The Westin Harbour Castle recently embraced the new Westin Haven initiative and moved their ElevenGC guest computer solution into the lobby. The Westin Haven is a public space concept inspired by nature that allows travelers to "stay balanced, refreshed and connected on the road." Read the full story about Westin's new Haven brand initiative here.

Tim Shea, President of ASSA ABLOY Hospitality, describes a world we may soon find ourselves in: where the key to your hotel room is your phone. This simple improvement will enable many more changes than you may think.

“That was then, this is now.” These words have inspired Bernard Ellis, VP Industry Strategy, Hospitality at Infor, to take a stroll down memory lane and recall some of the burning tech issues on the minds of hotel industry leaders in 1992, the year he first attended HITEC. How have these challenges morphed and evolved over the two decades since then?

Wanda Hotels & Resorts Co Ltd ("Wanda"), a leading global operator of luxury Chinese hospitality brands as well as one of the world's outstanding hotel ownership and management companies, selected an integrated solution from Newmarket International, Inc. ("Newmarket") to improve their operations. In use for over one year, Wanda has seen significant improvement in its operations and grown its business by utilizing Delphi Global and Delphi Multi-Property Edition, MeetingBroker, and Delphi Diagrams.

IDeaS Revenue Solutions, the leading provider of pricing and revenue management software, services and consulting, to the hospitality industry, today announced that Travelodge, the UK's leading budget hotel company, has implemented a pioneering, centralised approach to revenue management using IDeaS' state- of-the-art analytics and pricing recommendations.

On a recent visit to Sheraton Towers Singapore, one of Singapore's most influential politicians and labor leaders was impressed with the extent to which FCS' e-Housekeeping solution has helped to improve hotel worker efficiency without compromising safety. Out of all the prestigious hotels in Singapore, Sheraton Towers Singapore was selected by MP, Cabinet Minister and NTUC Secretary-General Lim Swee Say on August 21, 2013 to visit the hotel for its commitment to making the difficult but important task of housekeeping easier and more effective through the use of new technologies offered by FCS and other entities.

Aptech Computer Systems, Inc., the leading provider of hospitality software for business intelligence and enterprise financial accounting, announced 9 hotel companies with a total of more than 120 properties selected Aptech's business intelligence, budgeting and accounting solutions. Click here for more on Aptech's products and services. Operators that tapped Aptech's solutions include ZMC Hotels with 30 properties; American Liberty Hospitality, Inc., with 20 properties; International Hospitality Enterprises with 9 properties; Baltes Commercial Reality, and the National Hotel Miami Beach. "ZMC uses Execuvue Business Intelligence to collect, analyze, and create performance reports for its 30 limited service properties," said Stacey Lange, corporate treasurer for ZMC Hotels. "Our hotels are in markets that extend from Scottsdale, Arizona, to Minnesota. The newest version of Execuvue will save us time accessing and reviewing our performance data for business decisions. Our managers will be able to easily create a variety of reports by simply entering dates, measurement criteria and formats. This will make historical analysis very easy." ZMC also uses Aptech's Profitvue and Webvue enterprise accounting systems. "Aptech is a very professional organization. Their people understand hotel-company accounting and always have the answers we need." Cesar Hernandez, CFO of International Hospitality Enterprises (IHE) said, "IHE will install Execuvue Business Intelligence, Targetvue enterprise and property budgeting, and Profitvue centralized accounting. We have 7 hotels 2 casinos and a property in development and are growing. Aptech's systems will simplify reporting and budgeting across our enterprise. We will also centralize our back office system on Profitvue for total corporate integration. Profitvue will enable us to have all our accounting data automatically collected centrally to simplify reporting. Targetvue will create and execute flexible budgets for our properties and the company as a whole. Aptech will simplify and centralize our reporting for multiple properties and enable our managers and corporate staff to access performance reporting, analysis, and budget information easily." "Profitvue and Webvue centralized back office accounting have all the elements we want in an enterprise accounting platform. We worked from a checklist and Profitvue was the only system that met our requirements," said Bob Sponaugle, CFO of American Liberty Hospitality. Execuvue is a web-based enterprise business intelligence application for large and small hotel companies. Aptech solutions are 100% hotel specific and all of Aptech's clients own or manage hotels. The Aptech suite of hospitality systems enables clients to proactively manage business operations and finances. Aptech is the only provider of a fully integrated enterprise accounting, business intelligence, and planning ecosystem to the hotel industry. Aptech offers 100% more customer-centric options for hosting, pricing, and product solutions than any other hospitality-focused systems provider. Targetvue is a hospitality-driven budgeting and forecasting solution. Aptech joined forces with PROPHIX to develop a totally new budgeting and forecasting application fully-integrated with its Profitvue accounting and Execuvue business intelligence systems. Targetvue eliminates the need to correct and recombine multiple spreadsheets for consolidating and reporting. Profitvue is a widely used thin-client, Internet-enabled enterprise back office solution that easily handles single or multi-property and multi-company accounting, and incorporates accounts payable, general ledger, statistics, and financials. Profitvue gives users open-database compliance (ODBC) within a scalable, client/server, open-systems architecture. Profitvue is available as an ASP service or on a licensed basis. Webvue is a web-based extension of Profitvue that supports property accounting and reporting. Designed for limited service hotels and scalable to large enterprises, Webvue enables properties to quickly and easily send and access financial and statistical data and generate reports online. The system provides real-time access to financials from any location, and is centrally controlled and fully secure. With more than 3,000 property clients, Aptech recognizes that each professional in the hospitality industry views accounting differently. The company delivers customized, Web-enabled solutions that can fit any operating requirement, including distributed accounting, centralized accounting, regional accounting or any combination needed to meet a company's unique operation. Aptech Computer Systems Aptech Computer Systems, Inc. is the only provider of a fully integrated enterprise accounting, business intelligence, and planning ecosystem to the hotel industry. Aptech offers 100% more customer-centric options for hosting, pricing, and product solutions than any other hospitality-focused systems provider. All of its solutions are 100% hotel specific and all its clients are companies that own or manage hotels. Aptech introduced business intelligence into the hotel industry and offers a solid resource of hospitality professionals. Incorporated in 1970, Aptech is an IBM Software Value Plus partner and Premier Solution Provider. Aptech's state-of-the-art products include Profitvue® enterprise back office accounting, Execuvue® business intelligence, Webvue® internet accounting support, and Targetvue planning and budgeting. Clients comprise more than 3,000 properties, including large chains, multiple-property management companies, and single-site hotels. Aptech's solutions give operators the ability to be proactive operationally and financially. Execuvue and Profitvue are registered to Aptech Computer Systems, Inc. All other trademarks are owned by their respective holders. For more information, please visit www.aptech-inc.com.

IDeaS Revenue Solutions, the leading provider of pricing and revenue management software, services and consulting to the hospitality industry, today announced that it has been named the exclusive revenue management solutions provider of Kimpton Hotel and Restaurant Group, LLC. Under the agreement, which deepens the companies' seven-year partnership, the IDeaS Revenue Management System (RMS) will be implemented at all of the organization's existing and future hotel properties.

The changing nature of the international economy has led to substantial shifts in the global tourism landscape. There is continuing growth in the volume of leisure travelers across the globe which gives hoteliers an opportunity to expand their distribution reach. This paper examines the factors influencing inbound tourism to popular destinations such as Europe and the US and provides suggestions for the methods hoteliers can adopt to take full advantage.

RateGain the global leader in hotel online distribution, rate shopping and channel management solutions has announced their partnership with Revenue Science Corporation (RSC). RSC will utilize RateGain’s rate intelligence tool PriceGain, to power RSC’s PRIMES RMS with accurate and comprehensive data for its Hotels and resorts in the Asia Pacific region.