Hotel Online Special Report


Hotels Accelerating Adoption of Advanced Technology
Solutions to Manage Group Business; 
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Passkey Empowers Hotels to Increase their Online Group Bookings
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QUINCY, Mass. - June 22, 2004 - Both chain hotels and independents are accelerating their deployment of group management solutions to protect and increase their group business.  As learned from the lessons of the transient merchant model, hotels now see that deploying their own online group management solutions is mission-critical.  Over the past two years, Passkey International, Inc. has been the solution of choice, becoming the industry standard for managing group business.  Passkey is now the leading tool offered to meeting planners by hotels to fight two major industry challenges - book-arounds and attrition exposure.  The adoption of Passkey is no longer the exclusive domain of major hotel chains; today casinos, resorts, and independents have all demonstrated that implementing Passkey further fortifies and strengthens their group business. 

"Attrition and book-arounds are not just industry buzz words, unfortunately they are here to stay." explained Bruce Small, Director of Sales Information Systems, Hyatt Hotels and Resorts.  "By implementing Passkey we are able to deal with these challenges and continue to satisfy our meeting planners."

According to Passkey's Paul Rantilla, Senior Vice President of Sales & Marketing, it is not obvious at first glance to most hospitality IT professionals why hotels are looking outside of their own PMS and CRS systems, and licensing Passkey to manage group reservations.  Even though according to the most recent Hospitality Technology study, approximately 60% of the respondents use IT as means to differentiate themselves from the competition (Hospitality Technology 3rd Annual Lodging Industry Technology Study).

"The decision by companies like Marriott, Hyatt, and Omni to implement Passkey is often driven from sales and marketing executives at hotels as a way to establish a competitive advantage and help their customers avoid wash and attrition," explained Rantilla.  "IT professionals quickly support the initiative because Passkey's ASP delivery model does not entail on-site hardware or software implementation."

Naturally, from a pure profit optimization perspective, hotel executives are focused on driving the largest share of reservations to their own website.  This strategy is now equally important for group reservations to maintain both channel and price integrity.  Almost 42% of hospitality IT professionals surveyed stated that the principal driving force for IT to adopt new solutions is to enhance productivity and increase efficiency (Hospitality Technology 3rd Annual Lodging Industry Technology Study).  Many of Passkey's hotel customers are now experiencing more than 50% online group reservations activity, driving down the cost normally associated with call center processing of group reservations.  Passkey's most recent product release further reduces costs by providing the hotel the ability to upload rooming lists delivered by meeting planner, giving them the opportunity to process last minute reservations and send instant confirmations to all attendees.

"We've always wanted a solution that will give us more insight to the pickup of our meeting all the way to arrival date," explained Kevin Johnston, CMP, Director, Strategic Events, CoreNet Global.  "A hotel that offers Passkey gives us the ability to interact with them more effectively, and to run reports whenever we need to as well."

Equally important to hotels and IT professionals is Passkey's ability to integrate with existing hotel systems. In over 95% of Passkey's installed base, clients benefit from direct interfaces to their hotel's PMS or CRS permitting the electronic delivery of reservation activity.  Passkey's integration strategy continues to expand; and to complete the group management loop from contract stage to event arrival date, Passkey went live with it's first sales and catering interface to Newmarket International's Delphi system. Passkey is also about to unveil a true two-way group reservation interface to PMS or CRS systems capable of basis delivering new. modified and canceled reservations in both directions on a near real-time.

Optimizing group business with technology is not just limited to the Hyatts and Marriotts of the world.  Independents such as The Venetian, Wynn Las Vegas, The Pebble Beach Resort®, Hotel Moneteleone and others have licensed Passkey to stay ahead of the competition and gain new market share. 

About Passkey International, Inc.

Passkey, the Internet-based booking engine and event management solution, is the meetings and convention industry's standard for group reservations management and distribution.  The Quincy, Mass.-based provider empowers organizers of single property meetings and city-wide events with access to a Web-based application that provides all parties with 24/7, shared access to critical event information and real-time reports.  The Passkey-enabled SM global network consists of Convention and Visitors Bureaus (CVBs), hotels, association and corporate meeting planners, meeting management companies, Professional Congress Organizers (PCOs), travel agencies, and registration vendors.  Passkey investors include:  Lazard Technology Partners; Galileo (NYSE: GLC) (www.galileo.com); Worldspan (www.worldspan.com); and TravelCLICK (www.travelclick.net). Company Website: http://www.passkey.com

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Contact:

Dahlia El Gazzar
Director of Marketing
Passkey
Director of Marketing
180 Old Colony Avenue
Quincy, MA  02170
voice: 617-237-8238
email: [email protected]
http://www.passkey.com



 
Also See: Eight More Cities to Offer Passkey; Charlotte, Cincinnati, Hartford, Ontario, Richmond, Toronto, Washington D.C., and Wildwoods Join the Passkey-enabledSM Network / February 2004
Marriott To Offer Passkey Meeting Management Tool; Meeting Planners Receive Greater Control and Flexibility / October 2003
Passkey is Named MPI's Exclusive Digital Partner for Group Housing / March 2003
Passkey Appoints Chris Avery as New VP, Business Development / March 2003
Passkey Goes Global; Opens Office in Dublin, Lyon Convention and Visitors Bureau First European City to Become Passkey-enabled / Nov 2002
Boca Resorts, Inc., Selects Passkey to Further Serve Meeting and Event Planners / Oct 2002
Omni Hotels First to Implement Passkey Enterprise Solution Across Entire 40-Property Portfolio / Oct 2002
PGA of America Hits the Green With Passkey / Aug 2002
Nothing But BlueSkyz and Passkey / Sept 2002
Jay Ramadorai Joins Passkey as Senior Vice President & Chief Technology Officer / July 2002
Passkey Names Former Hotel Executives Paul Rantilla and Andrew Mace to Sales Positions / April 2002 


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