SPECIAL FEATURE: HITEC
SPECIAL FEATURE: HITEC Keep it Simple – ABreez by Mobile Simple Empowering the hotel mini-bar world Scalable, secure and affordable, Mobile Simple offers the simplicity and reactivity hotels need to manage their mini-bar operations. Via the cloud-based application ABreez by Mobile Simple, hoteliers are able to leverage mobility to simplify minibar operations, capture more revenue, increase guest satisfaction and improve staff performance. THE HOTELIERS’ POINT OF VIEW Gediminas Kasputis, IT Manager, Holiday Inn Vilnius -- Ecotel Vilnius has been recently using ABreez and comments: "As a hotel, we are trying to be as green as possible, and because ABreez by Mobile Simple is cloud-based, it fits our political view to be environmentally conscious. We were also looking for a solution that would make the workflow from one room to another easy when it came to managing in-room amenities; the last thing that we needed was one more server in the room to maintain the minibar. ABreez is affordable and easy to use. CONTACT Mobile Simple 3900 – 1, Place Ville Marie Montreal, Quebec H3B 4M7 Canada www.mobile-simple.com BOOTH 852 We are eager to begin generating reports to see which products are selling best and how much revenues we are generating per each product. This type of productivity and flexibility just wasn't available to us previously." Meanwhile on the other side of the “pond”, Michael Ploetz, F&B Director at the Peninsula Beverly Hills, CA said, "ABreez has truly streamlined the minibar and inroom amenities operation. The system's ability to customize the amenities we offer in each room is outstanding. In a luxury hotel environment, guests have discerning ABreez has truly streamlined the minibar and in-room amenities operation. The system's ability to customize the amenities we offer in each room is outstanding. tastes and they expect certain products in their rooms; a one-size-fits-all mentality doesn't work at our hotel. With ABreez, we can very easily track all custom set-ups to ensure that they are meeting guests' demands. Having the ability to offer streamlined customization is extremely important.” "ABreez also has been instrumental in increasing staff productivity," Ploetz said. "Through direct integration with our PMS, we have a better understanding of where our room attendants should be at any given moment based on check-in/out criteria; no other system on the market today has that capability. Real-time data capture is removing the cumbersome manual processes of keeping paper tallies, and it is eliminating redundant tasks.” "Because ABreez operates in the cloud, there is a low cost of hardware and the software is continuously being developed," Ploetz added. "Mobile Simple gives everyone the ability to try ABreez without any capital expense before they buy," Ploetz said. "That was attractive to us, because not every system works in the luxury environment because our needs – and those of our guests – are unique. The financial benefit from ABreez was instant, and making the decision to adopt it was easy. The system's connectivity to room software, its ability to streamline customer requests, and the sales reporting features that help us better understand our guests’ preferences. All these elements combined sold us on ABreez." 20 Hotel & Tourism SMARTreport / Worldwide Edition N°26 / June - August 2015
© Allia S.A.S Xeno2 ARCHITECTURE & EQUIPMENT Hot Ideas in Hotel Equipment As in each edition of the SMARTreport, we dedicate a section to a part of the hospitality “recipe” which is essential, but oft neglected – that of finding the right kind of equipment to fit a property’s – or a chain’s – specific requirements. While it seems evident, our experience as travellers tells us not all operators are on the ball. To this end, we are again proud to have the support of the Accor Group’s specialist Jacques Bolze, who in this issue gives us an idea of where the concept of pre-fabrication is headed – going into the future. There has in fact been a long tradition of prefabrication at Accor. Even in the beginning, the company had to deal with volume, and for this, prefabrication was necessary when it came to economies of scale. The term prefabrication, along with the concept of pre-assembly, has a sometimes-negative connotation. But the great advantage of this system is by producing a certain number of elements, sub-elements or their components “upstream” of their installation, it is possible to vastly speed-up installation and have better quality, at the same time as innovating. While the image of the prefabricated polyester bathrooms of the 70’s and 80’s still haunts us today, at the time they were clever and innovative. On the next pages, you’ll discover the present and future of the concept, as well as finding our updated buyers’ guide to bathroom equipment. As they say, “When you’re hot, you’re hot”, but in this business, best not to be TOO hot. We trust you will find the information useful! We advise to may heed to the ideas of the thought leaders, and again thank Mr Jacques Bolze, for his excellent advice in the next pages. www.cleverhotel.org Hotel & Tourism SMARTreport / Worldwide Edition N°26 / June - August 2015 21
