Markham, Ontario, Canada — December 2, 2002 — NORTHWIND, a provider of real-time enterprise management solutions for hospitality, announced Vintage Inns has selected NORTHWIND to automate its four hotels and two spas with the Maestro™ property management enterprise suite, including Front Office, Sales & Catering, Club & Spa and, after a go live date of February 1, 2003, the real-time Web reservation module, ResEze™.  The prestigious Vintage Inn properties in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, all hold a Four-Diamond rating from Canadian Automobile Club and American Automobile Club for their elegance, deluxe accommodations, and personal service. 
 

“We were looking for an enterprise system that would allow us to sell benefits to the guest, and combine our four separate guest histories into one database,” said Ron Doi, Rooms Revenue Manager with The Vintage Inns. Vintage Inns owns the Queen’s Landing Inn; the Prince of Wales Hotel; The Pillar and Post Inn, Spa & Conference Center; and the Oban Inn.  All the data in Maestro is shared between fully integrated modules, as a result Doi expects to increase staff efficiency by 30% and improve accuracy by at least 50% with the elimination of re-keying guest information between systems.  “Our staff will only need to learn one product,

Queen’s Landing Inn & Conference Resort 155 Byron Street Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario

Doi noted that in preparation for taking all four Vintage Inns properties live simultaneously, NORTHWIND sent its operational team down for three days to conduct a comprehensive audit, after which both companies were confident that what Vintage Inns is doing now at the individual properties will be accomplished across the entire chain with Maestro Enterprise.  Vintage Inns’ team filled in a detailed workbook from NORTHWIND that will allow the vendor to build the database for Vintage Inns, turning – for example – inconsistent codes for each of the four properties into one uniform code to further simplify cross training of chain staff.

“About 40% of our revenue is from repeat business so we need a guest history system that supplies our staff with tools for better service,” said Doi, who explained the properties draw heavily from the Toronto and Buffalo-Rochester, New York areas.  “We also want to be a one-stop destination; when you call our 800 number, you can reach all of our hotels, spas, and sales representatives with that one call.”
 

Prince of Wales Hotel 6 Picton Street  Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario

Vintage Inns has some very unique requirements; the sales team is spread out in key locations in Canada and the United States. Maestro will give the team instant access to all property availability from these remote locations. A guest may experience one hotel, or facilities and guest rooms in more than one hotel, as part of the same stay. Maestro has been designed to make all this possible for the guest within a single reservation.  This level of integration requires a solid financial and property back-end that allows the individual properties to manage reports and reconcile availability, performance, and revenues from within Maestro. Not all enterprises will need

About Vintage Inns

Located in the wine region near Ontario’s picturesque Niagara River, and just a short drive from Niagara Falls, Niagara-on-the-Lake on Lake Ontario is a destination resort town for all seasons. Vintage Inns’ (www.vintageinns.com) Four-Diamond properties in the town include: Queen’s Landing Inn; the Prince of Wales Hotel with its Secret Garden Spa; The Pillar and Post Inn, Spa & Conference Center, home of the 100 Fountain Spa; and the Oban Inn.  The European style Shaw Café & Wine Bar is also owned by Vintage Inns.   Each property is visually impressive with chandeliers, marble floors, and views of Lake Ontario and Ft. Niagara in the United States across the Niagara River.  Four Diamond amenities include fresh flowers, free valet parking, a fresh rose hand delivered to each room every evening at turndown, and world renowned cuisine featuring locally grown vegetables and fruit picked daily.  The 123-room Pillar and Post Inn, Spa & Conference Center with its Four-Diamond restaurant was voted “Best Canadian Inn” by the readers of Canadian Country Inns Magazine in 1999. 

Niagara-on-the-Lake was voted “The Prettiest Town in Canada” in 1996 by the Nation in Bloom Competition, and runner-up for “The Prettiest Town in the World” in 1997. The Vintage Inns’ owner, Ms. Si Wai Lai, was awarded Canada's Business of the Year in 2001 by Ernst & Young.

About NORTHWIND

NORTHWIND (www.maestropms.com), known in the industry for its combination of service and state-of-the-art technology, is widely respected for its dedication to providing hotels, guests, and corporate management companies with flexible software solutions.

Based in Markham, Ontario, Canada, with a network of dealers and offices worldwide, NORTHWIND is a leading supplier of software for hotel owners and operators who need to manage their enterprise in a real time environment for maximum operational control and profitability.  Designed to handle any size hotel, resort, meeting/conference center, and for the enterprise, NORTHWIND's Maestro solution offers the most productive working environment, which includes the following suite of products:  PMS, Sales & Catering, Club/Spa Management, Corporate Reservations Office, GDS Connectivity and ResEze (Internet Reservations).  This comprehensive multi-platform (Windows 9X/NT/2000/XP, Unix/Linux, Terminal Server & Web Enabled) solution is recognized as the solution of choice for progressive and demanding organizations.  NORTHWIND is a total solution provider that offers leading-edge technologies, and unparalleled training and support.