Coast Hotels & Resorts is selecting Hotel Concepts to provide their IDPMS product suite, including Central Reservations System, IDPMS Front Office and IDPMS Customer Web Interface, to Coast’s 34-property network. Coast recently signed a $1.5 million contract with Hotel Concepts for the development and installation of the Windows-based Central Reservations and Property Management software system. This technology is designed to make booking a room at Coast Hotels & Resorts easier, faster and more efficient, while ensuring that the chain maximizes the number of rooms sold each night.

“The new system provides much more detailed information about individual hotels and their amenities, making it faster and easier for consumers to book a hotel room over the phone or the Internet,” said Graeme Barrit, President of Coast Hotels & Resorts. “Increasing our presence in the market through third-party websites will also help Coast Hotels & Resorts maximize its room occupancy.”

At the onset of the project, Hyphen Information Systems Management, a Vancouver-based hospitality industry consulting firm, was brought in to make recommendations for a new CRS system for the Coast call center, as well as a PMS solution that would best support the needs of the properties.

“In our role as consultant to Coast Hotels & Resorts, it was challenging to help them determine the right property management system that best fits with Coast’s long term strategic technology plan”, says Neil Holm, President of Hyphen. “Hotel Concepts was selected because they listened to their customer. They first documented Coast’s requirements and then adapted their system to fit with Coast’s best business practices—not the other way around”.

Jason Cape, Sales Manager at Hotel Concepts U.S. office in Atlanta, added, “Our ability to provide a complete product suite, configured to meet the specific needs of our clients is unique in the industry, and was key to gaining the trust of Coast Hotels & Resorts. A hotel company’s relationship with their PMS vendor is a long-term one, and is not to be entered into lightly. We are honored to have been chosen by the Coast Hotels & Resorts chain, and look forward to working closely with them to help propel their growth in the coming years.”

Another contributing factor in the selection of the Hotel Concepts Property Management System was the advanced Customer Web Interface that is a key feature of the IDPMS product suite. The system provides users with a single-image inventory, and offers such convenient features as direct online booking, last room availability, designated corporate rates, sold-out referrals to sister properties, and guest account management for frequent stay programs. The interface uses guest profiles to simplify booking for the guest, and utilizes the same confirmation number for both systems to streamline reservations.

“Data management and inventory control are crucial to a hotel’s bottom line,” said Cape. With our Customer Web Interface, the information flows directly from the CRS into the PMS, so it is immediately available to the entire network. With real-time inventory and all three systems using the same database, the system virtually eliminates the confusion of multiple rates and overbooking, while allowing the hotel to maximize occupancy and revenue.”

The Hotel Concepts system will initially be rolled out at 10 Coast locations in Western Canada starting in February 2006, before being extended to the chain’s entire 34-property network.
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