Imagine you run a hospitality venture with several properties spread across the country. Each of these has rooms for occupation, restaurant and recreation facilities - all under a manager's supervision.

So far so good. But sitting at your corporate headquarters, thousands of miles away, how do you ensure that day-to-day tasks - such as room reservations, managing the supply chain or room services - are being done to the satisfaction of the guests?

This is where Hotelogix, a company that is into developing cloud-based solutions for hotels, steps in.

“Most legacy systems do not offer a complete solution as the different functions of the business - such as reservations, inventory distribution, points of sale (such as restaurants), room facilities (such as phone, video-on-demand, mini-bar) etc — are managed separately. That, in turn, uses up time and resources for consolidation," says Aditya Sanghi, Chief Executive and co-founder of Hotelogix.

In the hotel and travel industry, each room not booked due to inefficient inventory distribution results in loss of revenue. Room nights, after all, are perishable, he explains.

Also, legacy systems pose additional challenges as marketing and sales staff may not be in the know of information in real time, says Sanghi.

The company took nearly two years to develop its web-based product, which primarily focuses on mid-size and smaller hotels across the globe. “Our hottest market is South America. But India is our best potential market," adds Sanghi.

User feedback

Hotel Clarion, a 170-room property in Bangalore, has gone in for Hotelogix's solution. The solution does not stop at selling rooms alone but gives a full representation of the hotel business online.

Be it the central reservation, unlimited points of sale for restaurants and spa, web bookings, property management service, housekeeping and accounts, corporate sales system, tele-booking, or sales and marketing office console — the web solution covers a spectrum of hoteliering tasks, says an executive of a leading hotel, which has deployed the software package.

Recounting his initial struggle in reaching out to customers, the executive said that after researching various CRS systems, his hotel first noticed Hotelogix's solution due to its competitive pricing and flexible contract.

“With this integrated web-based property management system, we are now able to accept reservations online - both on our site as well as from the travel websites (directory listing), confirm bookings, and offer multiple pricing options to our customers,” the official points out.

The rest, as they say, is history.

> lnr@thehindu.co.in

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