Electro-Media Design (EMD) President Jeff Loether was "all ears" at HITEC Houston last month as he listened to hoteliers' tales of woe when self-managing their hotel's audiovisual operations. Conversations with multi-property owners and operators representing more than 30 hotels (including brands, independents and casinos) are continuing. Operators are eager to learn even more about AVaStar and how the patent-pending solution developed by EMD can help their non-technical staff better coordinate audiovisual equipment rental, set up and servicing."HITEC Houston was a successful show for Electro-Media Design as we used this venue to launch a first-of-its-kind solution," Loether said. "AVaStar is ideal for any hotel struggling with self-managing its AV operations. A management company, for example, probably doesn't have an AV specialist who oversees and trains staff in the sale, use and maintenance of audiovisual equipment. Each hotel in a multi-brand portfolio scenario may have its own AV specifications; some flags may allow portable equipment while others insist on built-in solutions. It can be really challenging, especially when capturing AV revenue is so critical to the bottom line."Most of the folks we met with at HITEC have portfolios of 10 or more properties," he said. "They've been self-operating with no support tools, and it's been a struggle. We heard the same story from independent property owners and those running casinos. Regardless of the hotel's ownership affiliation, each person said the same thing: 'We need help . . . and we had no idea that a solution like AVaStar existed. Please, tell us more.'"AVaStar is a single, dedicated platform for conducting all AV Technology activities, including planning and providing audiovisual services, managing meeting needs, scheduling resources, and tracking financial performance. It ensures that equipment and services are delivered and meeting customer expectations by prompting non-technical users with interactive, step-by-step sales, setup and troubleshooting procedures. When it comes to service and maintenance, AVaStar's ticketing system and maintenance schedule reduces downtime and ensures that everything works.Top Tech Consultants Chime InHoteliers are not the only people interested in AVaStar; some of the industry's leading hotel technology consultants are also intrigued with the software and the efficiencies it brings to hotels."AV support is on the front line of hotel convention services - these providers are the 'roadies' of the event world," said Corbin Ball, founder and owner of Corbin Ball & Co. and hospitality's foremost authority on all-things technology when it comes to the meetings industry. "With the hard work and long hours required, their support is crucial to a successful event. However, especially with smaller properties, in-house AV support services have been left to fend on their own in terms of managing event technology processes and coordinating equipment rental and servicing. There have been no standardized business models and no specialized education to help."The addition of a comprehensive online AV support system, such as AVaStar, will be a welcome addition to many in-house hotel AV shops," Ball said. "With the proper use, it should save time, save money and improve customer service."John Burns, president of Hospitality Technology Consulting and a 2006 HFTP International Hospitality Technology Hall of Fame Inductee had this to say: "In my experience, A/V is often the ugly sister in a hotel's banqueting operation. No one understands it, and no one really wants to. How well it is controlled - charges posted, inventory managed, and staff scheduled - is far less than perfect in some operations. A tool that could assist in bringing discipline to a hotel's in-house A/V operation should be of real interest to many property operators."Dave Berkus, a professional speaker, blogger, futurist and 1998 HFTP International Hospitality Technology Hall of Fame Inductee, addressed AVaStar from the presenter's perspective: "I've given workshops and keynotes in hotels large and small worldwide," he said. "When I arrive to find no professional A/V staff to greet me, I begin worrying that I'll next find equipment problems or worse yet, the wrong interface cables. It is a professional speaker's nightmare. I'll strongly support any solution that will give me comfort and a great show."Managing a hotel's AV department with AVaStar means:Ensuring equipment and resources are where they are needed, when they are neededManaging and monitoring activities of support vendors including third-party AV servicesAiding sales and planning process with prompts and guidesManaging all portable and installed inventory with one systemReducing equipment down-time due to service and repairsPlacing operational and financial information at your fingertipsManaging revenue and expensesOptimizing return on investmentIncreasing staff productivityExtending the power of existing property systems, such as Sales & Catering, through AVaStar APIs"We're thrilled that AVaStar has stirred such curiosity among hoteliers, consultants and even the media," Loether said. "Top editors from the leading hotel press also met with us to learn about this technology to better educate hoteliers. As we expand on conversations with outsourced event-technology companies who are supplying AV equipment to hotels and the industry's leading suppliers of sales-and-catering software - both of whom will benefit from by partnering with AVaStar - we will keep the industry apprised of the latest integrations and installations."Launching AVaStar at HITEC was a milestone for Electro-Media Design," he added. "Over the next several weeks we will be announcing more enhancements to this software as a service platform, including the development and launch of a new mobile app, and the introduction of AVaStar Academy designed to offer basic and advanced AV services and SaaS training." About AVaStarAVaStar is an event-technology platform designed to provide a comprehensive suite of services. It's an interconnective software which provides systems and templates that cover the entire spectrum of activities associated with operating and managing technology systems and services. AVaStar extends support for professional consulting and design services through its working relationship with Electro-Media Design, the foremost consultancy in meeting, entertainment, and event technologies and acoustics. Electro-Media Design, Ltd. is an independent technology design and management consulting practice. For more information on AVaStar, visit www.avastar.io or call (442) AVASTAR.

The San Luis Resort, which consists of three properties and Convention Center, has selected ALICE to enhance their internal communication, concierge operations, and guest engagement at their beachfront property. ALICE is the hospitality industry's leading operations technology, connecting every department of the hotel with one platform for all staff communication and guest requests. Last year, ALICE acquired concierge software provider GoConcierge to augment its technology and customer service offering.Prior to implementing ALICE, The San Luis Hotel communicated with radios and documented guest and internal requests manually. The hotel team sees ALICE as an opportunity to respond to guest needs more quickly and provide service efficiency across their hotel teams without having to increase labor cost or staff count. The rollout of ALICE's suite of products on the property includes ALICE's concierge software, preventative maintenance software, and integrated hotel guest messaging. Located a short distance from Houston on the Texas Gulf Coast, The San Luis Resort offers the perfect Galveston Island experience with lavish accommodations, breathtaking views of the Gulf of Mexico and personalized service. With such customized services, The San Luis Resort has a strong base of loyal guests, and was searching for a technology solution they could help them deliver the best experience the island has to offer. "ALICE allows us to enhance the guest experience, providing consistent and reliable service for our returning customers," said Steven DeFelice, Regional Director of Sales for The San Luis Resort."The San Luis Resort has always been the premier hotel in Galveston. The hotel is robust with meeting space, multiple restaurants, an amazing pool with cabanas and a swim-up bar, and is as close to you can get to the beach. With an operation as expansive as theirs, a system like ALICE is a natural fit." said ALICE's Director of Sales, Darien Long. "In the short term, they will be able to more quickly service guest demands and begin to understand where they can preemptively meet the guest's needs before the request has been made. Over the long term, the hotel can expect to understand trends that can help them control operational expenses. We are so excited to have our first ALICE hotel on the Galveston Island and another partner with Landry's Hospitality."When asked about the ALICE training process, DeFelice highlights, "I have been happy with how the ALICE team has rolled out training on the property and how they work hand-in-hand with each of the departments to make this a seamless and exciting transition."

CHMWarnick, the preeminent hotel asset management and owner advisory services company, announced today the launch of Proph+IT, a revolutionary technology platform that harnesses the power of big data from an ownership lens to optimize hospitality investments and has the potential to redefine asset management as the industry knows it today."For years now, the hospitality industry has been struggling with big data, from how to acquire it to who owns it and to how to truly use it to one's advantage," said Fern Kanter, managing director/EVP of CHMWarnick and strategic lead on the Proph+IT initiative. "Proph+IT was created specifically to take large amounts of property data and distill it through an ownership lens, to effectively and strategically utilize the information. With this platform, our asset management team can quickly and confidently analyze information, including automated alerts of trends and key variances, to better focus on a property's profitability and value enhancement."Proph+IT was custom developed to create the ultimate asset management tool. Data is provided directly from management companies, populated with millions of data points from each hotel's trial balance, across historical and current monthly financial data, as well as forecasted performance. This data is then automatically coded to CHMWarnick's chart of accounts, making it the most detailed benchmarking and analytics available within hotel asset management today. The platform was created to evaluate numerous industry issues, including gaining complete financial data access beyond the typical "owner's package P&L" and affording the most comprehensive and intuitive analysis and monitoring system of financial performance trends possible today."Automation and comparability of data represent a significant advancement, but this is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of realizing our new data-driven capabilities. Proph+IT puts the data in the hands of the experts, and our ability to cross-tabulate data points and follow trends on a multi-dimensional basis gives us, and by extension our owners, insight into a whole new realm of thinking about the operating model," added Kanter."Proph+IT immediately raises the industry bar for asset management technology and the ability to achieve results," said Chad Crandell, managing director and CEO of CHMWarnick. "While benchmarking has always been a core practice of ours for identifying opportunities, the size and scale of our asset management portfolio today has given way to a whole new opportunity for benchmarking and evaluating profit contribution across all areas of the operation and influencing future performance. Having been the first company dedicated to third-party hotel asset management almost 20 years ago, this is a natural next step for CHMWarnick to set a higher standard within the industry and establish 'asset management 2.0.' With an ever more complex hotel operating environment and expense growth often outpacing revenue gains, we have created a platform that allows us to connect the dots faster to make strategic decisions that positively impact value and monitor initiatives in real time on behalf of our owners."The proprietary platform, available exclusively to CHMWarnick clients, draws from a database of more than 3.5 million data points, with approximately 150,000 to 300,000 data points added each month. The system ultimately will track all current and new hotels that come into CHMWarnick's asset management platform, as well as data provided by major brand operators and third-party managers, alike."Fully integrated, the system will comprise more than 70 hotels, including full-service, select-service, convention, luxury, union/non-union hotels and destination resorts, providing incredible benchmarking capabilities and efficiencies, saving the roughly 2,000-man-hours required annually just to produce models and reports for assets in their current form," said Dan Lomartra, CHMWarnick associate and lead programmer of Proph+IT. "Once you factor in time saved producing portfolio-wide analyses, benchmarking and expanding versions of current reports, we're talking vastly improved speed with respect to identifying opportunities across our asset management portfolio. This creates considerably more time to dedicate to examining trends and drawing correlations from data, rather than inputting. Furthermore, we've effectively reduced the average window by which asset managers can access property data each month by about ten days through this automation. Proph+IT saves time by accessing and synthesizing a trove of data in a fraction of the time. This platform will revolutionize hotel asset management as we know it."

Independent restaurateurs face increasing pressure from large chain operators, many of whom are adopting technology rapidly as part of their global growth strategies. Meanwhile, independent operators may not yet realize the competition they face for their own survival.This latest research focuses on restaurateurs' challenges and behaviors toward training, as well as innovations in education from other industries, to enable the creation of Learning Communities. The concept is an innovative approach to train independent restaurateurs, taking into account the perennial issue of lack of time and money they face, as well as their most significant business challenges, topics of interest, current level of digitalization and preferred training format. The study included interviews with more than 50 independent restaurateurs, academics, experts and restaurant associations. A survey of more than 2,300 restaurant owners, managers, chefs and METRO customers was also completed across France, Italy and Spain as they were selected to represent the European countries for the study. These interviews and survey data were then analyzed to help create a Learning Community concept.Survey results indicated that the main challenges for independent restaurateurs included offering home delivery service, doing administrative paperwork and managing their staff. Their main topics of interest for training, however, centered on managing food, beverage and other supply costs, mastering cooking techniques and forecasting demand. This gap between challenges identified and topics of interest helped inform the Learning Community concept, which offers a solution that trains restaurateurs on what they want to learn while gradually introducing more critical topics and more peer to peer interaction."The Learning Community concept not only provides targeted and pioneering training concept on relevant technologies, but also tackles all primary challenges that independent restaurateurs face in their daily operations," stated Dr. Christine Demen Meier, Chair Holder, METRO Chair of Innovation. As demonstrated by the research team composed of Dr. Christine Demen Meier, Caroline Guigou and Isabelle Vetterli, this innovative educational solution also uses gamification elements to enhance the learning experience, keep participants engaged in the process, and help them develop the ability to comprehend digital content."The first study with the METRO Chair of Innovation showed us how restaurateurs use technologies and if not, what the reasons behind are. Restaurateurs often avoid new technologies due to a lack of time, knowledge and resources. With this follow-up study, we dived deeper to find solutions that start exactly at this point: What learning concepts and support can we give restaurateurs so that they can keep their finger on the pulse of the times and integrate learning into their everyday life with little use of resources?", says Frederic Schumacher, Director of Innovation at Hospitality Digital, a company of METRO AG. "We strive to help restaurateurs to integrate digital tools that simplify their work processes, so that they have more time for the essential."This was the last research carried out by the Metro Chair of Innovation, while the partnership between METRO and EHL will continue to evolve and grow. An announcement will be made soon with further details. For more information on the METRO Chair of Innovation and to download the research results, click here: https://innovationchair.com.