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CHICAGO -- Hotel Technology Next Generation (HTNG), the premier technology solutions association in the hospitality industry, today announced that it has recently recognized two EMEA-region hotel companies with its EMEA Technology Innovators Award for the creative and innovative application of existing technology within their hotels. The winners were Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts (MH&R) and Hotel Lugano Dante Center. Professor Ian Millar, of Ecole Hôtelière de Lausanne, announced the winners of the 2013 EMEA Technology Innovators' Award in a ceremony during HTNG's recent European conference in London.

"HTNG created this award to recognize hoteliers who most effectively use existing technologies to add significant value to their business," commented Douglas Rice, Executive Vice President & CEO of HTNG. "Even though we've been impressed by the vendors' innovations we see each year, which we recognize with our Most Innovative Hospitality Technology award, we know that innovation isn't defined only by vendor products. Sometimes it is in how hoteliers use existing technologies."

Ian Millar, Professor of IT in Ecole Hôtelière de Lausanne, commented, "It was a pleasure to have taken part in the second edition of the EMEA Technology Innovators Award with yet again many outstanding submissions. What we saw in almost of all the applicants is that hoteliers are seeing how the use of technology can enhance the customer experience. They are bringing the hotel closer to the guests, which helps the hotel better understand the needs and wants of the hotel guests."

The winners of the award for 2013 each made brief presentations about their projects during the general session of the conference. The winners, including a summary of their innovation, follow:

• Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts (MH&R) created a central ticketing platform for hotels and offices to manage guest and staff requests and issues, following an IT call-center model. The team developed a Service Centre application on a Microsoft Sharepoint platform with a separate SQL database for ticket reporting data. The ticket application itself is a joint venture between 5 Zurich based companies (from different industries), who met every 6 months to make financial and planning decisions. The project replaced a structure where each property had its own dedicated system; the new system costs about 1/10 of the prior structure and requires less staff. An analysis of guest survey data with one hotel showed that guest satisfaction increased about three months after deployment of the tool, and interaction between departments improved. Next year Mövenpick plans to add a mobile app and investigate the possibility of integrating with property management systems. The award was accepted by Thomas Nievergelt, Director of Business Applications and Processes for Mövenpick.
• Hotel Lugano Dante Center - Seeking to differentiate its four-star property though outstanding customer service, the hotel developed the Happy Guest Relationship Management (HGRM) tool from the ground up. Starting in 2009, the hotel distributed iPhones and iPads to all staff of the organization, to allow for full engagement with the guest. Starting from the guest reservation, confirmation, arrival, through the in-room experience and the entire customer journey, guests receive a fully personalized hotel experience. Guest can directly communicate with reception staff for any need, from check-in to guest room personalization in great detail: room temperature, pillow and bedding types, minibar beverages, amenities for children and much more -- even down to personalizing the toilet paper. The relationship with the guest continues also after the stay, which has resulted in increased guest loyalty and direct bookings. There is almost no paper used by the property and most every document that used to be printed, is now available to staff member within a few seconds. Guests who use the system rate the hotel very positively in online ratings services, thus improving their brand reputation and earning the hotel the greatest number of online guest comments in Switzerland. Both the Harvard Business School and Bournemouth University (UK) wrote up the HGRM innovation as a case study in a creative approach to customer service. Dr. Carlo Fontana, the General Manager of Hotel Lugano Dante Center, accepted the award.

In addition to this award for hotelier innovation, HTNG also manages an annual innovation competition for technology providers, called the Most Innovative Hospitality Technology Award. The award will soon open up entries for its fifth year of competition, to highlight innovations released during 2013. HTNG hotelier and consultant members will vote on the winners of this competition, which HTNG will announce at its annual North American Conference near San Diego, California on March 6, 2014. Companies interested in entering that award program should visit www.htng.org/innovation-award for information.

Part of the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA), HTNG the premier technology solutions association in the hospitality industry, HTNG serves members from hospitality companies, technology vendors to hospitality, consultants, media and academic experts. HTNG's members participate in focused workgroups to bring to market open solution sets addressing specific business problems. HTNG fosters the selection and adoption of existing open standards and also develops new open standards to meet the needs of the global hospitality industry.

Currently more than 400 corporate and individual members from across this spectrum, including world leading hospitality companies and technology vendors, are active HTNG participants. HTNG's Board of Governors, consisting of 22 top IT leaders from hospitality companies around the world, itself has technology responsible for over 3 million guest rooms and world-leading venues. HTNG publishes workgroup proceedings, drafts and specifications for all HTNG members as soon as they are created, encouraging rapid and broad adoption. HTNG releases specifications into the public domain as soon as they are ratified by the workgroups.

HTNG 2014 European Conference 20-22 October 2014 Kempinski Hotel Corvinus Budapest, Hungary More Information | Website | Registration

Contact
Tami Craig
HTNG | Communications Manager
Phone: +1 847 303.5560 x204
Email: Tami.Craig@htng.org

Organization
Hospitality Technology Next Generation (HTNG) - AHLA
www.ahla.com/htng
1250 Eye Street N.W., Suite 1100
USA - Washington, DC 20005
Phone: 1 202 289 3100
Email: ewilson@ahla.com

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