Partner news

Whether it’s celebrating an anniversary, receiving an award, earning a certification, debuting a new product or expanding the business, hotel companies and vendors achieve new milestones on a daily basis. Here’s a look at recent accomplishments:

Duetto promotes Michael Schäffner to VP sales EMEA
Duetto has promoted Michael Schäffner to VP, sales EMEA. In another personnel move, Matthias Heel was named director of hospitality solutions EMEA.

Schäffner joined Duetto in March 2017 as director of sales for the DACH region (Germany, Austria and Switzerland). An experienced hotel industry professional, he previously spent time working for hotel technology companies Serenata and Nor1, following years of on-property hotel experience, including time with The Setai in Miami and Auberge du Soleil in the Napa Valley.

Heel recently served as group director of revenue & reservations for Ruby Hotels and before that as director of revenue & central reservations for Victor’s Residenz. Both hotel companies run their revenue on the Duetto Revenue Strategy Platform.

Sightline Hospitality Selects ProfitSword
ProfitSword has implemented its customizable, fully intuitive business intelligence platform for hotel management company Sightline Hospitality.

Sightline worked with ProfitSword to develop a platform offering granular level detail on the real-time performance of each hotel location and their various departments. This is achieved through the implementation of a database that can integrate with multiple performance data-generating systems to instantly present analytics via a single user-friendly dashboard. Access to the dashboard can be tailored to meet specific user needs, ensuring that hotel employees and company leadership can easily locate and analyze performance metrics relevant to their responsibilities while providing property owners with complete transparency over business health and growth.

Agilysys adds guest loyalty & promotions solution to Engage
Agilysys Inc. has launched a Loyalty & Promotions module as part of Agilysys Engage, its integrated set of guest engagement solutions.

Agilysys Engage—Loyalty & Promotions helps operators that don’t have their own loyalty solution to increase guest wallet-share through repeat visits, while leveraging guest preferences for targeted promotions and offers, according to the company. Engage Loyalty supports point earning and redemption at every guest interaction and provides a guest portal for self-service account management.

The module’s flexible program design and easy-to-use staff and guest interfaces, combined with API integration to other Agilysys and third-party solutions, provide the powerful yet easy-to-use capabilities for loyalty program and promotional offers management.

Barbados resort group switches to Maestro PMS mid-pandemic
Ocean Hotels Group in Barbados has turned to Maestro PMS mid-pandemic as it pulled the plug on its previous property management system (PMS). The group’s Sea Breeze Beach House and South Beach Hotel on Rockley Beach are already using Maestro, and when O2 Beach Club & Spa opens in September, it will, too.

Ocean Hotels Group is running on Maestro Version 5.5, which features the latest mobile and contactless tools, including Maestro Web Browser Version, WebPro Mobile Registration, ResWave Online Booking Engine, Front Desk, Yield Management, Mobile Housekeeping, Digital Registration Card, eForms, Pre-Payment Portal, Sales and Catering, Condo Owner Management, SMS Messaging, Travel Agency, Work Order and Gift Card modules. Maestro PMS also has deep integration to each property’s Silverware POS, making the F&B transition quick and painless.

Volara partners with GuestHub
Volara has partnered with GuestHub to streamline interactions between hotel staff and guests without the need for personal interaction. The GuestHub guest experience management solution captures and routes guests’ requests and facilitates other service tasks. Guests can speak service requests to an in-room Volara-powered Google Nest Hub or an Amazon Echo voice assistant to avoid physical contact with staff or other in-room equipment. Then, the voice request will be captured by GuestHub, a ticket will be created within the system and the request will be routed to the proper department for fulfillment.

Volara provides platform agnostic voice-based conversation management software and a secure integrations hub to existing property technologies. Its software turns the major natural language processing platforms into a business tool that drives more efficient customer service. The architecture of Volara’s software ensures that recordings of guests are never associated with their personally identifiable information and that guests’ personally identifiable information is not released to the major voice technology platforms.