Solid basis - years and years of practice

Amadeus Conference Management System, a component of the Amadeus PMS suite for hotels, is already available as Multiproperty edition since 2001. The global finance giant UBS uses this solution to manage 65 buildings and a total of 1,635 meeting and training facilities. And since 2003 Amadeus provides hoteliers with Multiproperty PMS solutions for the other three PMS modules - Front Office, Sales & Marketing and Finance - as well.

Amadeus Multiproperty PMS first rolled out across Grand Hotel Quellenhof and Hotel Hof Ragaz, two properties owned by the Grand Hotels Bad Ragaz. Both hotels were impressed with its functionality: shared guest profiles, global availability, advanced cross-property room search, cross reservations, consolidated management/financial reporting and cross check-out. It enables users to know their guests more intimately and thereby to serve them better. Further, by automating processes that were once manual, it cut tedious administration and human error at a stroke.

Since then, and in close cooperation with its hotel partners, Amadeus has made the system even better by adding a number of other features, such as the ability to save guest notes locally as well as globally across a chain, or by department. Amadeus has also made it available on an ASP model, hosted in the Amadeus data centre in Erding (n. Munich) - the largest civilian data centre in the world (ASP: Application Service Provider / a supplier that provides other companies with IT solutions, online services or personal data network. Users usually do not have to buy the required software - they can rent it.). The chains working on ASP basis enjoy all the functionality of Amadeus Multiproperty PMS without the cost of multiple installation or maintenance.

Hotels of every size and market segment use Amadeus Multiproperty PMS

Hoteliers around the world, of every size and market segment, soon recognised the value of the Amadeus Multiproperty PMS. The customers include, among others, The Heritage Golf and Spa Resort in Ireland (two properties), the chains Apavou on Mauritius and La Réunion (five properties) and the Mauritius Beachcomber Group (ten properties), the Velas Vallarta Hotels in Mexico (three properties), the French Le Domaine de la Fayence (ten properties), Europa Group Hotels in the Baltic states (seven properties), Maxima Hotels in Moscow (three properties) and Austrotel in Vienna (four properties).

In South Africa, the brands Road Lodge, Town Lodge, Courtyard and City Lodge have all used the system since mid-2005. A roll-out over 40 City Lodge properties was completed within a ten-month schedule. The group is now reporting significantly increased occupancy across the chain.

The Amadeus ASP offering has also been a great success. From April 2007, the first Golden Tulip Hotels have had their PMS and POS systems hosted centrally in the Erding data centre.

Richard Kürzl, Managing Director of the German hotel IT business unit of Amadeus, about the rapid spread of Amadeus Multiproperty PMS: “Our Multiproperty solution has a solid basis. Many man-years of development and listening to our customers’ needs helped us to build a solution that enables several properties of a hotel chain or cooperation to cross-link all business relevant data and make best use of the synergies within the group. As many customers told us, global availability and cross reservations are just two of many functionalities that help hoteliers to significantly increase their occupancy across a chain.“

Target group for Multiproperty: all hoteliers managing more than one hotel

Who should use Amadeus Multiproperty PMS? “Amadeus Multiproperty PMS meets the demands of all hoteliers with more than one hotel, whether they are a big chain, or small, catering to the luxury or budget segment,“ says Richard Kürzl. “They can improve the service they offer their guests and achieve greater business results with Amadeus Multiproperty PMS.”

• Guest files: The entire hotel chain uses a single electronic file for each guest. This means less duplication and more effective use of customer data. All properties in the chain have access to comprehensive guest information, including when and where they stayed and what their individual preferences and habits are.
• Availability: Every hotel can keep an eye on those chain properties that are most important for daily business and benefit from up-to-date information on room availability across the chain.
• Cross-Reservation: Fully booked? Only one mouse click is necessary to complete an instant reservation in another of your chain’s hotels. No time-consuming login to another system is required.
• Hotel search: Individual preferences of guests may be easily identified thanks to the search function (e.g. a four-star hotel with a fitness room).
• Loyalty marketing/bonus systems: For instance, reception staff may refer to the guest's frequent flyer membership even before they ask to redeem bonus points.
• Partnerships: Distribution and marketing partners operate even more successfully if they pool know-how and are aware of each other’s activities.
• Cross check-out: Guests can easily use the facilities of more than one hotel in a chain. They may use the sauna or spa facilities in a partner property next door, for example, and even check out there if they feel like it. Services ordered in one can be invoiced in another. The cross check-out function also allows for smooth internal cost allocation between a hotel chain’s different properties and may even decrease the labour costs associated with night reception service - some nearby hotels may be able to reallocate staff based on occupancy rates in other hotels in the chain.