Choice Completes InSync Installations, Plans Upgrades

SILVER SPRING, MD— In an effort to decrease the amount of unoccupied rooms that go unsold due to inaccurate CRS information, Choice Hotels International has completed phase one installations of its InSync proprietary room sell function. Designed to link Choice’s property management system (PMS), Profit Manager, with Choice 2001, the company’s CRS, InSync synchronizes the room inventory to create more accurate availability information. Previously, hotel managers needed to load occupancy information separately into two databases. “We were checking our occupancy rates and seeing denials for hotels that were not fully occupied,” said Gary Thomson, svp/CIO for Choice hotels. Because available inventory was not always properly loaded into both systems, potential guests were being turned away while rooms were sitting vacant. With the new InSync function, “If a guest calls to book a king room and the hotel has 30 king rooms available, once the front desk person books the room [for the customer], the PMS and CRS are automatically updated to now show only 29 available rooms,” said Thomson. Originally developed in 1998, the system has finally been installed into more than 2,400 Comfort Inn, Comfort Suites, Quality, Clarion, Sleep, and MainStay Suites properties. “It took about a year to develop it and a lot of enhancements have been added,” he said. Since the installation of the system, Choice has continued to monitor the occupancy rates at its hotels, and has noted a 25% decrease in room sale denials. “It’s a revenue increaser for the hotel and the franchisor,” he added. In addition, Choice Hotels is currently working to develop phase two functionality for its InSync system, which includes linking the hotel’s PMS and CRS with the brand’s RevPAR Maximizer, system. “RevPAR Maximizer, is an automated yield manager that gives an historic view of the demand for a room and the rate it previously sold at, to help the hotel manager [appropriately]price the room,” said Thomson. Currently, the InSync system only links hotel inventory between the PMS and CRS, however, in phase two installations, hotel room rates will also be linked. The RevPAR Maximizer, will examine the hotel’s history and currently occupancy rates, set an appropriate price for a room, and load that rate into the PMS and CRS simultaneously. Choice’s RevPAR Maximizer, was developed in 1998 and is currently installed in approximately two-third’s of the company’s hotels. Thomson said it should be implemented in all branded hotels by the end of the year, however, “a property needs have six months of history in [Choice’s] system in order for it to be affective.” By the second quarter 2002, Choice expects to roll out phase two of the InSync installations, which will link the RevPAR Maximizer, with the PMS and CRSs. “We plan to beta test phase two in late March and roll it out in our hotels in May,” he said.