Hotel Dollars Online

With a little help from RFS Hotel Investors Inc. subsidiary, Centrafuse, small and mid-sized hotel owners can capitalize on the accounting know-how of a multi-million dollar hotel REIT for a fraction of typical implementation costs.

"We’re combining our experience in the hotel industry with a variety of off-the-shelf software programs, with some customization, to create a package that would normally cost a hotel between $150,000 to $200,000 to implement," said Craig Hofer, president, Centrafuse of the application service provider that will deliver accounting solutions and client support via the Internet.

The upfront investment that clients will need to implement the program will be drastically reduced to between $7,000 and $10,000 and which will cover the conversion of their current accounting programs to that offered by Centrafuse. Once the implementation is complete, clients will pay a monthly rental charge of around $650. Plus, clients will receive hotel accounting assistance support from Centrafuse staff.

The center part of the Centrafuse accounting system is the Microsoft backed Great Plains Accounting Software. Citrix, a leading edge thin client technology, hosts and encrypts the Great Plains program across the Internet.

"We’re a value-added reseller for Great Plains software," said Hofer. "We have custom written programs that handle daily sales reporting unique to the hotel industry. We also have a custom payroll system specifically for the hotel industry. When you get down to the things a manager really can manage, payroll is the largest item."

"This creates an opportunity for us to step in without needing a large amount of capital to generate some serious revenue streams for RFS investors," he said. "We want to make sure we have a product that’s repeatable. That out of the box it gives the client exactly what they’re looking for: a full blown hotel financial statement across the Internet."

Target Shopping

It’s easy pickings for ShopTaubman member shoppers who visit the six Taubman Centers Inc. malls where CENTERLINQ computer kiosks guide them to retailers who have just what they’re looking for.

ShopTaubman is a preferred shopper program that consumers can join on site by pressing the "Join ShopTaubman" button and entering data into that mall’s kiosk.

"At that time, and subsequent visits, you’ll be asked questions about which stores you like to shop in as well as lifestyle questions," explained David Goldberg, vice president. "The system is able to build a profile on you so that we can communicate with you individually."

Each member gets a credit card like swipe card and his or her own homepage where he or she can receive messages of interest from tenants and sponsors. For instance, if a sponsor was offering a parenting workshop, a shopper with kids would get that message. Or, a member who is interested in certain stores will receive special coupons from those mall tenants who want to target their business instead of offering mass coupons.

"We hope it makes the shopping visit more efficient," said Goldberg. "What we believe might separate us from competitors is our ability to give that person what they want and not give them what they don't want. For that reason we're taking that responsibility very seriously. The next phase of this will be putting the same content on our web site. ShopTaubman becomes ShopTaubman.com. Besides attracting shoppers, Taubman Centers Inc. is hoping to attract sponsors who are willing to pay to connect with their shoppers.

"The next step is to educate the tenants on how to use it more effectively. In the end, what it. s really about is the ability to communicate on a one-to-one basis with our customers," he said.

Techno Butler

Drycleaning piling up? Need tickets to a special event? Need to move to larger offices? The 8,000 office workers at Cadillac Fairview's Toronto Eaton Centre need only visit www.tectowers.com to accomplish a variety of tasks.

After the success of its onsite TEC Serviceplus concierge service that assisted tenants in accomplishing personal tasks, Cadillac Fairview launched a 24-hour online site that could do the same, plus provide leasing and building information to those interested in renting space.

"The web site was designed to be an extension of our TEC Serviceplus plan," explained Steven Sorensen, manager. "But, it also was designed for real estate professionals and prospective tenants."

Tenants receive the tenant newsletter and can access the tenant manual and communicate with building maintenance online. Since vendor tenants have exclusive exposure on the web site, office tenants benefit from volume discounts. And, the tenant directory promotes business-to-business development among the tenants.

"It helps foster a sense of community among our tenants," said Sorensen, adding, "There's one distinct service we've added."

Tenants who become members are assigned an exclusive web site that is password protected. After completing an optional profile on their profession, hobbies and other pertinent data, the program will seek out other web sites that will be of interest to that tenant.

"So you have at your fingertip a whole bevy of web sites that match your interests and profile," said Sorensen. "It's a time saving measure. Most people spend a lot of time searching out web sites of interest and this does it all for them. This is an evolving service and we hope to refine it and add new and interesting components as we go forward."

Just Book It

Travelers in search of overnight lodging can now book rooms at Sunstone Hotel Properties Inc. sites across the country online. By joining with WorldRes.com Inc., an online hotel distribution network with real-time reservation booking capability, Sunstone Hotel is linked to trackable multiple travel sites including convention and visitor bureaus worldwide. "Linking is what it's all about," explained Scott Hermes, vice president, sales of the San Clemente, CA, REIT. "While Sunstone is not a consumer name, we can attract consumers by linking with others."

For instance, if a travel planner looking for accommodations in San Diego on the California Hotel & Motel Association web site that consumer would be directed to a Sunstone hotel. "It provides an opportunity at a very reasonable cost to enhance Internet distribution," said Hermes. "To be able to private label the Sunstone site and to have a booking engine that is already linked to a large number of additional distribution channels seemed to be a perfect match."

Accounting for Profit

Seamless accounting, property management, development and leasing software is improving the bottom line at Prime Group Realty Trust, Chicago, IL.

"The J. D. Edwards & Company OneWorld and World software technology that PGRT is currently implementing will enhance our ability to deliver information to constituents: investors, banks, capital markets, Wall Street analysts," said Roy Rendino, senior vice president of finance. In addition to plans to utilize J. D. Edwards for accounting/tax, property management, development and construction, PGRT tracks its leasing status with the Strategic Lease Processing package (SLP) from ASI, International.

"Lease information enters our system through SLP, which we plan to eventually integrate with the J. D. Edwards property management module. We can take a variety of different looks at our portfolio from a leasing perspective: by tenant, building type, location, occupancy percentages, lease rollovers, etc."

"Leasing is what drives the real estate business," said Rendino. "We anticipate SLP will provide us a more efficient way to manage our leasing activity, identify tenant needs and monitor changes in our portfolios."

InvestAvision, Coming to a PC Near You

After a successful pilot, techies at Legg Mason Wood Walker Inc., Baltimore, MD, are working out the kinks in its multimedia equity research report "investAvision" where brokers, analysts, and investors view RealVideo commentary by CEOs and Legg Mason analysts.

"The concept is a little bit ahead of the technology," explained Robert A. Frank, CFO, director of Equity Research.

When complete, investAvision will feature, along with its . stock buy. recommendation, a video question and answer session with the CEO of the recommended company, as well as photographs of properties, a link to the featured firm. s web site and a "pop-up" e-mail to correspond with the Legg Mason analyst.

"Our hope was to really segment the report, provide more texture for the report, and allow more people to review the report at different levels," said Frank. "We felt it was a great opportunity for us to address retail investors that want to think like institutional investors. When you see a visual of someone, you create a bond with that person."

The week-long pilot featured Host Marriott with a Q&A between CEO Terry Golden and REIT analyst Marielle Jan deBeur. "The most hits our web site received was during that week," noted Frank.