May 17, 2019 Owner & Franchise Communications

Enhanced Reservation Solution (ERS) – 2019 Mid-Year Update & Revised Rollout Schedule

Owners & Franchise Management Companies of Full Service Hotels | As communicated in December, the deployment of the Enhanced Reservation Solution (ERS) is continuing and there are now over 815 hotels live on ERS. By year-end 2019, we are targeting to have over 1,200 hotels globally (with FSPMS and Opera PMS systems) live on ERS. This is a change from the previously communicated 2,000 hotels targeted to be live by the end of 2019 as 1,100 hotels (primarily legacy SPG) will now complete ERS Activation during the first half of 2020.

The changes to the deployment timeline were necessary to implement a system enhancement allowing hotels to add and change room types after they go-live on ERS. Additionally, by moving the ERS Activation for former SPG hotels to early 2020, hotels have more time to stabilize on the Marriott systems.

Next Steps:

See the Rollout Schedule for participating hotels, along with their respective start and completion dates. As a reminder, there are three phases of deployment with ERS: 1) ERS Photography, 2) Bed Type Conversion and 3) ERS Activation.

Activities Kicking Off for September Wave: ERS Activation

FSPMS hotels that have completed ERS Photography and Bed Type Conversion will continue with their planned ERS Activation in 2019 and GMs will receive details and Land-It tasks via email on May 21. During ERS Activation, hotels will determine inventory and price specific attributes for each room to enable selling of attributes through ERS. Hotels in the September wave of ERS Activation will begin with a Property Team Kick-Off call currently set for May 30 (hotels will register via Land-It). ERS Activation will be complete with ERS go-live on September 24. Visit MGS to learn more about ERS Activation with participating hotels in the rollout schedule, key activities, training and resources.

Timeline for All Remaining Hotels

For all hotels not included in the September wave above or future November wave for ERS Activation, deployment activities will now begin in the first half of 2020. However, ERS Photography and Bed Type Conversion will continue deployment as currently scheduled. To prepare for rollout, hotels should review MGS for more information.

ERS Continues to Drive Positive Results

The results from March 2018 through April 2019 for the first 222 hotels have generated more than $32.8M in revenue related to room attributes, of which approximately $10.5M is incremental (retail and member rates only).

We are also seeing several trends emerge in the ERS live hotels:

85% of ERS live hotels are pricing attributes and the most common are bed type, views, high floor, corner rooms and balcony.
There is opportunity for some hotels to price the basics (e.g. bed type)
Many hotels are pricing attributes seasonally during high demand
Most hotels are pricing outdoor spaces (e.g. balconies)
Hotels with fewer attribute opportunities are still seeing benefits of building preference for direct bookings, better photography for existing attributes and the new platform for future guest experiences beyond the room (e.g. golf, spa, dining, and more)

Marriott believes ERS will continue to deliver positive results for hotels once they are live on the system, and this adjustment in timeline will ensure all hotels have the opportunity to gain maximum benefit.

For questions about ERS, contact: ERSTeam@marriott.com.