SAN DIEGO and VANCOUVER, Wash., April 30, 2010 - In a technological leap not often seen in hospitality on this scale, the Hilton San Diego Bayfront has given its guests the ability to use their own web-enabled devices to order room service, bottle service, everyday amenities and chat online with staff -- even when off property at the nearby San Diego Convention Center, PETCO Park and just about anywhere -- through GBCblue’s ORION and mobile GOrion guest-service platforms. Hilton’s 30-story, waterfront property stands out in the competitive San Diego hospitality market by “always exuding the casually sophisticated vibe of the city,” said Konstantine Drosos, Director of Finance at Hilton San Diego Bayfront. Drosos said the hotel worked with GBCblue to develop a branded online guest-services portal optimized for guests’ internet-ready devices “to give our guests the stress-free experience they’ve come to expect from Hilton and a trip to San Diego.”  “San Diego has an amazing coastal culture and lifestyle: It’s informal yet stylish and relaxed yet innovative,” Drosos said. “We try to embody those qualities in everything we do, particularly guest services. Since most of our guests travel with some type of web-enabled device, it seemed natural to enhance their stays by offering our guest services and amenities through them.” The Hilton San Diego Bayfront has simultaneously launched its comprehensive online guest-services portal and its Odysea Lounge iPad app, both based on GBCblue’s ORION e-commerce platform. The portal allows guests to use any web-enabled device to order -- or pre-order -- room service, request room amenities, address maintenance concerns and request services such as valet and book local tours of the San Diego harbor and Temecula wine country. Guests may use either a table-mounted Odysea iPad or download the Odysea Lounge app from the App Store to order food and drinks or request wait staff right from their tables with their own iPhones/iPads. Drosos emphasized the flexibility and wow factor of the ORION system for Hilton San Diego Bayfront: “One of the most exciting things we’re doing with GBCblue’s service is handing out iPads with the ORION portal in our Odysea Lounge. Guests may view and order from our food menu, see color photos of popular drinks, request wait staff, mix their own drinks and surf the web -- all from their Odysea iPad.” The Hilton San Diego Bayfront is evaluating an expansion of its GBCblue guest-services portal this summer to incorporate poolside ordering and ordering directly to the hotel’s on-site Starbucks. If guests don’t have an iPhone, iPad or iTouch, the hotel would supply poolside guests with iPod touches that can be used to place food and beverage orders, request additional towels or surf the web. And guests would be able to pre-order Starbucks coffee and menu items from their rooms or off-site to avoid standing in line. “The portal we developed with GBCblue has helped us deliver relevant, real-time content and services to our guests, regardless of their location,” Drosos said. “Using their online management tool, we can easily be proactive and customize the portal for business meetings, showcase daily menu specials and give our guests more freedom to experience the best of our hotel and San Diego.” Drosos added that guests can now use the portal to review popular regional destinations while strolling the Gaslamp Quarter or request Lincoln Town Car service from the waterfront. The ORION system also solves a sticky PCI compliance issue many hotels have with off-site amenity ordering. Now those not staying at the Hilton San Diego Bayfront can use the new Hilton portal to place food, beverage and amenity orders for guests, including in-room gift and bottle service for VIPs -- all in a web-based format with full PCI Compliant credit card functionality. “Hilton San Diego Bayfront is a leader in our industry for a reason,” said Joe Adkisson, VP of Guest Facing Technology at GBCblue. “And it has added to its reputation for excellent service by leveraging our e-commerce platforms to give its guests the flexibility to easily request services at any point during their time in San Diego. An added benefit of the amenity ordering part of the system is a documented increase in per-order revenue of 40%, on average, as we are seeing a trend of non-guests ‘pairing’ products with complementary products as they place their orders online for guests staying at the hotel now or in the future.” To bolster the recent Hilton announcement to make sustainability a brand standard by 2011, the ORION guest-services portal is also fully integrated with the hotel’s maintenance management system, SynergyMMS from Systems Associates, Inc., which allows guests to bypass the PBX and report maintenance concerns, request supplies or send a message directly to team members such as valet, as well as manage their stay by choosing green tasks like deferring linen changes. Hilton San Diego Bayfront’s portal is hosted off-site at GBCblue’s secure Network Operations Center. For more information on the ORION e-commerce platform, visit http://www.GBCblue.com.  GBCblue
is a leading innovator in guest computing technology and support
services and
is trusted by major hotels in the U.S.,
Canada, Mexico, U.K.
and the Caribbean. GBCblue is focused on
providing the hospitality industry with the finest remotely managed,
self-service, automated business centers, public computing, in-room
applications and fully hosted web-based property guest portals. GBCblue
supports both Microsoft and Apple operating systems.
GBCblue’s ORION system allows hotel operators to easily create their own customized web-based property portals. These portals allow your guests the ability to directly interact with property services, such as ordering room service, amenities or other property services right from their laptops or web-enabled phones. The new GOrion product is an iPhone/iPod touch/iPad application that puts the power of the ORION portal directly in the palm of your guests. With direct integrations available into POS, PMS, CRM and CMMS systems, you can streamline your guest services and increase staff productivity while providing your guests with the highest level of service. Discover what GBCblue can do for you to add incremental revenue and reduce costs at www.GBCblue.com or call us at 1-888-GBCblue. About Hilton San Diego Bayfront Hilton San Diego Bayfront, a 30-story, 1,190-room hotel, is located on the edge of San Diego Bay in downtown San Diego and situated on 12.79 acres of Bayfront land. The hotel boasts 165,000 square feet of meeting and event space, three dining outlets, a 7,300 square foot health club and spa, a 2,400 square foot business center along with San Diego’s first heated saltwater hotel swimming pool and nearly $2 million of commissioned public art. The Hilton San Diego Bayfront is just steps away from the San Diego Convention Center and PETCO Park, located at One Park Boulevard, San Diego, 92101. http://www.HiltonBayfrontServices.com/ |