Hotel Online Special Report

Hyatt Hotels & Resorts First Major Hotel
Chain to Implement Passkey GroupLinkSM
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All Group Reservations Automatically Transferred
to Hotel Reservation System
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CHICAGO, IL & QUINCY, MA - March 9, 2005 - Hyatt Hotels & Resorts is the first major hotel chain to fully implement Passkey GroupLinkSM, which will electronically deliver all Hyatt group reservations for citywide and single property events near real-time into the individual properties' PMS system. With the implementation of GroupLink, Hyatt continues on its strategy to provide its meeting planner community leading edge solutions for efficiently managing meetings at its properties. In this case, Hyatt's now fully automated group reservation process will deliver numerous competitive advantages, including the ability to keep events open through the day of arrival, and allowing for complete yield and inventory management from one data source.

"Hyatt offered us Passkey for our meetings and we were thrilled," said Lisa Walker, Convention Director, National Association of Biology Teachers. "Before Passkey we were doing it the old fashioned way where attendees called the hotel directly inevitably creating a lot of confusion between all parties. Now, we are able to customize an event reservation website, manage our room blocks efficiently, run reports anytime we want, and eliminate book-arounds and attrition exposure."

"Passkey has been a true partner by listening to our needs and our clients' needs," explained Bruce Small, Director of Sales Information Systems. "Together we were able to integrate our systems seamlessly, using the industry standards such as OTA guidelines, and truly evolve the automation of managing group reservations."

Since Hyatt's automated group reservation strategy was implemented last year with Passkey, more than 50% of their group reservations, at participating Hyatt's, are booked online through Passkey, either through Passkey Room List Manager or individuals booking online at custom event websites. With Passkey GroupLink all group reservations, including new, modifications, and cancellations are now going directly into RESERVE, Hyatt's CRS system, which then automatically passes the data electronically to the Hyatt properties' PMS systems. Passkey GroupLink can also send all reservations, including uploaded rooming lists, from multiple groups to multiple hotels simultaneously in a single transaction, including the various billing methods applicable for each event. Furthermore, Passkey Grouplink is allowing Hyatt to establish unique business rules on an event by event basis, such as stepped cancellation management, accepting post cut-off reservations, managing sub- blocks and upselling room types when appropriate.

"We understood what Hyatt was trying to achieve with our group technology - exceptional meeting planner satisfaction with Hyatt," explained Greg Pesik, President & CEO, Passkey International Inc.  "Naturally, Hyatt was a perfect partner to integrate with via GroupLink to showcase how meetings can be managed in a way that creates a win-win between the hotel and a meeting planner."

Hyatt can now offer meeting planners the option of keeping Passkey-enabled events open up until arrival date, to allow them to capture the maximum attendance for their event, and get full credit for all room nights generated by the event. Meeting planners will have faster, more reliable information about their actual group pickup by viewing up-to-date custom event reports online, gaining more control over their room blocks, and will not need to worry about errors in their attendees' information.

About Hyatt Hotels & Resorts
Hyatt consists of 212 hotels and resorts (over 90,000 rooms) in 43 countries around the world, operating under the Hyatt, Hyatt Regency, Grand Hyatt and Park Hyatt names. Currently, the group has an additional 28 properties under development, including 10 new hotels in China. Hyatt Hotels Corporation (domestic U.S., Canada and Caribbean hotels) and Hyatt International Corporation (international properties) are operated by Chicago-based Global Hyatt Corporation. Global Hyatt Corporation is also the parent entity of Hyatt Vacation Club, Inc. (timeshare) and Hyatt Equities (hotel ownership). In January 2005, Global Hyatt Corp.  added an additional 143 U.S. properties to its growing portfolio with the acquisition of the upscale, limited service AmeriSuites hotel chain.  These properties will be repositioned and renamed under a new Hyatt brand by early 2006. From the U.S. and Canada, reservations for any Hyatt hotel worldwide may be obtained by calling 1-800-233- 1234 or logging onto www.hyatt.com.

About Passkey International, Inc.
Passkey, the internet-based booking engine and event management solution, is the meeting and convention industry's standard for group reservations management and distribution. The Quincy, Mass.-based provider empowers organizers of single-property meetings and citywide 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-enabledSM 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:

Hyatt Press Contact:
Rafal Korkis
Associate Manager
email: [email protected]
voice: (312) 750-8091

Passkey Press Contact:
Dahlia El Gazzar
Director of Marketing
email: [email protected]
voice: (617) 237-8238



 
Also See: Passkey Names Bob Orlando Chief Financial Officer / January 2005
Passkey Releases Automated Rooming List Management Product; New Functionality Eliminates Manual Keying of Room Lists for Passkey Users / December 2004
Hotels Accelerating Adoption of Advanced Technology Solutions to Manage Group Business; Passkey Empowers Hotels to Increase their Online Group Bookings / June 2004
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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