Executive says company's priority of protecting owners' assets efficiently and effectively led to division-wide install of innovative preventive-maintenance software
MIAMI — MAY 12, 2006 — Interstate Hotels & Resorts, the nation's largest independent hotel-management company, has streamlined its high-priority policy of preventive maintenance—a critical but often overlooked factor in successful and profitable hotel operation—by installing the industry's most innovative preventive-maintenance software in all its select-service hotels.
The Arlington, Va.-based operator of approximately 300 hotels in 41 states has installed PMWorks, MTech's state-of-the-art preventive-maintenance software, in all 94 of its Crossroads Division properties. Crossroads is the select (sometimes known as limited) service division within Interstate Hotels & Resorts, and includes such well-known international brands as Homewood Suites by Hilton, Courtyard by Marriott, Residence Inn by Marriott, Holiday Inns, Holiday Inn Express, Country Inn & Suites, Ramada, and others.
Miami-based MTech develops and installs solutions to help hotels improve communications, increase productivity and maximize guest satisfaction. PMWorks, powered by MTech's award-winning HotSOS (Hotel Service Optimization System, pronounced hot sauce), is the first ASP specifically designed to handle the day-to-day needs of hotel maintenance.
According to Peter Hoffman, Vice President of Operations for Interstate's Crossroads Division, all the division's hotels had been using a manual preventive-maintenance system.
"One of our biggest responsibilities as a management company is to protect our owners' investment—this has been and is one of our top priorities," Hoffman said. "With that in mind, we decided to automate this aspect of our asset-protection program in January 2006 by installing PMWorks to all 94 hotels within the Crossroads Division. PMWorks ensures that our owners' assets are being managed to the highest quality of maintenance, and the software has demonstrated significant savings in repair and replacement of everything from major mechanical equipment to guestroom HVAC units.
Hoffman said the PMWorks software enables his division's hotels to manage the asset-protection process more efficiently and provides management with the ability to monitor should a hotel fall behind within the program.
"All of our Chief Engineers speak very favorable of PMWorks," he said. "It's basically a one-time set up with little or no changes after implementation. Once work orders are completed, the engineers can either call in the completed work order via the toll-free number or complete the work order with PMWorks on-line access. In short, PMWorks has helped improve productivity in our Crossroads Division hotels."
Increasing asset valueMTech President Luis C. Segredo said Interstate's decision to install PMWorks in all of its Crossroads Division hotels is further proof that preventive-maintenance programs, once an all-too-often overlooked aspect of hotel operations, has become a crucial factor in successful hotel management—and in increasing property value when owners decide to sell.
"It has been proven that performing basic preventive maintenance helps to preserve the condition of a hotel—rather than fixing an item when it breaks, maintaining it before it deteriorates or fails saves engineers time, saves owners money and saves guests from having a potentially bad experience or adopting a false first impression of the hotel," Segredo said. "Consistency in providing preventive maintenance is critical to the process, and consistency also provides a better overall guest experience and prolongs the life of furnishings, fixtures and equipment.
"What many hotels may not realize is that an automated preventive-maintenance program also helps to organize the engineering department and helps individual engineers and maintenance workers to be better time managers," he added. "Furthermore—and perhaps most important—an effective, efficient preventive-maintenance helps protect and even increase the asset value of a hotel, and that's critical in an era when owners hire asset managers to increase value in preparation for sale.
"This is why we developed PMWorks," Segredo said, "and this is why more and more leading hotel-management companies, like Interstate, are having it installed in their properties."
For more information on PMWorks preventive maintenance software and other MTech automated solutions, please visit the company's Web site at www.m-tech.com.
About Interstate Hotels & ResortsInterstate Hotels & Resorts, the nation's largest independent hotel management company, manages more than 300 hotels in 40 states, the District of Columbia, Canada, Russia and Portugal. The company also operates hotels for REITs, such as MeriStar Hospitality Corporation, Equity Inns and Sunstone Hotel Investors, as well as institutional real estate owners, non-institutional ownership groups and privately held companies. Due to its significant size and number of holdings, Interstate is able to obtain economies of scale that help lower overall operating costs and improve the bottom line performance of its managed hotels. For more information, please visit the Interstate Web site at
www.ihrco.com.
About MTechSince 1993, Management Technologies (MTech) has developed and installed solutions to help hotels work smarter — not harder — with its award winning Espresso! Family of Products. Espresso! is designed to help hotels improve communications, increase productivity and maximize guest satisfaction. HotSOS is the next evolution of these technologies, designed from the ground up to give hotel brands, chains, and management companies a holistic, affordable tool to drive repeat business and improve the bottom line, while PM-Works preventive maintenance software, powered by HotSOS, is the first ASP designed specifically to help hoteliers handle the day-to-day needs of hotel maintenance. With more than 1,000 hotels worldwide using its products, MTech handles all production, pre-installation, sales, marketing and support from the company's headquarters in Miami. For more information on the company, please visit www.m-tech.com.
For more information, contact:
Luis Segredo
President
MTech
Tel: (305) 256-0429
lcsegredo@m-tech.com
Barb Worcester
PRPRO
Tel: (440) 930-5770
barbw@prproconsulting.com