Siegel Sez- UPDATE THIS / February 18, 2000

| February 01, 2000

Siegel Sez – UPDATE THIS ! February 18, 2000 – Issue #13 T E C H N O L O G Y NEWSTAND by Jon Inge Squire.com by Michael Squires Hospitalitys Location for Automation T E C H N O L O G Y NEWSTAND by Jon Inge Squire.com by Michael Squires Hospitalitys Location for Automation On the Road with Rich

I am off to Lausanne, Switzerland this week for the annual EURHOTEC Conference on hotel technology, so I figured I would bring you along.

Day One (and a half)

My flight to Geneva was scheduled for 8:05 p.m. Monday night out of Atlanta. I arrived at the airport very early (unusual for me) checked in for the flight and checked my bag all the way to Geneva. It was now almost 6 p.m. I had two hours till flight time. I went to the main concourse in Atlanta and had some Chinese food and then sat around reading the paper. Eventually I headed out to the very remote international concourse E and when I arrived there went to the bar and had a beer. I then went to the duty free shop and bought nothing, but did look around. I then stopped on the concourse and had a cup of coffee and bought a book on how to write an online newsletter. I then got to the gate about 7:20 for my 8:05 flight. I took a seat in the boarding area, made a couple of calls on my new cell phone and then they started boarding us at 7:40. I bumped into Harley Kaufman of Yield Management Systems when boarding (he, of course, had upgraded to Business Class. I was in the next to last row of economy but I think I got the last laugh since I had three empty seats together). They were just a few minutes away from closing the door when I looked around me and yelled, “Oh sh#@!.” I immediately ran to the front of the plane (a long trip from the next to last row of economy) while a squad of flight attendants tried to stop me. “Where are you going?” they asked.

“Hey, I left my jacket in the gate area. It is the only coat I have with me,” I replied. One of the attendants said she would go with me. We left the plane and checked the gate area. No coat. Checked the area where I stopped for a cup of coffee and the book. No coat. She said that we had to go. I went with her, got back on the plane and then watched as everybody stared at me as I went back to my seat. Yikes! I am going to Switzerland in the middle of winter with no coat. What is wrong with this picture? I truly do amaze myself as to how absent-minded I can be! The flight was fine. We connected in Zurich (I didn’t have to go outside), arrived in Geneva, and then got on the train to Lausanne (again, I didn’t have to go outside). I hopped in a cab at the train station and was taken to the beautiful Movenpick Hotel right on the water. I managed to stay awake all day, went to bed about 8 p.m. and slept through until 7a.m. I did buy a coat in a little shop near the hotel, so I am now ready to go to the show. The Swiss might be known for their great chocolate, but in my book, they will never be known for their reasonably priced coats.

Day Two (This is all you’re getting—I have to get this back to Geneva, the person in my office, not the city)

I woke up with a sore throat and a cold, go figure. I spent the day at EURHOTEC. This is a great, small conference, but I don’t think it will ever be as big as they hoped when they started it five years ago. They offer great educational sessions, with many Europeans speaking and a few Americans. Scott Heintzman from Carlson Hospitality is on tomorrow, so I am going to make sure he has updated his presentation from when he did the CIO panel at HITEC last year for me (which I am doing again this year). Interestingly enough, of all the attendees at EURHOTEC the second most represented country every year is the United States. I figure that is because so many of the vendors are from there. One other thing I noticed. It seems like every hotel technology and mainstream tradeshow we go to in the states, there are lots and lots of in-room high-speed Internet solution providers. At EURHOTEC there are very few and the only one from the states is Wayport, who was showing off its in-room and wireless solutions for meeting rooms and airports. I guess the high – speed Internet connectivity for the guestroom craze has not hit the European market yet.

We will do a more in-depth review of EURHOTEC in our upcoming issue of the UPDATE. If you haven’t yet subscribed to it, please send an email to [email protected] .

Okay, here now is the news from Birthday Boy Jon Inge. I will see you at the end with a wrap up and a bit of an update on my “you-know-what.”

Technology N E W S T A N D A Summary of Systems News Compiled by Jon Inge [email protected]

TOP O’ THE NEWS

A report by the Travel Industry Association of America (TIA), “Travelers’ Use of the Internet”, found that 93% of Internet users (91 million U.S. adults) took a least one trip away from home of 100 miles or more, one-way, in 1999, an increase of 190% from the 29 million in 1996. Online travel planning in 1999 surged 54% from 1998, with 52.2 million online travelers using the Internet for this purpose, with 32% of online travel planners going on to make online reservations, up 146% from 1998. Nearly half made 5 or more trips during the past year, and 45% said they would use the Internet more next year for travel planning or reservations.

Meanwhile, Arthur Andersen stated that customer ownership will be the key to securing and maintaining competitive advantage in the global hospitality industry in the new economy of the 21st century. Other trends identified include consolidation, convergence, the efficient use of real estate, distribution systems, knowledge, outsourcing of non-core competencies, technology, and branding. Three strategy areas were nominated for key investments:

Customer Relationship Management -Not giving away markdowns unnecessarily, identifying the most valuable customers, optimizing promotions/advertising effectiveness via one-to-one communication, ensuring retention of valuable customers through targeted campaigns, and gaining share-of-wallet by better customer understanding.
Knowledge Management – Harnessing relevant knowledge from its guests, suppliers, employees and competitors, and benchmarking its performance against a universally recognized best practices standard.
Outsourcing Non-core Competencies – Going beyond laundry and valet parking, increasingly to the finance and accounting function, which at an average hotel are estimated to run at more than 2% of revenue, more than double the best practice standards in a number of other industries.

And in a gloomy prognostication for smaller travel shops, e-commerce research and analysis firm Gomez Advisors suggested that Microsoft and its few online-travel competitors already have the online travel industry pretty much locked up. What it identified as the “big three” in the industry – Expedia, Travelocity and Preview Travel – now have about 40% of the online travel market, which is among the most mature sectors among all e-commerce industries. The bar has been raised even further by the recent surge in industry consolidations, such as Expedia’s recent purchase of Travelscape.com and Vacationspot.com, and the pending Travelocity/Preview Travel merger to create a site that Gomez predicts will account for just under half of all Internet bookings by 2001. The Net’s impact is evidenced in there being 15% fewer brick-and-mortar travel agents today than there were as recently as 1997, according to Gomez.

PEOPLE ON THE MOVE

HARS Systems subsidiary VIP International Corp has hired Lisa D’Angelo to join its sales team. Ms. D’Angelo was most recently National Sales Manager for Sceptre Hospitality Resources, and spent 15 years in senior sales roles at Embassy Suites, Inc. and Holiday Inns, Inc. VIP had also recently hired Rita Emmer as its Vice President of Sales; Ms. Emmer was also previously with Sceptre.

AremisSoft Corp appointed Mr. Tillman Starkloff as Manager of European Sales and Business Development. Mr. Starkloff will manage the company’s new office in Munich; he previously served as Export Manager and VP of International Sales at Hogatex, GmbH in Germany.

PROPERTY MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS

The Monterey Peninsula Inns, a collection of four boutique resort properties in California’s scenic Pacific Grove area, have ordered Northwind’s Maestro Enterprise solution. The product suite installed at the Inns includes Global Reservations, Centralized Client Database Management and Centralized Accounts Receivable Management, with Maestro PMS at the property level. The Inns’ implementation will include Maestro’s Direct Access Corporate Booking Center, for direct access to the property database from a central location, and its eMaestro On-line Real-time Web Reservation component.

RESERVATIONS

Leisure-lodging network provider inntopia.com is calling for other on-line travel companies to join in an industry-wide initiative to develop an open reservations interface for inns, hotels and bed and breakfasts. This follows frustrations expressed by attendees at the recent InnSpire 2000 conference in Rhonert Park, Calif., that current online booking options prohibit them from making their inventory available to more than one online reservations processor. Inntopia.com’s proposed solution would allow all online reservations processors to sell any property’s rooms on a first come, first reserved basis without the fear of double bookings. A focus group consisting of innkeepers, technology and hospitality industry leaders is meeting this month to discuss the adoption of a possible open standard for the industry. Inntopia.com will also conduct a nationwide Listening Tour to solicit input from innkeepers on how this solution should operate, and will publish results from the tour.

Ebookers.com and AOL Europe signed a two-year, multi-million dollar deal, whereby ebookers.com will be a primary and preferred travel partner on the AOL and CompuServe services in the UK, Germany, France, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Austria and Sweden.

Business-to-business travel booking systems provider GetThere.com has been selected by both MetLife and Lucent Technologies to provide corporate travel services. Insurance and financial services provider MetLife is running a pilot program for GetThere.com’s Global Manager, with the potential to extend full-service booking and corporate travel management to its 7,000 business travelers via the corporate intranet.

And, following a successful pilot test, Lucent Technologies is deploying GetThere.com’s Internet travel booking system to its more than 60,000 travelers, also on its intranet. The system uses a low fare search that shows the lowest published fares and Lucent’s negotiated fares with airlines, and lets travelers know whether they are within Lucent’s travel policy.

GetThere.com also announced that its ITN.net travel booking Web site has been integrated with the American Express Travel & Entertainment Web site. This is the first phase of a multi-faceted relationship between the two companies, which also includes plans to offer GetThere.com’s Internet booking systems to American Express corporate travel clients to complement its other business travel services.

Galileo International Inc. is acquiring the 80% of online travel services company TRIP.com it does not already own, for $269 million in cash and stock. It also plans to bring its own Website on line in the second quarter of this year, with offerings from more than 500 airlines, 45,000 hotel properties and 38 car rental agencies. The TRIP purchase counters last years move by Galileo competitor Sabre Holdings Corp., whose Travelocity.com announced plans to merge with online travel site Preview Travel Inc., a Galileo customer.

Leisure travel e-commerce company Leisureplanet has chosen SDLWebFlow for a 3-year contract to globalize its Website. SDLWebFlow, SDL International’s Multilingual Content Management System, will maintain Leisureplanet’s content translation for a network of global services, aimed to span 30 countries by mid-year and involving the translation of more than 18 million words and 10 languages during the first year.

Travel agent franchiser Etravnet.com announced that its RezConnect real-time international reservation system will be used on the travel sites of GoCancun.com and VisitCabo.com, the official Web sites for the respective government-supported tourist boards of the Cancun and Los Cabos tourism regions of Mexico. The sites will debut in February, and allow users to book reservations at over 150 hotels. These two destinations will serve as prototypes for Etravnet.com’s patent-pending real-time hotel confirmation system that uses “net-to-phone-to-net” technology, under which users’ Internet reservation requests immediately prompt a telephone call to the desired hotel. The receiving hotelier responds to the local language voice prompts using the telephone keypad, confirming or refusing the reservation and triggering a response to the users’ screens.

POINT OF SALE/ACTIVITY TRACKING

Larry Forgione’s An American Restaurant Group (AARG) has contracted with OpenTable.com to provide online reservation functionality at its four New York properties; An American Place, The Beekman 1766 Tavern, Rosehill, and The Coach House. In addition to hosting on-line reservations, the OpenTable site tracks frequent guest preferences, food allergies and birthday/anniversary dates.

GUEST SERVICES

XETA Technologies announced a partnership to serve as a sales agent for Darwin Networks, to offer high-speed Internet access to its customers in the lodging industry. The XETA/Darwin offering will integrate XETA’s Linux-based Virtual XL call accounting system with Darwin’s Linux-based high- speed DSL Internet access system. It will also bring hoteliers additional revenues from e-commerce fees, meeting room DSL bandwidth usage and guestroom access fees.

Darwin Networks also acquired iCom Network, a developer of public Internet kiosks and software, expanding its portfolio of high-speed Internet products and services. Currently, iCom has over 425 public Internet terminals in use throughout the United States; customers include Marriott International, The Walt Disney Company, Amtrak, and Kampgrounds of America (KOA).

Internet solutions provider Wayport, Inc., has contracted with Lucent Technologies for installation and support services. Lucent’s NetCare Professional Services organization will provide installation, site assessment, and project management services for the expansion of Wayport’s access systems throughout the U.S. and Canada.

Interstate Hotels has selected STSN to provide in-room high-speed Internet access to its approximately 170 properties in the United States and worldwide. Installation is expected to be complete by June 2000, using existing guestroom phone lines and a plug-and-play Ethernet or USB connection for the guests’ computers.

Internet access provider CAIS Software Solutions and Time Warner division Oceanic Cable have teamed up to offer the first high-speed cable Internet access to Hawaiian island hotel guests. The initial installation will be at the Outrigger Waikoloa Beach Hotel Resort, in the hotel’s suites, Voyagers Club and Cabana rooms and the hotel’s meeting rooms. The partnership combines CAIS’ IPORT Broadband Provisioning System with Time Warner cable services to provide plug and play Internet access to hotel guests.

LodgeNet and Ritz-Carlton are upgrading the free-to-guest cable TV programming at The Ritz-Carlton, Atlanta to include the DirecTV digital satellite entertainment service, LodgeNet’s first free-to-guest subscriber acquisition under its strategic alliance with DirecTV. LodgeNet already supplies the hotel with its pay-per-view movie and game systems, and will be adding Internet enhanced television services under its national agreement with Ritz-Carlton in the next few weeks.

KoolConnect.com, a provider of consumer connectivity products and Internet Entertainment Systems, has released KoolHotel, its online service offering hotels in-suite Internet access, e-mail and a customized interface for providing online entertainment, video on demand and hotel information. Operated via wireless keyboard or remote control device, KoolHotel delivers a range of information and full access to the World Wide Web through the television in each guest suite; it is customized to include the hotel’s logo and property-specific content such as hotel services and events and room service menus.

The Pan Pacific Hotel Yokohama will offer high-speed Internet access services to hotel guests from February 1, 2000. The 485-room will charge guests a flat rate of 1,500 Yen (US$13.80) per night; the service features 7Mbps Internet access for 112 guestrooms and 7 lounge access points via a small ADSL adapter at each location. Another 65 rooms offer regular Internet service through the hotel’s existing telephone wires at regular telephone charges. The system was developed by NEC System Integration and Construction Inc., using ADSL equipment imported from AcuComm of California.

Putting content selection ahead of infrastructure, Sage Hospitality Resources has contracted with STS Hotel Net to provide guest room Internet Portal services at all of its 60 properties, providing for guest laptop, PC, television, and wireless platforms. The Hotel Net portal is an online entry point for guests accessing the Internet, providing guest specific content, e-Commerce, and business communication services. STS will also help Sage select an In-Room Provider for high-speed Internet connectivity.

COMMUNICATIONS

TeleMatrix unveiled its Europhone this week at EURHOTEC 2000 in Lausanne, Switzerland, aiming to become a global provider of lodging-specific telephones. The Europhone has software driven core technology and does not require batteries, eliminating the parts and labor associated with battery replacement. TeleMatrix recently opened offices in the U.K. to handle warehousing, product support and field sales operations for the European, Middle Eastern and African region.

Squires.com by Michael Squires [email protected]

It’s like Déjà vu. First MAI revived the HIS name for its hotel systems division—this year we find Lodgistix reborn as a dot-com to brand the Eltrax Hospitality Division’s combined Sulcus/Encore product line. Two great names, makes you feel young again.

We are busy laying out our spring magazine. That means absorbing megabytes of the hottest technology from a dozen articles written by the top authorities in hospitality consulting.

Exhilarating stuff; hardware and software that will change our businesses in the next 12 months. Looks like biometric finger-print readers will be at the front desk; mom and pop properties will all offer high-speed Internet access; and check-ins with signature capture and keys will be handled by roaming desk clerks on busses and out in the lobby.

Talk about adopting new technology, Rich finally bought one of those tiny cell phones with PDA functions and caller ID for his trip to EURHOTEC in Switzerland. Be watching for him on TV while you wait for your next flight. Last week he flew to Fort Lauderdale to be taped for a CNN report on hotel-technology trends that will be showing up on The Airport Channel and in-flight programming. Adios.

Back to Siegel SEZ

Okay, I am taking a moratorium on sharing my personal life. Right now, we are so focused on getting our Spring Issue to the printer, there is nothing to write about. No great stories from Switzerland, but if something does happen in the next two days, I promise I will let you know about it in two weeks. Okay, here now is this week’s humor. [email protected]

Jake was on his deathbed. His wife, Freda was maintaining a vigil by his side. She held his fragile hand; tears ran down her face. Her praying roused him from his slumber. He looked up and her pale lips began to move slightly.

“My darling Freda,” he whispered.

“Hush, my love,” she said. “Rest. Shhh…. don’t talk.”

He was insistent. “Freda,” he said in his tired voice. “I have something I must confess to you.”

“There’s nothing to confess, “ replied the weeping Freda. “Everything’s all right, go to sleep.”

“No, no. I must die in peace, Freda. I slept with your sister, your best friend, and your mother.”

“I know,” answered Freda, “That’s why I poisoned you.”

***********see ya in two weeks*********** [email protected]