Leaner times, tougher battles

THERE is more competition in the property management system (PMS) market, despite the slow-down in the rate at which major hotel groups are beginning to computerise their properties.

A comparison of December 1993 data with that of December 1992 shows that the number of hotels computerised in the largest three groups - Forte, Mount Charlotte Thistle and Queens Moat Houses - was only slightly up from the figure a year earlier.

This is despite the fact that within these three groups about 100 UK properties still remain without a PMS.

The strategic position of suppliers, however, has changed significantly. A year ago the supply of systems to groups was a two-horse race between Innsite and HIS. Now there are four companies in the fray.

Global, with the IGS Hotel product, and Fidelio UK, now owned by Micros, have not only joined the other two in the race, but, in the view of many industry observers, are actually the favoured alternatives.

Of the major chains, only Swallow has decided to build and install its own system.

Among the major groups, Forte, QMH and Stakis have all indicated that their current PMS policy is under review. This suggests that 1994 is going to be a very interesting year for the PMS suppliers as they battle for their share of the PMS business amongst the major UK groups.

Key factors will be the effectiveness with which the various systems address the sales and marketing area, and the ease of connectivity to central reservations systems.

Forte is planning the update to its system while none of the other groups has a fully interactive system that uses real time availability. o