Rice to be Inducted into International Hospitality Technology Hall of Fame

For his hospitality technology industry influence and his leadership with forming Hotel Technology Next Generation (HTNG), Douglas Rice, executive vice president and CEO of HTNG, -- and member of Hospitality Technology magazine’s research advisory board -- will be inducted into the International Hospitality Technology Hall of Fame. The induction into the Hall of Fame, which is Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals' (HFTP) highest level of recognition in the area of technology, will take place at the 2012 Hospitality Industry Technology Exposition and Conference (HITEC) on Tuesday, June 26 at 8:30 a.m.
 

Rice spent over 15 years as a hospitality technology consultant, working as project leader for numerous high-profile projects for major hotel groups. He also created two of the early information products serving the hotel distribution community: ResTrak (a syndicated statistical study of reservations and distribution operations cost and effectiveness) and PHASER (the first competitive rate/availability comparison product based on GDS data). Both products proved highly successful, with most major chains and (in the case of PHASER) thousands of individual hotels subscribing.
 

Rice was a founding member of HTNG in 2002, when it was decided that hoteliers and vendors needed to collaborate to move technology ahead faster in the hotel industry. At the time, hotel technology was based primarily on solutions and technology architectures developed in the 1970s and 1980s, and on silo-based solutions from vendors. In the years since its founding, HTNG has campaigned on behalf of hotels to the vendor community; has provided know-how, tools, standards and community to help vendors move to more open architectures; and has provided exposure and success for innovative companies willing to invest in such architectures.  
 

He has remained involved with HTNG since its formation, becoming the Executive Director in 2004 and then the Executive Vice President and CEO in 2007. He serves on the HITEC Advisory Council and was instrumental, along with HFTP, in forming the Hospitality Technology Strategic Initiatives Council (HTSIC), an informal group of chief executives and volunteer leaders from all relevant associations involved with hospitality technology.