Technology Driving Growth for Choice Hotels

Technology Driving Growth for Choice Hotels

Choice Hotels Australasia is successfully attracting new business across the hotel sector by adopting technology focused initiatives to assist in growing Australasia’s largest hotel franchise group.

At the core of the Choice Hotels’ technology roll out is a cloud based property management system, choiceADVANTAGE.

Allowing property owners to interface directly with Choice Hotels’ global central reservations system, choiceADVANTAGE grants remote access to owners who are not on site everyday but need to monitor progress on the go.

The new system is fully integrated with the Choice Hotels’ loyalty programme, Choice Privileges, which enables properties to recognise and reward their most loyal and frequent customers.

Of 35 Choice Hotels properties across New Zealand, 10 are already using choiceADVANTAGE with a further five confirmed to go live.

Commenting on choiceADVANTAGE, Choice Hotels Australasia CEO, Trent Fraser says;

“We recognise the importance of driving business through our website and other online channels. choiceADVANTAGE has proved to be a stunning success for owners and we anticipate having the new system installed and up and running across the majority of Choice properties in New Zealand by the end of 2013.”

Fraser is adamant that capitalising on efficiencies in the digital realm is pivotal to growth in the local market, and hotel owners do not need to look far to see the results.

“Building on the success of choiceADVANTAGE worldwide, the system has been equally successful here in New Zealand. Properties using the system have enjoyed a 10 percent Average Daily Rate premium when compared to the network average and RevPAR growth of 13 percent in the six months post installation, the system is clearly delivering higher volumes of business for properties whilst also reducing the cost of distribution.”

“Our long term goal is to have choiceADVANTAGE not only be a very effective and efficient property and revenue management system but to also become the property channel manager that feeds into the major online travel agents that Choice partners with both now and in the future.”

Choice Hotels has also recently rolled out a number of other technology initiatives in New Zealand specific to reservations, which are greatly assisting property owners and customers alike. They include:

Medallia: a new guest survey system currently set up in all New Zealand properties, which enables property owners to view and respond to social media feedback via one central hub.

Call Forwarding: allows properties to redirect reservation calls through to the Choice Hotels call centre 365 days per year. This allows owners and staff to focus on servicing in-house customers without having to deal with constant reservation enquires. Six New Zealand properties are currently using Call Forwarding with eight due to come on board in the next quarter.

New Apps: a recently released android app along with an enhanced iPad app ensures maximum flexibility and ease of access to Choice Hotels for both new and existing customers.

For further details on Choice Hotels properties throughout New Zealand, please visit www.choicehotels.co.nz

About Choice Hotels Australasia
Econo Lodge®, Comfort™, Quality™, Clarion®, Clarion Collection®, Choice Hotels Australasia™ and Choice Hotels® are proprietary trademarks of Choice Hotels International, Inc. Choice Hotels Australasia is part of Choice Hotels International, which franchises more than 6,100 hotels worldwide including more than 280 in New Zealand, Australia, Papua New Guinea and Singapore.

ENDS

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