Cendyn Adds Online Food & Beverage Ordering to eMenus; Starwood Picks It up for Use by All Domestic Properties
Cendyn, a single-source provider of innovative turnkey online marketing solutions that increase profitability for multi-property hotel companies, today introduced Customer Order Center that enables event meeting planners to create and place complete food and beverage orders online for greater efficiency. The new system enhances Cendyn's eco-friendly eMenus catering solution by displaying customized website ordering pages with standardized menu selections accompanied by attractive photos with multimedia elements that provide enticing menu options.
Starwood selects Customer Order Center
Starwood Hotels & Resorts selected eMenus with Customer Order Center for use by all its domestic properties. "We wanted a key customer deliverable that propelled Starwood's Convention Services and Catering Operations to the next level and met the needs of our operations in becoming more efficient and easy to do business with," says David Dvorak, vice president of catering & convention services for Starwood Hotels & Resorts, which piloted Cendyn's Customer Order Center introduction. "eMenus and the Customer Order Center are clearly the future of Banquets and Catering and we are pleased to lead the industry in this technology." Õ
Starwood Hotels & Resorts selected eMenus with Customer Order Center for use by all its domestic properties. "We wanted a key customer deliverable that propelled Starwood's Convention Services and Catering Operations to the next level and met the needs of our operations in becoming more efficient and easy to do business with," says David Dvorak, vice president of catering & convention services for Starwood Hotels & Resorts, which piloted Cendyn's Customer Order Center introduction. "eMenus and the Customer Order Center are clearly the future of Banquets and Catering and we are pleased to lead the industry in this technology." Õ
Starwood is now rolling out the solution to its 240+ enrolled domestic properties. "Event planners who work with Starwood say they appreciate the system's ease of use and the control they have by creating their food and beverage orders online in a standardized format when it is most convenient for them. We anticipate a much wider use of the Internet in banquet and event booking in the future," Dvorak notes.ÕÕ
More than 3,000 hotels rely on Cendyn's eSales Suite hotel Internet marketing platform with eMenus that leverages the Internet to drive sales online. eMenus and Customer Order Center are multi-lingual for use by international hotel operators.
Photos of menu items drive faster decisions, offer attractive options
The new eMenus Customer Order Center puts the food and beverage selection process in meeting planners' hands with help from an attractive online application that eliminates the need to email large file attachments. In the past, planners could view event menus online, but had to place their F&B orders by email, phone or fax. Customer Order Center maintains each menu item for breakfast, lunch, dinner, breaks and special activities such as weddings, in a central database with pricing, titles and other customizable attributes. Meeting planners can select standard menus with associated costs, while they view upgrade options with separate pricing on the same page. eMenus totals each order with extensions and adds appropriate fees for labor, minimums, and taxes for a complete bid.ÕWhen the planner is finished, they click a button that sends their selection to the hotel catering manager who reviews the menus and quickly provides a banquet event order (BEO) as the legal agreement. ÕÕ
The new eMenus Customer Order Center puts the food and beverage selection process in meeting planners' hands with help from an attractive online application that eliminates the need to email large file attachments. In the past, planners could view event menus online, but had to place their F&B orders by email, phone or fax. Customer Order Center maintains each menu item for breakfast, lunch, dinner, breaks and special activities such as weddings, in a central database with pricing, titles and other customizable attributes. Meeting planners can select standard menus with associated costs, while they view upgrade options with separate pricing on the same page. eMenus totals each order with extensions and adds appropriate fees for labor, minimums, and taxes for a complete bid.ÕWhen the planner is finished, they click a button that sends their selection to the hotel catering manager who reviews the menus and quickly provides a banquet event order (BEO) as the legal agreement. ÕÕ
eMenu's Customer Order Center provides:
- A standardized, streamlined order process for food and beverage booking
- Quick and easy menu updates and multiple opportunities to add specialty items
- More accurate orders through elimination of manual keying errors
- Reduced printing and distribution cost.