Squirrel and shift four

Squirrel and shift four just recently teamed up to offer a new coop where customers would be able to use gift cards in all the areas of a hotels property. This means that customers will no longer need to have a gift card for each area for the hotel they will be able to use one centralized card that will offer credit to the spa, restaurant, or the snack bar without having to use cash. The concept of a universal card is not new but a gift card that allows you to spend anywhere on property and is centralized to that buisness is a new concept. The challenge will now be how the hotel or property will convince the customer to spend money on theses gift cards instead of say a major credit card gift card. The answer may be in offering a discount for buying property exclusive cards, and making them available on check in so that guest feel more comfortable with the process of using these cards.www.hospitalityworldnetwork.com › Technology

Revenue management systems

Recently I read an article by Jon Inge on revenue management systems in which he spoke about the importance of using RMS to fill gaps in slow periods and to use RMS is to capture all available revenue. Revenue Management systems like Rainmaker help the marketing department forcast for times of slow periods and tell hotel management when its not worth the effort. The systems can also be desighned to find oppurtunities with existing guest and how to market to the segment that your particular brand is important to. Revenue management systems can show hotel managers where they are leaving money on the table and help give management a leg up on how to capitalize on market segments that would purchase their  product. Rms are programs tat can be teid into other programs that give you information on guests folios and guests preferences. Basically this is a system similar to a pos system that can give you information on how to better manage your hotel.  http://www.hospitalityupgrade.com/_magazine/magazine_Detail-ID-567.asp

Reflection
This was not my favorite article, I felt that this revenue management system was just another program that should be done the management and its marketing department. The hotel management should have an idea of when the hotel is slow and how to capitalize on its market segment. The RMS seems to me like another way to gather information already available to the hotel, although i am sure it can expedite this information more rapidly, i dont see how it will save or make the hotel more profitable.