Mid-Scale Hotels Turn to SalesAndCatering.com for Easy Transition to Widely Installed Cloud-based System

MOUNT PLEASANT, SC, November 13, 2019 – The spate of acquisitions of well-known hospitality system companies is accelerating in the hotel industry. When a large company takes over a system vendor, it often requires users to upgrade to the acquiring platform within a specified time. Many operators faced with a vendor-mandated hotel sales and catering system transition see the change as an opportunity to evaluate alternative systems that often provide greater value, functionality and ease of use.

Accelerating System Vendor Acquisition Trend:
Strategic system provider acquisitions include:

• hotelSystemsPro acquired by Newmarket International
• Amadeus acquired Newmarket International
• Oracle purchased Micros Hospitality’s PMS

“When a strategic system vendor changes hands it puts the affected hoteliers in a difficult position,” said Ryan Hamilton, co-founder of SalesAndCatering.com. “They need to rapidly adapt to a new company and its policies and are often given a deadline on when they have to move to a different system. This forced system transition is disruptive and often expensive for operators. It is particularly difficult for those using a familiar hotel sales and catering system. The transition puts them at risk because their sales system contains the company’s entire client relationship history and prospect database. In many cases this change motivates savvy operators to evaluate alternative solutions with enhanced functionality based on the newest cloud-based and mobile technologies.”

The next step after a hotel operator has been surprised by an unexpected system ownership change is to evaluate the current and future impact on their business. “When an operator is forced to reevaluate a system that they took for granted, they often see that technology has moved beyond what they were used to and there are solid alternatives,” said Hamilton. “The best new hotel sales and catering systems are cloud-based and feature responsive design and adapted to use on mobile devices. Operators are also happy to learn that cloud-based systems can be much less costly than larger property-based systems. There is virtually no property hardware or networking required for a cloud system, and support and data backups are handled by the system provider.” Hamilton noted that SalesAndCatering.com, is becoming the cloud-based standard for full-featured, industry specific, sales and catering solutions at a cost-effective price point for mid-scale operators.

“Real-time lead sharing across multi-property ownership portfolios is a valuable benefit of enterprise cloud sales systems, and STS Cloud, SalesAndCatering.com’s sales system does this very well,” Hamilton said. “Cross selling between two or more ‘sister’ hotel-group properties is simplified and cooperation between properties is straightforward because the hotels use the same system. Plus, operators converting to STS Cloud find there is practically no down time since their teams find its format easy to use and learn it quickly.” SalesAndCatering.com’s team has over 30 years of experience developing, providing and supporting sales and catering systems for hotel operators.

As operators evaluate alternative vendors and platforms, system transition and data conversion are areas that require close attention. “We have had a number of calls in the past three months about transitioning from legacy sales and catering systems to STS Cloud. We have helped many operators convert their operation to our Cloud Sales and Catering system,” Hamilton said. “The transition is an easy one in most cases. An important aspect of the transition process is secure data conversion. We help facilitate full-data conversion from an operator’s existing system to STS Cloud. Vital data, such as; accounts, contacts, traces, bookings, menus, and more are imported into STS Cloud to provide an easy transition and help minimize selling downtime.”

STS Cloud puts sales people in command of the facts wherever they are as they prospect new business or manage active accounts. They can sell more effectively because they can see client performance and present real-time availability for rooms and event space. Creating accurate bids and responding quickly to proposal requests is essential for successful property sales. “Our ProposalPath online proposal solution lets sales people immediately respond to requests,” Hamilton said. “Competition is fierce today, and a property must respond with much more than rates and dates. The quality of the proposal reflects the quality of the property and can demand a higher rate. Presentation quality is just as important as the timeliness of a response.” ProposalPath is highly automated to take the proposal creation workflow off the team.”

With tech vendor buy-outs accelerating, it is time for operators to evaluate their system options. The best place to begin is to focus on companies with a large, satisfied family of users and a track record of success on the latest technology platforms and long-term performance in the hospitality industry. Click here for information on SalesAndCatering.com.