Hotel messaging sings Soprano

Sydney ISV Soprano Design has signed a deal with the Accor hotel chain to roll out its SMS booking confirmation software via its corporate gateway platform to 100 hotels in Australia.

A spokeswoman for Soprano said the deal would go live this month. Soprano had equipped a Soprano messaging box with the technology that would reside with Accor. "We either send out a Soprano box or install it on the client's box," she said.

Customers usually housed the equipment with their other IT hardware. Also, housing it on site helped some clients address security concerns, the spokeswoman said. 

"It will be progressively rolled out to 100 hotels in Australia. Initially, it is for SMS booking confirmations," she said.

Other services would include Soprano's StaffMatch SMS rostering and mobile ticketing, for "distressed inventory", such as when filling vacant rooms, the spokeswoman said.

"As far as we know, [the SMS booking] is the first of this scale for this type of technology in Australia," she said.

Soprano had done other similar multi-user sites, she said.

Soprano said in a statement that its corporate gateway platform provided a mobile messaging solution that ported customers email bookings from Accor's Fidelio booking system.

The gateway delivered confirmation SMS to the customer. Customers reply to the platform and bookings are delivered to the relevant hotel via Fidelio, it said.

Accor Asia Pacific managed some100 hotels under its international brands including Sofitel, Novotel, Mercure, All Seasons, Ibis and Formule 1, Soprano said.

Jacques Seidenberg, general manager of IT & T at Accor, said the new system would let the hotel chain embrace mobile communications.

"Accor is abreast of all forms of contact: face-to-face, phone, fax, email, internet and now also mobile. The messaging platform is reliable and scalable for the future which ensures a seamless and timely move into mobile communications," Seidenberg said.