Hotel Chain Relies on Infor HMS to Deliver Great Guest Service
NEW YORK – Jun 19, 2018 – Infor, a leading provider of industry-specific cloud applications, today announced it is supporting the independent European hotel group, Vienna House, in pursuing its digitization strategy. The company is deploying Infor Hospitality Management Solution (HMS) at its 35 properties to automate front office processes, and to provide perfect service to guests. Infor HMS is a hotel property management system that exists as a fully integrated service hub. The addition of this product marks the third Infor solution to be implemented by Vienna House: the company currently utilizes Infor d/EPM for business analytics and Infor EzRMS for revenue optimization and yield management.
Providing a complete set of digital guest services is one of Vienna House's unique selling propositions (USPs). Guests have a broad range of services at their fingertips using their smartphones, ranging from mobile check-in and checkout, to guest folders and restaurant reservations. In order to further automate operative processes in the front office, Vienna House set up a pilot project with Infor HMS in its Limburg hotel. The Infor HMS interface, functionality, and technology proved highly capable, but the hotel group continued to evaluate other solutions on the market. More comprehensive language support was particularly desired for the locations in Eastern Europe. Infor responded with progress in this area – and was ultimately awarded the contract. In addition to the extended language package and the functionality of Infor HMS, the seamless integration with Gustaffo.com, an Infor partner offering digital concierge services, proved decisive.
Vienna House has leveraged the flexibility of the Infor HMS user interface to tailor their own specialized workflow template for the roll-out, with which all houses will now be equipped. The tasks are then handled in the front office, ranging from ad-hoc bookings and reservations for individual guests and groups to check-in and check-out as well as housekeeping processes. As soon as a guest logs into the hotel WLAN, they are automatically forwarded to the Gustaffo.com web app, where all services mapped in Infor HMS are available.
"Digitization, our special design and a deeply rooted understanding of what it means to be great hosts play an important role in differentiating us from our competitors. Especially digitization enables us to make all touchpoints as simple as possible for our guests," says Stefan Urdl, Head of IT, Vienna House. "The automated processes in Infor HMS streamline operations, freeing our staff to focus on their role as hosts."
Additionally, Vienna House is already planning the next steps with the combination of Infor HMS and Gustaffo.com. "We will also offer reservations via messenger apps such as WhatsApp or WeChat. Instead of having to download an app to use special services, as in other hotels, our guests use digital channels in which they are already active," says Urdl.
This way, the Group is consistently implementing its strategy in all three lines of the chain to fulfill the rising expectations of hotel guests for a frictionless experience. Vienna House brand hotels include individual top-class city and resort hotels; Vienna House Easy hotels offer smart casual design. Vienna House R.evo will be launched in 2019 with a combination of living and working in trendy lofts and apartments with completely new digital equipment.
"Interacting with guests on all digital touchpoints holds an increasingly important role in the hotel industry. With Infor HMS, we support hotels in driving their digital transformation to meet the service expectations of today's guest," says Stefan Bezold, Executive Sales Director DACH, Infor. "Vienna House is a first-class example of how the combination of design and digitization can open up a new target group of guests that can offer large business opportunities."
