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DENVER,
Colo., November 6, 2012—Sceptre
Hospitality Resources today announced that it has made enhancements in
five
areas of its industry-leading central reservation system,
WindsurferCRS. Significant improvements include an upgraded
multi-property booking engine, automated monitoring for PMS reservation
delivery failures, a user-configurable dashboard, an enhanced currency
converter and improvements to its rate derivation functionality.
"We are constantly testing functionality
ideas, simple and complex, and letting our R&D investment be driven
by our
clients’ needs,” said Estella Hale, Sceptre’s product manager for the
WindsurferCRS. “These five advancements
are key enhancements that distance us from other CRS systems and
provide our
clients more competitive capability. All of these improvements are
provided to
our clients at no additional cost. And, it’s
just the beginning of several other features within our roadmap."
Enhancement Overview
- Multi-property booking engine—Whiteboard’s totally new
multi-property approach is ideal for chains, as well as hotel groups.
It allows clients to cross-sell properties and lets guests select the
most relevant hotel to their needs. The new software already
supports brands with more than 2,000-plus hotels and can comfortably
manage from two to more than 20,000 hotels.
- Automated monitoring for PMS reservation delivery
failures—WindsurferCRS monitors all reservation activity to make
certain all confirmations are sent, even if through the PMS. By
ensuring every confirmation is sent, the hotel avoids any lost business
or dissatisfied guests due to lost reservations. Many of
Windsurfer’s PMS interfaces have been enhanced to proactively alert a
member of the hotel’s team when there is a possibility of a failed
integration due to not receiving a PMS ID. The added functionality also
allows them to resend those records.
- Editable dashboard—A color-coded dashboard gives revenue
managers easier and faster management by allowing them to click on
time-sensitive fields and make speedy, appropriate changes to enhance
bookings.
- Upgraded currency converter—With the continued rise of
international travel, it is important for hotels to allow guests to
interact with the booking engine in their currency of choice.
This means not just an embedded calculator, but also a true conversion
of all the currency fields, including those in modal windows and
add-ons, to a currency of the guest’s choice. This makes the
booking experience a lot easier for foreign guests and, therefore, it
not only improves conversion, but it begins to create a positive
impression of the hotel even at the research stage of the booking
process. Currency rates are updated automatically daily.
- Rate derivation improvements—This is an enhancement to the
initial Windsurfer program that improves how rates are managed.
It provides significantly more options for revenue management, such as
rounding, rate ceilings and rate floors to allow revenue managers
greater flexibility and control of the rate management strategy.
Sceptre Hospitality Resources
Sceptre Hospitality Resources
maximizes revenues for hotels and resorts. With the addition of
Whiteboard Labs, the company now serves nearly 3,000 properties on its
reservation platform. In addition to Windsurfer, a
state-of-the-art central reservation system (CRS), Sceptre’s other
software include MotionNotes, a video messaging platform, SpaLinx, a
spa management and appointment booking application, HotelIQ business
intelligence, custom internet marketing services and revenue management
services.
Sceptre specializes in electronic
distribution, reservations connectivity, channel management, site and
search
engine optimization, revenue management strategies, reservation call
centers
and direct booking engines. Sceptre also provides interactive
marketing programs,
including website design, online advertising campaigns, social media
solutions
and other guest communication systems.
Additional information about Sceptre and
hospitality industry marketing trends and tools may be found at the
company’s
website: sceptrehospitality.com.
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