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Another
“power boost” for franchisees is Choice’s new on-line purchasing
site, www.ChoiceBuys.com, which gives hotel owners access
to more than 150 vendors for easy, one-stop shopping at favorable
prices.
“With
this system, our franchisees can review more than 7,000 products,
place orders directly with endorsed vendors, pay on-line and
track delivery via the Internet,” said Brad Douglas, vice
president, strategic partnerships. “We expect that franchisees
ultimately will purchase goods and services valued at $1.5
billion annually through ChoiceBuys.com.”
More
than 1,200 hotels have signed up for this system since its
debut last year. For Choice, it provides both a revenue stream
and a way to drive product consistency and quality. For the
hotel owner, it offers access to an efficient, cost-effective
and comprehensive purchasing solution 24 hours a day.
The
e-commerce model demonstrated by ChoiceBuys.com lends itself
to another exciting venture: in-room Internet access for hotel
guests through computers and dedicated high-speed access lines.
In a test at four hotels last fall, the company confirmed
that guests are enthusiastic about having Internet access
in their rooms as a portal for business and entertainment
applications.
Choice
has more than 2,300 franchisees, with no single franchisee
accounting for more than 5 percent of its total revenues.
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5:42
a.m. MST
If
Greg Roth could patent his daily commute, he would be a millionaire.
The hike from his breakfast table to his office involves 15
steps and takes a mere minute. And he never has to leave the
confines of his Scottsdale, Ariz., home.
Roth
is one of 16 Choice reservations sales agents who work at
home. He begins his six-hour shift at 5:30 every morning after
sipping a glass of juice, taking the stairs to a second-story
loft and booting up a personal computer.
As
Sebastian, his loyal Yorkshire Terrier, watches patiently
from a perch on a nearby couch, Roth dials into Choice’s central
reservations computer system some 10 miles away in Phoenix.
Within
seconds, he cheerfully begins answering calls that are routed
to his home one after another, as quickly and efficiently
as they reach his colleagues who work inside Choice’s Phoenix
Reservations Call Center.
During
the course of one hour, Roth will answer as many as 20 calls
from prospective hotel guests and generate sales of $1,400.
That high productivity and a 1997 honor as Employee of the
Year earned him the right to work at home, according to Angie
Trumble, Choice Director of Call Center Operations in Phoenix.
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