Motion Detectors Speed Room Turns at Bardessono Hotel

When the Bardessono Hotel in Yountville, Calif., deployed the Room Expeditor (REX) tool from MTech in March 2009, it became the first property in the world to equip its room attendants with an iPod Touch to instruct them on which is the next most important "vacant" room to clean, based on a collection of variables. Today, the 62-room luxury property, managed by MTM Luxury Lodging, is benefiting from the technology integration between MTech's REX and INNCOM's Integrated Room Automaton System (IRAS) that now alerts staff when stay-over rooms also are ready to be refreshed.

 

"Being able to integrate REX with the INNCOM IRAS provides tremendous value from a guest-service standpoint," says Chuck Marratt, MTM's vice president, information technology. "Previously, when a guest checked out, the vacant room would be placed into queue and cleaned based on the readiness of its next occupant, the next guest's VIP status or other pertinent criteria. Today, because the INNCOM system detects if a physical body is in the room or if the room is empty, it has been tied directly to REX to notify staff in real-time when a stay-over room is unoccupied and therefore able to be cleaned. 

 

REX works in tandem with MTech’s Hotel Service Optimization System or HotSOS. HotSOS manages guest profiling, guest response, incident tracking, service recovery tracking, workflow automation, preventive maintenance, room inspections and MOD logs. Built on a “Software as a Service” (SaaS) platform, REX is easy to deploy and offers a wealth of enterprise data, especially when integrated with other hotel systems, including PMS, electronic-lock, CRM and loyalty systems.

 

INNCOM's IRAS with INNcontrol II is responsible for controlling guestroom lights, room thermostat, and high-tech, external Venetian-like blinds, designed to keep heat in or out when unoccupied or empty. INNcontrol II is a real-time, server-based application that allows a central point of monitoring and control for all guestroom devices. The software collects the data and shares it with REX and other applicable online hotel systems.