Hotel-Hotel Groups Welcome New CRM Release

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif
HMC (Hospitality Marketing Concepts), the leading solution provider of loyalty membership programs, has launched a new release of ClubCentral CRM 4.0, its proprietary Web-based Customer Relationship Management application.

ClubCentral CRM was specifically designed for the hospitality industry to give hoteliers the marketing edge that can put them ahead of their competition. It is a perfect complement to the turn-key, private-label loyal membership programs that HMC designs and operates for hotels to build a local, repeat clientele. A user-friendly application, ClubCentral CRM allows the hotel to collect and manage client information, identify key clients, recognize business trends, selectively communicate with specific target profiles, and automate communication to clients. Moreover, ClubCentral CRM offers hotel marketing executives the capability to measure the reach and effectiveness of each marketing campaign.

Sporting a redesigned and easy-to-use interface and the integration of a "best of breed" e-mail campaign management system, the newly released ClubCentral 4.0, debuts a number of additional features, including:

-- An enhanced Dashboard to provide a hotel marketing executive with an intuitive snap-shot into key F&B, membership sales, and reservation performance metrics

-- Hierarchy reporting that allows corporate offices to view program performance by region, country, or any combination of unique hotels and Food & Beverage outlets within its portfolio

"ClubCentral has made significant strides over the past years with valuable input from our hotel partners," said Mokhtar Ramadan, CEO of HMC. "The evolution of ClubCentral also reflects the increasing sophistication of our clientele. This new release of ClubCentral gives hotel groups tremendous reporting flexibility, with the ability to drill down to a single hotel or a single outlet. Being able to monitor program performance, manage communication with members and create real-time, cost-free marketing initiatives are no longer nice-to-have options but necessities in a competitive market."

"HMC's CRM application has provided each of InterContinental Hotels Group's 40 properties in Australia and New Zealand with the ability to better understand their loyal base of customers," said James Hayward, partnership marketing manager for the InterContinental Hotels Group. "Now, ClubCentral CRM makes it easier to view and analyze information for multiple hotels, and leverage that knowledge to create marketing campaigns targeted towards critical member populations ranging from First-Time Diners to Top Spenders."

A live demo of CRM ClubCentral 4.0 is available online: http://cccrm.clubhotel.com/crm4/. Username: "demo;" Password: "demo."

ABOUT HMC

With headquarters in Newport Beach, Southern California, HMC is the leading provider of travel industry paid consumer membership and database management programs. HMC provides services to more than 1,000 full-service hotels worldwide. A selection of clients includes InterContinental Hotels Group, Le Meridien, Starwood, Shangri-La Hotels, Ritz Hotels, Mandarin Oriental, Husa, Orbis, Raffles and Swissotel. HMC is a global company with offices in more than 70 countries including Italy, France, U.K., Germany, Spain, Poland, Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, China, UAE, Egypt, Venezuela, Brazil, Canada and the United States. More information about HMC may be found on the company's Web site http://hmc.clubhotel.com or by contacting Peter Gorla, director of marketing, at 949-833-8000, Ext. 218 or via e-mail at gorlap@clubhotel.com.

Hotel-Hotel 'bed war' escalates

By CBCUnlocked
Room attendants at Toronto’s Fairmont Royal York Hotel took their 15-minute breaks en masse Thursday, hoping to make a point about escalating workloads in an industry increasingly reliant on heavy luxury bedding to lure customers.


Calling it a "bed war," union organizer Andrea Calver says hotel rooms across North America have bigger mattresses, heavier duvets and more pillows than ever before.


But the people whose job it is to attend to these rooms – mostly women recently arrived in Canada – are finding the work increasingly difficult.


Some of these luxury mattresses can weigh as much as 51 kilograms and bedding can weigh 17 kilograms, Calver says. And that’s beginning to take a toll on room attendants. At the Royal York, 23 of the 150 attendants are on modified duties as a result of injuries sustained while making up rooms.


"Mostly repetitive strain – pain in their wrists and backs," says Calver, an organizer with UNITE HERE, Local 75. The union represents Royal York attendants, who are currently in contract negotiations. It also represents employees at about three-quarters of Toronto’s hotels, or about 6,000 workers.


At the Royal York, attendants are expected to make up 16 rooms a day. They are entitled to two paid 15 minute breaks and an unpaid 30 minute lunch.



But Calver says most find it impossible to make their 16-room target without forgoing their breaks. While they are allowed under their collective agreement to "return" rooms, Calver says they feel pressure not to do so.


"It comes from hotel managers. Their expectation is that room attendants will do 16 rooms. And there are restrictions on their ability to give back rooms," Calver says.


Before they can give back a room, attendants must call a supervisor to inspect their work, and they must call before a designated time.


"Hotels have set up onerous procedures to give back rooms. It would take a lot of guts on a continual basis to keep giving rooms back," Calver says.


But Tammy Phillips, Royal York’s director of public relations, says the procedures for giving back rooms is only meant to ensure they’re properly cleaned before guests check-in.


"It’s to meet guest expectations and not to intimidate anybody into not taking their break. . . We have always encouraged them to take their breaks. On Tuesday, we actually started scheduling to make sure they take their breaks," Phillips says.


She says the hotel introduced fitted sheets so that attendants need only tuck and not lift mattresses to make the beds. Phillips says attendants are no longer expected to flip mattresses, but merely to rotate them using the handles.


She also says the hotel brought in an ergonomics expert to demonstrate how to make up a room with minimal effort and has been training staff to use the new techniques since February.


But Avenelle Johnson, who has worked as room attendant at the Royal York for 23 years, says the new fitted sheets require tugging before they’ll cover the mattress.


"They’re tight on the bed so they’re still hard. And sometimes when they run short of fitted sheets, you still have to lift the mattress," Johnson says.


And she says room attendants are often injured by the new automated carts the hotel recently introduced so that attendants wouldn’t have to pull carts but merely push a button and guide them.

"The carts can only hold X amount of linen, so it's tightly packed. You have to pull hard to take it out. It hurts your shoulder and back," Johnson says.

Hotel-墾丁凱撒 下月升等6星級

民眾日報 記者陳明道恆春報導

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下月起墾丁凱撒整建後，最遲至明年6月前重新開放後再出發，即日起配合整建拚觀光，特別推出『跨越19‧喜迎20專案』，讓所有愛護凱撒的朋友一同來見證全新里程碑。『跨越19‧喜迎20專案』包裝內容有：精緻雙人房一夜住宿、翌日早餐、小灣獨木舟體驗券或凱撒休閒設施券兩張、免費客房礦泉水等，並加贈館內600元餐飲抵用券。

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Travel-阿里山重塑新旅遊路線鐵路深度遊 鄒族歌舞都將納入

民生報 記者龐凱駿∕報導

因應開放大陸人士來台觀光及推展國民旅遊市場，交通部觀光局及阿里山國家風景區管處，邀旅行業者實地踏勘、座談後，將重塑阿里山旅遊全新的路線和行程。未來，除大家熟知的阿里山森林遊樂區外，鄒族傳統歌舞、大阿里山的茶香、世界有名的蝴蝶蘭，以及多條森林步道和森林鐵路深度旅遊，都將列入新遊程，加以推廣。

阿里山一向是大陸及日本觀光客的最愛，為重塑大阿里山區的觀光旅遊優勢，交通部觀光局等相關單位日前邀集阿管處、嘉義林區管理處、嘉義縣觀光旅遊局及住宿、農特產品等業者約有70人，針對阿里山地區遊程、鄒族歌舞展演、森林小火車、旅館住宿設備及服務品質等問題交換意見。

觀光局國際組劉文越副組長表示，阿里山新遊程路線除了大家所熟知的阿里山森林遊樂區之外，還可以安排旅客至奮起湖遊賞台灣杉步道、老街及搭乘森林小火車體驗火車碰壁的新奇體驗，並前往隙頂茶廠觀賞製茶過程，及花卉農場學習蝴蝶蘭催花技術等，這些行程都已經由業者實地體驗，並給予好評，認為值得納入阿里山新遊程推廣。

為提供阿里山鄒族歌舞表演，梅園樓飯店 (阿里山公路44K處)已規劃於周一至周五，晚上7時至8時30分，推出鄒族歌舞節目展演；至於阿里山賓館擬自行興建鄒族歌舞表演場地，並規劃於明年元月起提供鄒族展演節目供遊客欣賞。

而嘉義林區管理處也正考量開闢二萬坪站至阿里山站區間列車，作為觀光客體驗森林小火車碰壁遊程之一，並規劃假日及平日常態性班次。

嘉義縣觀光旅遊局副局長鍾鳴時則表示，近期內將建置阿里山高品質旅館推薦名單，提供專門接待國外觀光客的旅行業者參考。