Chicago-based Hyatt Hotels and Resorts is instituting what Bruce Small, director of sales information systems, calls “a totally new approach to group billing.”

Small says the new system simplifies, organizes, and standardizes the master account billing process across the Hyatt brand. “So wherever they go, planners can expect the bill to look the same, feel the same, reconcile the same, be presented in the same way, and have the backup created in the same way — all summarized in a laser-printed bound book.”

The system includes a menu of different ways to sort the bill that the planner can preselect. “We can sort room folios five different ways; point-of-sales checks can be sorted by the posting date or by the check number. Planners can customize the bill to fit the way they like to read it,” he says.

The system also includes standardized breakdowns by room charges, planned food and beverage, convention services, AV, and miscellaneous charges.

The new billing system also was developed to self-reconcile, which Small admits is something that planners may find difficult to accept until they see that it really does work.

“We designed the software so the bill won't print unless every item has a backup attached to it. It should save a tremendous amount of time trying to find the folio, or the charge that goes with a particular line item,” Small says.

Future enhancements include a PDF version for those who would rather receive the bill online and print it themselves. The off-line version is scheduled to roll out in all the chain's major hotels by the end of the first quarter of 2002. Hyatt also debuted simplified meetings contracts in January.