Hotel S.M.A.R.T. Alliance launches at Web in Travel 2009
Innovators in Sales, Marketing and Revenue Technology for hoteliers collaborate
-- Web in Travel 2009 will witness the debut of the Hotel S.M.A.R.T.Alliance, a technology collaboration that brings together the best-of-breed revenue management solutions for hoteliers.
The sales, marketing and revenue technology allianceconsists of RateTiger, Infor & SoftBrands, Travelscream and Rainmaker whoall will be exhibiting for the first time together in the Transit Café at WITfrom 20th – 23rd October at Suntec Convention Centre inSingapore. The Hotel S.M.A.R.T. Alliance will offer a one-stop-shop for hotelmanagement, global travel deal distribution, online channel management, competitorbenchmarking, revenue management and customer relationship management – all thefunctionalities hoteliers are looking for to improve their bottom line.
Keith Povah, VP of SalesInternational, RateTiger says; “The last twoyears have presented serious challenges for the hotel industry, and it has madetechnology solution providers rethink the way they serve the industry.Partnerships and collaborations will dictate the technology scenario for thecoming years to ensure hoteliers reach their goals regardless of economicconditions. Taking a seamless approach to revenue management will make pricingmore dynamic and provide new opportunities to engage with guests.”
"With the advancement in methods tointegrate and share data between e-marketing distribution as well as revenue,property and channel management systems, today's hoteliers have theunprecedented opportunity to gain maximum competitive advantage in anincreasingly dynamic environment by implementing a best-in-breed solutionstrategy, at no risk of sacrificing data integrity or duplicating entries ofit," said Erik Munoz, VP of Sales, SoftBrands Hospitality, Asia Pacific. "Ouralliance partners recognize that a collaborative effort harvests results thatare greater than the sum of individual endeavors and share the vision ofenabling hoteliers to adopt a best-in-breed approach to their onlinedistribution, revenue management and e-marketing technologies," he added.
"Travelscream's platform of cutting-edge contentdistribution and social marketing tools supports the SMART Alliance vision ofgiving hoteliers the fastest, easiest ways to find the most customers andinteract with them online," said Eric Demaret, Travelscream Asia Pacific CEO."By aligning our technologies and intelligence, we're giving ourclients the edge they need to compete efficiently and effectively - and alwayswith the overriding goal of increasing their bottom line revenue."
"With economic volatility, increased competitionand high performance expectations from different stakeholders, the hospitalityindustry needs to ensure alignment and efficiencies, between the technologiesof demand creation and demand management, for maximun profit. Thealliance partnership is a great way for the industry to capitalize on this,besides getting the benefit of the shared expertise of the best of breedalliance partners," said Vivek Bhalla, MD Asia Pacific, The RainmakerGroup.
The optimisation of revenueneeds tobecomea key area of focus for hotels. Today a hotelier has to look at more than justoccupancy to ensure proper revenue management. Technology has to live up tothese new standards to provide appropriate solutions that will supporthoteliers in an environment that becomes impossible to control manually.Therefore, the integration of various systems that support and cater revenuemanagement becomes essential and needs to be a focus for technology providers.
We invite you to visit the Hotel S.M.A.R.T Alliance atthe Web in Travel Transit Café and meet the partners and technology behind thisunique initiative.
Join the seminars featuring members of the Hotel S.M.A.R.T Alliance:
09:00 AM - 22nd October 2009
The Changing World of TravelDistribution & Marketing
A panel ofexperts will share insights on the big picture of travel distribution andmarketing and talk about changes in respective sectors and how they will impactyour business, whether you are a hotelier, airline or travel agency.
WIT Ideas Lab, Ballroom 2, Level 2, Suntec Convention Centre
12:15 PM - 23rd October 2009
Breaking Down the Walls andClosing the Customer Loop
The Web has broken down the walls and no longer can we operate in silos.This panel discusses how you can weave online distribution and customerrelationship management together.
Ballroom 2, Level 2, Suntec Convention Centre
Notes to Editor
About RateTiger
RateTiger, by eRevMax Inc., has been a leader in online distribution managementtools since 2001 and continues to pioneer new technologies for the hospitalityindustry. Operating in 60 countries and 415 cities across the world RateTigerhas become the industry-wide benchmark for managing online distribution. APlatinum European Seal of E-Excellence for the marketing of innovationaward-winner, the RateTiger product portfolio enables hoteliers to switch froma time-consuming and complicated multi-channel process to a single point ofentry to the market.
RateTiger is headquartered in New Jersey, U.S., EMEA HQ in London, UK,technical development center in India and six offices in mainland Europe.RateTiger employs more than 170 people across the globe. RateTiger is rapidlyexpanding across the European and American markets. For more information pleasevisit http://www.ratetiger.com
About SoftBrandsHospitality
SoftBrandsHospitality (www.softbrands.com/hospitality) provides central reservation,property management and business intelligence software that can be centrallymanaged to support many properties within a hotel chain, as well as easy-to-usesolutions that can be installed on-site at an independent hotel. SoftBrands, anInfor affiliate, is committed to the hospitality industry, and is an activemember of OTA, HTNG, HSMAI, HFTP, HEDNA, AH&LA and PHMA.
About Infor
Inforacquires and develops functionally rich software backed by thousands of domainexperts and then makes it better through continuous innovation, fasterimplementations, global enablement, and flexible buying options. In a few shortyears, Infor has become one of the largest providers of business software in theworld. For additional information, visit http://www.infor.com/
About Travelscream
Travelscream is the most flexible provider oflow-cost, high value marketing solutions for the travel industry includingglobal travel deal distribution and turnkey social marketing. Travelscreamoffers the Travel Deals Network (TDN), which publishes travel offers fromhotels, airlines, car rental companies and other service providers through anetwork of leading online media channels and the Social Media Toolkit,including interactive maps, guestbooks, blogs, video hosting, social networksharing and more. For further details, visit www.travelscream.com
About The Rainmaker Group
TheRainmaker Group is a software and consulting services company that providesprofit optimization for the gaming hospitality,hotel,apartment and otherindustries. Rainmaker consults about, implements, & supportsthe revolution Product Suite, whichmaximizes total guest profitability for operators of casino hotels and otherhospitality enterprises. The company enables clients to identify andmaintain availability for their most profitable revenue sources through revenuemanagement implementations. Clients include Wynn Las Vegas, Boyd Gaming,Harrah’s Entertainment, Omni Hotels, MGM MIRAGE, & other leading hotelcompanies.
The company, a Microsoft Certified Partner, also provides the revolution LRO (Lease Rent Options) profitoptimization solution that enables serviced apartment/residence operators tomaximize revenue from apartment lease/rentals. Clients include Archstone,Equity Residential, Post Properties and other leading apartmentoperators.For additional information, visit http://www.letitrain.com/
