Hotel S.M.A.R.T. Alliance

London, October 12, 2009 | 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 alliance consists of RateTiger, Infor & SoftBrands, Travelscream and Rainmaker who all will be exhibiting for the first time together in the Transit Café at WIT from 20th – 23rd October at Suntec Convention Centre in Singapore. The Hotel S.M.A.R.T. Alliance will offer a one-stop-shop for hotel management, global travel deal distribution, online channel management, competitor benchmarking, revenue management and customer relationship management – all the functionalities hoteliers are looking for to improve their bottom line.

Keith Povah, VP of Sales International, RateTiger says; "The last two years have presented serious challenges for the hotel industry, and it has made technology solution providers rethink the way they serve the industry. Partnerships and collaborations will dictate the technology scenario for the coming years to ensure hoteliers reach their goals regardless of economic conditions. Taking a seamless approach to revenue management will make pricing more dynamic and provide new opportunities to engage with guests."

"With the advancement in methods to integrate and share data between e-marketing distribution as well as revenue, property and channel management systems, today's hoteliers have the unprecedented opportunity to gain maximum competitive advantage in an increasingly dynamic environment by implementing a best-in-breed solution strategy, at no risk of sacrificing data integrity or duplicating entries of it," said Erik Munoz, VP of Sales, SoftBrands Hospitality, Asia Pacific. "Our alliance partners recognize that a collaborative effort harvests results that are greater than the sum of individual endeavors and share the vision of enabling hoteliers to adopt a best-in-breed approach to their online distribution, revenue management and e-marketing technologies," he added.

"Travelscream's platform of cutting-edge content distribution and social marketing tools supports the SMART Alliance vision of giving hoteliers the fastest, easiest ways to find the most customers and interact with them online," said Eric Demaret, Travelscream Asia Pacific CEO. "By aligning our technologies and intelligence, we're giving our clients the edge they need to compete efficiently and effectively - and always with the overriding goal of increasing their bottom line revenue."

"With economic volatility, increased competition and high performance expectations from different stakeholders, the hospitality industry needs to ensure alignment and efficiencies, between the technologies of demand creation and demand management, for maximun profit. The alliance partnership is a great way for the industry to capitalize on this, besides getting the benefit of the shared expertise of the best of breed alliance partners," said Vivek Bhalla, MD Asia Pacific, The Rainmaker Group.

The optimisation of revenueneeds tobecome a key area of focus for hotels. Today a hotelier has to look at more than just occupancy to ensure proper revenue management. Technology has to live up to these new standards to provide appropriate solutions that will support hoteliers in an environment that becomes impossible to control manually. Therefore, the integration of various systems that support and cater revenue management becomes essential and needs to be a focus for technology providers.

We invite you to visit the Hotel S.M.A.R.T Alliance at the Web in Travel Transit Café and meet the partners and technology behind this unique 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 Travel Distribution & Marketing
    A panel of experts will share insights on the big picture of travel distribution and marketing and talk about changes in respective sectors and how they will impact your 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 and Closing 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 customer relationship management together.
    Ballroom 2, Level 2, Suntec Convention Centre

About RateTiger
RateTiger, by eRevMax Inc., has been a leader in online distribution management tools since 2001 and continues to pioneer new technologies for the hospitality industry. Operating in 60 countries and 415 cities across the world RateTiger has become the industry-wide benchmark for managing online distribution. A Platinum European Seal of E-Excellence for the marketing of innovation award-winner, the RateTiger product portfolio enables hoteliers to switch from a time-consuming and complicated multi-channel process to a single point of entry 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 rapidly expanding across the European and American markets. For more information please visit http://www.ratetiger.com

About SoftBrands Hospitality
SoftBrands Hospitality () provides central reservation, property management and business intelligence software that can be centrally managed to support many properties within a hotel chain, as well as easy-to-use solutions that can be installed on-site at an independent hotel. SoftBrands, an Infor affiliate, is committed to the hospitality industry, and is an active member of OTA, HTNG, HSMAI, HFTP, HEDNA, AH&LA and PHMA.

About Infor
Infor acquires and develops functionally rich software backed by thousands of domain experts and then makes it better through continuous innovation, faster implementations, global enablement, and flexible buying options. In a few short years, Infor has become one of the largest providers of business software in the world. For additional information, visit http://www.infor.com/

About Travelscream
Travelscream is the most flexible provider of low-cost, high value marketing solutions for the travel industry including global travel deal distribution and turnkey social marketing. Travelscream offers the Travel Deals Network (TDN), which publishes travel offers from hotels, airlines, car rental companies and other service providers through a network of leading online media channels and the Social Media Toolkit, including interactive maps, guestbooks, blogs, video hosting, social network sharing and more. For further details, visit www.travelscream.com

About The Rainmaker Group

The Rainmaker Group is a software and consulting services company that provides profit optimization for the gaming hospitality,hotel,apartment and other industries. Rainmaker consults about, implements, & supports the revolution Product Suite, which maximizes total guest profitability for operators of casino hotels and other hospitality enterprises. The company enables clients to identify and maintain availability for their most profitable revenue sources through revenue management implementations. Clients include Wynn Las Vegas, Boyd Gaming, Harrah's Entertainment, Omni Hotels, MGM MIRAGE, & other leading hotel companies.
The company, a Microsoft Certified Partner, also provides the revolution LRO (Lease Rent Options) profit optimization solution that enables serviced apartment/residence operators to maximize revenue from apartment lease/rentals. Clients include Archstone, Equity Residential, Post Properties and other leading apartment operators. For additional information, visit http://www.letitrain.com/

Neha Ginoria
Marketing
+44 (0) 7825 661575