Picture this: You've finally decided to buy a new house, but instead of getting the whole house, you're going to buy it in parts. Today you're going to buy the roof, next week the basement, in six months the garage and next year you can afford the kitchen. Doesn't make much sense, does it?
Many times, getting all the pieces of the puzzle at the same time makes the most sense. That way you are sure the peices fit together, you can pay one bill, and you are ready to move in immediately.
Vendors offering tools in the hospitality technology industry have been operating as individual components forever, forcing hotel owners to buy one tool here, one there, yet another here and hoping they all work simultaneously. One vendor offers the best door locks, another the property-management system, another the wireless Internet network and yet another the cable television content.
In what could be considered an industry first, IBM and InterContinental Hotels Group have partnered to offer franchisees the first bundled package of its kind; at IHG's limited-service brands (Hotel Indigo, Candlewood Suites, Staybridge Suites and Holiday Inn Express), hotel owners building new properties have the option of purchasing many technology services from one vendor, called Hotel-In-a-Box.
"There are a number of benefits, the biggest being having one company that you trust that understands the complexities of a technology network," said Maurice Taylor, client services manager at IBM. "Hotel-In-a-Box won't allow them to make mistakes in selecting systems. It gives peace of mind that they deal with one company and they're selecting the right technologies."
HIB includes the design, development and management of the core systems needed to support a property, including property management, cabling and wiring, network design, guest high-speed Internet access, door locking, telephone switch and phones, video surveillance, voicemail, business center implementation, high-definition television access and in-room entertainment.
"If they were to go out and buy these things themselves, they’d end up spending more money," Taylor said. "Because we’re leveraging IHG and IBM's buying power in the market, we're very much attempting to get them the best price in the market."
IHG and IBM have worked together for nearly 30 years in the technology space; about seven years ago the two partnered with Micros to roll out PMS solutions across the brand family. Micros develops the software; IBM is responsible for the deployment, integrating the peices and parts, testing it and installing it. Now that implementation will be taken to a new level as IHG's limited-service franchisees building new properties will have the option of IBM installing an entire intergrated system on top of the PMS.
"Right before a hotel opens, the owner has other issues to worry about," said Gustaaf Schrils, VP of hotel technology and services for IHG, who oversaw this partnership development from IHG's side. "The goal is to simplify the whole acquisition, procurement, training and support for the 40-plus systems that a typical owner needs to operate a hotel."
Currently, the HIB system is not mandatory for owners; only the Micros-IBM PMS is a brand standard they must adhere to. Franchisees have the option of installing the entire HIB solution or any portion of the package they want.
As it stands, the package is available to only IHG's limited-service brands. Future plans involve building a full-service package for the remaining brands, and possibly offering the product to other hotel parent companies.
"The next brands we are looking at are Holiday Inn and Crowne Plaza," Schrils said.
"We have a long-standing relationship with IHG, we have this trust, and we went into this agreement with IHG initially," Taylor said. "We would have to sign agreements with each of them independently, but we expect over time to exapnd it out to other companies."
As far as intergration with other third-party tools, such as yield management and central reservation systems, Schrils said the system was built in tested in an IHG laboratory with the intent of being as helpful to the franchisees as possible.
The first HIB solution was installed at a Holiday Inn Express in Spartanburg, S.C., last month.
