Peppertree Reaps the Benefits of MSI Two-way Interface

Best Western member properties maximize room revenue via two-way CRS rate-tiering feature

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. October 14, 2008

PHOENIX, AZ, February 27, 2006. The Peppertree Inns of Washington, a group of three-diamond Best Western-affiliated hotels with locations in Auburn, Yakima, Liberty Lake and Spokane, Washington, are part of the growing number of lodging properties to team up with Multi-Systems Inc. to benefit from a two-way Central Reservation System interface.

Phoenix-based Multi-Systems Inc. (MSI), a leading supplier of property-management and integrated operations/marketing technologies for the lodging industry, was the first to implement and install the Best Western two-way CRS interface based on new Open Travel Alliance specifications. Today, WinPM is installed in more than 111 Best Western Hotels, with 54 currently reaping the benefits of two-way connectivity to Best Western's CRS and another 57 preparing for CRS installation.

"Our two-way interface system was implemented close to a year ago," said Rita Santillanes, majority owner of the Best Western Peppertree Inns group. "We did a lot of shopping around for this kind of system among many vendors offering similar technology, and we selected MSI because their two-way interface had more to offer for our investment than any other we looked at. We were previously a manual hotel group-we did everything by hand, which involved a lot of man hours and a lot of paperwork among our four properties."

"We can now see, instantly and in real time, what's going on related to reservations, occupancy and room rates at all of our properties," she added. "Previously, we could only do this by picking up the phone and talking to staff at our hotels. This saves us an incredible amount of time, and it involves only one person as opposed to three or four." Santillanes said that for her hotel group, the most important feature of the two-way interface between their WinPM Systems and the Best Western CRS is the ability to instantly perform rate tiering.

"We're now able to adjust the room rates at each of our hotels quickly and easily, based on occupancy at each property," she said. "We can customize the system to automatically adjust the rates to fit our needs, and this is a big advantage. This capability alone is proving well worth our investment-it helps us maximize our ability to sell available rooms at attractive rates, and we can now perform this task much more quickly and efficiently. The biggest benefit of the MSI two-way interface is the time savings for our staff at all of our properties."

MSI President Rick Munson said the success the Best Western Peppertree Inns & Suites are experiencing with the new two-way interface is based on innovative research and development. He said, "MSI's partnership with Best Western in the interface project is helping member properties such as the Peppertree Inns & Suites group streamline their daily operations and enhance their capability to sell rooms at the best possible rates." He concluded, "Our goal at MSI is to help Best Western members increase their bottom lines by improving occupancy and RevPAR through WinPM's two-way interface technology."

"On a more industry-wide scale," he added, "This alliance with Best Western and its members is another indication that MSI leads the way in providing the lodging industry with fully integrated property management systems and a wide range of other sales and marketing, catering, point-of-sale and wireless system solutions."