TRAVEL TECHNOLOGY, HOSPITALITY TRENDS
Optii | September 29, 2022
Optii Solutions, the leading cloud-based hotel operations software, announced an integration with the Opera Hospitality Integration Platform (OHIP). The new integration will make it easier, faster, and more cost-effective for hoteliers to manage their integration between Optii and Oracle Cloud PMS.When implementing a modern technology solution like Optii, that is powered by artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), integrations matter. When seeking to use hotel operations technology to increase productivity, reduce cost, and improve the guest experience, time is of the essence. The faster a solution like Optii can become operational, the faster the benefits are realized for hotel teams, their guests, and hotel owners. The integration with OHIP will address exactly this for Opera Cloud PMS hotel customers.
Dino Pietropaolo, CTO of Optii Solutions said, Not only will this integration save Opera Cloud PMS customers time and money when choosing to transform their hotel operation with Optii, they will also get the latest in API technology and a high level of security with fine grained OAuth 2.0 on all APIs.
The self serve aspect of Oracle Hospitality Integration Platform will mean a lot more flexibility and autonomy for hoteliers and for Optii. The typical integration between hotel technology applications and a hotel PMS requires work on both the technology application side and the PMS, while with OHIP, hotelier and technology providers such as Optii can manage the integration process without Oracle participation.
“At Optii, customer success is everything. But when delays in integration happen, the time-to-value for our customers is impacted and often the mitigation is out of our control. With OHIP, together with our customer, we are in the driver’s seat and have full control of the process and timeline. This helps our customers realize their goals quicker. We are very excited to start offering OHIP integration to our customers in the coming weeks!”
-Katherine Grass, CEO of Optii Solutions
About Optii Solutions
Optii Solutions is a hotel operations solution that leverages smarter technologies such as artificial intelligence, analytics, messaging and mobility to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of housekeeping and service delivery departments. For further information, please visit: www.optiisolutions.com.
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TRAVEL TECHNOLOGY, DESTINATION AND TOURISM
AMERICAN EXPRESS | October 20, 2022
American Express® (NYSE: AXP) and Cvent® (Nasdaq: CVT), a market-leading meetings, events, and hospitality technology provider, introduced enhanced features to the Cvent Event Marketing & Management platform that further expand virtual payment capabilities, leveraging American Express’ integrated budget management and payment automation solutions.The enhanced features provide a seamless meetings & events (M&E) payment experience for American Express Corporate Meeting Card and vPayment clients using the Cvent Event Marketing & Management platform, by:
Streamlining onboarding and improving the user experience, including a step-by-step escalation process to provide additional support
Simplifying M&E expense allocation with American Express @ Work Reconciliation®, a free 24/7 tool that eases the invoicing process
Increasing virtual funding account options with vPayment, an American Express® payment solution that assigns a single-use account number to each transaction to help increase billing efficiency, expected to be available in the US and UK late 2022
Incorporating an automated reconciliation process, providing users with greater budget visibility, more audit controls, and better data consistency, expected to be available early in 2023
“As large companies increasingly look to bring people back together for client events or internal gatherings, they want more simplification, efficiency and automation, and managing their budgets has become more important, That’s why we partnered with Cvent to deliver an enhanced virtual payment and automation solution that helps provide a seamless user experience and better serves our clients’ needs.”
-Dean Henry, Executive Vice President, Global Business Financing, Payments & Digital Experiences at American Express
According to the new American Express Meeting & Events Trendex1, 97% of corporate event planners believe company events and meetings are equally or more important compared to pre-pandemic, with about three-fourths (74%) saying they expect their 2023 meetings and events budget to increase. While over eight in ten (81%) planners are already using an automated payment process, 82% say they plan to further automate their payment processes within the next six months.
Looking deeper into the main attributes corporate event planners are looking for in a spend management software platform, the top five are:
Simple user experience (50%)
Enhanced security (48%)
One integrated meeting & expense budget platform (39%)
Greater budget visibility (37%)
Automated end-to-end reconciliation (37%)
Since 2018, American Express and Cvent’s virtual payments integration has allowed event managers to pay suppliers and manage meetings and events budgets with American Express virtual account numbers via the Cvent Event Marketing & Management platform. These new American Express and Cvent enhancements aim to address growing needs as companies continue to reimagine what returning to the office, M&E planning, and business travel look like.
“Capturing actual meetings and events spend has long been an organizational pain-point with cumbersome invoices, manual spreadsheets, and siloed processes – which ultimately leads to decreased visibility and reduced budget control, For over two decades, Cvent has helped thousands of companies gain greater control over these expenditures, and with our American Express® payment enhancements, organizations can streamline their payment and reconciliation processes to deliver greater visibility and insights into their total meeting and event spend. In today’s environment, controlling costs is essential for event programs to maximize ROI and prove their value to the organization.”
-Anil Punyapu, Cvent Senior Vice President of Sales
METHODOLOGY
1The Morning Consult poll was conducted between September 1-September 5, 2022 among a sample of 305 Corporate Meeting Planners & Event Organizers employed full time or part time, with one of their main responsibilities including organizing/planning/marketing events. The interviews were conducted online. Results from the full survey have a margin of error of plus or minus 6 percentage points.
ABOUT AMERICAN EXPRESS
American Express is a globally integrated payments company, providing customers with access to products, insights and experiences that enrich lives and build business success. Learn more at americanexpress.com and connect with us on facebook.com/americanexpress, instagram.com/americanexpress, linkedin.com/company/american-express, twitter.com/americanexpress, and youtube.com/americanexpress. Key links to products, services and corporate responsibility information: personal cards, business cards, travel services, gift cards, prepaid cards, merchant services, Accertify, Kabbage, Resy, corporate card, business travel, diversity and inclusion, corporate responsibility and Environmental, Social, and Governance reports.
ABOUT CVENT
Cvent Holding Corp. (Nasdaq: CVT), is a leading meetings, events, and hospitality technology provider with more than 4,700 employees and approximately 21,000 customers worldwide. Founded in 1999, the company delivers a comprehensive event marketing and management platform and offers a global marketplace where event professionals collaborate with venues to create engaging, impactful experiences. Cvent is headquartered in Tysons, Virginia, just outside of Washington D.C., and has additional offices around the world to support its growing global customer base. The comprehensive Cvent event marketing and management platform offers software solutions to event organizers and marketers for online event registration, venue selection, event marketing and management, virtual and onsite solutions, and attendee engagement. Cvent’s suite of products automate and simplify the event management process and maximize the impact of in-person, virtual, and hybrid events. Hotels and venues use Cvent’s supplier and venue solutions to win more group and corporate travel business through Cvent’s sourcing platforms. Cvent solutions optimize the event management value chain and have enabled clients around the world to manage millions of meetings and events. For more information, please visit Cvent.com.
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DESTINATION AND TOURISM, HOSPITALITY TRENDS
Chartwell Hospitality | October 28, 2022
Chartwell Hospitality announced it has purchased land in Brentwood and Lebanon, Tenn., to bring new hotels to these suburbs of Nashville. Chartwell Hospitality will transform the land in Brentwood into a TownePlace Suites by Marriott and will build a Home2 Suites by Hilton in Lebanon. Chartwell Hospitality has partnered with Rockbridge on both hotel projects. Chartwell Hospitality will develop and manage both properties.TownePlace Suites by Marriott offers guestrooms with full kitchens, outdoor community patios with grills, free Wi-Fi, on-site laundry, upscale fitness center, outdoor pool, and lobby marketplace.
The Brentwood TownePlace Suites will feature 120 rooms and will be located in the East Park development of Maryland Farms. Chartwell Hospitality worked with Boyle Investment Company on their efforts to rezone the existing office building parcel to allow for hotel use. Chartwell Hospitality plans to demolish the existing obsolete Office Building #1 within East Park by the end of 2022 and redevelop the space into the TownePlace Suites. The firm plans to break ground on the hotel’s construction in the spring of 2023.
Chartwell Hospitality will concurrently break ground in Lebanon, Tenn., for the 120-room Home2 Suites in the spring of 2023. Home2 Suites features an extended-stay hotel concept with complimentary hot breakfast, laundry and fitness areas, free Wi-Fi, multiple outdoor spaces, 24-hour business centers, expansive community spaces, and pet-friendly environments.
“As Nashville grows and draws more tourists and new businesses, so do its surrounding towns and cities. We are excited to bring these two new hospitality options to the Brentwood and Lebanon communities and continue to support the growing tourism in Middle Tennessee,"
-Will Schaedle, Executive Vice President of Chartwell Hospitality.
About Chartwell Hospitality
Chartwell Hospitality is a fully integrated real estate company based in Nashville, Tennessee. We specialize in the acquisition, development, and management of high-quality, branded, limited- and full-service hotels. Founded in 2003, Chartwell consistently surpasses competition in occupancy and market rates. Simply, our mission is to be the best in the business. For more information, visit www.chartwellhospitality.com.
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