The integration of technology and community outreach has earned Choice Hotels International, Inc. (NYSE: CHH), one of the world’s largest hotel companies, a prestigious distinction. Hospitality Technology Magazine has honored Choice Hotels with a 2013 Visionary Award for utilizing its industry leading choiceADVANTAGE web-based technology platform to redistribute AMBER Alerts to help in the search for abducted children. The Visionary Award recognizes companies that are taking creative approaches to innovation and are leveraging technology in compelling ways.
The AMBER Alert Program is designed to quickly galvanize the public in the search for an abducted child by providing information about the child, their potential abductor, and any vehicle that may have been used in the abduction. The U.S. Department of Justice coordinates the AMBER Alert program on a national level and has asked the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) to develop a network of secondary distributors with the ability to help deliver the alerts to a larger audience.
Working with NCMEC as a secondary distributor, Choice Hotels is helping to broaden the reach of the AMBER Alert system. The arrangement allows for AMBER Alert messages to post on the computer screens of choiceADVANTAGE property management system users in the area of active alerts almost as soon as they have been issued by law enforcement and redistributed by NCMEC. Since 2009, when this arrangement began, choiceADVANTAGE has processed more than 600 alerts nationwide..
“The first few minutes are the most critical in finding a missing child.
And with the technology Choice Hotels has developed in collaboration with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, we are able to get this information front and center - in near real-time—at the more than 5,100 Choice Hotels franchised properties where choiceADVANTAGE is used nationwide,” said Todd Davis, chief information officer of Choice Hotels International. “It reaches every desktop computer, every laptop in the area of an active AMBER Alert where our franchisees use choiceADVANTAGE. So when they are checking a guest in or out, looking up the housekeeping status of a room or anything else related to managing their hotels, they will see the AMBER Alert and will be able to act if necessary.
AMBER Alerts are successful when an individual or law enforcement recognizes the vehicle, the child, or the abductor from the AMBER Alert and contacts the authorities. Since it was created in 1996, the AMBER Alert program has helped recover 637 abducted children. For more information about the AMBER Alert program, visit http://www.AMBERAlert.gov.
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