Wow, this is a milestone for little ol’  Siegel Communications, Inc. (that’s us). Michael Squires recently joined us. Michael is a good guy, has been involved in technology in the hospitality industry for many years and thought we would be fun to work with. He has been here two weeks. He was wrong! But, he decided to suck it up and stay anyway and we are glad to have him. If you know Michael or want to say hello, email him at msquires@updateplus.com. 

Okay, I didn’t attend any parties the last two weeks, so no interesting encounters to speak of.  Amy is now officially 6 feet under (but I have a new one lined up). My fantasy football team stinks.  I recently was flying from Atlanta to DC. Flight left on time, we were in the air for two hours and then landed....back in Atlanta. Got off the plane and went home, figured it wasn’t my night to fly. 

Okay, here comes the news. I will follow that with my closing comments and this week’s terrible joke.

An Alaska Airlines customer traveling from San Jose, Calif., this week became the first person to check in and receive a boarding pass via the Internet, in a pilot of Alaska's online check-in process. The service will be expanded to the general public in October, for customers checking in more than one hour before departure for any flights that day. Travelers can print a boarding pass from their home or office printer and proceed directly to the airport; future enhancements will include a barcode printed on the boarding pass so it can be scanned at the gate to speed the boarding process. While customers must still present a picture ID to a customer service
agent before boarding their flight, Alaska is testing the use of the barcode to call up stored photographs of participating frequent flyers. 

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While in London, the City Airport became the first UK airport to develop an on-line booking facility, which will eventually permit the direct on-line purchasing of tickets on any flight from the airport. Future development of the web-site will include real time flight information and hotel and car reservation facilities. 

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And airport transportation provider SuperShuttle is now also taking bookings for seats on its shuttle buses over the Internet in all airport locations it serves. Its Website includes links to hoteldiscounts.com and weather.com. 

Changing of the Guard

The changing of the PMS guard continues - Penny Sellers, president of the Hospitality Group at Eltrax, announced that she will retire at the end of this year after 20 years in the industry, although she’ll keep her position on the Eltrax Board.  Penny founded Encore (purchased by Eltrax last year) in 1979 and is the only woman ever to be inducted into the Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals (HFTP) Hall of Fame.  It’ll be interesting to see who succeeds her at the helm of Eltrax; Dave Berkus, her predecessor and another long-standing industry veteran, left earlier this year to help UK vendor AremisSoft position itself for the US market.

Property Management Systems

More cooperation on the systems front, but still no merger: Hilton International and Hilton Hotels Corp announced joint plans for each to license MICROS-Fidelio's Customer Information System (CIS), allowing them to consolidate guest information on a global basis. The project is already under way and is expected to be completed during 2000. Both companies already store guest data from their various PMSs, but the CIS will collect and manage guest, travel agent and company profile information from both. When completed, the CIS will consolidate the information in a central data warehouse, available to all properties for profile sharing. The two companies have already completed joint development of a new Central Reservation System and a shared database for their Hilton HHonors frequent guest program, and have merged property information into a single 'Hotel Information' database, but continue to maintain that a complete merger is not advantageous.

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UK-based Innsite has landed the first US customer for its Intranet-based integrated Chain Management Solution. Select Inns, based in Minneapolis, has ordered the complete CMS application for its 20 mid-West properties, which will use Web-browsers to access full CRS, PMS and Customer Information System (centralized guest and company history) applications. 

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MICROS-Fidelio's new OPERA property management system has been installed at The Westin Stamford and Westin Plaza in Singapore, its first in the Asia/Pacific region and the largest installation to date for the Oracle-based system. The twin five-star properties, with 2,046 rooms between them, have over 400 users connected to the system network, and stayed open throughout the conversion. 

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MAI Systems Corp. has taken on the sole responsibility for future development, modifications and enhancements to the LodgingTouch suite of CRS, PMS and POS products. MAI had previously acquired an exclusive worldwide license to market and support the systems from Enterprise Hospitality Solutions (EHS) of Phoenix, the original developer. EHS will continue to develop, service and support the LodgingTouch software for a select list of its existing customers, but will primarily focus on systems development for the hospitality industry and other markets.

MAI also named James W. Dolan as Vice President of Finance. Dolan joins MAI after fourteen years with KPMG LLP, most recently as Senior Manager, Los Angeles and Orange County. 

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AremisSoft Corp, the UK-based vendor currently making a push into the USA, has signed an unusual agreement with major Greek systems company INFO-QUEST, under which INFO-QUEST takes a 20% ownership in AremisSoft, becomes an AremisSoft distributor for Greece and other eastern European countries, and agrees to use AremisSoft's Indian software development operation for implementation of all of its software-related technology services. The companies also agreed to the joint pursuit of other acquisition opportunities. 

Internet Reservations

WorldRes.com has added Sunstone Hotel Properties' 59 locations to its database; Sunstone will also implement a private label version of WorldRes.com's booking engine on its own Website. 

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Online travel services provider TRIP.com has acquired THOR, Inc. ("Twenty-Four Hour Online Reservations"), and its parent firm, Travel Industries, Inc. THOR claims to be the largest seller of hotel room nights in North America, servicing over 10,000 travel distribution companies in North America and 6,000 in Latin America and Europe. Through the acquisition, TRIP.com will gain access to THOR's Worldwide Negotiated Hotel Rates Program and 24-hour Reservation Service, as well as other features including internet Services (Internet tours, mapping and booking), a Preferred Vendor Program (vacation leisure products) and International Rate Desk. 

TRIP.com also announced that it will become a premier travel services provider for Lycos, Inc.'s search site HotBot.

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A new discount booking site has been launched from Ireland; Internet Reservations Desk offers a well-designed site offering rapid access to information and on-line reduced-rate reservations for properties in Europe, the Far East and Australia. US properties are due to be added shortly, starting with Boston, New York and Seattle. 

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Rosenbluth International has contracted with Pegasus Commission Processing for its hotel commission management program. In addition to the operational and consolidation benefits of rolling up commission payments, Rosenbluth is receiving a product line extension that automates the reconciliation process on their side as well. This will also cover commissions for Rosenbluth International's new affiliate company, Rosenbluth Interactive, formed through its recent acquisition of Biztravel.com. 

Pegasus Systems also announced that its Pegasus Business Intelligence division (formerly Driving Revenue and Pegasus IQ) will build and maintain a customer relationship management data warehouse for Accor North America, to house and analyze guest folio information from all 16 of Accor's Novotel and Sofitel hotels in North America. 

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American Express has contracted with GetThere.com (formerly Internet Travel Network) to develop a customized version of its ITN Global Manager. The new version, to be released in stages next year, will be integrated into American Express' U.S. corporate travel operations and into American Express@Work, its recently announced desktop portal for corporate expense management. American Express will also make a minority investment in GetThere.com. 

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Nevada-based Las Vegas Internet Partners merged with Florida's Player's Choice Golf & Sports Tours to form ITravel Partners, and announced a new division, Onlinerooms.com, which has contracts with over 500 hotels, resorts and golf courses throughout the country. The new company owns two on-line golf tee time reservation systems ("OTIS" and "Tee Block"), an on-line hotel reservation system ("RoomBlock") and a private label E-Commerce and credit card processing system ("TPM"). (www.lasVegasrooms.com,www.orlandorooms.com)

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ERP-market leader SAP released its SAP Travel Planning application, jointly developed with Amadeus Global Travel Distribution. SAP claims that the module, based on EnjoySAP Release 4.6, can reduce travel and entertainment costs by up to 30 percent annually. New features include a low-fare search tool (Amadeus Value Pricer), tracking of travel data for all air, hotel and car reservations made through SAP Travel Planning or through travel agencies connected to Amadeus, travel policy enforcement, seat maps/assignment, and automatic use of corporate identification numbers for hotel and car reservations. 

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Hars Systems VIP International Corp subsidiary reports a 497% increase in Internet bookings for the seven month calendar period ending July 1999, compared to the same period last year, worth more than $5 million in hotel room and car rental revenue for the period. This figure represents less than 6% of VIP's total revenue for the same period, but the trend is still impressive, and the company expects 12% of its business to be derived from the net by the year 2000. 

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Hostmark Hospitality Group has placed another six of its properties with REZsolutions for global distribution system (GDS) and Internet services, bringing its total to eight. 

Guest Services

LodgeNet has signed with NetGame Ltd. to use its NetHotel high speed Internet access solution, which uses a hotel's existing cable television infrastructure. Based on NetGame's NeMo cable modem system, NetHotel enables guests to access the Internet with their own laptop computers or through set-top devices. NetGame's solutions have been deployed by over 70 service providers in
35 countries. 

LodgeNet also announced a nationwide agreement with LookSmart, a Web directory and search service, to deliver a customized directory service for travelers accessing the Internet from hotel rooms equipped with OnLine by LodgeNet high-speed Internet service. LookSmart's directory consists of 1,000,000 unique site listings in more than 70,000 categories, selected, organized and maintained by 180 professional editors. 

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Phoenix's new Embassy Suites Paradise Valley Resort at Stonecreek Golf Club is installing StarView Communications' StarXpress high-speed Internet access in all 270 of its guestrooms. to hotel guests in Phoenix, using the property's television cable infrastructure. 

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Denver's STS Communications is partnering with InnTechnology of Glendale, CA to provide advanced in-room technology to Hotel guests. The agreement will combine STS' Extension 2000 high-speed internet access service with Inn Technology's in-room telecommunications services for hotel guests. The latter include a private guest phone number, a private guest fax number with a Hewlett Packard fax/copier/color printer, and guest cellular/wireless telephones that are integrated to the hotel's billing system. 

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CAIS Internet announced that the completion of its merger with ATCOM Inc., which will now be known as CAIS Software Solutions. 

Purchasing

Produce e-commerce site launched

A new “vertical hub” e-commerce site has been launched, offering an Internet-based trading location for the global produce industry.  ProduceOnline.com, a subsidiary of international produce processor and distributor C. H. James Company, will provide for grocery, restaurant and other fresh produce wholesalers to buy from growers, shippers and other produce suppliers over the Internet in real time electronic transactions.  The site will feature a database of nearly 400,000 Stock-Keeping Units (SKU) organized by brand, produce, variety, size, grade, packs, and other criteria, and is promoting savings on transaction costs of up to 70 percent.  It will allow users to integrate existing Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) systems—popular among large grocery chains and food service companies— with ProduceOnline.com’s browser-based system. 

Telecom

The marketplace shows strong acceptance for the microprocessor-powered analog display telephones recently introduced by both Teledex and Telematrix. These guestroom devices incorporate programmable displays in addition to the typical hospitality features we already expect. The displays can show guests Caller ID data if the entire system is properly provisioned. In addition to the telephone instrument the PBX must support it analog Caller ID (today Nortel, Hitachi and NEC both do, Mitel and Lucent are believed to be in development), but the incoming network services must be digital trunks equipped for PRI and provisioned for Caller ID. The specific assemblies will vary with the Local Exchange Carrier. An interesting point made by Teledex management is that Caller ID is only one of the features enabled by the display and supporting software, all of which allow for more interaction with the guest and service simplification.

Database Marketing

Hilton HHonors and their database marketing supplier, Epsilon announced a new mass-customization application for the Hhonors website. In addition to the typical account management functionality found on most frequency program sites, Epsilon and Hilton have devised customized and specific dialogs initiated by the system, online with the guest, driven by their consumption of Hilton product and utilization of the website. Nice application of segmenting the market to an individual customer.

Marriott Expansion

Marriott International announced an ambitious expansion of their already immense Bethesda, MD headquarters compound.  This expansion will increase the existing footprint 30%, cost $85,000,000 and house 700 new headquarters employees.  How many of the to-be-recruited will be technology professionals?

You know you are getting old when jokes you used to laugh at yesterday, now make you think. But, in my world, funny is funny. I mean I pick on people all the time and they pick on me. If we can’t laugh at ourselves, who can we laugh at?  Here is this week’s attempt at humor.