HENDERSONVILLE, Tennessee—STR announces it will invest considerable resources to refine and build its comprehensive lodging census and pipeline databases.
STR’s census database has been the foundation for the company’s array of products and reports since 1987 when Randy and Carolyn Smith launched Smith Travel Research. Duane Vinson, STR’s VP of database content and integrity, said the company is making a number of moves designed to enhance census and pipeline content, including:
• Acquiring office space to create a Database Operations Center. The Center’s staff will be dedicated to the development and maintenance of the most comprehensive database of planned projects and existing supply available in the industry. The Database Operations Center is expected to be operational by May, and will be housed near the current STR headquarters in Hendersonville,TN.
• Significantly increasing staff to acquire, research and refresh a growing volume of records for the pipeline and census databases..
• Developing a proprietary online web-crawling application in collaboration with Revcaster, a Portland, Oregon-based company that provides hotel intelligence gathering through automated searches and web scraping.
• Increasing contact with hotel companies around the globe to secure details on planned and existing hotels.
• Continuing to seek new partnerships that bring additional enhancements to the pipeline and lodging census databases, and provide added value to clients.
“It is imperative that we continue to develop new ways of growing and maintaining this core part of our business,” said Amanda Hite, STR’s president. “Exceptional database management is an integral part of the STR business, and the steps we are taking in conjunction with the launch of the Database Operations Center re-emphasize our commitment to providing the most comprehensive product in the market.”
Addressing the needs of clients is a main reason for the additional resources being made available, Vinson said, “The need for a comprehensive global lodging database from a company known for its accuracy and attention to detail clearly has taken the spotlight in an era in which information is king,” he said. “We are committing the resources to address that need.”
Vinson added STR will continue to work closely with its hotel clients, look for new partnerships with associations and industry vendors, and fully explore the abundance of available online information to maintain the most up-to-date database available for existing hotels and those in various phases of development.