Hotel Technology Next Generation

MIAMI -- White Lodging, one of the fastest growing independent ownership, development and management companies in the country, has found a way to reduce its overall labor costs by 25 percent during this economic downturn. Working with Miami-based MTech and its flexible PMWorks preventive-maintenance program, White Lodging adjusts its PM labor model from a quarterly program to a 3-times-a-year schedule whenever individual property occupancy drops below a predetermined level.

“With lower occupancies, there is less wear on guestrooms and public areas, and therefore there is reduced rotation timeframe for ongoing preventive maintenance,” said John LaHaise, VP of Engineering for White Lodging. “As occupancies return and we begin to experience an upswing, MTech’s PMWorks solution will easily allow us to revert back to our regularly scheduled PM labor routine. This schedule reduction is independent from the ongoing PM we perform to our properties’ life safety systems.”

Clyde Edson, PMWorks National Accounts Manager and White Lodging liaison, said LaHaise approached him early in the year when the need to save costs across the enterprise was evident. The flexibility of PMWorks enabled MTech to alter the system’s intelligent scheduling algorithm to match PM frequencies with the company’s enterprise-wide reductions in occupancy.

“The flexibility of PMWorks enables White Lodging to better manage its scheduling processes during this uncertain economic time,” Edson said. “As occupancies change, the system can adjust maintenance schedules accordingly. By altering the schedules and pushing them to the properties based on pre-determined occupancy criteria, we’ve created a cost-effective solution for management companies that demand corporate-driven quality and consistency across a multi-branded portfolio.

“This effort initiated by White Lodging has resulted in significant savings while continuing to maintain the property with a consistent, quality minded focus, he added.

“Many other management companies have used PMWorks to alter schedules, with some reporting hundreds of thousands in savings per year,” Edson said. “PMWorks has always been about simplicity with excellent results. Our in-depth PM schedule is very easy for the property to follow because it contains the steps needed to perform the PM Task. The system puts out a workload-balanced schedule that was originally designed and backed by some of the top engineers in the hotel industry. Now, each week literally thousands of engineers review the work being scheduled, with little to no changes requested.”

Being able to alter the schedule based on occupancy at the headquarters level lets the property focus on more critical local demands, like selling beds, he said. “All a local property needs to do is open up their weekly work package and it is adjusted for them. This saves local time in re-planning a schedule, letting the engineers get to work right away.”

For more information on labor savings through PMWorks and all MTech solutions, visit .

About White Lodging
Established in 1985 and headquartered in Merrillville, IN, White Lodging is a fully integrated developer, owner and manager of premium brand hotels. With over 20 years of expertise and future development projects in excess of $1.5 billion opening over the next five years, White Lodging continues to break ground as one of the fastest growing independent hospitality companies in the country. They currently employ over 6,500 associates with plans to hire more than an additional 400 managers in the next five years. Their managed portfolio of 141 hotels in seventeen states includes the following leading brands: Marriott, Hilton; Radisson Hotels; Intercontinental Hotel Group; and Starwood Hotels & Resorts. For more information about White Lodging, visit .

About MTech
Since 1993, MTech has developed and installed solutions to help hotels work smarter — not harder. The company’s product line features HotSOS (pronounced “hot sauce”), comprising a suite of Internet-enabled, enterprise-level quality and customer relationship management applications available on a subscription basis. MTech’s Espresso! client server/site-based quality management software suite and PM-Works Internet-based preventive maintenance-centric solution (also integrated as a subset of HotSOS) have been market leaders for more than a decade. MTech’s solutions are uniquely positioned and proven to help hotels improve communications, increase productivity, and maximize guest satisfaction. Unique telephone, email and alphanumeric paging interfaces improve overall workflow and communication between departments and streamline data collection and dispatching processes. Production, sales, pre-installation, and ongoing world-class service and support are provided from the company’s headquarters in Miami. For more information on the company, visit .