WynTrac Announces Availability of Second Generation Hotel Group Management Service
WynTrac LLC, a leading provider of management services for the meetings market announces the release of HiTime II, its second-generation Internet-based group booking service for hotels.
WynTrac is a pioneer in the group bookings industry with services that have delivered more than 1.5 million room nights of group business in the past two years alone for meetings ranging in size from one to more than 80 hotels. WynTrac’s original HiTime has been in production since last year at hotels and other meeting management organizations. As with other WynTrac booking services, HiTime II handles meetings ranging in size from ten to thousands of rooms and from one to as many as eighty hotels or more.
HiTime enables hotels to manage the Internet distribution of group inventory for self-contained or multi-property meetings. The new release incorporates numerous suggestions from hotels, planners and attendees to strengthen and extend the core product. HiTime II’s cleaner and more efficient user navigation enhances group management for hotels and planners alike. Existing attrition management tools have been supplemented by (timely) additional reports and alerts to enhance the ability of hotels and planners alike to transfer accountability to attendees and to monitor block pickup to reduce penalties and sell un-booked rooms.
HiTime II also addresses the needs of a broader range of group business, including allocations like events, crew rooms or packages. The new release also has a wider range of integration alternatives with hotel systems and complementary WynTrac services that generate demand for hotel rooms and support targeted electronic marketing campaigns.
Targeted at the smaller, self-contained, short-term meetings that comprise the bulk of many hotels’ group business, WynTrac’s HiTime II is a private-label, Internet-based group reservation and reporting service that helps hotels save money, increase revenue and improve customer satisfaction.
Unlike proprietary services, WynTrac offers planners a uniform way to manage conference business across multiple brands and allows hotels to build their points of difference around service and customized amenities. WynTrac’s private label feature enables hotels to maintain their position and loyalty with targeted guests and planners. The private label strategy contrasts sharply with other Internet reservation systems that fight hotels for consumer attention and brand prominence.
Most of all WynTrac helps hotels improve the “look to book” ratio. First time Internet bookers are attracted to the WynTrac service because the decisions are few and the complexity is minimal. With conferences, the most critical decisions are made - the destination is set, the price is negotiated, and the hotel and dates are selected. All that is left for the first time Internet traveler is to experience the ease of online bookings. Once converted, the hotel now has an e-mail address in which to covert this first time I-traveler (or Web-traveler) into a repeat Internet user with the hotel or the brand.
Among the benefits of HiTime are a reduction in the direct costs of managing group reservations via process efficiencies and integration with either the PMS or the CRS. HiTime helps optimize the selling of group space, improves block yield and supports attrition controls that transfer fiscal accountability from the planner to the attendee. HiTime expands the distribution of group inventory to the web, and provides hotels with an amenity that connects hotels to their preferred planners to improve repeat and incremental business.
Planners and attendees also benefit from HiTime. The service satisfies planner demand for online information and attendee online reservation services. Planners and hotels share common real-time access to pickup reports, rooming lists and other information. The actual task of entering reservations is shifted from planners and hotels to attendees, although planners can also use the product to manage non-Internet reservations.
The service is accessible from common browsers, and no software installation is necessary for hotels, planners or attendees. WynTrac also offers a number of services to help hotels communicate the service to their planners. HiTime is operational in the United States and Latin America, and is scheduled for implementation in Europe & Asia in June.
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