Operators of more than one hotel can sometimes ask themselves whether or not the interface can also be used in one of the hotels of the MPE group, e.g., because out of three hotels only one hotel is a Best Western member. Technically speaking, this is not a problem because the BWI interface can be separately activated for each MPE hotel. However, because all of the MPE hotels access a common pool of data, many of the limitations specific to Best Western also effect the entire hotel chain:

• Guest profiles sent from Best Western are subject to special protection based in Best Western's Business Rules and are therefore also blocked for MPE hotels who no longer work with the interface. For all hotels, the respective limitations when working with Best Western guest profiles apply: Restrictions when working with Best Western guest profiles.

• If the MPE hotels work by means of the HQ, a differentiation between Best Western reservations and "local" hotel reservations must be made. For Best Western reservations the usual Restrictions apply. Additionally, reservations are not permitted to be moved from one Best Western hotel to another hotel.

• MPE hotels with BWI interface must work based on the PCI DSS 3.0 standard. Credit card data will therefore be encrypted with a replacement number in this hotel. Should hotels in the MPE group not be working without conforming to PCI, the credit card data will continue to be saved there without being encrypted. Because all of the hotels have access to a mutual database, even the hotel with the BWI interface cannot completely fulfill the required standards.

These points will need to be discussed with the client before putting the BWI interface into operation within one member of an MPE group.

The Best Western-CRS only permits one rate code per reservation. This must be kept in mind and taken into consideration if a Best Western client works with a Yield Management System such as IDeaS or inquires about such a system. The following two scenarios might have to be discussed with the client:

1. If the hotel works in Yield-LOS mode, it should not be a problem because there is only one rate code per reservation. However, special attention will need to be made as to which rate codes will be influenced by the Yield and how they will be communicated to BWI. (These rate codes must then be generated as local rates in protel; if need be, adjustments will also have to be made in the Yield system.)

2. If a hotel works in Yield-Daily mode, a different rate code will be booked every day. For the time being, this function is not available with the Best Western Interface. In such situations, it is necessary to consult with product management so that the best solution of how to proceed can be agreed upon. We are already working on a solution which allows the further use of this function even while interacting with the BWI-CRS.

Go to next section...