Partner news

This week’s Partner News is highlighted by the McKibbon Family Foundation donating $5 million to FIU’s Chaplin School of Hospitality & Tourism Management; the Westin Fort Lauderdale choosing Assa Abloy’s Vostio Location Solutions and Event Temple releasing its group sync integration with Oracle’s Opera PMS. Read about all that and more below.

McKibbon Family Foundation donates $5M to FIU’s Chaplin School of Hospitality
The McKibbon Family Foundation, led by philanthropists John and Letitia McKibbon, have made a $5-million contribution to Florida International University’s (FIU) Chaplin School of Hospitality & Tourism Management. The gift was presented during a recent event celebrating well-loved and influential professor emeritus Rocco M. Angelo’s 90th birthday, and will be used to establish an alumni center, new technology-focused programming and scholarships for hospitality students.

John McKibbon, who studied under Angelo, graduated from FIU’s Chaplin School of Hospitality in 1975 and has been committed to giving back and supporting the school and its future hospitality leaders ever since. A third-generation entrepreneur with more than 40 years of hospitality experience, he serves as the chairman of Tampa-based management company McKibbon Hospitality; chairman of McKibbon Places, a hotel development and construction management firm; and CEO of M3, a global hotel accounting software company.

Westin Fort Lauderdale selects Assa Abloy Global Solutions
Assa Abloy Global Solutions, a provider of advanced security technology for the hospitality industry, has successfully implemented Vostio Location Solutions at The Westin Fort Lauderdale, a Florida property managed by TPG Hotels and Resorts.

The Westin’s decision to implement Vostio Location Solutions came from its goal to ensure a rapid response to the precise location of an emergency and to provide endangered hotel employees with immediate support. Equipping all employees with their own alert device, the property can instantly pinpoint the exact location of a staff member in distress. Using industry-leading Bluetooth-based beacon technology and innovations in cloud technology, the Staff Safety device can transmit a signal to first responders via text message, including relevant room and floor information to ensure swift response times. Using an escalation procedure, Staff Safety ensures that a timely response is always achieved by issuing alerts to more senior personnel on unresolved employee safety threats still requiring immediate attention.

The integration of Vostio Location Solutions also equips the Westin with advanced asset locating technology. Using the Hotel Asset Management feature to identify the location of the property’s luggage carts in real-time, The Westin can now provide guests with easier access to luggage aids by ensuring abandoned carts are returned to the property lobby. When deploying Vostio Location Solutions, which can be implemented as a component of Vostio Access Management or as a standalone solution, properties can use the geolocating capabilities to identify the exact location of room service trays, AV equipment, bulk inventory, baby cribs and more.

Event Temple releases group sync integration with Oracle’s Opera PMS
Event Temple, provider of Group Sales CRM Software, has released its group sync integration with Oracle Hospitality’s Opera PMS. The integration will enable hotels with Event Temple and Opera PMS (Version 5.5+) in their technology stack to automate the group booking process and eliminate administration work around hotel sales workflow.

Designed to streamline the availability of group sales data, hotels can take advantage of the Event Temple and Opera PMS integration to generate accurate sales reports and make data-driven decisions.

The Barfield partners with Hotel Internet Services
Hotel Internet Services (HIS), a full-service provider of internet services and solutions for the hospitality industry, has implemented a high-speed guest WiFi service for The Barfield, an Autograph Collection hotel.

The Barfield sought a WiFi solution that ensured a lightning-fast, high-quality experience when guests use demanding applications like media streaming sites, conference call sites and more. Ultimately, HIS was selected due to its extensive expertise and reputation for providing industry-leading connectivity. During the network implementation process, HIS leveraged its industry-specific expertise to implement advanced Ruckus access points within strategic areas, delivering a consistently high-performance and reliable WiFi signal throughout all hotel areas.

RateGain adds MarketDRONE Narratives
SaaS provider RateGain has an update called MarketDRONE Narratives, where the company’s product teams took cues from how human behavior has changed to consume social media stories every morning to stay updated about their friends.

Applying the same concept using AI, now hotels can get personalized stories whenever there is an update in the market that highlights what has changed and what action they should take, making it extremely simple for hoteliers to change their revenue strategy.

Now instead of collating data to analyze it for hours, revenue managers need to only look at Narratives and decide the course of action for the day. This helps them save critical time and tackle volatility more easily.