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:
Agilysys Expands Partnership With Wind Creek Hospitality
Wind Creek Hospitality has expanded its existing relationship with Agilysys Inc. with the addition of the InfoGenesis POS solution, as well as rGuest Buy Guest Kiosk, rGuest Buy OnDemand and Agilysys Authorize for all of its properties.
A longtime user of Agilysys’ Stratton Warren System (SWS) for inventory and procurement, Wind Creek expanded its SWS deployment enterprise-wide including new sites. Agilysys partnered with Wind Creek to reimagine the F&B guest experience. Leveraging Agilysys’ omni-channel suite of solutions, Wind Creek is able to offer a contactless experience, from ordering to delivery to payments. Guests are now able to earn and redeem their gaming rewards automatically at all Wind Creek outlets. Coupons and offers that required patrons to print to redeem as well as operations to manually track transactions are now eliminated in favor of one-touch electronic redemption at the point of sale.
Florida Hotel and Convention Center Chooses Sonifi
What started as an in-room entertainment upgrade and continued as a safety platform through COVID-19 has forged a strong partnership between Florida Hotel and Conference Center and technology provider Sonifi Solutions.
Prior to the coronavirus outbreak, the Florida Hotel and Conference Center worked with Sonifi to create custom interactive TV experiences that meet the specific needs of business guests and conference attendees. Integrations on the new platform also allow guests to use it to order in-room dining, make housekeeping requests and check out from the room, reducing in-person contact. Guests can also stream their favorite content subscription, games and productivity apps to the in-room TV with Staycast.
Sonifi, a longtime partner of the Central Florida Hotel & Lodging Association, was able to leverage existing network infrastructure to deploy the enhanced technology, saving time and money while enhancing the guest experience.
Bartech Launches Minibar+
Bartech, a Las Vegas-based provider of automatic, profit-generating minibar solutions for the global hospitality industry, has unveiled Minibar+, which enhances Bartech’s manual minibars with semi-automatic functionality. Minibar+ is a “plug and play” solution that is available as a downloadable application, adding semi-automatic functionality to Bartech’s manual units to give hotel operators the ability to control key functions of these devices without having to set foot in the guestroom.
Minibar+ creates guestroom-based profit centers using manual minibars or dry goods display units with sealed, pre-packaged goods, and allows remote monitoring and control of the units, allowing minimized guest contact. In addition to assisting with the protection of guest health and well-being, Minibar+ also allows hoteliers to control costs by providing the ability to adjust internal temperatures remotely using tablets or smartphones. In this way, properties can adjust their energy consumption based on occupancy; prevent refrigerators from running at night; and automatically set the devices to shut down during pre-set periods of low occupancy.
Minibar+ provides a number of other features including the ability to remotely lock and unlock minibars individually or by floor, reducing staff and guest pilferage, and allowing hoteliers to offer higher quality items in the guestroom. Maintenance staff can also schedule defrost timing remotely.
Maestro PMS to Host Free Webinars
Maestro PMS will host free, live one-hour webinars on June 16 at 1:00 p.m. ET and June 17 at 11:00 a.m. ET. Maestro users will learn what mobile, online and touchless tools are available in the Maestro PMS system.
“Maestro’s webinar will focus on creating a property strategy for a more touchless guest experience,” said Warren Dehan, Maestro PMS president. “Our webinar will describe options for mobile pre-check-in, express mobile checkout and digital signature capture to streamline front-office processes and eliminate unnecessary points of physical guest contact. Maestro is ready to be an effective resource for its users as they comply with regional public health guidelines. Our webinar will give our users information and tools they require in today’s operating environment.”
The Maestro Property Management System (PMS) delivers flexible and scalable deployment options with an identical full-featured web browser or windows solution available hosted in the cloud or on premises. Maestro’s hotel management software applications and services centralize operations and provide personalized and touchless mobile guest service tools to enhance the guest experience while also supporting a safer stay.
New N.J. Embassy Suites Hotel Installs SlenderWall
The owners of the newly opened Embassy Suites by Hilton Berkeley Heights, located in Connell Corporate Park in Berkeley Heights, NJ, used the SlenderWall Architectural Precast Concrete System to clad the building. The contractor on the project, Tocci Building Companies, enlisted SlenderWall’s Mid-Atlantic licensed producer, Smith-Midland, with the manufacturing and erection.
The 52,671-sq.-ft., smooth, two-tone light/dark gray, acid-washed precast concrete panels enveloping the eight-story hotel mimicked a more expensive natural stone finish.
“We are glad that hotel owners see the benefit of using a long-lasting, durable envelope for their projects,” said Matthew Smith, Smith-Midland’s VP. “Their headaches with maintenance and replacing the exteriors goes away.”
Cost-efficient, durable, and known for its long life span—with no failure issues—SlenderWall offered a wide variety of design and finish options, and provided a very viable alternative to traditional exterior insulation and finish system (EFIS) construction used by many hotel chains.
“By using SlenderWall and its cost-effective combination of durable architectural precast concrete, steel stud wall framing, and closed-cell spray foam insulation integral to the panel,” said Chris Grogan, business development manager, Smith-Midland, “the project was able to reduce both the on-site trade work required and the overall project schedule.”