“Hoteliers are telling us they are looking for newer ways to increase loyalty among guests and employees this year,” said Warren Dehan, Maestro President. “Mobile tools, such as check-in/out, digital room keys, digital concierge services, workflow automation, digital payments, and even robotics are positively impacting loyalty in many ways. That’s why at Maestro PMS, we are continually enhancing our solutions to remove friction along the guest journey and empower staff to act and be rewarded for jobs well done. From enhanced payment security and a fully rewritten AI-powered booking engine to an AI chat concierge and robotic process information, Maestro PMS is driving innovation and taking loyalty to new heights.”

Embedded Payments 

Digital payments are trending and transforming the way guests are engaging with services and settling transactions. As the hospitality industry migrates to a digital environment, embedded payment technology – or integrating payment processing capabilities directly into various devices or systems, such as the PMS, mobile apps, or self-service kiosks – will enable seamless and convenient payment experiences for guests. 

The benefits of embedded payments include:

• Eliminate third-party overhead and fees
• Simpler transaction workflow with modern payment terminals
• PCI compliance tool with Data Breach Protection included
• Access Payments Dashboard inside Maestro
• Daily emailed Reconciliation Reports
• Direct Support from Maestro (single vendor support)

“Maestro will be introducing an embedded payments solution in Q2 that simplifies implementation, takes Maestro out of payment card industry (PCI) compliance scope, and moves payments support directly to the Maestro team,” Dehan said. “We believe this new solution will enable our clients to thrive in a competitive market landscape.”

AI-Powered Chatbots & Booking Engine

AI is poised to revolutionize the hotel booking engine process, offering enhanced personalization, efficiency, and customer satisfaction. Firstly, AI-powered algorithms can analyze vast amounts of data, including user preferences, booking history, and market trends, to provide tailored recommendations and customized experiences for guests. This level of personalization not only improves user satisfaction and loyalty, but it increases conversion rates and revenue for hotels.

AI algorithms can optimize pricing strategies dynamically based on factors such as demand fluctuations, competitor pricing, and historical data analysis, ensuring hotels maximize profitability while remaining competitive in the market. Furthermore, AI can facilitate predictive analytics to forecast demand patterns accurately, allowing hotels to allocate resources efficiently and optimize inventory management. This proactive approach minimizes the risk of overbooking or underutilization of rooms, ultimately improving revenue management and operational efficiency.

“Maestro PMS is developing an AI-driven chatbot that can can streamline the booking process by providing instant responses to inquiries, assisting with reservations, and addressing customer concerns in real-time, thus enhancing efficiency and reducing operational costs,” Dehan said. “We are also developing AI integration into the hotel booking engine process to elevate customer experiences, optimize operations, and drive revenue growth, positioning hotels for success in an increasingly competitive industry landscape.”

Overall, an AI-powered booking engine will revolutionize hotel transactions by offering personalized experiences, optimizing pricing strategies, streamlining operations, and enhancing customer service, ultimately driving revenue growth and competitive advantage in the travel industry. For example, the new version of the Maestro PMS booking engine can make suggestions on room selection or upsell amenities based on type of room, length of stay, and the types of amenities and experiences guests prefer. 

Mobile Housekeeping, Theme Gift Cards and More . . .

As part of its 2024 roadmap, Maestro PMS will also announce new mobile tools for housekeeping designed to improve the employee experience and boost loyalty in this labor-intensive department. Enhancements to its popular digital gift card program will also be revealed, including offering new “themed” options that enable hotels to customize gift card designs by holiday, promotion, or location. Selling gift cards, both on property and using Maestro’s online gift card feature, redeemable for hotel stays and amenities is a viable way to drive millions of dollars in untapped revenues without impacting service. 

Enhancement details will be discussed at Maestro’s Accelerate User Conference, to be held April 15 to 18 at the Omni King Edward Hotel in Toronto. Gold sponsors of the annual conference include integration partners Silverware (point of sale), PurpleCloud Technologies (team and service optimization), and Fetch (guest messaging and engagement). Maestro PMS users can register for the event by clicking here.

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Patti Culwell, director of operations at the Texas A&M Hotel in College Station, Texas, said her property primarily uses Maestro’s GuestXMS technology to improve guest-to-staff communication by targeting different audience groups with crucial messaging, increasing bookings while reducing unnecessary or unwanted interactions with the wrong consumers. Once on property, travelers can use mobile contactless check-in options to manage arrival on their own terms, and hotel operators can monitor guests’ satisfaction and activity throughout the stay and react if necessary.

Most recently, unexpected freezing weather across Texas resulted in both surprise cancellations and a wave of transient travelers looking for last-minute bookings. Culwell said GuestXMS allowed the Texas A&M Hotel to quickly adapt to these changes by alerting all arriving guests to demand in the area and proactively creating open rooms by pre-emptively warning the hotel of impending no-shows for prior bookings.

“Maestro’s GuestXMS has been invaluable for managing room inventory by making it easier to communicate with guests and solicit feedback faster and more organically,” Culwell said. “The ability to engage with guests earlier in the stay process has been absolutely effective in improving review scores. Additionally, Maestro’s GuestXMS team has been receptive to our requests for integrations and has quickly pivoted to help improve our operations and make our team’s lives easier by rolling out features just for us.”

Guest Communication Plan is a Must

GuestXMS has also become an essential operational touchpoint for hoteliers looking for ways to remain within reach when guests are in need. Nick Miller, manager of the Resort at Governor’s Crossing in Sevierville, Tenn., said his hotel has been removing phones from the hotel guestroom due to reduced use from travelers. Still, he said doing so without a backup plan could be detrimental and leave operators without a reliable way to communicate with travelers. His answer lies in GuestXMS and its ability to manage communications on a guest-by-guest basis.

“GuestXMS has been a convenient tool for our property,” Miller said. “Now the front desk can become more accessible to guests who are used to relying on in-room phones to stay in contact with operators. We can stay in contact with travelers and even other operators while they are on the road; this increases the accessibility of our team by leaps and bounds. Furthermore, GuestXMS has allowed us to focus on technology and operations strategies guests support and engage with, while moving our operations more securely into the 21st Century.”

Performance Analytics Matter

Maestro’s GuestXMS also provides AI-powered analytics on hotel performance and staff engagement, allowing operators to track performance changes and shifts in efficiency over set periods of time. Venita Yelley, controller at the MCM Elegante Lubbock in Lubbock, Texas, said the biggest surprise since adopting the technology has been its impact on the hotel’s maintenance department. Through improved communications and the ability to manage tickets more efficiently without needless back-and-forth conversations, Yelley said the hotel’s maintenance speed and consistency have both increased.

“The MCM Elegante Lubbock was the first of our hotels to adopt Maestro’s GuestXMS, and since then we have mandated its inclusion at six other hotels owned by our group,” Yelley said. “After adopting GuestXMS, our hotel’s ratings and online reviews have increased by as much as 20 percent all thanks to our renewed ability to address problems prior to guests checking out. Additionally, workers today are more comfortable texting in some environments, and GuestXMS has given them a pathway to leading operations in a way that is most comfortable to them.”

Warren Dehan, Maestro PMS president, had this to say: “We created GuestXMS to help hoteliers better manage their reputations through improved operations, expand oversight of emerging online sentiments, and track and resolve every aspect of this process all in one place. Our team is working diligently to study the ways guests and our peers are continuing to evolve and are collaborating with trusted hotel partners to improve their operational potential wherever possible. Through technology, hotels can continue exceeding guest expectations without losing the prestige and significance that continues to draw travelers to their doorstep.”

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Maestro will showcase its popular All-in-One PMS at the Independent Hotel Show, October 16 to 17 in Olympia London at Stand 1530.

Through their implementation of Maestro’s all-in-one Property Management System (PMS), Rudding Park’s operations team was able to create event order function sheets for banquet operations, more easily informing the hotel’s team of what events have been booked and specific areas of the resort that are in use at any moment in time. By using this information to stay up to date on business on the books, Rudding Park could optimize its staffing to ensure guests have the best possible experience without unnecessarily overstaffing during slower periods.

Rudding Park also implemented technology to improve transparency across all departments. Maestro PMS’s communications tools have streamlined the property’s event space management, reduced booking errors, and ensured the hotel maintains the high operating standards its guests anticipate. These capabilities extend to inventory management tools, which have improved Rudding Park’s purchasing decisions while providing operators with more accurate restaurant and guestroom availability. 

“Maestro PMS has changed how Rudding Park operates, allowing our hotel to maintain its historical roots while keeping pace with the rate of change impacting hospitality,” said Julia Featherstone, Head of Rooms Division at Rudding Park. “Maestro’s ability to manage integrations and provide answers to our important questions has ensured our property management system can help us reach our goals and accommodate our goals for future growth. We would encourage other independent hoteliers to research any PMS providers’ ability to integrate with other key hotel systems, such as the point-of-sale system, as well as its user-friendliness and freedom to customize its capabilities to meet their business needs and requirements. Maestro has exceeded our expectations and is our preferred partner going forward.”

Today, Rudding Park’s luxurious foundation and rich history are supported by its technological capabilities. The property is now leveraging Maestro PMS’ integrations to access advanced data analytics tools and more, giving the hotel expanded insight into guest behavior and preferences. The property’s staff can access expanded communications tools, including text-based messaging between hotel workers and guests. The resort also benefits from a streamlined reservation and booking process that strips away human error opportunities while automatically personalizing guest profiles for future bookings.

Maestro is the only hospitality property-management system software company that offers an all-in-one, comprehensive Web browser solution with the option to host its Maestro Cloud Platform on-premises, in a private cloud, or cloud hosted. All environments support the latest mobile, contact-free, and web-responsive technologies to enhance the digital guest and staff experience. The benefit is an extensive collection of open APIs to support more than 800 third-party integrations.

“We are delighted to continue serving Rudding Park in North Yorkshire, and we remain impressed with the hotel’s commitment to managing their unified guest journey and streamlining their hotel’s operations through new technology,” said Warren Dehan, president of Maestro PMS. “By partnering with Maestro PMS, Rudding Park has automated its communications for pre-arrival and guest feedback, adopted efficiencies in the check-in and check-out processes, and smoothed key wrinkles in operations. Our team continues looking for new ways to streamline operations for independent hoteliers, improve staff mobility, and make serving guests simple and enjoyable.”

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The NEW GuestXMS features were designed to address the many challenges impacting the hotel industry, from staff shortages to the need for improved on-property communication. Enhancements to be demonstrated at the industry’s premier hotel technology event include:

• SMS-Based Check-In and Check-Out: GuestXMS now enables hoteliers to provide links for pre-registration, mobile check-in, and mobile check-out directly to guests over SMS. Documents are generated directly by Maestro and allow hotels already using the system to implement contactless tools quickly and seamlessly.
• Text Broadcasts: Hotels can now schedule SMS-based information blasts or broadcasts to hotel workers and guests. These messages can include marketing promotions, emergency announcements, operational alerts, and more, and can be targeted as broadly or specifically as necessary.
• Updated Online Review Management: GuestXMS now allows hotels to add competitive set comparisons when looking at online reviews, and even respond to reviews from directly inside the application. Maestro users can now also track their hotel’s online reputation across all leading review sites and easily compare it to their competitors.
• Team Chat: GuestXMS now comes with a built-in messenger designed to simplify staff communications. All messages are sent in real-time and contain a log for future reference.
• Image Support: Maestro users can now attach images to any ticket, allowing maintenance and housekeeping to provide greater context when submitting work orders in a fraction of the time.
• 360° Room Analysis: Maestro’s GuestXMS dashboard now includes all created ticket data and survey data, providing operators with a complete view of the room’s entire logged activity.
• Scheduled Tickets: Maestro users can now schedule any tickets to be created and set at a future established date and time.

Check-in/Out a Big Hit
Nivi Shroff, Director of Quality Assurance at Myrtle Beach Seaside Resorts, said she is thoroughly impressed with the new additions to GuestXMS’ capabilities, particularly the ability to check guests in and out using SMS.

“GuestXMS has improved our response time to guest concerns and reviews and has even allowed us to create helpful notes behind the scenes to follow up with guests easily,” Shroff said. “The best part is that all of these features are in one place, putting all the necessary information to improve the guest experience right at our fingertips.”

Warren Dehan, President of Maestro PMS, said limited labor and rising guest expectations have made it necessary for operators to understand the full context and positioning of their property and its individual rooms, without the time to pour over complicated reports and forecasts. As a result, independent operators are relying on GuestXMS and its 360° Room Analysis dashboard to understand room activity.

“Hoteliers today, particularly independents, cannot operate effectively using incomplete information,” Dehan said. “The newest iteration of GuestXMS is designed to capture data on both guest engagement and room ticketing activity taking place on the back end. This provides a complete history of a guestroom in one location. Using this, in addition to GuestXMS’ expanded communications tools such as team chat and image support, allow operators to have a greater understanding of their property than ever before, at a moment’s notice.”

Russell Silver, Founder and CEO of Fetch, said coming into the busy season, many hotel teams have expressed concern about being able to adequately handle the check-in and check-out rushes without major lines forming.

“Since adding SMS-Based Check-In and Check-Out to GuestXMS, we have noticed a huge uptick in hotels adopting the mobile check-in and checkout tools,” Silver said. “Since launching the ability to deliver these touchpoints via SMS, we have seen literally 10-times stronger engagement between hoteliers and guests.

“GuestXMS will continually be enhanced to respond to economic factors and industry demand, such as the ongoing labor crisis and the need for greater operational efficiency,” Silver said. “When we first introduced the upgrades, more than 90 percent of users began uploading images to service tickets. In the near future, we plan to expand GuestXMS image capabilities to include enhanced searchability using AI. Independent hoteliers need access to some of the more refined communications tools which have emerged over the past few year, and together Fetch and Maestro are delivering on those needs with GuestXMS.”

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When the privately-owned resort opened its doors in 2010, Maestro PMS was there to power the property’s front-desk, spa, and sales-and-catering operations and provide modules to manage analytics, club & spa, digital registration card, express check-out, gift card, Maestro OBE, SMS messaging, workorders, WebPro and yield management. Then, the resort deployed the PurpleCloud Service Optimization Platform to increase productivity and decrease labor costs, especially in the housekeeping department. Soon Maestro PMS and PurpleCloud teamed up to connect the two solutions with the goal of easing communication between the front desk and housekeeping to boost guest satisfaction and add more transparency to the room-turn process.

“We knew from the onset that Maestro was the preferred choice for property-management technology,” said Glorija Toplak, Sparkling Hill Resort Assistant General Manager. “Their PMS is built specifically to manage the needs of independent hotels and luxury resorts, and the company has a beyond-stellar reputation for customer service. We began searching for a way to boost productivity among our housekeepers and maintenance staff and make tasks more enjoyable for everyone involved. We compared many service-optimization solutions in the market and found PurpleCloud to be the most user friendly and efficient. It provides quick visibility into employee productivity, insight into trends, and the missing transparency we were looking for in housekeeping.

“Because Maestro PMS has an open API, we knew it would be easy for them to integrate with PurpleCloud,” she said. “The joint solution lets the front desk know the status of each room in the make-ready and inspection process and how long it will be before the room is ready for guests. Being able to share that information with people who have checked in and are waiting to get into their rooms is critical to their loyalty and satisfaction. The integration also provides transparency into the workorder process and whether or not tasks have been completed or are still pending. The result is a more fulfilling workday for staff and a better overall experience for guests.”

Soon, Sparkling Hill Resort will add the “gamification” feature of PurpleCloud. Gamification is a strategic approach to improving a business’ operations, efficiency, and worker satisfaction by drawing on natural inclination to complete tasks that can be tracked and subsequently rewarded. For example, when rooms are cleaned and ready by a set time, associate room inspection scores improve. As work orders are completed and reported in real time, employees are audibly notified via their mobile device and reward points are calculated and assigned. Managers can leverage the PurpleCloud point system to keep track of employee productivity and convert points to prizes.

“The Housekeeping Module inside PurpleCloud tracks real-time check-ins and check-outs to create an efficient schedule based on true clean times and shares that information with Maestro PMS,” said Adria Levtchenko, PurpleCloud Co-Founder and CEO. “Together with Maestro, we are eliminating inefficiencies in housekeeping and improving communications across the board. Today Sparking Hill is detecting and managing early arrivals, late checkouts and stay-over services better through the joint platform. Once the property goes live with gamification, it will keep their team members more engaged, working efficiently and feeling recognized. Over time this increases job satisfaction and reduces turnover.”

Warren Dehan, president of Maestro PMS, had this to say: “Maestro’s integration to PurpleCloud Technologies showcases our dedication to helping hotels deliver frictionless staff and guest experiences. Back-of-house employees need the right tools to do their jobs effectively and stay motivated, helping to boost morale and make their jobs more fulfilling. Our industry cannot afford to ignore the critical role these tools play in employee satisfaction. By connecting Maestro PMS and PurpleCloud, we are bringing hotels into the digital age where communication easily flows two ways. Employees are much happier, and in turn, guests are too.”

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Together these technology providers are streamlining event data and pulling group room block information — including room types, rates and allocations — from the Tripleseat sales-and-catering system and pushing it into Maestro PMS. This automated process ensures that clean data is available to sales-and-catering teams in real time, eliminating headaches for meeting planners and greatly improving the stay experiences of event attendees.

“The Maestro/Tripleseat integration partnership was formed at the request of our mutual customers,” said Warren Dehan, Maestro President. “Together, we are enabling group sales and catering teams to book, manage, and plan guest room blocks and share that information with Maestro PMS for fast and accurate booking and billing. Not only does Tripleseat push the name of room block details, but it enables operators to better forecast inventory and revenue. There are a lot of moving pieces when it comes to event management. Tripleseat and Maestro PMS are streamlining communication to prevent operational disasters like overbooking from ever happening.”

Features of the Maestro PMS and Tripleseat integration include:

• Room inventory is sent from Maestro PMS to Tripleseat once a day for the next 365 days.
• Guest room block from Tripleseat to Maestro: Once the guest room block is created in Tripleseat, the room block details will go into Maestro in real time and create the group in Maestro. In addition to rates and room types, information sent to the PMS will include the following: block release date, booking name, room block name, account and contact, and booking notes.
• Guest room block pickup from Maestro to Tripleseat: When a room is picked up in Maestro, it will update the pickup count in Tripleseat and on the hotel, resort, or conference center’s guest portal. Occupancy will be reflected in pickup counts. Pickup updates occur in real time.

“Hotel management is a complex business. We are thrilled to partner with Maestro PMS, streamlining group booking and events management and reduce the room for error by teams working in silos,” said Jonathan Morse, CEO of Tripleseat. “Our mutual clients requested this integration, and we are always happy to help make their job easier.”

As hotel operators work towards closing the labor gap, integration partnerships like Maestro PMS and Tripleseat are enabling operators to work smarter, not harder. This joint solution not only ensures that no event details or revenues slip through the cracks, but it greatly improves the event experience for planners and attendees alike. The smoother the stay, the more likely group business will return.

“We are delighted to be working with Tripleseat to lessen the stress placed on today’s operators and planners,” Dehan said. “Together we are working towards increasing sales and positive online reviews without increasing a hotel’s workload. The Global Meetings and Events Forecast shows ‘in-person meetings are roaring back in 2023 and have already surpassed 2019 levels’ across North America. While attendees want to see each other in person after suffering from virtual fatigue, the costs to support these guests continue to rise due to higher labor, food, and other fixed costs, not to mention the impact of inflation. We as hotel technologists must continue to work together to create ways to offset workload for staff, streamline operations, and ultimately exceed the expectations of guests.”

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“It’s impossible to be all things to all people, but with the right strategic partners, you can certainly come close,” said Warren Dehan, Maestro President. “One of our goals for 2023 is to give users easier access to our 800+ solution partners by creating the ‘Maestro Marketplace’ on our website. This will include not just peripheral property systems, GDS/OTA channel partners, revenue-management systems, kiosk providers, and hundreds of other systems complementary to the Maestro ecosystem, but it will also fill the large gap for marketing services that our customers have been asking for. Today more than ever operators are telling us they want a one-stop-shop for ‘everything hotel,’ and Maestro is committed to delivering just that by adding ‘Anything Hotel’ as our newest strategic partner.”

According to the 2023 Travel Outlook and AHLA Booking Index released this month, 50% of U.S. adults polled say they plan to travel for business or leisure over the next three months, with 75% of business travelers and 52% of leisure travelers choosing a hotel as their lodging accommodation. Three in five (60%) say they are more likely to stay in a hotel this year than last. Business travelers’ interest in bleisure travel remains strong, with nearly all workers (84%) whose jobs involve travel indicating interest in extending their work trips for leisure. Reaching and attracting these travelers will take strategic omnichannel marketing.

Propel Your Property

Anything Hotel provides omnichannel hospitality marketing focused on growing brands through Meta, digital and social marketing, public relations, branding, website design and optimization as well as property-management services. The company estimates that, on average, its return on ad spend for digital marketing is a 28X return, while social marketing is a 18X return and Meta earns a return of more than 35X. Its property-management side produces on average an uplift to 58 percent in gross operating profits while reducing dependence on online travel agencies by an average of 15 percent in the first year.

“Anything Hotel’s second-to-none, award-winning results in all areas of digital, Meta, social marketing and PR, woven into the fabric of Maestro’s best-in-class software platform, gives hoteliers complete control of their properties’ management and facilities, whilst creating outstanding direct revenue generation, unparalleled ROI on advertising and marketing spends, and significant uplifts in GOP and asset values,” said Anything Hotel Founder & CEO, Rich Tuckwell-Skuda. “We’ve worked alongside Maestro for more than five years and we know when a client of either enlist the services of the other, the results and immediate uplift in operational excellence, direct revenue and the reduction in OTA commission fees are astounding.”

“We are delighted to add Anything Hotel as our newest marketing partner,” Dehan said. “Both companies are committed to providing the ultimate in customer service and support, and we are confident that our customers will see tremendous results as they more aggressively market their hotels to the business and leisure travelers eager to stay in hotels once again.”

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“Maestro’s integration with RoomChecking addresses several of the communications challenges facing hotel operators today, from improving housekeeping efficiency to more effective crisis management notification,” said Warren Dehan, president of Maestro. “Together with RoomChecking’s impactful suite of communications tools, and Maestro’s best-in-class property-management capabilities, we are providing yet another way for our hotel partners to remain in control of their property, despite having fewer hands on deck.”

Operating a hotel today can be a challenge due to limited available labor and rising guest expectations. To deliver a positive guest experience, operators must embrace new methods of communication between different hotel departments. As a result, Maestro is continuing to invest in integrations that allow hoteliers to provide more control over their properties by giving individual workers greater access to information.

Using RoomChecking, hotel operators can control everything from maintenance to housekeeping priorities, employee scheduling, guestroom management, and more. The system allows individual workers to flag necessary tasks and problems, such as maintenance issues or priority guests who require additional service. This platform is also invaluable for crisis management and time-sensitive messages, thanks to its ability to push messages from one department to another in a moment’s notice.

RoomChecking also collects data and logs from communications and can analyze this data over the long term to discern trends capable of improving operational efficiency. By examining this data, hotels can discern which areas of the hotel need additional attention and even diagnose chronic issues such as HVAC maintenance or Wi-Fi dead zones.

Working Together at JARO Hotels

RoomChecking enables hotel workers to take ownership over different aspects of hotel operations, particularly thanks to its access to the cloud, and integrations with Maestro’s leading PMS. These integrations make the technology fast and simple to roll out in an active hotel environment without interrupting operations. Today, six JARO Hotels across Canada are live with RoomChecking and Maestro’s integrations.

“RoomChecking has been a WOW for our housekeeping and maintenance team,” said Nadine Bolduc, General Manager at JARO Hotel Plaza Québec. “This program is the most accurate for communication between departments. Without RoomChecking and Maestro, our team would be lost. This technology should be in place in every hotel.”

Thibaut Godicheau, Ambassador at RoomChecking, had this to say: “Running a hotel can be difficult but communicating in a hotel environment doesn’t have to be. I have seen many housekeeping and maintenance workers run from one corner of a hotel to another as they try to get a handle on each crisis after it arises, and we founded RoomChecking to prevent situations like these from ruining the hotel experience for both guests and workers. We are excited to partner with Maestro and deliver these capabilities to more operators across Canada and return agency to hoteliers everywhere.”

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To manage activities and build single guest itineraries across the independent multi-property portfolio, the hotel company turned to Maestro PMS. Today, the Ballachulish Hotel, Crieff Hydro, Isles of Glencoe Hotel, Kingshouse Hotel, Murray Park Hotel, Peebles Hydro, and The Park are leveraging Maestro’s front office, sales & catering, online booking engine, spa & activities, membership, and guest-engagement management (pre-registration and guest loyalty) software modules, and global leisure travelers have never been happier.

“When we began looking for a property-management system, our management team did a deep dive of four of the industry’s leading providers,” said Nic Oldham, head of customer and commercial relations for Crieff Hydro Family of Hotels. “Maestro emerged as the preferred option across the board. Its web browser based platform can easily be accessed from anywhere and data exchanged quickly and securely between all our properties and the call center, all centralized in our own private cloud. With Maestro PMS, the pre-arrival experience is just as engaging as the on-site experience thanks to the guest itinerary functionality for booking activities. And their API to third-party CRM providers makes booking fast and efficient. Add to that Maestro’s exceptional service culture and customer support and we are quite pleased to be a Maestro user.”

Maestro will be attending the Independent Hotel Show at Olympia London October 4 and 5, at stand 1510 in the Olympia National Hall. The company will display all the tools that make it the preferred Web Browser based cloud and on-premises PMS solution for independent hotels, luxury resorts, conference centers, vacation rentals, and multi-property groups.

Maestro is the only hospitality property-management system software company that offers an all-in-one, comprehensive Web browser or Windows solution with the option to host its Maestro Cloud Platform on-premises, in a private cloud, or cloud hosted. All environments support the latest mobile, contact-free, and web responsive technologies to enhance the digital guest and staff experience; with the added benefit of an extensive collection of open APIs to support more than 800 third-party integrations.

“We are delighted that Crieff Hydro Family of Hotels is having such tremendous success managing their guests’ journeys and streamlining hotel operations with Maestro PMS,” said Warren Dehan, Maestro president. “We love working closely with clients like Crieff Hydro who demand more from their technology and help drive our innovation and services. Our team is looking forward to attending the conference in London, visiting with all our local clients in attendance and demonstrating how we are helping hoteliers – especially those challenged with not enough time or staff to manage operations in this new landscape – add more mobility for remote staff, on-the-go users, and guest self-serve environments with Maestro.”

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“Hoteliers are looking for foolproof ways to prevent fraud and mitigate losses associated with chargeback disputes,” said Saar Fabrikant, b4checkin co-founder. “Paper-based credit-card authorization forms are labor intensive and not PCI compliant. By connecting to Maestro to process deposits and payments, we are eliminating manual data entry which is prone to errors and opens the hotel up to chargebacks. By removing manual data entry and using a fully PCI compliant system, this greatly reduces the opportunities for chargebacks and fraud, as well as streamlines check in and helps prevent front-desk staff from accepting fraudulent forms of payment.”

The Chargeback Problem

Traditionally, fraudulent room reservations were avoided by requiring payment in person, verifying the credit card against the cardholder’s personal identification. Now, however, the rise of the OTAs and brand.com booking engines, amongst other forms of online shopping, has resulted in hotels having to accept payments through card-not-present (CNP) transactions. While most non-face-to-face transactions occur via the internet, CNP denotes any transaction where the cardholder is not physically present at the merchant’s card reader or PIN entry device (PED) to authenticate the payment via a chip-and-PIN, chip-and-signature, or another form of two-factor authorization (2FA).  This can mean transactions completed over the phone, via a faxed authorization form, through an email exchange or during an SMS correspondence, which are not secure or PCI compliant and leave the hotel open to opportunities for fraud and chargebacks.

Through this integration partnership, TransForm has a direct connection to Maestro PMS, ensuring all payment data will be automatically posted into the appropriate ledger to align with the correct guest folio, group master, or other account in real time. Only this level of protection can help eradicate many of the chargeback disputes.

“Maestro’s integration to TransForm represents a sizeable shift for online payments by minimizing costs associated with chargebacks and lowering credit-card processing fees,” said Warren Dehan, Maestro President. “Through the use of these best practices and our joint technology, we will greatly reduce the problems surrounding chargebacks for hoteliers.”

Benefits of this integration partnership include:

• Posting to the proper ledger saves hotel staff time during billing reconciliation
• Having a card on file enables hotel staff to post additional charges or charge for incidentals
• More transactions attributed to an account gives hotel staff more data on guests to make smarter choices for packaging and promotions

“With the demand for contactless onsite experiences on the rise, guests expect hotels to accept payments via CNP transaction channels, and this trend will only continue as travelers use the conveniences of technology to make payments,” Dehan said. “If you don’t allow customers to pay via these methods, they may decide to stay elsewhere. We partnered with b4checkin to reduce the risk associated with payment processing, and TransForm supports the same credit-card gateways that Maestro supports. When hotels implement best practices and leverage PCI compliant solutions to protect payment card data, it will have a positive impact on the bottom line.”

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