Vegas and Treasure Island, among others.
“We have brought on industry veteran Laura Herzog as a VP to oversee the Las Vegas office,” said Langmade. “Laura has held executive positions in purchasing and project management for nearly 20 years and is well respected throughout the industry for her purchasing management acumen.”
Most recently, Herzog was the VP, strategic sourcing and project management, The Venetian Resort Las Vegas and, prior to that, was the VP, purchasing with Wynn Design & Development, also in Las Vegas.
Gillis Sales reports $23M in revenue for clients in 2021
Gillis Sales, a remote sales and training organization for hoteliers, reported that it generated $23M in actual revenue for its clients in 2021, while increasing its client base by 40% since the beginning of the pandemic. These numbers indicate that hotels are seeing the benefits of investing in sales to increase profitability as travel resumes, according to the company.
Even as the labor shortage continues, leisure and corporate travel are increasing. To keep up with demand, Gillis is seeing an increase in business as hoteliers turn to remote sales solutions to alleviate the struggle in finding and keeping qualified salespeople.
Gillis provides its customers with tenured salespeople who bring more than 18 years of hospitality sales experience, alleviating the need to recruit and interview sales candidates, manage sales personnel and invest in expensive CRM infrastructure and sales tools.
Virdee partners with Mews
Virdee, a SaaS company delivering digital check-in and virtual concierge services to the hospitality and commercial real estate industries, has formed a partnership with Mews, a cloud-based property management system (PMS) designed for the hotel industry. Virdee is now available as a partner in the Mews Marketplace.
The Virdee Virtual Reception provides a fully contactless check-in experience, enabling 100% of hotel guests to check-in either via mobile device or kiosk, receive a digital or physical key and head straight to their room without ever visiting the front desk. Similarly, Mews is designed to simplify and automate all operations for modern hoteliers and their guests.
The partnership further helps empower hoteliers to manage their properties and the guest experience through seamless, user-friendly—and now contactless—technology. Tasks can be completed seamlessly from the palm of the hand via Virdee’s mobile platform—especially important amid today’s labor shortage and scarce resources. Currently, six properties using both Virdee and Mews have eliminated their front desks entirely, and all check-ins and checkouts are handled via digital tools.
Miami-area Fairfield Inn chooses Guesthub
Fairfield Inn & Suites Miami Airport West/Doral (pictured above) in Doral, FL, has leveraged Guesthub for package tracking. Although the mobile solution can facilitate many other features, like handling guest requests, responding to issues, providing information on amenities, supporting food and beverage orders, scheduling/tracking courtesy shuttle requests and more, the hotel selected just the “guest parcel tracking” module to better manage this service, which is not covered by Marriott’s current proprietary apps and technology.
When a package arrives at the hotel, a QR code or barcode label is scanned by staff and the parcel tracking number is automatically uploaded into Guesthub. Simultaneously, Guesthub records which employee is logging the package into the app, along with the day and time the item was entered into the system. Then, by entering the first three letters of the recipient’s last name, Guesthub is populated with complete guest information through its integration with the hotel’s property management system. The location of the package—where it is stored, including room, shelf or rack location—is also entered. To retrieve a package, a guest shows ID and provides a signature.
Think Simplicity launches SimplyAnnounce
Think Simplicity, a cloud communication technology provider of all-inclusive voice and chat solutions for the hospitality industry, has launched SimplyAnnounce, an electronic bulletin board application. The new capability has been added to Think Simplicity’s hosted Communications Web Portal (CWP) at no extra charge to clients and is designed to replace traditional employee communication methods.
SimplyAnnounce provides hoteliers with the ability to post important staff notices digitally, thus alleviating the need for employee bulletin or notice boards that often go out of date or are ignored.
As phone systems continue to advance, mobile communication and cloud-based platforms alleviate the need for traditional, physical forms of communication. Think Simplicity’s CWP is easily accessible from any computer via staff member login credentials.
Each communication post can be easily customized and categorized according to the individual hotel’s specific needs at the property level. The ability to post, delete and transfer ownership of the information is secured by user/role permissions.