SiteMinder creates new PMS-app connection to foster innovation for hotels
A new solution from SiteMinder will allow property management systems and makers of apps for the hotel industry to simplify and expedite the sharing of data between their systems.
SiteMinder Exchange is built on the model of Data-As-A-Service (DaaS), also known as data on demand.
“Innovation is being stifled by the inability of these applications and PMS to share the data with one another,” says Mike Ford, SiteMinder’s founder and managing director to PhocusWire.
“The PMSs are focused on their core business, not integrating to hundreds of applications, and vice versa the apps are focused on building functionality. We’ve built a data layer that sits between the PMS and app and connects the two, so each PMS or app only has to build once to this data layer.”
SiteMinder announced the product at HITEC, the Hospitality Industry Technology Exposition and Conference, taking place through Thursday in Houston.
SiteMinder Exchange is launching with about 10 PMSs and seven apps currently in the system, and Ford says another 20 apps and 30 PMSs are in the process of being added.
Hotel applications pay a monthly fee for each hotel property that chooses to have that application connected to their PMS. The solution is free for PMSs and hotels.
“The PMS can decide which app to connect to through the exchange,” Ford says.
“But ultimately the individual hotels decide – it’s not a case of the PMS dumping all of the data, it’s only as requested on a hotel-by-hotel basis.”
Hospitality marketing cloud provider Cendyn is among SiteMinder Exchange’s first clients.
“SiteMinder Exchange has improved the timeframe to source, verify and import hotel data for CRM applications like ours,” says Cendyn president and founder Charles Deyo.
“This, in turn, is allowing hoteliers to implement their CRM and marketing more quickly and accurately. Cendyn has a history of innovation and SiteMinder Exchange is a great partner to develop future solutions that don’t exist yet.”