2019 USERS CONFERENCE
AUG 19 - 22 | TORONTO
Agenda
Week Overview
| Monday | 1pm – 5pm | Conference Registration and Private Learning Labs |
| 6:30pm – 10pm | Welcome cocktail reception, DEQ Terrace & Lounge, Lobby Level (casual attire) | |
| Tuesday | 8am – 9am | Breakfast |
| 9am – 4pm | Conference opening 9am – 10:40am / Sessions 11am – 4pm | |
| 4pm – 5pm | Private Labs | |
| 6:00pm – 8:00pm | Maestro hosted optional activity. Happy Hour at The Rec Room (comfy casual attire) | |
| Wednesday | 8am – 9am | Breakfast |
| 9am – 4pm | General session | |
| 4pm – 5pm | Private Labs | |
| 7pm – 11pm | Masquerade Ball & Gala Dinner sponsored by Shift 4, King Edward Hotel, Crystal Ballroom | |
| Thursday | 8am – 9am | Breakfast |
| 9am – 12pm | General sessions | |
| 12pm – 12:30pm | Conference closing address | |
| 1:30pm – 4pm | Private Labs | |
| Friday | 9am – 5:30pm | Private meetings at the Maestro offices in Markham *Pre-book at muc@maestropms.com |
Monday, August 19th, 2019
The first day is typically arrival and registration. Registration is located on the 2nd floor. Please stop by to register with the conference and pick up your attendee kit & Swag bag.
Private learning labs with the Maestro Specialists are available from 1pm – 5pm. Pre-book your time at muc@maestropms.com.
A welcome cocktail reception is hosted from 6:30pm – 10pm. This is an opportunity to relax, meet the Maestro team and network with your fellow attendees.
Tuesday, August 19th thru to Thursday, August 22nd
Warren Dehan, President, and the Maestro senior executive team, kick off the conference with our roadmap for the future, followed by a Guest Speaker Nick Trenc, Director – Coalfire.
Tuesday afternoon, all day Wednesday and Thursday morning break out into Tracks based on modules and focused functions. The sessions are repeated across the days, so that over the course of the conference attendees have an opportunity to attend all sessions and book time for private focused labs to cover individual areas of interest.
Private Learning Labs
Private labs offer dedicated one on one time with a Maestro Specialist to discuss specific areas of interest. Labs are available on a first come first serve basis Monday through Thursday. It is not required to pre-book time for a private session; however, we do recommend it! Please contact muc@maestropms.com to submit your request and topic.
Due to the unique nature of individual property requirements, topics which are recommended as private sessions are;
- Owner Management
- Membership management
- A/R
- Housekeeping/Workorder
- Technical Services
Available Lab Times;
| Monday | 1pm – 5pm | |
| Tuesday | 11am – 5pm | |
| Wenesday | 9am – 5pm | |
| Thursday | 9am – 4pm | |
| Friday | 9am – 5pm | At Maestro offices in Markham (please pre-book). |
Private meetings at the Maestro offices in Markham can also be booked for Friday, August 23rd, should attendee’s travel schedules allow.
Hosted Evening Events
Please make us aware of any special dietary needs in advance so we are able to accommodate. Last minute requests run the risk of not being meet.Contact muc@maestropms.com.
| Monday | 6:30pm – 10pm | Welcome Cocktail Reception Location: Ritz Carlton Toronto, DEQ Terrace & Lounge, Lobby Level Attire: Casual |
| Tuesday | 6:00pm – 8:00pm | Happy Hour at the Rec Room Location: Toronto Roundhouse, 255 Bremner Blvd Attire: Comfy casual |
About The Rec Room:
The Rec room is 40,000 sq feet of Eats, Games and Entertainment in the heart of Toronto. From Pac Man to virtual reality, ping pong or pool, everyone is sure to find a fun favorite. Join us for drinks & games. All guests will be provided with a pre-loaded 135 Credit (approximately 1 hour of play) game band.
Walking directions (9min):
Should you require transportation assistance to the Rec Room, please contact us at muc@maestropms.com, or let us know at the registration desk.
| Wednesday | 7pm – 11pm (shuttles commence at 6:30pm) | Masquerade Ball & Gala Dinner Location: King Edward Hotel: Crystal Ballroom, 37 King St E. Attire: Gowns & Black tie optional. If you don’t have a Masquerade Mask, we will have some on hand for you. Transportation: Shuttles will be available starting at 6:30pm from the Ritz-Carlton Lobby. Return Shuttles are available beginning at 9:30pm and run to 11:30pm. Walking distance is 7 blocks (15 min) |
The Gala Dinner Event is an evening of entertainment, fine food and dancing. Attendees are encouraged to dress according to the gala theme, but it is not required.
Week Schedule
Session Outlines
MUC 2019 Session Descriptions
Global Session – Tuesday August 20th, 2019
Welcome and Conference Kick Off – Warren Dehan, President
9:00am – 10:00am
A warm welcome to Toronto, and the 2019 User’s Conference. Join Warren and the Management team as they present the development road map for building tomorrow together.
Guest Speaker – Nick Trenc, Director – Coalfire – When Compliance Isn’t Enough
10:00am – 10:40am
Join Nick Trenc, Director – Coalfire and a QSA & PA-QSA, for an incisive session on everyone’s favorite subjects: Compliance, Security and What Happens When Things go Wrong. Nick examines the basics of PCI Compliance, as well as diving in to why compliance may not always mean your information is secure.
General Sessions
Track 1 – Digitized Guest Experiences
ResWave Direct Room Reservations
Discover the fully integrated features available with ResWave real time direct bookings.
| Tues, 8/20 | 11am – 12pm |
| Wed, 8/21 | 2:40pm – 4pm |
- ResWave, real time, direct & mobile
- Customizing the booking journey
- Merchandizing of rates & inventor
- Increase direct bookings with widgets, ad & social media links (book from Instagram!)
- Maestro features to self manage ResWave
Mobile Guest Journey
This session reviews the various guest facing tools Maestro offers for a self-curated guest experience.
| Tues, 8/20 | 1pm – 2:20pm |
| Wed, 8/21 | 1pm – 2:20pm |
- Automated email guest communications
- WebPro – On line pre-registration
- Guest communication preferences
- On line pre-payment portal
- Integrated digital registration card & signature capture
- Post check-in survey
- Email / SMS guest communication during stay
- Mobile spa & activities medical intake form
- Mobile check out
Mobile Property Operations
Maestro on the go tools provide Operational team’s focused information in a mobile format.
| Tues, 8/20 | 2:40pm – 4pm |
| Wed, 8/21 | 9am – 10:20am |
- Maestro on the web
- Mobile housekeeping
- Mobile current status
- Mobile spa providers schedule
- Maestro reports via email
- Automated operational Email/SMS alerts
ResWave Direct Groups, Spa, Activities, Loyalty, Owner & Member Portal Reservations
| Wed, 8/21 | 10:40am – 12pm |
| Thur, 8/22 | 10:40am – 12pm |
- Group landing pages – even if ResWave isn’t your main booking engine
- Customized group booking portal with meeting planner portal
- On line spa bookings
- Activities on line – from property events to yoga classes
- Online Loyalty, Owner & Member Portal
GEM Guest Experience Measurement – Mobile Guest Surveys
| Thurs, 8/22 | 9am – 10:20am |
- Completed surveys accessible from guest reservation & client profile
- Arrivals report including last completed survey
- Maestro GEM Survey delivery/completion Dashboard
- GEM Highlight, Highlight Plus, Insight – how to choose what’s right for you
- GEM Reporting portal
- Tracking guest correspondence in the GEM administration site
- Post check in survey
Track 2 – Revenue Optimization
Explore the Yield & Revenue Management opportunities available in Maestro to help generate revenue and increase efficiencies across the interface landscape.
Dynamic Yield, Interface & Channel Management
| Tues, 8/20 | 11am – 12pm |
| Wed, 8/21 | 10:40am – 12pm |
- Strategies for GDS / OTA & revenue management Interfaces
- Manager’s overrides vs rate hurdles, which approach to use (or both) based on your strategy
- Real time demand driven yield strategies
- Overbooking parameters
- Yield by booking channel
Rates & Package Fundamentals
Requested from previous conference attendee surveys, this session will cover the best practises and core features for rate building & strategy. A great refresher for new and long-time users.
| Tues, 8/20 | 1pm – 2:20pm |
- Rate type building – what do all the options do?
- Rate search & copy
- Rate text for e-confirmations vs staff
- New feature – link a specific travel agent(s) to a rate type
- Night audit breakdown & revenue distribution
- Advance deposit & cancellation policy application controls
- Automated rate threshold alerts
- Rate & other charges suppression – on the fly & by rate type
- Tax exemption options
- Streamline the reservation process/ order of reservation screens
Rate & Revenue Reporting
| Tues, 8/20 | 2:40pm – 4pm |
| Wed, 8/21 | 2:40pm – 4pm |
- Forecast & budget entry for reporting
- Revenue to budget & pace
- Manager’s pace by type – 4 month or 12 months
- Night audit posting report to confirm rate/package build
- Yielded rate report CSV
- Manager’s flash & dashboard reports
Advanced Rates & Packages
| Wed, 8/21 | 9am – 10:20am |
| Wed, 8/21 | 1pm – 2:20pm |
- Dynamic packaging & package templates
- Packaging on the fly
- Package reconciliation
- Integrated packaging with spa, activities, other charges & F&B
- Assignment chart display of fees for spa/activities & Privileges
- Package revenue reporting
- Group package report
Track 3 – Front Desk Optimized Operations
Front Desk Foundation for New(ish) Users
| Tues, 8/20 | 11am – 12pm |
| Thur, 8/22 | 10:40am – 12pm |
- Front Desk Dashboard – more than just a dashboard
- “Notes About” with date & time stamp
- Room moves / do not move room
- Billing to A/R & adjustments after A/R transfer
- Posting reversals & adjustments (fixing the boo boos)
- Email confirmations – send, modify & resend, did it send?
- Order of check in & check out screens
- Moving / swapping room numbers on the tape chart
- Current status
- Soft check in / nowhere to sleep / unresolved check out
- Housekeeping assignment and reporting
Front Desk New Features
| Tues, 8/20 | 1pm – 2:20pm |
| Wed, 8/21 | 10:40am – 12pm & 2:40pm – 4pm |
- Silverware integrated on-line dining reservations for stay & day dining reservations
- View and book table reservations from a guest reservation or client profile with Silverware
- Guest communication preferences
- Batch email expected departure folios – on the fly or during night audit
- Housekeeping assignment sheet option to display or not display credit and/or person counts
- GDPR client profile privacy – full detail guest report and anonymization eligibility/anonymize
- A/R primary & secondary accounts
- New reports available with auto email during night audit
Front Desk Integration with Spa, Groups & Facilities
| Tues, 8/20 | 2:40pm – 4pm |
| Wed, 8/21 | 9am – 10:20am & 1pm – 2:20pm |
- Booking spa & activities from guest room reservations
- Assignment chart spa & activities values with taxes & fees
- Spa & activities included in packages & unbooked Items
- Charging spa & activities to guest room with credit check
- Integrated guest itinerary
- Group block spa blocks & bookings
Staff Training & Education Tools
| Thur, 8/22 | 9am – 10:20am |
- Training seasonal staff – 3 days to be
- Maestro efficient
- Live chat from within Maestro
- Direct email from Maestro
- Maestro direct Help – access to self guided learning tools
- eLearning & webinars
Track 4 – Sales & Catering with Group Management
Sales & Catering with Integrated Front Desk & Spa
| Tues, 8/20 | 11am – 12pm |
| Wed, 8/21 | 10:40am – 12pm |
- Booking traces optionality
- Text modify for special charges, inventory & A/V inventory
- Bedroom booking status inventory management options
- Group block booking & management for spa & activities
- e-Sign for contracts
- Source of business S&C to FD cross-reference
- S&C market segment to FD guest type cross-reference
Sales & Catering Reporting
| Tues, 8/20 | 1pm – 2:20pm |
| Wed, 8/21 | 1pm – 2:20pm |
- Management reports
- Booking activity report
- Combined group room control log (GRC)
- Productivity with pace report
- Crystal other reports
- Inquiry reporting
- Advance deposits
- FD group block pick up and cut off reports
- FD group charge routing rules
- S&C forecast report
- Proforma consolidated invoice – new print options
- Integrated single guest itinerary with events
- Integrated spa & facilities on BEO
Group Bedroom Block Core Components
| Tues, 8/20 | 2:40pm – 4pm |
| Wed, 8/21 | 2:40pm – 4pm |
- Copy group master to group member
- Charge routing
- Auto create group member
- Auto / rapid room assignment
- Group reservations spa block booking list
- Batch features
- Group roster / group profile
- Original vs Contracted for reporting
- Duplicate group master reservation with charge routing
- Rooming list import – multi custom templates
S&C Foundation for New(ish) Users
| Wed, 8/21 | 9:00am – 10:20am |
- Account & contact management
- Inquiries
- Booking templates
- Folio per event
- Function room management
- Menu management & pre-set menus
- Edits to existing bookings
- Duplicate bookings
- Posting events & auto audit
Track 5 – Analytics Data Mining
Analytics Navigation
| Tues, 8/20 | 11am – 12pm |
- Overview of all the Analytics views available
- Core navigation and menu functions within a view
- User enabled Layout changes
- Bookmarks, every users best friend
- Understanding basic structure for successful data mining
Marketing View – Data mining for Revenue & Marketing Planning
| Tues, 8/20 | 1pm – 2:20pm |
- Database selections based on target market
- Dashboard to measure market performance
- Year over year comparisons
- Repeat business analysis
- Travel agency data
- Cancellation and no-show analysis
- Clerk & guest reports
- Performance measurement based on GEM online guest feedback
- Creating a mailing or email list
RevMap View – Reservations & Revenue Management
| Tues, 8/20 | 2:40pm – 4pm |
- Daily on the books with pick up, ADR & RevPar
- Room nights, revenue & ADR on the books with pace comparison
- Evaluate by guest type, rate type or room type
- Pace of pick up room nights, revenue ADR & RevPar
- 12 month rolling on the books with previous year pace comparison
- Multi-property on the books corporate overview
Sales & Catering Data Mining
| Thur, 8/22 | 9am – 10:20am |
- Data mining based on market segment, function room, geographics and more
- Performance by market segment and/or sales manager(s)
- Performance dashboards
- Inquiry & conversion evaluation
- Pipeline summary and detail
- Guest room consumption or wash analysis
- Email or mailing list generation
Big Picture, Big Data
| Thur, 8/22 | 10:40am – 12pm |
- Combining together Front Desk, Sales & Catering, Spa, Activities, Member, Loyalty and GEM survey results all in one view
- Selection options incorporating guest purchases
- Dashboard analysis of revenue contributions and top performing segments
- Sales & Catering bookings & events
- Spa spending and treatment room utilization
- Activities & member
- GEM guest feedback dashboard
- Generating mail or email lists based on guest behaviours
Track 6 – Spa & Activities
Facilities & Activities
| Wed, 8/21 | 9am – 10:20am & 1pm – 2:20pm |
- Activities bookings for day & integrated stay guests
- Stay guest look up displays associated guest names
- Booking email confirmations
- Digital activity registration form
- configuration options and maintenance
- Automatic billing to room reservation with credit check
- Facilities & Spa same guest time conflict
- Two-week schedule time slot full color display
- Ability to modify quantity booked on the fly
- Instructors schedule and activity assignment
- Order of booking and default screens for facilities
- Facilities guest history
- Facilities reporting
Spa Services & Retail POS
| Wed, 8/21 | 10:40am – 12pm & 2:40pm – 4pm |
- Therapist daily maximum minutes by treatment
- Therapist – view all future bookings when made inactive
- Spa & Activities same guest time conflict alert
- Auto charge to guest room, with credit check
- System option to control if guest must be on a rooming list to be part of a Spa block
- Digital medical intake form configuration options and maintenance
- Service package rate copy
- Recording of professional stock inventory and usage
- Active & Inactive flag on Retail POS items
- Retail POS ability to leave payment change as a gratuity
Track 7 – Management Reporting
Operations Management Reporting
| Thurs, 8/22 | 9am – 10:20am |
- New crystal reports
- Manager’s Dashboard, Flash & Operations reports: the difference & configuration options
- Housekeeping report
- Housekeeping forecast
- Guest & Group reports
- Arrivals manifest
- Guest user fields report
Shift & Night Audit Reporting
| Thurs, 8/22 | 10:40am – 12pm |
- New reports available for auto email during Night Audit as CSV
- Daily & shift reporting
- Daily balance check report
- Charge posting report
- A/R analysis report
- Aging report
- Folio transfer report
- Tax history report
- City ledger transfer
Track 8 – Technical Services
IT General Discussion
| Thurs, 8/22 | 9am – 10:20am |
- Maestro Network Database connectivity concepts
- Shortcut creation vs Setup.exe
- Database maintenance; backup & disaster recovery
- Maestro patching & upgrade processes
- SQL server memory consumption
- Maestro Analytics memory consumption requirements
- Email functionality; SMTP communication, TLS communication & SSL wrapper
- Crystal export functionality
- Contract merge functionality
- Printing concepts (java processes and RAM utilization)
- Available technical documentation
Partner Sessions
Shift4
| Tues, 8/20 | 11am – 12pm |
Navigating the Age of All-in-One Payment Solutions
Payments in hospitality have moved toward one-stop-shop solutions, which combine hardware, software, security, and merchant services to provide hotels and resorts with everything they need to process payments and more. This session from Shift4 Payments will explain how they work, what the benefits are, and what you should be looking for.
Rainmaker
| Tues, 8/20 | 1pm – 2:20pm |
“Keys” to Success: Room Type-Level Pricing Optimization
This session will explore the revenue opportunities associated with optimizing price at a room type level. We’ll review several important factors to take into consideration when adopting a more granular room pricing and merchandizing strategy, uncover some key aspects of consumer behavior that could come into play, and discuss some methods for quantifying the benefits that a hotel might derive from such an approach. Participants will come away with some practical tips and tactics they can begin applying immediately to room type-level pricing and selling efforts at their hotels.
Zaplox
| Tues, 8/20 | 2:40pm – 4pm |
Elevate Guest Satisfaction with a Mobile Guest Journey – and how Maestro users benefits from the Zaplox and Maestro partnership
Guest Experience is everything. Mobile check-in and checkout with mobile keys for your hotel rooms can elevate your guest experience while offering a unique possibility to increase staff efficiency and guest loyalty at the same time. Lindsay Wenger presents how to can launch your own Mobile Guest Journey integrated with Maestro PMS – whether you already have a guest app, are looking to offer an app, or are thinking about leveraging a community app for your guests. You also get a quick tour of the next generation kiosk for express check in/out that encodes physical keys upon arrival, handles payments and frees up front desk.
IDEAS
| Wed, 8/21 | 9am – 10:20am |
Transforming Revenue Science in Profit Optimization
The scope of revenue management continues to broaden, as both consumer behavior and technology evolve, changing the way operators must strategize to achieve optimal revenues. Hoteliers continue to break down not only departmental silos but also data silos, making the science of revenue management pivotal to any profit strategy. And as key performance indicators (KPIs) shift from revenue-focused to profit-focused, the right people, processes and technology are even more relevant in today’s data-driven world. Visibility into channel performance and profitability can help unify ownership, management objectives and provide insight to extend revenue management practices to other areas of the business. We’ll discuss how bringing the right data together can create a total revenue performance strategy with profitability in mind.
SilverWare POS
| Wed, 8/21 | 10:40am – 12pm |
Mobile Ordering with EMV Payment Solutions, PMS/POS Dining for Single Guest Itinerary, Dynamic Guest Based POS Pricing, & Flexible Cloud-Based Reporting.
This session will review the ways mobile ordering/payment devices can improve F&B productivity and guest satisfaction.
Also, properties with a Maestro/Silverware integration can offer a single guest itinerary for lodging, services, and dining reservations. Reservations placed using Maestro ResWave, or by directly contacting an F&B outlet, will all be delineated in a single itinerary.
A unique highlight of our integration with Maestro that will also be demonstrated is how transactions can be automatically adjusted in the F&B outlets based on Meal Plan package codes received from Maestro. These codes can specify the class and/or specific items to be adjusted, by revenue center.
In addition, we will focus attention on interesting ways F&B outlets can utilize cloud-based client defined reporting.
ALICE
| Wed, 8/21 | 1pm |
Containing chaos & cutting costs – a recipe for control
5 specific ways hotel operations make sense
At our session we will be touching on some of the issues that are repeatedly reported across the country including:
- difficulty hiring quality candidates who can pass a background check and a drug screening;
- new employees have a difficult time adhering to company attendance policies;
- high expectations by new employees of accommodations to be made by employers;
- a trend of applicants not showing up for job interviews; and
- new millennial hires seem to be continually looking for their next gig.
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