SUMMIT HOTELS & RESORTS TO BOOST GLOBAL PROFILE FOR INDEPENDENT HOTELS WITH NEW ONLINE CORPORATE & CONSORTIA PROGRAMME

International luxury brand Summit Hotels & Resorts has introduced a new online system, AccessSummit, to go live in the 2002 contracting season, enabling Summit’s independent hotel members to directly target the corporate and consortia markets on a global scale. AccessSummit is Summit’s latest technology innovation provided as part of the brand strategy to boost independent hotels’ competitiveness with the major international chains.

Designed to maximise time and cost savings, AccessSummit features instant access for Summit hotels to a central information bank with extensive corporate and consortia customer data. It also delivers an online service to fulfil RFP’s (Request For Proposal), a centralised format that cuts out paperwork and facilitates enhanced worldwide corporate and consortia programming.

Geoff Andrew, managing director of Summit Hotels & Resorts commented: “AccessSummit is a great example of how Summit can bring technology to bear on what would otherwise be a manually intensive and very expensive process for a typical independent hotel. AccessSummit provides our members with a complete sales management information system. It shows how Summit Hotels & Resorts can benefit the independent hotel with aggregated capital to invest in new technology - and the associated efficiencies and savings that go with that.”

Key online features of AccessSummit are:

· On-line profile of each hotel for the RFPs

· Centralized contracting and billing for all consortia and major business travel agency programmes

· Corporate RFP program submissions supported through RFP Express (the world’s largest generator of automated corporate rate programs, now servicing programs for over 1.5 billion room nights globally)

· Consortia program submissions through Lanyon Property Vault

· Detailed information about corporate companies

AccessSummit is the latest in a range of technology products and tools tailored for the independent hotel market, and provided by all members of Summit Hotels & Resorts’ portfolio.