In brief
■ Fitness equipment manufacturer BH North America Corp . has hired Tina Pauley as business development manager .
■ Villeroy & Boch has launched the quarterly “ Villeroy & Boch Hotel & Restaurant Newsletter .”
■ Premier Hotels of the World and Availpro have extended their partnership to develop a unique online distribution extranet solution including booking engines , smart channel manager , rate screener and guest satisfaction tools to be included into the Premier Connect Suite .
■ Matthias Schöffel has been appointed director of marketing for porcelain manufacturer Schönwald .
■ Hoshizaki America ’ s ice machines manufactured in Schöffel
TV sales leader named
Analyst group DisplaySearch has named Panasonic the sales leader for hospitality televisions sold via the channel in 2011 . Panasonic claimed the top three sales spots with its 32-in ( 81-cm ) TH-32LRU30 , 32-in ( 81-cm ) TH-32LRU20 and 42-in ( 107-cm ) TH-42LRU30 , outselling hospitality televisions from LG , Samsung and Philips , respectively .
The LRU Series combines image quality and a space-saving design with built-in hidden speakers that
Free guest survey tool offered
The TrustYou ReviewAnalyst Survey free guest survey tool enables hotels to capture , analyze , respond to and integrate reviews through their own sites using one tool . The survey will also allow hotels to push reviews to third parties like review websites . Hotels opting to push their review content cannot select what recommendations are posted .
Peachtree City , Georgia , now feature a label with QR codes specific to make , model and serial number .
■ Angel Contract Consultant is a consultancy and representation firm for furniture companies that want to be introduced in the contract channel in Africa and the Middle East .
■ Pamela Parsons has joined luxury hospitality design firm ForrestPerkins as vice president of operations .
■ Sceptre Hospitality Resources will migrate its hotels to Whiteboard Labs ’ Windsurfer CRS program .
■ WATG has expanded its urban design services with the addition of Chris Panfil as vice president .
■ Alicia Jividen has joined iBAHN as director of sales , gaming , North America . Panfil
allow the displays to fit any hotel environment . These LCD displays also offer built-in tuners and SD card slots .
DisplaySearch ’ s findings captured and analyzed U . S . commercial sellthrough data through Q3 2011 from AV and IT resellers and distributor channels for large-format LCD and PDP displays .
“ Fragmented systems and the high volume of user-generated reviews means hotels are struggling to manage feedback in a meaningful or timely manner ,” says Paula Salvador , global vice president of marketing and sales for TrustYou customer Worldhotels . “ TrustYou has eliminated that barrier .”
New division focuses on events
Active Network , a provider of organizationbased cloud computing applications , has launched a business solutions division and acquired corporate strategic meetings management company StarCite to be part of the new division .
Active Network says the new division help sales and marketing organizations develop their brands and customer loyalty while at the same time supporting the needs of procurement and logistics departments tasked with maximizing the efficiency and productivity of corporate spend on meetings and events .
Millennium & Copthorne chooses IT partner for e-commerce site
Millennium & Copthorne Hotels has selected MindTree as its strategic IT partner to conceptualize , design , build and manage a new global e-commerce site . “ This is a vital part of our group ’ s ambitious growth strategy for the next five years ,” says Clive Harrington , Millennium & Copthorne ’ s senior vice president for Europe .
“ We look forward to ... bringing our strong domain knowledge , technical breadth and execution capability to make this a massively successful business initiative ,” says Tridip Saha , head of MindTree in the United Kingdom .
www . hotelsmag . com March 2012 HOTELS 63