Markham, ON � October 15, 2003 -- High-rise, residential, and hospitality building giant Minto Development, based in Ottawa, Ontario, is adding to its portfolio of long-term stay properties and leveraging technology to keep operating efficiency high, and staffing low. As corporate workers become more mobile, Minto is seeing a consistent average length of stay of 70 days at its Toronto and Ottawa Minto Furnished Suites properties. In response, Minto installed the Maestro Multi-Property Front Office and CRM Suite to automate its operations using a centralized server and single-image client database. This allows Minto to manage its corporate accounts more effectively and coordinate rate strategies across all of its six Minto Furnished Suites long-term stay properties.
Minto also installed hospitality-grade HSIA and PBX systems in its properties to raise the service level, reduce operating expenses, and capture more revenue. MacCulloch explained, �Our high-speed Internet and PBX systems interface to Maestro, and, thanks to its centralized database, when our guests move from one property to another their folio and account history follows them seamlessly. By having a central PMS, CRM and billing system we are able to offload a huge administrative burden onto Maestro; we just added 100 suites and actually decreased our workload. The Maestro Multi-Property system streamlined our operation and minimized the body count for our residential environment. We are generating a 75 percent savings monthly in operating costs by using a telephone trunk line and PBX interfaced with Maestro to bill calls in real time. These numbers made it very easy to justify the Maestro purchase.� To maximize revenue across the chain, rate controls for all Minto Furnished Suites properties are created and managed centrally with Maestro. �We provide real-time centralized yield management to all our locations,� said MacCulloch. �We build rate and occupancy parameters within Maestro�s yield management system at our corporate office. Maestro Multi-Property is Citrix-based, so all our properties feed information into, and can be centrally managed by, our corporate server. If one property reaches a preset occupancy threshold, the system automatically adjusts the price up or down for all the other Minto Furnished Suites in that market. With Maestro Multi-Property we can have the system automatically adjust our rate strategy across all the properties in our brand every time we make a booking.� Minto Furnished Suites also uses Maestro to manage its corporate sales efforts. All negotiated corporate accounts are accessed from Minto�s central Maestro Multi-Property database, so corporate clients with employees staying in separate properties can receive a consolidated invoice each month for all billing. Ian MacCulloch, Minto Furnished Suites� general manager concluded, �We chose the Maestro Multi-Property system because it was already used by many long-term stay properties; we did not want to be a beta site for unproven software. Maestro will simplify our growth because the technology is already in place to support new properties. The system provides front office management, financial reporting, occupancy forecasting, yield management, and guest accounting for all our properties centrally now; placing additional properties on the system in the future will leverage our investment.� About NORTHWIND NORTHWIND (www.maestropms.com), known in the hospitality industry for its service and state-of-the-art technology, is widely respected for providing hotels, guests, and corporate management companies with flexible software solutions.
About Minto Furnished Suites Minto Furnished Suites (www.mintofurnishedsuites.com) has been providing accommodation for extended stay travelers in Toronto and Ottawa since 1989. The parent company, Minto Developments Inc. (www.minto.com), is based in Ottawa and has a forty year track record building quality homes, apartments, condominiums, and more recently, an all-suite hotel. The furnished apartments operated by Minto are within company managed or owned locations providing the ability for the service team to control every aspect of its guests� experience. New properties include the recently opened MintoYorkville in the heart of Toronto�s upscale shopping and restaurant district and MintoGardens, currently under construction, in North York, conveniently located on the Toronto Transit rail line and providing excellent highway access to all major suburbs and Toronto International Airport. Minto Furnished Suites, who knew trimming travel costs could be so comfortable? NORTHWIND will be demonstrating its systems at the Historic Hotels of America 2003 Annual Meeting in St. Louis, MO, October 22-24, 2003. |
