Peter Holmes, a hospitality industry veteran, has joined The Rainmaker Group as director of strategic accounts. Rainmaker is the market leader in profit optimization solutions servicing hotels, casino hotels and resorts—but its acclaimed company culture is what attracted Holmes to the post.
The Berkeley Hotel, a luxurious boutique hotel in Richmond's historic Shockoe Slip, announced today that it has partnered with Stash Hotel Rewards, an award-winning loyalty program for independent hotels in the U.S. and Caribbean. As a result of the new partnership, Stash members are now able to earn and redeem points at The Berkeley, an elegant boutique hotel in the historic district of Richmond.
Modern travelers are savvy, deal-seekers. If a hotel deal exists, they'll find it, use it, then expect it everytime. Such is the case with that prominent 'promo code' field found on practically every hotel's booking engine. Widely used by hotels (check out the example from Hilton above) to close the gap during slow periods, to compete with deal-heavy OTA rates, and to entice travelers to book direct, promo or discount codes also hold dire consequences when it comes to getting travelers to book at all.
Aptech Computer Systems announced Coastal Hotels with 4 properties in the western US selected Execuvue® Enterprise Business Intelligence and Targetvue Budgeting and Forecasting. Margaritaville Beach Resort will also install Aptech's Profitvue Enterprise Financial Accounting for its 349-room destination property in Hollywood, FL. Aptech is the leading provider of hospitality software for business intelligence, budgeting, and enterprise financial accounting. Click here for more on Aptech's products and services.
ANZCRO, Australia's largest wholesaler for travel to New Zealand, has selected DHISCO to move its business online and access the best hotel rates. Based on the Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia, the 25-year-old ANZCRO has operated mostly under a traditional wholesale model but is looking to expand its business and access special hotel rates that are run exclusively through the DHISCO channel.
The American Hotel & Lodging Educational Institute (AHLEI) has published the fourth edition of Hospitality Industry Financial Accounting by Raymond S. Schmidgall, Ph.D., CPA, and James W. Damitio, Ph.D., CMA. This textbook presents basic financial accounting concepts and shows readers how they apply to the hospitality industry. Readers will learn about: the use of accounts, journals, and ledgers to record transactions, the formats and interpretation of financial statements, the effect of inventory valuation on costs and profit, the mechanics of accrual accounting, and more.The book has been revised throughout to reflect the 11th revised edition of the Uniform System of Accounts for the Lodging Industry. Other new information includes discussion of the revenue recognition principle, explanation of the LIFO reserve and how it occurs, discussion of the growing popularity of the limited liability company (LLC), and revisions to reflect the most recent IRS guidelines. Educators at hospitality management programs in the United States are once again able to order this and all of AHLEI's textbooks directly from AHLEI, as the organization discontinued its distribution agreement with Pearson Higher Education, effective July 1, 2015. U.S. academic customers can place orders and request desk copies by [email protected], or by calling 1.800.344.4381 or +1.517.372.8800.
Self-service solutions are quickly becoming a standard amenity in the global hotel market, as mobile-savvy travelers increasingly demand solutions that enhance the guest experience, save them time and leverage new technologies. Ariane Systems, the world leader in self-service check-in/out technology for the hospitality industry, knows the decision to build or buy your next solution is often a difficult one to make, since it can have a direct long-term impact on the performance and success of a property. Part one of this comprehensive multi-segment white paper explores the respective merits and challenges that hotels face in determining whether to build their own online self-service solution or implement an existing solution from a technology provider.
CSI globalVCard, a leading provider of electronic payment solutions, and ReactorNet, a premier provider of cloud-based collaborative spend management solutions for medium- to large-sized companies, today announced a partnership centered on integrating their technologies.
Yooz, the cloud service that lets businesses streamline their accounts payable (AP) workflow, announced today that Aimbridge Hospitality, one of the nation's leading independent hotel investment and management firms, has selected Yooz to faster and more efficiently capture and process all travel and expense (T&E) documents throughout its multi-brand, multi-location organization.
Top 10 Twitter Accounts to follow at HITEC 2015
Join Datavision at the HFTP HITEC show in Austin, Texas on June 15-18th, in beautiful downtown Austin at the Austin Convention Center. Attending for the 19th year, Datavision is proud to be a part of the HITEC week and the opportunity to showcase all the latest and greatest in technology. "HITEC brings the brightest minds and hottest technology to one place," and this year will be no exception.
ReactorNet, a premier provider of Cloud-based eProcurement solutions for medium- to large-sized companies, today announced they will be exhibiting at HITEC, the world's largest hospitality technology show, to be held June 15 to 18 at the Austin Convention Center in Austin, Texas. This is ReactorNet's third consecutive year exhibiting at HITEC. Following a busy start to 2015, ReactorNet will use this opportunity to unveil their latest EPRO features which are heavily focused in the area of accounts payable automation. EPRO is an award-winning Procure-to-Pay platform allowing buyers to directly collaborate with suppliers to gain control of spending while maximizing purchasing power.
It is said that adversity can bestow unexpected benefits. This was the case 16 years ago when Highpointe Hotel Corporation searched for a new back office accounting system to weather the dreaded Y2K bug. The worldwide millennial computer meltdown never materialized. But Highpointe's vendor search resulted in a "successful long-term relationship" with Aptech Computer Systems that is still going strong, says Mark Pate, Highpointe's assistant controller/IT Director.
With hundreds of connections already in place, pasUNITY Integration HUB (IHUB) already connects to a majority of applications in any given hotelier's financial ecosystem. "pasUNITY IHUB, a next generation technology, that's built specifically around hospitality, leverages our experience in connecting over 1,000 hotels across the globe to revenue generation, labor, payroll, banking and other auxiliary systems for hourly, daily, weekly, monthly and year-end transaction load, reporting and consolidation," says Bill Euler, President and CEO of pasUNITY.
With any organizational change, hoteliers face potential challenges of maintaining standardization across their entire enterprise. pasCLOUD is a back office solution specifically designed for hotels and the hybrid cloud environment as a software as a service. pasCLOUD includes over 40 pre-built reports and dashboards, an Expense Dictionary with over 4,000 items, and hundreds of application integrations.
RobertDouglas announced today that it advised Clarion Partners on the refinancing of the 65-property CBM Two Hotels LP Portfolio. Bolstered by robust in-place cash flows, strong geographic diversification, and institutional Sponsorship, the Portfolio attracted strong interest from a wide array of lenders. The $670 million five year, fixed-rate mortgage financing was provided by Deutsche Bank who is expected to securitize the loan in a single-borrower deal later this year.
"We recently took over a portfolio of 11 hotels where everything was done by hand. Accounting, budgets everything was in Excel spreadsheets. Our team knew immediately that we needed uniform accounting and an easier budget process across the properties," said Darren Phillips, CHA, principal of Magnolia Hotel Group. Columbus, GA-based Magnolia Hotel Group (MHG) owns and operates Marriott, Hilton, IHG and Wyndham properties in the Southern US. "Today we have everything online and our GMs don't need an accounting background to create and update their budgets." Manually maintaining accurate daily financial processes and continuously updating budgets can be a demanding process for any hotel company. "We upgraded to systems and processes that simplified our operation and gave us accurate, continuous up-to-date financials and budgets. We implemented the Targetvue Budget and Planning and Profitvue Enterprise Accounting systems from Aptech Computer Systems to make this happen," Phillips said. Aptech is the leading provider of hospitality software for business intelligence, budgeting, and enterprise financial accounting. Click here for more on Aptech's products and services. The Targetvue budgeting and planning system simplifies enterprise-wide planning, consolidation, and reporting by eliminating the need for companies to rely on management or manipulation of multiple spreadsheets. It gathers information and provides managers with the performance data they need to take proactive measures to increase profitability. The system combines daily data updates with historic trends to forecast future performance. Profitvue is a widely used thin-client, Internet-enabled enterprise back office solution that easily handles single, multi-property and multi-company accounting, and incorporates accounts payable, general ledger, statistics, and financials. "MHG operates several flags and they all have different market segment designations and levels of detail on their P&Ls," said Phillips. "The Profitvue accounting system is self-explanatory for all our property types. It is interfaced to our property management systems, and linked to our Targetvue budgeting system to eliminate data entry errors. Targetvue takes general ledger and payroll code data from Profitvue to streamline our processes. It cuts our budget time down significantly and I can easily review our numbers centrally from an ownership perspective." As MHG's revenue and expenses go up or down daily, Targetvue's forecast for each hotel is automatically updated to reveal factors behind the change. The system automates, in one day, the process that used to be a complicated five-day chore of calculating a new forecast to monitor trends. The result is better expense management based on actionable data that reduces risk. "Targetvue easily provides forecasts based on all the factors that impact property profitability, such as labor, utilities and equipment," Phillips said. "It is very well suited to hospitality operations. We can have as much detail on the P&L as we want. Once the revenue has been input, we apply industry standards for cost per room and other metrics to create budgets. We use Hilton market segments for our Doubletree, and with Targetvue it is very simple to set up unique line items, like Starbucks." Magnolia Hotel Group plans to expand its Targetvue rollout in the future. "The combination of Targetvue and Profitvue simplified our operation on many levels. We will continue to roll it out to all of our hotels and new properties in the future." About Aptech Computer Systems, Inc. Aptech Computer Systems, Inc., based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is the only provider of a fully integrated enterprise accounting, business intelligence and planning ecosystem to the hospitality industry. All of its clients are companies like yours, which own or manage hotels. Its solutions help customers at both the corporate and property levels understand their financial and operational data for faster goal achievement. The company is renowned for introducing business intelligence into the hotel industry, and offers a solid resource of hospitality professionals. Aptech is an IBM Software Value Plus partner and Premier Solution Provider. Incorporated in 1970, Aptech's state-of-the-art back office, true business intelligence and enterprise planning solutions are 100% hotel specific. Solutions include Profitvue®, Execuvue®, Webvue® and Targetvue. Clients comprise over 3,200 properties - including large chains, multiple-property management companies and single-site hotels. Execuvue and Profitvue are registered to Aptech Computer Systems, Inc. All other trademarks are owned by their respective holders. For more information please visit www.aptech-inc.com.
Cushman & Wakefield, Inc. and RobertDouglas, serving as co-advisors to an affiliate of Tampa-based DeBartolo Development, are pleased to announce the capitalization of the first phase of Ka Makana Ali'i, a $500 million regional mall development project located in Kapolei, Hawai'i on the island of Oah'u, approximately 25 miles west of downtown Honolulu. Joint venture equity was provided by OPSEU Pension Trust and the $167 million construction loan for Phase I of the project was provided by The Union Labor Life Insurance Company ("ULLICO") on behalf of its separate accounts.
As the annual Dolce Hotels and Resorts conference highlighted this past week at the Alexander Hotel in Indianapolis, several key technology features needed by the hotels are being found more frequently from a single source than in past years.
PAS is bringing the world's most trusted solution for Finance Controls and Automation, BlackLine Systems, to hospitality. Leveraging their in-depth experience in hospitality operations and their hands free integration platform, pasUNITY, PAS is creating an unparalleled solution surrounding the Financial Close - Balance Sheet, Bank and Credit Card Reconciliation Automation. The security and integrity that comes with pasUNITY integrations, eliminates many of the human errors that are commonly associated with such sensitive financial information.