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No-hassle Housekeeping MTech's REX - Room Expeditor improves efficiency of daily routine. Friday, July 30, 2010 Beth Kormanik

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MTech G.E.M. and Workflow Automation

Every hotel has had to deal with the situation of having a guest show up before check-in, when no room are available.

After you explain the situation, then what? Here’s how it often plays out: Once a room becomes vacant, the front desk calls housekeeping, the dispatcher calls a runner, that person finds a supervisor who figures out the housekeeper responsible for that area, and finally assigns the room as a priority.

REX - Room Expeditor can make the process faster and smoother. REX, from workflow automation provider MTech, is an automated process that integrates information from PMS and other systems to prioritize which rooms are assigned to room attendants. The results are transmitted to the room attendants through a handheld Apple iPod Touch, iPhone or iPad. REX can also support the Android platform.

The instructions can include specific information about a guest, including room set-up preference or green meeting requests such as changing the towels every other day for a block of rooms.

If guests refuse service, staff can communicate that quickly without using a paper and clipboard. Or if guests activate an automated "do not disturb" signal, housekeeping knows to skip the room.

The result is that REX allows hotels to get good yield out of room attendants. The system takes just a few days to set up, followed by staff training that can take literally just a few minutes. It’s offered in multiple languages.

"If you're looking to enhance the guest experience, or if you're looking to make the most of your payroll dollars, we're a group to talk to," said Luis Segredo, president and co-founder of MTech. "We can help make your people more efficient."

The solution can save hotels money. Hotels have reported to MTech that they save up to $250 per room per year through a more efficient process.

REX helps hotels better use their staff. Say a housekeeper is assigned 15 rooms to clean. With a pen-and-paper list, the housekeeper would simply cross off rooms marked with a “do not disturb” sign and have one fewer room to clean. With REX, when that information is noted, the system will assign an extra room.

“You see an increase in productivity if they simply clean the number of rooms they are supposed to,” Segredo said. “It’s not changing labor contracts, just getting them to do what they are supposed to do. The numbers really add up. We’re going to turn the rooms faster, get guests in rooms faster and let them start spending faster.”

Some hotels feel they have added so much control to the process that they do not need to inspect all of the rooms. They are able to cut back the number of people on the floor and save money.

Automating services makes sense for hotels’ long-term budget strategies, Segredo said.

“Times are tough right now and departments are running very lean. You can’t sustain that for the long term,” he said. “As occupancy starts climbing up, you can add to your staff or apply technology. Technology is buying you the ability to have greater service to the customer.”

The industry has recognized REX as a game-changer. It won the 2009 'Most Innovative Hospitality Technology' from Hotel Technology Next Generation (HTNG).

Since their inception, all of MTech's solutions have been provided as software as a service (SaaS), or enterprise-level cloud solutions. This provides an edge over companies who are in the process of migrating their products to the cloud. In addition to REX, another popular products for hotels is HotSOS.

HotSOS, or Hotel Service Optimization System, automates and tracks preventive maintenance, service orders and guest requests. It captures information from people and systems and routes it to whoever needs to act upon it. If an employee notices a light bulb has burned out, he can enter it into the system and it will be changed. Or automated systems such as minibars can send an alert each time an item is purchased so it can be replaced. If a guest-room safe is locked at check-out time, the PMS will get an alert and the guest can retrieve items before leaving the property.

MTech has integrated HotSOS with Libra OnDemand to achieve a CRM with guest systems management in it. The change gives hotels greater control over their information. For example, if a hotel has its CRM managing the guest satisfaction survey process, the survey can trigger certain questions based on its knowledge of a guest having an incident during his or her stay.

The technology is essential for large hotels with huge work volumes, or smaller properties that want to make sure tasks are finished in a timely manner and nothing slips through the cracks.

Miami-based MTech serves more than 1,800 hotels in nearly 50 countries. The company is able to service hotels across the globe through distribution agreements with resellers in Shanghai, Dubai and Australia.