08 Fall

Connecting with the Nor1 eStandby® System

Property Reference Guide

Launch Support: support@nor1.com

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Table of Contents

Section 1. About Nor1 ................................................................................ 3

Section 2. About eStandbyTM...................................................................... 4

Section 3. Overview of Implementation ..................................................... 7

Data Content Collection ........................................................................... 7

Training of Hotel Staff ............................................................................. 7

Maximal Offer Set Creation with PRiME ................................................. 8

Final Review and Approval by Hotel ........................................................ 8

Launch...................................................................................................... 8

The Basic Data Form ................................................................................ 9

Section 5. Pricing and Offer Set Framework ..............................................13

What is PRiME? ......................................................................................13

Identifying What Matters Most ................................................................13

Learning from History .............................................................................14

Achieving Optimal Outcomes..................................................................14

PRiME Benefits:......................................................................................15

Offer Set Framework ...............................................................................15

Section 6. After the Launch ........................................................................16

Section 7. Hotel Operations .......................................................................17

Property Award Managers .......................................................................17

Daily Upsell Action Center Email Reminder ...........................................17

Front Desk Operations: Awards and Denials ...........................................18

Modification of Upsell Action Center ....... Error! Bookmark not defined.

Add-ons .................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.

Section 8. Reporting ..................................................................................25

Section 9. Invoicing and Reconciliation ......................................................41

Section 10. Best Practices...........................................................................43

Section 11. A Property Upsell Action Center’s Hints for Success ..........46

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Section 1. About Nor1

For more than five years Nor1 has provided cutting edge revenue optimization tools to leading hotels and resorts of all sizes.

The technology leader in upsell solutions, Nor1 helps find additional ways to maximize revenue outside traditional purchasing processes using scientific and data-driven analysis.

Nor1 patents and patents-pending are focused on perishable inventory serving a variety of industries, while its core solutions are designed to service the hospitality industry.

As consumers are becoming savvier in their selection of goods and services, Nor1 is helping its customers respond to their consumers with a clearer understanding of what guests want, are willing to pay for, and improve the way its offered to them.

We understand the science of pricing and merchandising. We’ve engineered cutting-edge pricing and merchandising technology to intelligently maximize the revenue and profits of the world’s leading hospitality brands and hotels and redefine data-driven pricing strategies. Our products include eStandby Upgrade® and the FrontDesk Upsell™ both powered by PRiME™, the decision intelligence engine that makes product selection, upsell pricing, and display ranking decisions customized for each hotel guest.

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Section 2. About eStandbyTM

eStandby Upgrade® is Nor1’s signature upsell technology solution created to increase wallet share for hotels while giving their guests a better stay. It is a post-reservation solution which means guests are willing to pay for an upgrade on top of the reservation they already confirmed. Because it is a cost-free solution for hotels, every eStandby Upgrade request fulfilled by a property is additional revenue. eStandby Upgrade empowers hoteliers to monetize premium inventory and services that may otherwise go unused and undervalued. Our data shows that guests find eStandby Upgrade offers extremely relevant and compelling; contributing to their overall guest satisfaction. Because we are intelligently selecting and ordering the offers, the potential revenue capture is significant. Industry Challenges All hotels, especially hotels in the luxury segment, are facing the following challenges:

Highly perishable inventory – nothing spoils faster than a hotel room!

o Unused premium inventory on day of arrival = no revenue contribution from those empty rooms!

o Cancellations with short notice = challenges to sell premium rooms and suites on such a short notice.

Overbookings lead to unwanted complimentary upgrades. When overbooked in standard categories, many times hotels upgrade guests complimentary to premium rooms, losing revenue potential.

Rooms with special features that guest like and are willing to pay for but hotels do not want to create more and complex room rate combinations in all distribution channels. In many cases there is a

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willingness to pay for special rooms beyond existing room categories, but this revenue is not captured.

Our Answer to These Challenges Nor1’s eStandby Upgrade solution helps hoteliers to monetize their premium inventory and services that may otherwise go unused and undervalued. By creating individually targeted up-sell offers, hotels can begin to shift guest demand toward premium product with a willingness to pay for it, while freeing base-level inventory available for booking at the last minute or to relieve an oversold situation. eStandby Upgrade uses the industry’s most sophisticated pricing and merchandising engine, PRiME™, to make dynamic, guest-centric, customized offers for each individual reservation in milliseconds. These offers are delivered post reservation confirmation but are not guaranteed until check in. Guests find eStandby Upgrade offers extremely relevant and compelling as the offers are made as they are just completing a booking. When you add on the fact that we are intelligently selecting and ordering the offers, as well as setting prices strategically, we see typical conversion rates of 15-20%. eStandby: Presented to Your Guests After making a reservation with your hotel, the guest is presented an

upsell offer either on the brand.com booking confirmation page or through your property’s confirmation email for which they can commit to pay only if that upgrade is available at check-in.

Guests view an easy-to-use web page, complete with high-quality photos and detailed descriptions. Upon check-in, if the hotel was able to fulfill the eStandby Upgrade, the guest is notified and the eStandby

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fee is added to the guest’s bill. If not, the original reservation stands and the guest will not pay anything extra.

Upsell offers built by PRiME, our data-driven pricing and merchandising engine, are the key to generating additional revenue from existing guests and fostering loyalty that assures long term revenue.

The uncertainty of being awarded a non-guaranteed eStandby Upgrade prevents guests from associating the price of an eStandby Upgrade with the market value of a guaranteed room reservation. This enables PRiME to adjust eStandby Upgrade pricing up or down as needed without compromising the integrity of guaranteed room rates.

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Section 3. Overview of Implementation

The setup of the system requires only little effort from the hotel side. Within a few days the solution can be activated for your hotel, if all information is provided to Nor1 in a timely manner. Introduction to the Hotel The Nor1 Implementation Manager (IM) will contact the hotel’s Primary Point of Contact (PPC), usually the Revenue Manager and FOM. The IM will email the PPC a simple questionnaire: the Basic Data Form, this Property Reference Guide, a document explaining PRiME, and a Power Point Presentation.

Data Content Collection The Nor1 IM will fill out the 2.47b eStandby Basic Data Form with the information found online. If unable to complete the Basic Data Form with information found online, it will be sent to the PPC for completion.

Training of Hotel Staff The Power Point Presentation that is sent to the PPC will explain the Guest Interface. We also recommend that your team watch a short, 2-minute video, explaining eStandby and what the guest will view. The video is located at:

https://vimeo.com/48965998 Nor1 has also developed online, self-paced training to be used to train the Property’s Award Managers on the Upsell Action Center. The online training can be found at:

https://rm.nor1upgrades.com/ Click on “Upsell Action Center” “Help” “Quick Tour”

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Your Nor1 IM will train you on the Upsell Manager: Nor1’s platform where you can not only action your guests’ eStandby Upgrade requests, but you can also update your pricing deltas and your PRiME upsell ranges.

Maximal Offer Set Creation with PRiME The Nor1 IM will create a Maximal Offer Set for the Property. The maximal offer set will show the offer set framework for each originally booked room type.

Final Review and Approval by Hotel The Nor1 IM will provide PPC with following items for review:

o Maximal Offer Set – a MS Word File that shows possible upgrade paths for each room type

o Sample Offer – shows a sample offer that a guest might see (correct pricing, photos, and color scheme)

o Showall – This is to review photos and wording, but NOT pricing OR color scheme. No guests will see this view.

Launch The Nor1 IM will send an email to the PPC and all other Property Award Managers. Email will include finalized:

o Maximal Offer Set – a MS Word File that shows possible upgrade paths for each room type

o Sample Offer – shows a sample offer that a guest might see (correct pricing, photos, and color scheme)

o Showall – This is to review photos and wording, but NOT pricing OR color scheme. No guests will see this view.

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Section 4. Data Collection The following section outlines the data that is collected and the documentation necessary to launch a property on the eStandby Solution. Nor1 will gather the following data from each hotel:

Room Categories – room type as listed on exposure point

Room Code – as booked through exposure point

Common Best Available Rate or Floating Rates

Inventory – number of rooms per room category

Any available room images The PPC must complete the 2.47b eStandby Basic Data Form. The Nor1 IM will also need to collect:

a) Content – Room Differentiators of each upgradeable room type b) Photos of each room category (including standard rooms) c) Look & Feel components if needed (logo, and any property chain

specific color schemes to be used in the eStandby Upgrade System interface with guest).

The Basic Data Form This document is an Excel Form which will allow you to provide all of the required property information to the Implementation Manager in an organized format.

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Property Basics. Fill in the basic property information. The Property Code is the property’s code defined by the Nor1 exposure point.

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eStandby Access Configuration. Please list your property’s General Manager, Regional Director of Revenue Management, Accounts Payable Contacts, and eStandby Upgrade Managers. These are the individuals who will receive daily Upsell Action Center Reminder emails. They will also most likely be responsible for actioning the Upsell Action Center.

Property Inventory Data & Pricing. Room Type/Name -The name of the room as it should be displayed to the guest. Enter ALL Room types, including base rooms. Room Code - If we are exposing through your IBE, enter your CRS codes. If we are exposing through your PMS (Opera), enter your PMS Codes. If your property will have multiple exposure points, please make sure to list CRS AND PMS Codes. Note: Each room type must have a different room code. Two room types cannot have the same room code. # of Rooms - Enter the number of rooms in each room category Common BAR Rate - List a set of rates for all room categories during a period of normal demand. This information is used to understand whether the supplements between room categories vary based on the demand dynamics of the property. Please list one BAR Rate for each room type. EX: Standard King $169, Standard Double $179, Junior Suite $209, etc. Area (sq. ft. / m2) - The size of the room (this will help to sell the upgrades). Description of Rooms - This will be used to entice guests to book the upgrade options. Your guests will see these descriptions. Enter up to four bullet points explaining: Bed Type, living area(s), lounge access, patio,

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balcony, etc. What makes this room different from the base room types? If this is a base room type (least expensive room type), leave blank. Potential eStandby Add-on/Virtual Room Types. If you have any ideas for other upgrade options, please enter them here. (Examples include: High Floor, View, Corner Room, Early Check-in, Late Check-out, Romance Package, Breakfast & Internet, Spa, F&B Credits, etc.). Name of Add-On/Package/Virtual Room - The offer name that your guests should see. Rate - This is NOT the price that your guests will be asked to pay, it is what the offer is actually worth. Rate Per - Should this offer be charged per night or per stay? Description - Please enter up to four bullet points explaining this option. Upgrade Availability - What room types can this option be offered to?

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Section 5. Pricing and Offer Set Framework

What is PRiME? PRiME™ is Nor1’s proprietary pricing and merchandising platform with a little intelligence in the middle. This patent-pending decision intelligence engine is a technology first for the hospitality industry; designed to increase the value of a hotel’s unused inventory while maintaining price integrity. The decision intelligence engine provides Nor1 customers a competitive advantage by increasing the value of unused inventories while maintaining the price integrity of their products. The statistically driven PRiME® engine is the innovative backbone to Nor1 solutions. PRiME accurately identifies the right product selection, upsell pricing, and display ranking decisions for each individual guest based on sophisticated algorithms trained on millions of historical transactions. It’s this “decision intelligence” that will increase a property’s revenue and strengthen guest loyalty.

Identifying What Matters Most It starts with data – lots of it. We take note of what guests buy as well as what they choose not to buy, because negative responses are just as informative as positive ones. PRiME identifies which variables and interactions matter most when applying pricing and merchandising strategies to up-sell offers. Thus we use a rigorous statistical process to determine whether additional data

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actually helps with prediction, or if it doesn't add any new helpful information. That's a big part of the intelligence of PRiME — to cut through the noise and pay attention only to what really matters. The data points that matter are typically a combination of booking-specific variables, guest-specific information, and information that's specific to the property. Each of the variables have a certain weighting, and the weighting itself changes for each reservation based on the unique intersection of the booking, guest, and property - there is no one size fits all!

Learning from History PRiME enables hoteliers to better predict how offers for similar bookings by similar guests at similar properties performed in the past, which enables us to determine, in real- time, which offer to make when a new booking comes through the system. Essentially, we can infer the likely product preferences and price sensitivities of the guest even if we have no historical data for the specific property or guest. The result is that PRiME produces excellent results right from the start.

Achieving Optimal Outcomes PRiME can optimize offer sets to help channel demand to under-utilized inventory, while ensuring its in-line with consumer preferences. And that's another key element of the intelligence in PRiME - choosing prices and setting prices that interact with each other to achieve the optimal outcome. We use equations to make decisions that balance the trade-offs that matter. The trade-offs are balanced formally using mathematical optimization, but the concept is simple. For example, one important trade-off has to do with long-term revenue versus short-term gain. We use a specific and proprietary system of equations, called the Loyalty Lattice™, to ensure that eStandby Upgrade increases revenue and guest satisfaction in the long-term as well as the short-term.

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PRiME Benefits:

PRiME merges real-time reservation data with historical data on the hotel and the guest.

PRiME gives control of parameter management directly to the properties.

PRiME identifies the most relevant products to offer to guests. PRiME determines the offers' optimal prices and assortments. PRiME generates the best offers from the start, and then

automatically gets smarter with each new reservation. PRiME will ultimately help your hotel to generate more revenue

through smart, customized and relevant offers that resonate best with your guests.

Offer Set Framework The offer set for the guest can include a combination of add-ons and “virtual” room categories.

Add-Ons: These include items that can be added onto a guest’s originally booked room type or any of their eStandby Selections. This would include early check-in, late check-out, packages, F&B offers, Spa offers, etc.

Virtual Room Types: Rooms that differ from other rooms within the same room category because they have a special commodity e.g. a special view, a balcony/terrace, etc.

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Section 6. After the Launch

The following section outlines what to expect post implementation. Maintenance

1. Property is turned on to the eStandby System. 2. Nor1 will monitor the activity and the progress of the eStandby

Upgrade process and ensure the hotel, based on availability, is able to effectively award upgrades to guests who have made requests.

3. The Property Launch Process is designed to allow Nor1 to customize

the eStandby Upgrade Solution for each property, and thus Nor1 will provide prompt support, guidance and decisive action on any issue or problem reported by the Hotel Property.

4. The Hotel Property must commit the time and resources to manage

upgrade requests and periodically work with Nor1 staff to maintain optimum performance.

5. Since many guests make bookings 30 days or more in advance, the

Upgrade Pipeline may take 30-60 days to fill up.

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Section 7. Hotel Operations

This section demonstrates the steps that should be taken by the property on a daily basis.

Property Award Managers Once a guest has requested an eStandby Upgrade at your hotel, the request will appear in Nor1’s web-based application, The Upsell Action Center. This is an easy to use extranet that the designated Property Award Managers can access 24/7. Typically the Property Award Managers should be those individuals at property that are assigning rooms. We recommend this be the Front Office Supervisors or The Upsell Action Center.

Daily Upsell Action Center Email Reminder

Nor1 alerts the property every day at 6am local property time with a reminder email detailing the number of requests pending to be actioned in The Upsell Action Center and the potential revenue. eStandby Upgrades will have a same-day cutoff of 12pm local property time. If at 12pm you have any un-actioned guests in The Upsell Action Center, you will receive another email reminder. A sample daily email reminder looks like this:

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Section 8. Upsell Manager

Explained in this section are all four parts of the Upsell Manager: Upsell Action Center, Rate Calendar, PRiME Controls, and Reports.

Upsell Action Center

The Property Award Manager will go into the Upsell Action Center and modify the guest requests. The Upsell Action Center provides a complete picture of revenue impact and also allows for quick awarding practices. There are three basic parts to the Upsell Action Center: Date Selection, Requests per upgradeable Room Type, and Awarding.

First you will select the date in which you want to view your upgrade requests. Then you will select the room type that you would like to review. We recommend reviewing the more premium room types first (those that appear at the top of the list), and then moving down.

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You will notice that as you click on the room type, an area on the right will appear that states “Room Upgrade Type: Selected Room Code”. This area will show all guests who have selected an upgrade into this room category. Under “Room” you will see the room type that the guest is currently booked in. Under “LOS” you will see the guest’s Length-of-Stay. Below the “(-)” sign you will see if the guest has selected any additional room categories that will bring in LESS revenue than the currently viewed room type. This will be seen by a red, down-pointing arrow. Next you will find “Impact”. The impact will show you the revenue that the guest has agreed to pay per night for this upgrade, and then the revenue that the guest has agreed to pay for their entire stay if this upgrade is awarded. Below the “(+)” sign you will see if the guest has selected any additional room categories that will bring in MORE revenue than the currently selected room type. This will be seen by a green, upwards-pointing arrow. Next you will see the status of the upgrade – if it is still pending, if it has already been awarded, or if the upgrade has been denied. Finally, a button will appear under the “Action” section. If you are able to upgrade the guest, click “Upgrade”. If you are unable to upgrade the guest, you will first need to click on the guest’s row and it will turn blue. Then select “Action” in the top right corner of that box. A pop-up box will appear where you will see “Deny Upgrade,” “Cancel Reservation,” or “No Show Reservation.” Select the item that is most fitting.

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Add-ons

If you have any add-ons, such as Early Check-In or Late Check-Out requested, they will appear in a box on the bottom left. Click on the item that you would like to review:

The guest who requested that add-on will then appear on the right-hand side. You will see that the box changes to “Add-on Type: Add-on Requested.” Award this guest by clicking the “Action” button. A pop-up will appear and you can click “Add” next to the Add-on Request:

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Front Desk Operations: Awards and Denials Pre-Arrival: Confirmed Upgrade (Example: Opera) On the day of arrival, update the reservation 1. Update the Room Type to the upgraded room 2. Add a Comment- eStandby Confirmed

3. Add a Transaction Code 4. Add in the Upgrade Amount 5. Under Supplement enter old room type/ room code and new room type/room code

1. Change

the Rate & Room

Type

2. Enter a

Comment: eStandby

Confirmed

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After a Fixed Charge is posted the screen will look like the image below.

6. Add an alert:

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Pre-Arrival: Upgrade Not Available (Example: Opera) On the day of arrival, update the reservation 1. Add a comment: eStandby NOT confirmed

When the GSA checks in the guest at the front desk they will see the eStandby status for this reservation. Additional Front Desk Operations will include: 1. Managing No-Shows Prior to posting no shows in your PMS, adjust the rate to the originally confirmed rate. Do not charge the guest the eStandby Upgrade amount. 2. Managing Early Check-outs or Extended Stays If any guests depart early or extend their stays, not only will you make the change in your PMS, but you will also make this change in the Upsell Action Center. Update the guest’s length-of-stay in the Upsell Action Center by clicking on the guest’s name and changing their Arrival Date or LOS (Length-of-Stay).

1. Enter a

Comment:

eStandby Not

Confirmed

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The Property’s Award Manager makes all decisions on awarding upgrades and uses Check-in Alerts and Comments to inform the Front Desk Team that an awarded guest is arriving. Always remember that eStandby wants to make the hotel’s staff life easier, not more complicated! You should never have situations where the Front Desk needs to decide upon check-in if a guest will receive an eStandby Upgrade. Everything should have been prepared in the background prior to guest arrival. All that the Front Desk Agent needs to do is to inform the guest of their awarded eStandby Upgrade, or to inform them if their upgrade was not awarded.

3. Dispute resolution a. Hotel confirmed the Upgrade, however upon arrival guest does

not want the Upgrade b. If originally booked room type is available, assign guest to that

room type and confirm original rate. c. If originally booked room type is not available, advise guest

that based on their request for an upgraded room we were able to accommodate their request. Their originally reserved room has been sold and is no longer available.

d. Please inform your manager of any changes to confirmed Upgrades so that they can assign the Upgrade to someone else

e. Please use your regular service recovery procedures to handle any other types of disputes

We very rarely see disputes at Front Desk as the process is explained clearly to the guest several times throughout the upgrade request process. The following link offers a detailed Support file for Front Desk Associates, covering various scenarios communicating with the guest.

www.nor1.com/training

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Rate Calendar The Rate Calendar will allow you to make changes to the deltas between room types, as well as blackout room types, blackout add-ons and blackout dates. Not every user on property will have access to the Rate Calendar. Only the PPC and/or the Revenue Manager will have access to this.

The Rate Calendar will show you ever single room type and add-on that is live in our system for your property. The default settings will show you one month out from today’s date. It is not necessary to change the rates if the deltas stay the same between room types. Some properties have different pricing on weekday vs. weekend. This is a great example of how one should use the Rate Calendar. In order to change the pricing for one room type, the Suite, you first need to select the dates and days. If you would like to change the delta for the Suite for every day of the year, for Sunday – Thursday, keeping the current rate for Friday and Saturday’s, you would click on the calendar selection, selecting today’s date as your “From” date, and today’s date next year as your “Through” date. Then click “apply”. You will notice that you are

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actually unable to select any dates further than a year out, as the Rate Calendar only goes 365 days out.

You will then click on “Days” next to the date selection and de-select Friday and Saturday. Click “Apply”.

Once you have selected the dates and days, you will now select the room type that you would like to change the delta of. Select “offer items” and uncheck every box except for the Suite (STE). Click “Apply”.

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Now you are able to click on “Edit Rates” where you will actually make the change in the delta. You will notice that you have a few options here – you can increase the rate, decrease the rate, input an actual rate, set blackout and remove blackout. In this case we are going to increase all base rates (for what is shown) by $25.00. Then click “Apply”.

Once you click “Apply”, you will see that the increase has been made. You will need to click “save draft”.

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Once you save the draft pages you will need to click on the middle button in the top right corner, Compare Mode.

After comparing what was currently published with your new draft, if all looks correct you will then click “Publish”.

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By Clicking on the “Rate Calendar” tab again, you will then note that your changes have been made for all days except Fridays and Saturdays:

PRiME Controls The Upsell Manager also allows you to manager the upsell range(s) that you have set for PRiME at your property. Here you are able to change ranges depending on the guest’s originally booked room type, premium room type to be offered to the guest, or add-ons to be offered to the guest. At Nor1 we recommend that your property starts out with about a 20-100% range. If the delta is $100 – this means that guests will have a floor of $20 to a ceiling of $100 for their upgrade price. As the guest has already committed to paying for their originally booked room, any upsell price is additional revenue. There are four areas under this tab that will allow you to make changes: Original Room Types, Upgrades, Price Range, and Exclude Upgrades.

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Original Room Type will allow you to select the Originally Booked Room Type to where you would like to make changes. It is possible that you would like to make changes for all room types for guests who see an offer for Early Check-in and Late Check-Out. In this case, you will leave Original Room Type as it is, with all room types selected. Upgrades will allow you to select the Premium Room Types or Add-ons which you would like to make changes to the PRiME Upsell Ranges. Since we are only changing Early Check-In and Late Check-Out with this example, we will de-select the room types, leaving only the add-ons selected. Click “Apply”.

Now we are ready to change the Upsell Ranges for these two add-ons. Click on “Price Range”. You will adjust the arrows so that they show the range you would like to have. Click “Apply”. Then Click “Publish”.

The final area on this page will allow you to exclude upgrades from certain room types. For example, if you would like to exclude offering the Suite to a guest who books a standard room, at all times, click the checkbox under “Exclude Upgrades” next to the STE under the originally booked standard room type. You will then need to click “Publish”.

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Section 9. Reporting

Automated eStandby Performance Reports will be sent to each Hotel Property on a weekly basis. The Property may choose to request additional performance reports at any time for additional statistics. Performance reports will be reviewed in detail during scheduled checkpoint calls in order to ensure that the eStandby System is utilized to its full potential for each Property. The eStandby Weekly Report Email contains two reports:

Property Performance Report o Statistics based on Arrived Requests o Statistics based on Request Bookings o Year-over-Year Arrival Trends o Year-over-Year Booking Trends o Glossary of Terms

Room Movement Report o Arrived Upgrade Requests by Room Type o Booked Upgrade Requests by Room Type o Arrived Requests by Room Type based on Originally Booked

Room Type o Booked Requests by Room Type based on Originally Booked

Room Type

Performance Report - Arrival-Based Statistics

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The Arrival Statistics section shows the activity for the arrivals of the property for the previous month by week, current year by month, and PTD by year. Day of Week Detail table is also shown for the arrivals for PTD, which is useful in determining strategies, such as conditional pricing, for performance optimization by the arrival day of the week. Performance Report - Booking-Based Statistics

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The Booking Statistics section shows the activity for the property for the previous month by week, current year by month, and program to date by year. A forward-looking view of future arrivals is also shown. Activities are shown by date of booking for arrivals at any point in the future. This report helps to evaluate the effectiveness of any changes made to the eStandby program at the property. Nor1 Account Upsell Action Center may also use

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this report to understand booking patterns and thus make operational recommendations to the property for revenue enhancement of future arrivals. Performance Report - Year-over-Year Arrival and Booking Trends The Year-over-Year Arrival and Booking Trends section shows a PTD representation of the key performance indicators broken out by Month. For hotels that are live for more than 1 year with Nor1, year-over-year trend assists hotels in budgeting and forecasting the eStandby revenue production more accurately. It also helps to uncover system and operational issues that may arise.

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Room Movement Report - Upgrade Requests The Upgrade Requests section shows arrival and booking activity by eStandby product category. This report is helpful in developing strategies to balance demand and supply. Premium rooms with high demand but low award rates can be easily identified and Nor1 Account Upsell Action Center can address the issue with several options such as a modified price matrix or room type consolidation.

Room Movement Report – Requests by Originally Booked Room Type (Room Movement) This section of the report shows which upgrades are requested and all of the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) associated with the requests based on the guests’ originally booked room type. This helps Nor1 Account Upsell Action Centers determine which upgrade categories are most successful depending on originally booked room type, and helps to draw conclusions in regards to upgrade offer sets and pricing by room type.

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eStandby Performance Reporting Glossary Bookings Received- The number of reservations passed to Nor1. Guests Exposed- The number of reservations for which a “Learn More” offer is displayed. Exposure Rate- The ratio of Guests Exposed to Bookings Received. Guests Interested- The number of guests who clicked on a “Learn More” offer to view more information about an eStandby Upgrade offer. Guest Interested Rate- The ratio of Guests Interested to Guests Exposed. This metric measures effectiveness of a “Learn More” offer (An embedded image containing a link that directs guests to the Nor1 system). Guests Committed- The number of guests who submitted one (1) or more eStandby Requests. Guest Committed Rate- The ratio of Guests Committed to Guests Interested. This metric gauges the appeal of the eStandby Upgrade offers. Conversion Rate- The ratio of Guests Committed to Guests Exposed. Requested Room Nights- Room Nights associated with stays of committed guests. Number of Guests Awarded- The number of guests who were granted an eStandby Upgrade upon arrival. Awarded Room Nights- Room nights, attributed to committed guests for whom an eStandby Award has been granted.

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Guest Award Rate- The percentage of Guests Committed that are awarded an eStandby Opportunity. Avg. Award Price/Night- The average eStandby price charged per night considering length of stay and price paid. Paying Guests Committed- The number of guests who submitted one (1) or more eStandby Requests, at a charge, for a single Booking. Loyalty guests who only choose their complimentary opportunities are not considered Paying Guests Committed. Paid Upgrades Awarded- The number of guests who were granted an eStandby Upgrade upon arrival. These committed guests were not awarded a complimentary Upgrade. Paying Guest Award Rate- The percentage of Paying Guests Committed that are awarded an eStandby Opportunity. Avg. Paid Award Price/Night- The average eStandby price charged per night considering length of stay and price paid. This metric only considers Paying Guest Awards, and in most cases will be higher than the standard Avg. Award Price measure. Awarded Revenue- The total revenue earned by the hotel from awarding an Upgrade and other eStandby opportunities. Expired Revenue- The total revenue loss from eStandby requests for which no action was taken on day of arrival. Gross Potential Revenue- The revenue for the highest priced eStandby opportunity selected by a guest for a particular booking.

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Revenue Realization Rate- The percentage of Potential Revenue that is actually captured. Average Requestor LOS- The average Length of Stay (LOS) attributed to Guests Committed. Average Awarded LOS- The average Length of Stay attributed to guests awarded with an eStandby opportunity. Partial Denied Rate- The rate at which an upgrade request was denied due to the guest being awarded a more premium room. Only "room upgrade" types can have a non-zero partial denied rate. "Add-on" types will always have a 0% partial-denied rate. Times Shown- The number of times a particular upgrade category has been shown in an offer to a guest. Percentage Shown- The ratio of number of times a particular room type or add-on is shown to the number of interested guests for a given period of time.

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Section 10. Invoicing and Reconciliation

This section covers the various terms and items on Nor1’s invoices to properties. Sample Invoice

Invoice Details You have the ability to access your monthly activity report online. Simply login to your Nor1 eStandby Upsell Manager, select “Reports” “Invoice Details”. You’ll be able to view every transaction included on your invoice. You can easily print this information to attach to your invoice if desired.

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Here is an example Invoice Details Report from the Upsell Manager:

With this capability, you can review transactions on a daily basis and make any necessary corrections in the Upsell Action Center prior to our month end invoice production, resulting in a much easier invoice review and payment process. Please keep in mind that all such corrections must be made by you in the Upsell Action Center by 4pm PST on the first day of the month following the guest’s departure month. If you don’t have a login to the Upsell Manager, have your property’s point person contact Nor1 at support@nor1.com to request your additional logins. Make sure to provide in your request the new user’s name, title, phone number and email address. We will create the login and send the information via email from noreply@nor1solutions.com to the new user. The mailing addresses for payments are:

Nor1 Inc. Attn: Accounts Receivable 3255 Scott Blvd, Bldg 7, Suite 120 Santa Clara, CA 95054

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Section 11. Best Practices

The following section reviews some strategies for administering the Upsell Action Center to optimize the process and enhance revenue. General Tips:

1. Delegate one person at the property to consistently review the Upsell Action Center and assign the eStandby upgrades. This person should have 1-2 others trained who can serve as backups for days off and handle last minute reservations that hit the Upsell Action Center. *Note: Nor1 has developed online self-paced training that can be used for training those individuals not available to attend scheduled training sessions.

2. We strongly recommend that the Property Award Manager should

begin “balancing the house” and awarding eStandby upgrades three days before arrival.

3. An automated alert will be sent at 12pm local property time if there

are any guests remaining in the Upsell Action Center who have not been actioned yet.

4. If any guests are not actioned on or before their day of arrival they will become “Expired Guests” and are considered a potential loss of profit.

Revenue Enhancement

1. Remember you can upgrade a guest beyond their original request, as long as you only charge the amount he originally agreed to pay for the eStandby upgrade. This is beneficial when you do not have

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availability in the room the guest requested, but you do have availability in a higher class of room.

2. Even at 100% occupancy there may still be opportunities to upgrade.

If your property has overbooked any room categories, you may have individuals in the Upsell Action Center who you can upgrade for the upgrade fee instead of free. Be sure to action the Upsell Action Center before “balancing the house” and upgrading guests for free.

3. Analyzing the Length of Stay (L.O.S.) of guests requesting eStandby

upgrades will allow you to avoid any shortsighted revenue decisions. This can be especially beneficial when considering upgrades for suite level rooms.

For guests with a LOS greater than 1 night, look ahead in the Upsell Action Center and the PMS to confirm future room type availability, to ensure awarding this eStandby upgrade will not preclude awarding a more profitable eStandby upgrade in the coming nights.

Leverage the LOS and daily upgrade price when awarding rooms. For example, an eStandby upgrade for 1 night from a standard room to suite xyz may provide more revenue than the eStandby upgrade from a junior suite to suite xyz for 2 nights, while also freeing up suite xyz on the 2nd night.

4. Review your highest room categories in the Upsell Action Center first.

This will allow you to upgrade guests into your highest room types, opening up additional upgrade options for guests requesting less-premium room types.

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5. Under each room type, the guests will be sorted with the highest potential revenue at the top. It is best to award the guests with the highest potential revenue first, if you are unable to award all guests.

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Section 12. A Property’s Hints for Success

1. Don’t procrastinate. In the hectic world of hotel daily life, many tasks compete for your time. We recommend actioning the Upsell Action Center at least three days in advance. This will assist you in balancing the house so that you aren’t upgrading guests for free. You will be less likely to miss the revenue opportunity and you can always remove the awarded upgrade prior to arrival, if need be.

2. Just because you are full, doesn’t mean you can’t upgrade. In fact, many of our skilled users make most of their money when they are full, because they usually have sold more lower-rated rooms than they have in actual inventory, or they have Run of House rooms that can be placed anywhere. Simply award your e Standby upgrades first to get paid for them, then, handle the rest of the room moves as needed to balance the house.

3. Think ahead. Just like in chess, planning more than one move can often pay off in the Nor1 eStandbyTM Upgrade world. If you have multiple requests, look for opportunities to move someone to a high-end suite with one upgrade and then fill in their vacated room with another. It’ll be a sure checkmate!

4. Group Check In?! No problem! Check the Upsell Action Center well in advance, and crosscheck your availability. This will help you spot the high revenue requests, and bring in extra revenue. Do make the upgrade decisions while pre-assigning the rooms for the entire group.

5. Size matters. Sometimes when you have more than one request you have to choose which one to accept. Always skip over the lower rated upgrades in favor of the higher dollar value or the

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longer length of stay. “First come, first served,” is not in the upgrade rules.

6. Sell it, don’t give it away. Many front office managers rightfully were taught to use the “Upgrade” as a low cost (or even free) way to deal with guest complaints. That was before eStandby. Now, we all know exactly what the opportunity cost of an upgrade really is because we have a Upsell Action Center list of customers willing to pay it! If a room upgrade foregoes $60 in revenue, perhaps, paying less for a few frequent guest points or a $15 F&B credit is a cheaper guest relations alternative than the “free upgrade.”

7. Go for the Gold. Today is the perfect day to look ahead at your monthly Upsell Action Center to find those little nuggets of “Gold Plated Upgrades” that we see from time to time. They may be a “5 day or longer stay” or a “$100/day upgrade” that has been requested on a future date this month. Make sure you maximize your revenue by setting aside that upgrade, so you do not take a less valuable transaction that might interfere with the Big One.

8. Revenue Manage your upgrades. Are you always out of rooms for

upgrade on certain nights or events? Listen to what the numbers are telling you; and talk to your Nor1 Account Upsell Action Center about increasing the upgrade price for those nights.

9. Who is upgrading today? One of the biggest revenue holes we have seen is the failure to action the Upsell Action Center. Fortunately, it is the easiest to fix. Just make sure you have enough trained upgrade managers and that the assigned person always has a trained backup. Let your Nor1 Account Upsell Action Center know if you need to include more names on the daily email Upsell Action Center alert.

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10. Don’t miss the forest for the trees. Just because the actual room

requested is sold out, does not mean the revenue opportunity is dead. If you have a better upgrade available for the length of stay, take the money rather than let the better room go vacant. Just make sure the upgrade price covers the added cost of cleaning the larger room.

11. We love Loyalty. We have trained some of our frequent guests to

expect a free upgrade, and the eStandby program fully supports this effort. If we know the parameters of the plan, the entitlement upgrade will appear in the Upsell Action Center at a cost of zero dollars. However, if the loyal guest wants to standby for an even better room, we also have this option at a lower rate than the non-members pay. Don’t forget to charge for this. The member is still getting his full membership benefit and his low-cost eStandby upgrade to boot!

12. We’re All Ears! Most of our daily hints have come directly from

our users, like you! If you have a hint you’d like to share, please email it to support@nor1.com.

13. Ready, aim, fire! When working the Upsell Action Center, it’s a

good idea to look around in The Upsell Action Center before you begin awarding. For the most part, the list has been ordered by total revenue; but don’t forget to look down the list and at tomorrow’s arrivals for possible multiple moves and longer lengths of stay that might bring even higher returns.

14. Who’s on First? Here’s a hint from a top user, since promotional and other free upgrades are “subject to availability” make sure you award eStandby paid upgrades first, then if there are upgrades still “available,” award the free ones.

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15. Congratulations. Make sure you congratulate your guests for

choosing the eStandby upgrade; it will remind them of the benefit you offer, reinforce their behavior, and lead to greater guest satisfaction scores.

16. Treat the eStandby Program as a channel management tool. The

eStandby upgrade program is only available to guests who purchase through your preferred low cost channels. Let your guests know that they were eligible for the program as a preferred customer.

17. No Running in the halls! The “Run of House” room type is often

misunderstood to mean best available room at time of check-in. Rather, it is a concession made by a group or customer to secure inventory at a given price in return for letting the hotel choose their room to best balance the house. So, make sure you award all the paid eStandby upgrades before you assign ROH guests to upgrade level rooms.

18. Look ahead and make your life easier. Look at the next thirty

days’ inventory and you will probably find several days where your base room type (or run of house) is dramatically oversold. Get a jump on the problem by working the Upsell Action Center for those days and upgrading the paid requests right now, so your house will be more in balance and you will have less work later.

19. Ugly Duckling. Do you have a small room with no view that

nobody wants? Why not add free internet and breakfast or access to the executive lounge and make this an upgrade and sell it on the eStandbyTM Upgrade Program? Be a revenue hero in your own property!

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20. Act with Confidence. One of the primary benefits of the Nor1 eStandbyTM Upgrade Program is that we have built it with you in mind. Rest assured that your guests have been educated on the program and have chosen twice to indicate they understand and wish to participate. We have very few customer service issues.

21. SOLD OUT. Don’t forget, just because you are sold out does not

mean you can’t earn more revenue. Upgrades may be available and you can increase RevPAR without increasing occupancy by awarding them from the Upsell Action Center.

22. Don’t confuse Revenue and Profit. The eStandbyTM Upgrade program may seem like just a few dollars on every transaction, but it is important to know that each of these dollars is pure profit that goes directly to the bottom line!

23. Last Minute Opportunities. If you have lots of same day bookings,

you can keep taking eStandbyTM Upgrades on day of arrival. If a guest chooses an upgrade on day of arrival, we will send you an email reminder to re-check the Upsell Action Center. Talk to our Nor1 account management team to make this change; it’s never too late to add profitable revenues.

24. Not Again! Do you find that you are denying the same room

upgrade request every day? If so, it’s time to talk to your Nor1 upgrade account management group about increasing the price of the upgrade or coming up with an offer that makes more sense based on your sales history.