New Tools to Help You Run Your Hotel

NATIONAL REPORT—Hotel technology can make operations run more efficiently, increase guest satisfaction and reduce costs. Here’s a look at some of the recent tech solutions designed to help hotels.

FCS Computer Systems Releases Housekeeping Solution
FCS Computer Systems has announced the general availability of FCS Housekeeping V3.1 with new features that serve to further boost housekeeping department efficiency and guest satisfaction. The latest release includes the ability to implement task assignment rules that can adapt to changing priorities throughout the day. Other useful enhancements include instant access to guest profiles via mobile app, greater report customization and the ability to view or update an array of additional information via mobile device.

V3.1 also includes other performance enhancing abilities: optimized room matrix user interface that offers the ability to view more rooms and hours; a new pop-up screen that allows users to perform multiple actions such as room assignments, room and cleaning status changes at the same time; new room assignment rules based on room number and guest preference codes, which can be sorted in ascending or descending order; remarks and notes that remain linked to a specific guestroom until guest checkout, then stored within system history archive; and guidelines for inspection checklists, minibar items, linens and amenities can be tailored based on guestroom type.

HotelQuando Offers Tool to Book Meeting Rooms
HotelQuando, an online booking site and mobile app that enables consumers to book hotel rooms by the hour, has launched a new platform that will offer customized reservations of hotel meeting spaces by the hour. The meeting rooms are available for bookings from one to eight hours.

“As the hotel industry and business travel is rapidly changing, we saw the need for hotels to have more flexibility and ‘on demand’ functionality,” said Max Campos, co-founder of HotelQuando. “Our new booking platform provides the technology to meet the needs of businesses and business travelers on the go by allowing them to book a meeting room by the hour while adding a new revenue outlet for hotels.”

In addition to the technology to sell the rooms by the hour, HotelQuando will assist the hotel partner in the definition of the hourly price, promotion of the services via marketing campaigns and customer service.

Nomadix Debuts Bandwidth Management Tool
Nomadix Inc. has debuted version 8.10 of its Nomadix Service Engine (NSE) software. Featuring benefits such as link aggregation and enhanced support for IPv6, version 8.10 is designed to keep networks state of the art to satisfy ever-changing demands in network management, according to the company. The new version of NSE is compatible with Nomadix bandwidth management and access gateway models AG 2400, AG 2500, AG 5800 and AG 5900, which service internet connections for visitor-based networks.

While IPv4 still carries most internet traffic, and the rate of IPv6 adoption varies greatly by country, industry and service provider, more and more companies are readying to begin the transition process from IPv4 to IPv6, according to the company. NSE version 8.10 provides enhanced support for IPv6—with the goal of achieving IPv6 certification by the end of 2018. NSE version 8.10 also supports link aggregation via LACP (link aggregation control protocol).

“We are always looking ahead to the trends that will soon affect networks on a global scale,” said Nomadix President Fred Reeder. “Two of the biggest trends right now are IPv6 and LACP. With the latest release of our software, we are giving companies the tools they need to tackle those issues head-on.”

Eleven Transforms WiFi Management for Hotel Staff
Eleven has introduced the ElevenOS Site Manager dashboard, designed to make it easy for hotel staff to ensure a high performance guest WiFi experience from guestrooms to public spaces to the conference center.

ElevenOS Site Manager provides a centralized dashboard to access all of the features needed to optimize WiFi at a single property or across all properties in a brand. Non-technical hotel staff can set up portals from branded templates, create access and discount codes, add or modify internet plans and pricing, and manage conference WiFi all from a single web interface.

The ElevenOS dashboard was purpose-built for hospitality with real-time 360-degree insight into WiFi activity. Comprehensive analytics include the number and types of devices and browsers used, bandwidth usage, service plans, payment methods and revenue reports that can be viewed at property level or across all properties in a brand. Users can log into one system to get all of the information they need to optimize the WiFi experience.