As we begin a new year, it’s a great time to look back to what we’ve accomplished. 2019 was full of new product launches, integrations, and collaboration that put us in a prime position for the future. Let’s take a look:
New Products
Wave™ RMS
This year we launched Wave™ RMS, our new Revenue Management System. Wave combines SHR hospitality and technology knowledge with Artificial Intelligence (AI) to bring hoteliers a system that works for them – not the other way around. Using data to make informed decisions has never been easier.
“The addition of Wave to our product portfolio fits perfectly with our desire to add value beyond pure distribution. When you are able to look at revenue generation holistically, good things can happen for our hotel clients,” said Rod Jimenez, CEO and Co-Founder of SHR. “We have created in Wave a system that lets Revenue Managers choose between a completely automated path or a hybrid path, which they can influence through Wave’s Strategy Builder, allowing for more control and better outcomes.”
With Wave, hoteliers get accurate forecasts a year out, and pricing recommendations that take things like occupancy, elasticity, and number of days to arrival for each stay date into account. The Strategy Builder allows you to set limits on rate metrics, and allows customization by combining proven strategy with AI pricing – There’s also an override feature, so you’re always in control. Enhanced reporting provides all of the relevant data you need to make decisions, and can be set to run manually or automatically.
Force10 Initiative Announced
Named after a gale-force storm at sea, Force10 is part of a broader project that includes Wave and Windsurfer, combining information from our own apps (CRS, RMS, and CRM) to generate optimized recommendations that increase effectiveness and revenue. With Force10, all of the data that powers our CRS, RMS, and CRM is combined and run through an Artificial Intelligence (AI) engine to create deeper, more meaningful recommendations. Estimated arrival, 2021.
“To describe it simply, it’s an engine that combines SHR Hospitality Knowledge + SHR Technology + AI, powering a suite of solutions from high-level distribution to intricate guest management,” Said Rod Jimenez, CEO and Co-Founder of SHR. “It aggregates the data generated by the apps, and then feeds that data to the AI algorithms inside the engine in order to generate optimized recommendations back to the different apps.”
Using all in-house apps (as opposed to 3rd party integration), we have complete control of the service, allowing us to bring meaningful and consistent results to our clients.
Valuable Features
Windsurfer CRS and CRO Voice. In keeping with our commitment to continually enhance our products, in 2019 we created new features for both our Windsurfer® CRS and CRO products that provide more control to hoteliers. In Windsurfer, we’ve added tools like Ignore PMS Rate Update and Allow Zero Rate so you can choose which rates you’re sending to our systems, and set a rate of $0. For Windsurfer CRO Voice, you’re now able to better accommodate your guests with features like Room to Charge and Share With, as well as provide you more control with User Access Roles.
“These Windsurfer enhancements will serve to reinforce SHR’s commitment to bringing real value to our hotel clients,” said Doug Tucker, Director of Product for SHR. “The Share With function, for instance, is huge, not just because it offers a new way to encourage guests to book, but because it also offers them a way to afford a higher-rate accommodation via convenient cost-sharing.”
Meaningful Integrations
Hotel Tonight Direct Connect. Hotel Tonight is quickly gaining in popularity among guests looking for last minute deals and is becoming a great OTA option for hoteliers. If you are interested in the Hotel Tonight Direct Connect with Windsurfer, and do not already have an agreement in place with Hotel Tonight, please click here to get started in preparation for activation on this popular booking site. Please then let your CSM know of your interest, and we will be happy to follow up as soon as additional properties can be added through the Windsurfer connection.
SmartHOTEL. Connecting with SmartHOTEL PMS helps us better connect with hoteliers in Europe who may not have Windsurfer connected directly to their PMS. Thanks to this integration, PMS vendors such as Suite8, MEWS, and Hoist, among others, will now be supported.
“We are really excited about SmartHOTEL because it will help us better-serve our customers in Europe who may be using PMSs that are not connected directly to Windsurfer,” said David Orensanz, Managing Director, SHR-Europe. “So, the benefit to us and to those clients is being able to expand our reach and support them more quickly.”
Other Major Integrations:
SiteConnect PMS
Guestline PMS
Wihp metasearch
Airbnb via Siteminder
Duetto Playmaker
SCB Payment Gateway
Open Payment Alliance VCC Payment routing
Engagements & Events
HITEC 2019. We made our way to Minneapolis for HITEC last year, and it was definitely an experience to remember.
Not only did we demo our new product Wave™ RMS, along with new features and integrations to Windsurfer,
we sent Glenn Haussman and Estella Hale from
our very own The Hotel Tech Podcast to broadcast live from the HITEC media lounge. Glenn and Estella sat down with some of the biggest names in the hospitality industry, including Scot Campbell, President, Board of Directors, HFTP, producers of HITEC. You can listen to those interviews and more here.
LION-APP AI Conference at University of Trento. We’ve invested substantially in AI this year, and there’s no better way to reflect that than our presence at LION-APP, a five-day residential course that brought experts from all over the globe to discuss the practical application of AI into Hospitality. SHR CEO and Co-Founder, Rod Jimenez, spoke about The SHR Difference in the Vision and Strategies segment.
“I am honored and excited to be participating in such an important event,” said Jimenez. “SHR’s innovative approach has continually allowed us a unique window into the problems facing today’s hoteliers. I’m looking forward to sharing the vision we’ve gained at SHR, investigating practical applications of AI to hospitality, and to hearing the perspectives of world-renown experts in the field as we work toward how best to help our clients in the future.”
Product Advisory Board
In order to better understand the products and services hoteliers need, we created the SHR Product Advisory Board. Made up of twelve strategically diverse hotel business clients, the Product Advisory Board was created to make sure that we’re constantly including hoteliers in our hospitality technology conversations.
“Hoteliers’ needs have always shaped the SHR development roadmap,” Jimenez added. “This new board will allow all of us to continue the discussion in a more focused and intricate way, which includes the current SHR product roadmap, trends that we see forming, and the truly new vision we’re embarking on. Hoteliers simply deserve the option of better tech.”
In the news
SHR named to INC. 5000 list for Seventh time. We are honored to have been named to the Inc. 5000 list for the seventh time in eight years. “SHR’s name is on the plaque, but this honor belongs to the smart, creative, hard-working team members of SHR,” said Rodrigo Jimenez, Co-Founder and CEO of SHR. “Making the list for the seventh time is a testament to the spirit of service and commitment that our team members bring to our clients every day. We are excited about the future as we roll out our new RMS and CRM applications. It should allow us to continue to add value to our clients’ hotel operations.”
2019 was an amazing year, but at SHR we’re already looking ahead to what 2020 will hold. We truly thank you for an amazing 2019. Here’s to a new decade full of innovation and collaboration.
