It's all about buying smarter.  Hundreds of the industry's top technologists from hotels, vendors, and consulting groups have collaborated through HTNG to document best practices and design principles across a wide range of hotel systems.  This free resource* can help ensure that the technology you're buying meets the best available design standards for hotel systems.

Background

Buying any technology system is complex, and this page - and the pages linked from it - will enhance the work you've already done to identify your functional requirements.  This guide has the specific purpose of helping you apply the wisdom of some of the industry's best minds to ensure the maximum conformance of a system to basic architectural guidelines - ones that will ensure design longevity, maximize interoperability, and reduce long-term technology risk.  Most important, the guide identifies existing standards  that may be relevant to your purchasing decision and helps you determine, very specifically, what you can look for and ask for.

RFP Considerations

In any RFP process, your specific functional requirements and vendor selection criteria will always be the main drivers.  But these are not our focus here.  We don't know what functionality you need.  So this resource doesn't include questions about functionality, vendor financial resources, or the like - you will need to develop your own list for this.  In some cases, your needs may point you toward a system that isn't as strong on the criteria listed on these pages.  But even then, this resource may suggest some points of dialog you may wish to have with your preferred vendor.

Technology products get better over time when buyers demand changes.  If you use these pages to help frame your RFP, you probably won't get everything you want.  But if enough customers ask, the vendors will listen.

About this Beta Site

HTNG's Smarter Buyers' Guide pages are still under construction, as we vet thousands of pages of specifications and documents to find what we think will be most relevant to you.

We've started with the hardest system of all, the Property Management System, and it's basically complete.  And because PMSs use almost every specification HTNG has ever written, that means we have done most of the work documenting those specifications, and we now mostly just need to build pages with high-level information and links for each of the others.  We are working to complete this in 2012.

Many pages aren't yet built, and those that have been may still be incomplete, unclear, or (shudder) even wrong.  If you find errors or have suggestions, please let us know by sending an e-mail to our Member Services group. We'll do our best to correct any errors you point out, but if you use any of this information, you agree that it is at your own risk.

Smarter Buyer Resources

General RFP Questions for Software Systems

Specific RFP Guidance for:

• Activity Management & Booking Systems
• Concierge Systems
• Dining Reservation Systems
• Golf Management Systems
• Property Management Systems
• Spa Management & Booking Systems

Questions for the Following Systems are not yet complete, but may have partial information:

• Access Control Systems
• Central Reservation Systems (CRS)
• Channel Management Systems
• Connectivity Panels for Guest Devices
• Content Management Systems
• Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Systems
• Digital Signage Systems
• Distributed Antenna Systems
• Door Locks (see Access Control Systems)
• Environmental Control Systems
• Financial Accounting Systems
• Food & Beverage Ordering Software Systems
• Gift Certificate Systems
• Group Reservation Systems
• High-Speed Internet Access (HSIA) Systems
• HVAC Control Systems (see Environmental Control Systems)
• In-Room Entertainment Systems
• Kiosks
• Lighting Control Systems (see Environmental Control Systems)
• Minibar Systems (see Refreshment Center Systems)
• Online Travel Agencies
• Payment Gateway Systems
• Point-of-Sale Systems
• Refreshment Center Systems
• Revenue Management Systems
• Sales & Catering Systems
• Self-Service Applications
• Telephone Systems
• Yield Management Systems (see Revenue Management Systems)

*The vast majority of these resources are publicly available at no charge.  A few technical design documents, implementation guides, and support forums may require HTNG membership.