Hotel Operators Leverage Technology to Reduce Labor Costs, Increase Revenue, Drive Occupancy; ROI Verified

Companies Use Systems to Boost Internet Bookings, Raise RevPAR, Occupancy MARKHAM, ON (NORTHWIND) -- June 17, 2003 - When a hotel company buys a new system of any kind, verifying the return on investment (ROI) a year later for their technology outlay in is like winning the lottery; you knew it was possible, but seeing the justification in financial terms is the real reward. Realizing a concrete ROI from your technology investment has nothing to do with luck. The key to having a technology pay for itself is choosing the right systems for your operation. Experienced hotel operators faced with a difficult economy are proving that investing in new systems can generate revenue and reduce costs.

Staff Efficiency Jumps 15%, ADR 5% at Vintage Inns with Single-screen Reservation System
Vintage Inns wanted an enterprise system that would allow us to sell benefits to guests and combine the separate guest histories from our four hotels into one database to increase booking efficiency," said Ron Doi, Rooms Revenue and Reservations Manager with Vintage Inns. We purchased NORTHWINDs Maestro because it is an enterprise system that allows us to operate more cost-effectively. Now we manage our properties centrally and our reservation staff has the ability to book rooms for any property from any of our hotels. The increase in staff productivity is gratifying. In the Maestro system the data for all our hotels is shared between the fully integrated property modules. Our staff only needs to learn one product, one screen, and one process," said Doi. Since all properties, including our spas, are on a single Maestro database, we can see where guests have stayed in the past, track the experience they had with us, and do guest recoveries to make up for possible past shortcomings. Another plus is that our ADR jumped up five percent after we installed Maestro." Doi estimates staff efficiency is increased by 15% and Maestro has improved accuracy by at least 50% with the elimination of re-keying guest information between systems.

The four prestigious Vintage Inn properties in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, all hold a Four-Diamond rating from Canadian Automobile Club and American Automobile Club for their elegance, deluxe accommodations, and personal service.    The Vintage Inns owns the Queens Landing Inn; the Prince of Wales Hotel; The Pillar and Post Inn, Spa & Conference Center; and the Oban Inn.

Morrissey Hospitality Increases ADR $20, Beats Comp-set 30% with Yield Management
Minnesota is in a recession but we have the highest RevPAR in our area, based on our yield in a really challenging environment," said Bill Morrissey, president and founder of Morrissey Hospitality Companies, Inc., a Minnesota-based full service management company specializing in lodging, restaurants and catering. When things get soft what comes bubbling to the top are inefficiencies and unprofitable areas. What we looked for -- and found -- was the right technology to let us unlock yield management potential and mine our rich customer database."

Morrissey said the company chose the Maestro PMS system from NORTHWIND for two primary reasons: It is an enterprise system, not a standalone legacy system, and it is user-friendly." The company installed the new system at two of its luxury hotels: The 254-room, four-star Saint Paul Hotel and the St. James Hotel. It did not take long for the technology to deliver. Maestros yield management system helped catapult The Saint Paul Hotel to number one in RevPAR in its competitive set two months after installation. We beat our comp sets occupancy by 30 percent in May according to Smith Travel Research," said Deborah Hermance, The Saint Paul Hotels Director of Guest Services. By fine tuning the yield thresholds to raise the rates as occupancy escalated, we also exceeded comp set ADR by $20." Hermance also noted that prior to their new PMS system, she and the hotels team had to manually yield manage the 254-room hotel daily, which meant being in the system four or five times a day to coordinate separate leisure and group segments. Now we are driving higher rates with automated yield, not reacting to every change in occupancy."

Florida Resort Boosts Occupancy with 14% Internet Bookings, Rates Climb
The classy Dunes Hotel is one of the few independent resorts on Pensacola Beach, Florida. General Manager Beverly McCay was looking for a way to gain an edge on her competition, which are mainly flagged franchises along the Gulf Coasts outer islands. With her background at Stouffer Hotels, McCay wanted to raise the resort standard on the beach" so that The Dunes Hotel could stand above neighboring properties. Her solution was to purchase new front office and reservation technology, including the ResEze Internet booking system and Maestro Property Management System with yield management and CRM functionality from NORTHWIND. The goal was to get more reservations from the Internet through the hotels site, drive rates as high as possible, and be able to mine data from their guest history to market to prior guests for higher occupancy.

The ResEze Internet booking engine gives us an opportunity to manage The Dunes online availability and yield Internet reservations the way larger chains do. Since January 1, 2003 over 14 percent of our reservations are coming from our site, with virtually no fees attached," said The Dunes McCay. Our rates for Internet reservations are only $10 below rack; we pass along that discount to train our guests to book online. Before now, online booking systems may have been affordable but they were not real time, which resulted in lost room nights." The ResEze system seamlessly integrates with Maestros yield management. If I put restrictions on arrivals, rates, or add minimum night stays to boost my revenue and occupancy as we fill up," McCay continued, they are automatically picked up through ResEze on the Internet. Online reservations are increasing, even though we are not in Expedia, Orbitz or any other Web company. We learned how to steer buyers to our site, and we use Maestro to market to our strong repeat business segment to boost business in our off season periods."

Maestro is a complete multi-module property management suite of applications that are scaleable to support multiple properties centrally from a single server, or from separate servers, or as an ASP application over the Internet. It is available in Windowsâ, UNIXâ, Linuxâ and browser-based thin-client versions and includes, Front Office, Sales and Catering, Yield Management, Customer Relationship Management, CRO, Tee times, Club and Spa Management, Accounts Receivable, Condo/Timeshare Accounting, Point of Sale, Work Order Maintenance, Back Office Accounting, GDS Connectivity, ResEze Web Booking Engine, and Centralized Multi-Property Management.

About NORTHWIND

NORTHWIND (www.maestropms.com), known in the hospitality industry for its service and state-of-the-art technology, is widely respected for providing hotels, guests, and corporate management companies with flexible software solutions.

Based in Markham, Ontario, Canada, with a network of dealers and offices worldwide, NORTHWIND is a leading supplier of software for hotel owners and operators who need to manage their enterprise in a real time environment for maximum operational control and profitability. Designed to handle any size hotel, resort, meeting/conference center, multi-property and for the enterprise, NORTHWIND's Maestro solution offers the most productive working environment, which includes the following suite of products: PMS, Sales & Catering, Club/Spa Management, Corporate Reservations Office, Multi-Property Management, Condo/Owner Management, Yield Management, GDS Connectivity and ResEze (Internet Reservations). This comprehensive multi-platform (Windows 9X/NT/2000/XP, Unix/Linux, Terminal Server & Web Enabled) suite is recognized as the solution of choice for progressive and demanding organizations. NORTHWIND is a total solution provider that offers leading-edge technologies, and unparalleled training and support.

NORTHWIND will be demonstrating its systems at the HITEC Show in New Orleans, LA - June 24th-26th, 2003 at Booth #520. Attend Daily Interactive Sessions - "Pro-Active Yield Management", the sessions: Tuesday, Wednesday, June 24th, 25th - 1:00pm & 4:00pm & Thursday the 26th 12:00pm. "Getting The Most Our Of Your Data", the sessions: Tuesday, Wednesday, June 24th, 25th - 1:45pm & 4:45pm & Thursday the 26th - 12:45pm.

For additional information, please contact: Eleonora Ragusa, NORTHWIND, Tel: (905) 940-1923 Ext. 229, Email: eragusa@maestropms.com