NATIONAL 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:
Assa Abloy Publishes Environmental Product Declarations
Assa Abloy Global Solutions has published third-party certified Environmental Product Declarations (EPD) for 18 of its security-based solutions. It worked with Sustainable Solutions Corporation to conduct the Life Cycle Assessments (LCA) and publish the EPDs. The company can now provide its customers with complete transparency in how the life cycle of each certified product impacts the environment and affects a building’s sustainability goals.
Assa Abloy platforms with third-party certified EPDs include several of its electronic door locks, such as VingCard Essence, VingCard Signature RFID, VingCard Allure and VingCard Flex. Also awarded certification are the company’s Elsafe Infinity II, Elsafe Zenith and Elsafe Sentinel II electronic safes. Several accessories are likewise included such as RFID Encoders, lock cases, escutcheon sets, Zigbee ER Gateways and Zigbee Routers.
“Sustainability rightfully plays a vital role in today’s industry, and we are proud to be able to demonstrate that our solutions represent the highest standard in both technological innovation and environmentally friendly design,” said Markus Boberg, global president, hospitality at Assa Abloy Global Solutions. “The recent EPD publication serves as a valuable confirmation of this commitment by providing full disclosure on how our solutions are created along with their ultimate impact on the environment, and we are further pleased that the benefits of certification can be passed on to our customers.”
Stonehill Secures Financing Facility for $100M in PACE Lending
Stonehill has secured financing for $100 million of Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) lending for all commercial real estate asset classes. The additional, privately funded capacity is already being used to retroactively fund multiple development projects impacted financially by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
“With the economy currently on hold and sources of financing, like the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), drying up almost as quickly as they come online, PACE financing is a clear alternative for everyone from developers looking to restart temporarily stalled projects to owners seeking additional operating expense capital for already completed assignments,” said Mat Crosswy, principal, Stonehill. “Currently, we are fielding increased requests as developers contend with everything from mezzanine financing walking away from deals to the need for rescue capital.
“As direct lenders with the ability to close funding quickly and on schedule despite COVID-19 disruptions, we are doing deals right now for all asset classes,” Crosswy continued. “To date, we’ve provided funding for multifamily and hotel projects midway through the construction process and expect to process millions of dollars more in short order.”
Duetto Launches Enterprise Rate Guidelines Feature
Duetto has introduced several new features to its GameChanger pricing application. Designed by and for hoteliers, the new add-ons have been specifically built to answer the needs of hoteliers trying to gear up for reopening or a resumption of business after running on low occupancies in recent months.
The two new features have been developed to enable revenue leaders to centralize control over their revenue strategy, while still empowering properties with pricing flexibility for their localized strategy.
Enterprise Rate Guidelines: This feature enables revenue teams to set scalable strategies and roll them out across regions or entire brand portfolios in minutes. The flexible setup allows revenue leaders to create guidelines by brand, property type or region, and users can change, add or remove guidelines at any time. It ensures alignment to hotel brand policy, while still allowing local teams to implement strategies at a property level.
Min/Max: This helps revenue leaders control and safeguard automated price optimization. In addition, the data this delivers enables hoteliers to understand the true parameters of their pricing strategy.
“As hotels start to rebound, many revenue teams are going to be expected to do more with less,” said David Wollenberg, CEO, Duetto. “The new GameChanger features will improve efficiencies, streamline the decision process and enable hotel companies to implement new strategies across their portfolio in a matter of minutes.”
ProfitSword Publishes Guide on Overcoming Market Uncertainty
ProfitSword has published a detailed guide demonstrating how hoteliers can leverage the latest business intelligence strategies and their organization’s performance data to safeguard hotel operations and revenue during times of economic hardship. Titled “Staying One Step Ahead of Economic Uncertainty With an Effective Business Intelligence Strategy,” the guide is now available to hoteliers across the industry by visiting the ProfitSword website.
With the hospitality industry facing unprecedented unpredictability as a result of the ongoing health crisis, the ProfitSword guide serves as a go-to resource demonstrating how hoteliers can still create quick, yet fully informed business strategies that take rapidly shifting market conditions and priorities into full account. Essential topics analyzed within the guide include the need to ensure real-time access to performance data from across an organization, such as accounting, labor and sales metrics. By being able to routinely rely on the availability and accuracy of such information, the guide demonstrates how hoteliers are not only able to instantly determine the current needs of their business, but can also better forecast where the market is headed and what initiatives need to be implemented in order to ensure business survival and a full recovery.
“Hospitality professionals are regrettably facing one of the most difficult periods in the history of the industry, but by making this guide available we hope to provide each hotelier with the assurance that they still possess the ability to plan ahead for the ultimate success of their business,” said John Crutchfield, COO at ProfitSword.”Hotels are experiencing extreme shortages of revenue affecting labor and resources, which unfortunately increases the likelihood of making hasty and error-prone decisions during an economic downturn. By following the best practices outlined within the guide, company leadership can lessen the effects of an economic downturn by obtaining vital clarity on what their next steps should be in navigating current operations in a way that protects their assets along with the interests of guests and staff.”
Next Beekeeper Webinar to Discuss Preparing for Recovery
As part of its ongoing COVID-19 Webinar Series, Beekeeper will host industry experts from IHG, Fitler Club, and HDG Hotels to discuss weathering the COVID-19 storm and planning for recovery.
James Lemon, founder and CEO at The Growth Works, and strategy & innovation lead, commercial & technology at IHG; Jeff David, president of the Fitler Club in Philadelphia and founder of Jeff David Hospitality; and Lisa Lombardo, chief people and culture officer, HDG Hotels, will join Andrada Paraschiv, Beekeeper head of hospitality and former executive director of communications and strategy of FRHI Hotels & Resorts (Fairmont, Raffles and Swissôtel) to share their pandemic experiences, discuss lessons learned and identify ways to successfully compete in the days ahead.
“Hotels will gradually start to reopen, but they will have to brace themselves for ‘the next normal,’ and the one after that, and the one after that,” said Paraschiv. “We will likely see several iterations of normalcy in the months and years to come. Recovery will be slow, and properties will have to work hard to get ahead of the competition and capture the limited increase in occupancy. During this session, we will provide tips for standing out from the crowd, containing costs and driving revenues.”
The online event will be held Tuesday, May 19, at 11:00 a.m. EST. Interested parties can register HERE.