Partner News

INTERNATIONAL REPORT— Whether it’s celebrating an anniversary, receiving an award, earning a certification, debuting a new product or expanding the business, hotel companies and vendors achieve new milestones on a daily basis. Here’s a look at recent accomplishments:

Residence Inn Panama City Selects Assa Abloy for Security Features
Assa Abloy Global Solutions has implemented its security access platforms at Residence Inn Panama City. A recently opened extended-stay hotel, Residence Inn Panama City recognized the need to implement advanced security solutions in order to provide each guest with total peace of mind throughout their stay. To achieve this goal, hotel leadership opted to implement Elsafe Zenith safes and VingCard door locks with mobile access-ready abilities so that guests and their belongings can be protected using the latest in encryption technology, while future proofing operations to meet evolving guest needs.

By implementing VingCard Essence on guestroom doors, the property can benefit from an advanced solution that can eliminate the risk of unauthorized keycard cloning while enhancing the hotel’s unique style via its minimalistic design. With only a sleek RFID/BLE reader visible and with electronic components encased within the door itself, VingCard Essence provides Residence Inn Panama City with the ability to sidestep the bulky and commercial appearance of traditional hotel locks that can detract from an otherwise welcoming environment.

With guests increasingly expecting the instant convenience of digital key functionality, Essence’s Mobile Access-ready design further equips property leadership with the ability to provide the feature without the need for additional hardware or installation. Once demographic needs or brand requirements change, Residence Inn Panama City can activate mobile access in order to provide guests with the ability to use personal devices as a secure guestroom key. In addition, the hotel opted to implement VingCard Classic RFID locks in back-of-house areas.

STR founder Randell Smith named 2020 Cornell Hospitality Icon
The Cornell University School of Hotel Administration has selected Randell A. Smith, chairman and co-founder of STR, to receive the 2020 Cornell Hospitality Icon of the Industry Award. The award will be presented at the 12th annual Cornell Hospitality Icon and Innovator Awards gala, to be held on Tuesday, June 2, at the Ziegfeld Ballroom in New York City.

Smith and his late wife, Carolyn, founded STR in 1985 as Smith Travel Research. Originally a U.S. hotel census company, STR, which is based in Hendersonville, TN, has grown to employ 350 people in 15 countries and to provide data benchmarking, analytics and marketplace insights for global hospitality sectors. STR’s hotel industry data sample comprises 64,000 hotels and 8.7 million rooms in 180 countries. Last fall, STR was acquired by CoStar Group for $450 million.

Mumford Company Reports Record 2019
Mumford Company, a full-service hospitality brokerage advisory firm since 1978, has completed a record year in 2019 producing the highest dollar volume of hotel sales in the company’s history.

“2019 was a record-breaking year with a dramatic increase in both dollar volume and overall transaction activity,” said Ed James, managing principal, Mumford Company. “We attribute our success to an exceptionally strong start to 2019 with transaction pace maintaining steadily throughout the entire year. Pricing remained at cyclical highs throughout the year with a persistent shortage of assets on the market, which kept demand exceptionally high.”

Some of the transactions from 2019:

  • 200-room Fenwick Inn in Ocean City, MD
  • 85-room Fairfield Inn & Suites by Marriott, Winchester, VA
  • 68-room Holiday Inn Express Morgantown, Morgantown, WV
  • 141-room Best Western at O’Hare, Rosemont, IL
  • 122-room Hampton Inn Charlottesville, Charlottesville, VA

Parklane, a Luxury Collection Resort & Spa, Partners with MCOMS
Parklane, a Luxury Collection Resort and Spa in Cyprus, has partnered with MCOMS to install HOTstream hospitality platform in all its 274 rooms and suites. HOTstream provides a portfolio of interactive guest services including high definition IPTV, video on demand of more than 100 movies and Interactive TV to all in-room TVs and guest mobile devices though a consistent user interface that was designed for Parklane and its guests.

Through HOTstream’s technology “all services to all screens,” each guest has access to all hotel interactive services using the preferred device: tablet, smartphone or in-room TV. In parallel, HOTstream’s mobile app for iOS and Android devices includes a remote control service allowing each guest to control their in-room TV with their own tablet or smartphone, access to hotel offers, services and facilities, maps of the area with points of interest and TV channels.