NEW YORK- The Hospitality Technology Consortium (HTC), LLC, a newly formed group of hotel owners and operators that have joined to use their combined strength to buy technology systems, said that Everest Broadband Networks will provide advanced broadband services to its member hotels. The announcement was made at the 2000 IH/M&RS held here.
Everest will be providing HTCs members with FastRoom, a high-speed Internet product, among other services, said James Kennedy, CEO/The Network Support Center and a founder of HTC. The FastRoom product includes a property-specific web portal, staff training, in-room collateral and marketing materials.
Everests technology platform allows HTC member hotels to maximize the revenue potential of high-speed Internet access by making it simple to deliver and by providing a way to manage the services remotely.
The broadband company offers a fee-based structure (they charge each hotel a fee for installation) instead of a traditional profit-sharing model. This allows hotels to offer the Internet access to guests either free or for a fee, and all of the profits then belong to the hotel.
Participating hotels of HTC will also be offered other broadband services such as e-mail, local virtual LAN, and on-line billing for meeting rooms, said Jim McCulloch, director/business development and product management for Everest.
Established in early 2000, HTC is a group of hotel owners and operators that joined together to advance technology initiatives to better serve their clients. Kennedy co-founded the group with Richard Jabara and William Meyer of Meyer Jabara Hotels. (11/14/00) -Shannon McMullen