Group items tagged

Travel Agencies have historically relied on GDS for services, products & rates to produce travel-related services to end customers.

The GDS system is one of the most necessary tools for the travel business

OTA (Online Travel Agent) can access the inventory of airlines in real-time. Users can book and process the travel offers that best work their needs.

Amadeus GDS helps to distribute the services in order that the audience or clients may get the specified result out of it. In the world of travel, Amadeus API Integration is one of the ancient and trusted technologies.

Galileo is one of the global suppliers of travel product within the world and that they currently provide the Galileo Global Distribution system. Galileo is an application program interface (API) that permits customers to make an interface like a website, connected to the Galileo.

Sabre Global Distribution System is one of the leading suppliers of travel reservation systems with over 55000 travel agencies. Sabre is an efficient and cost-effective distribution channel that helps airlines and travel corporations to extend their market reach to leisure and corporate traveler.

travel agents to search, price, book, and ticket travel services provided by airlines and tour operators. Sabre provides users with schedules, availability, pricing, policies, and rules, yet as reservation and ticketing capability for travel suppliers.

Travelport is a leading Global Distribution System, that operates in 170 countries including globally accepted and allows Worldspan and Galileo GDS platforms. The Travelport network consists of 400 Airline partners serving to travel corporations increase revenue, lower value and efficiency reach leisure and company travelers globally in each continent and channel.

Worldspan GDS System provides data-rich solutions that offer travel buyers and suppliers distinctive insights into their operations that facilitate to manage your travel business, reducing prices and improving revenues. Worldspan travel software acts as a single source for providing travel deals and information all over the globe.

he integration of Worldspan travel software permits the travel agents to boost the client's expertise by providing information like rates, inventory, discount and description that is finished on a real-time

market your latest sales message, special offers, and discounts directly to travel agents. 

A single global travel distribution system is connected through B2B, B2C, B2E and B2B2C websites.

OTAs have greatly improved the travel shopping experience & convenience for consumers and have increased pricing transparency.

GDS systems deliver worldwide data, rates, inventory, offers, real-time availability of airlines, hotel rooms, car rental, bus tickets, and many more to make the travel industry more informatics and sophisticated.

Benefits of Global Distribution System Global distribution systems are widely responsible for the growth of travel industry and stepping stone of most internet based travel services.

One of the key elements of this research involves the “user friendliness” of the system.

Technologies used at Marriott Hotel Company website Point Of Sale-Micros Property Management System-Opera Central Reservation System-Marsha SAP for accounting and Payroll Fire Panel Door locks CCTV Blue Cube -Time Clock (Employee attendance) Cetral Reservation System

Professionals want the latest technology at their fingertips, from fax machines to Internet services

The new system has enabled the IHG group for excellent quality control.  In this respect, IHG claims that they are able to obtain high quality products at low costs via the Internet.

Marriott’s early commitment to high-performance processing, scalable storage and business continuity made the transition to an integrated reservations/Web solution error-free.

Now is the time for hospitality companies to take advantage of the opportunities available in creating a new value added customized online travel shopping experience for customers.

This travel bot will create a custom experience that suits the particular customer needs offering a range of services including hotel rooms, restaurant tables, airline seats, and rental cars.

However, there is still much room for improvement in speed, reliability, and adaptation to new technologies

If data is managed properly, the technology can assist hoteliers and restaurateurs in projecting the lifetime value of guests, creating increased loyalty, resulting in an increase in market share. 

Most POS systems make it easy for staff to learn how to use them, but Aloha surpasses industry standards by offering more than 300 training modules to educate employees and management teams.

System tools track frequent diners, store customer-feedback information and analyze in-store and online ordering statistics to help managers craft better advertising campaigns.

Ordering strategies prove critical to restaurant success because perishable foods have limited shelf lives, and this software helps to develop restaurant specials to use highly perishable ingredients within acceptable time guidelines.

Faster processing speeds empower real-time seating strategies, incorporate customer requests and give more accurate waiting-time estimates.

Technology advances create increasingly affordable POS options such as wireless devices that might offer easier transitions for small restaurants. Many smaller operations find the cost of Aloha systems a significant obstacle.

The hardware components bundle will typically include a POS terminal, receipt printer, credit card reader, cash drawer, barcode scanner, kitchen or bar printer (for restaurants), and possibly even an on-site computer server for older legacy systems

The primary reason you need a point of sale for a restaurant is to accept cash and credit card payments. In addition to receiving payments, you need to be able to track all your financial and tax data.

A restaurant management system is recommended if you’re a restaurateur and want to be competitive in the business. Many types of restaurants need to utilize a POS like full-service restaurants, quick-service restaurants, fast food, take-out only, cafe’s, pizza shop, etc

Recipe costing is just one example of features a restaurant computer system can provide. Some other features and services you’re going to need potentially are restaurant marketing, customer management, online ordering, loyalty program, server sales performance, new versus repeat customers, invoice purchasing, menu performance, employee management, and sales reporting.

The only negative to implementing a new restaurant management system is the training time and challenge of learning new software. But that’s only temporary,

The main features to look for in bar software is preauthorization (or “preauth”) of payments for tabs management, bar and liquor inventory and control, speed functions like reordering rounds, bar prep printing, fast checkout, and quality 24/7 support. For the reporting side, you’ll want to see your labor costs compared to sales, product reports, and all your sales and tax reports.Additional register features to consider for nightclub and bar point of sale software is employee management, inventory management, customer loyalty, recipes, tab management, quick reorder rounds, and quick customer checkout. Reporting is critical as well to keep track of your food and beverage taxes. Also, you’ll want to have online access to see your labor costs and sales reports

Retail businesses can have some particular requirements and features that other programs will not have. They can have retail shop features such as color and size matrixing, inventory tracking, employee commissions, gift registry, customer database, layaway, and purchase orders

If you’re not processing an enormous amount of volume and speed isn’t as critical (like in a restaurant or bar), then a mobile POS could be just the answer to save you some money

A cloud-based POS system is a point of sale platform that stores information on the cloud. Cloud-based systems typically don’t record much information on your terminal device. Instead, all data is stored in the cloud and synchronized across multiple terminals.

Nail and hair salon POS systems can sometimes crossover for other business types like barber shops, gyms, fitness clubs, beauty schools, massage parlors, pet grooming, tattoo parlors, to name a few. That is because these other business types will especially require an appointment calendar and may need retail functionality with inventory control, and not every software program has those features

In this POS guide, we discussed everything related to POS systems, including the meaning of POS, the definition of mPOS, what the difference is between a cash register and POS, how a point of sale system work, and the different types of systems with examples

At first, GDS’ were only meant for the air travel reservations but as years have passed, GDS systems became more and more evolved. As a direct consequence to this fact, GDS’ were also implemented for hospitality industry use.

At first, GDS’ were only meant for the air travel reservations but as years have passed, GDS systems became more and more evolved. As a direct consequence to this fact, GDS’ were also implemented for hospitality industry use.

At first, GDS’ were only meant for the air travel reservations but as years have passed, GDS systems became more and more evolved. As a direct consequence to this fact, GDS’ were also implemented for hospitality industry use.

At first, GDS’ were only meant for the air travel reservations but as years have passed, GDS systems became more and more evolved. As a direct consequence to this fact, GDS’ were also implemented for hospitality industry use.

However, due to the fact that GDS’ were originally created to distribute plane tickets, their database structure was specifically designed to store information about this product.

At first, GDS’ were only meant for the air travel reservations but as years have passed, GDS systems became more and more evolved.

At first, GDS’ were only meant for the air travel reservations but as years have passed, GDS systems became more and mor

At first, GDS’ were only meant for the air travel reservations but as years have passed, GDS systems became more and more evolved.

However, due to the fact that GDS’ were originally created to distribute plane tickets, their database structure was specifically designed to store information about this product.

The first major impact that GDS had on the travel market was that the number of flights was increased. This led to an increase of competition and therefore travel industry prices fell. Travel agencies were accustomed with receiving a fixed fee (usually 10%) from everything they managed to sell, so once the prices started to fall, they felt threatened with the loss of their earnings. In order to counter this, travel agencies began to offer complimentary products such as car rental, hotel and other related forms of accommodation, bus tickets, vacation packages, yacht rides and even flowers and champagne. This was the first major step towards GDS’ being used within the hospitality industry.

As mentioned before, one of the first products distributed by GDS was hotel accommodation. Hotels have loaded the information related to their different types of rooms, description and price categories within the airline reservation system database. When this information became available online, thousand of clients started making bookings all around the world. This fact was advantageous for each participant. Hotels benefited from distributing their products to a larger audience, travel agencies had the opportunity of booking more products through their computerized system and GDS benefited from a growth in booking volume, which helped them to lower operating costs.

The first major impact that GDS had on the travel market was that the number of flights was increased. This led to an increase of competition and therefore travel industry prices fell. Travel agencies were accustomed with receiving a fixed fee (usually 10%) from everything they managed to sell, so once the prices started to fall, they felt threatened with the loss of their earnings. In order to counter this, travel agencies began to offer complimentary products such as car rental, hotel and other related forms of accommodation, bus tickets, vacation packages, yacht rides and even flowers and champagne. This was the first major step towards GDS’ being used within the hospitality industry.

The first major impact that GDS had on the travel market was that the number of flights was increased. This led to an increase of competition and therefore travel industry prices fell. Travel agencies were accustomed with receiving a fixed fee (usually 10%) from everything they managed to sell, so once the prices started to fall, they felt threatened with the loss of their earnings. In order to counter this, travel agencies began to offer complimentary products such as car rental, hotel and other related forms of accommodation, bus tickets, vacation packages, yacht rides and even flowers and champagne. This was the first major step towards GDS’ being used within the hospitality industry.

The first major impact that GDS had on the travel market was that the number of flights was increased. This led to an increase of competition and therefore travel industry prices fell. Travel agencies were accustomed with receiving a fixed fee (usually 10%) from everything they managed to sell, so once the prices started to fall, they felt threatened with the loss of their earnings. In order to counter this, travel agencies began to offer complimentary products such as car rental, hotel and other related forms of accommodation, bus tickets, vacation packages, yacht rides and even flowers and champagne. This was the first major step towards GDS’ being used within the hospitality industry.

The first major impact that GDS had on the travel market was that the number of flights was increased. This led to an increase of competition and therefore travel industry prices fell. Travel agencies were accustomed with receiving a fixed fee (usually 10%) from everything they managed to sell, so once the prices started to fall, they felt threatened with the loss of their earnings. In order to counter this, travel agencies began to offer complimentary products such as car rental, hotel and other related forms of accommodation, bus tickets, vacation packages, yacht rides and even flowers and champagne. This was the first major step towards GDS’ being used within the hospitality industry.

The first major impact that GDS had on the travel market was that the number of flights was increased. This led to an increase of competition and therefore travel industry prices fell. Travel agencies were accustomed with receiving a fixed fee (usually 10%) from everything they managed to sell, so once the prices started to fall, they felt threatened with the loss of their earnings. In order to counter this, travel agencies began to offer complimentary products such as car rental, hotel and other related forms of accommodation, bus tickets, vacation packages, yacht rides and even flowers and champagne. This was the first major step towards GDS’ being used within the hospitality industry.

Nowadays global distribution systems interconnect almost everything within the hospitality industry, from hotels to car rental companies and travel agencies. There are four major GDS available: Amadeus, Galileo, Sabre and WorldSpan. Some of the advantages provided by GDS are their availability (99,9% of the time), their response times (up to a fraction of a second), their multiple booking capability, as well as their top of the line architecture. On any given day, a GDS will be capable of accessing over 50000 hotels and approximately 1000 airlines. Through GDS systems, people are able to book various hotel rooms, tours, airline seats, cruises and even limousines.

The working idea behind a GDS is this: any GDS provides services to an electronic shop for all information related to travel and reservation-related needs. In other words, the GDS has become a very important distribution channel for any product sold through travel agencies. Basically, if a vendor wants to be sold through travel agents, he must be listed on a GDS

The four leading technologies which have showed a high adoption rate from the industry and have received attention from academia are: self-service, wireless, green, and security technologies. The advantages of these technologies for hoteliers include enhanced customer services and operational efficiency (Doyle, 2007), decreased guest wait times, more efficient methods to settle bills (Singh & Kasavana, 2005), reduction of energy costs (Meeroff & Scarlatos, 2007), and protection of sensitive customer data and credit card numbers

In addition, exploring the influential factors of security system usage will provide greater depth of knowledge with respect to why some hotels have adopted more security systems than others.

there is still a lack of understanding of the nature of risk associated with inadequate IT security, especially among operators of hotels that do not have their own IT departments.

Self-service technologies are commonly defined as devices or applications which permit users to produce a service independent from the direct involvement of the service provider (Meuter, Ostrom, Roundtree, & Bitner, 2000). The use of self-service technologies in the hotel industry has grown considerably, especially in the areas of self check-in, in-room check-out, and foodservice kiosks

IT systems refer to general support systems such as mainframe computer, mid-range computer, and local area network.

Some of the most significant wireless technology applications involve the use of mobile handheld devices, such as personal digital assistants (PDA), tablet PCs, and cellular phones, or RFID (radio frequency identification). RFID utilizes computer chips and antennas, allowing the chips to wirelessly communicate with a receiver.

While the major usage of RFID in the hotel industry was for inventory control purposes, it also has the potential to be utilized in ways that can provide more conveniences for the guests.

Other possible uses include placing RFID tags on items of high value as a means of theft prevention or integrating tags into guest loyalty cards for easy identification

IT investment that lowers environmental impact and IT that manages the environmental impact of other systems are commonly referred to as “green technology”

Many hoteliers might think becoming more environmentally friendly will cost more for their hotels. However, it has been demonstrated that “going green” is not only the right thing to do for the environment but also provides tangible bottom-line benefits for hotels by reducing consumption of energy and water, as well as other related costs.

Some of the risk factors involved include reliability, security, and privacy issues

A hotel with more technologies being utilized will install more security systems than those with fewer technologies.

Many of these attacks involve attempts by thieves to gain access to customer credit card data, and these attempts constitute a major portion of the risk inherent in IT security

if a system is breached and the merchant is not PCI compliant, the merchant then is responsible for all costs associated with improperly used credit card information taken from that system (Kress, 2008). These losses could bankrupt a business if the security breach goes undetected for even a short time.

IT security systems are those measures taken to protect the confidentiality and integrity of proprietary data.

two main paradigms of adoption are believed to occur: bottom-up adoption and top-down adoption.

Thus, it is reasonable to assume that organizational factors (e.g., financial factor, human resource) will influence the implementation stage of security systems at a hotel.

A hotel with sufficient IT budget will install more security systems than those with insufficient IT budget.

That is, if a hotel does not have its own IT department, it will have a negative influence on successfully installing or maintaining necessary security systems.

A hotel with its own IT department will install more security systems than those without.

Overall, the state of IT spending on security continues undiminished because managed security services are required for almost every application (Communications News, 2007).

risk associated with a breach of IT systems security (e.g., network break-ins) is very high. Consequently, no sector of the business community is exempt from attacks on their IT systems, with an attack being defined as a technique used to exploit a system’s vulnerabilities.

Given the importance of security and privacy at a luxury hotel, this study expects luxury properties to have installed more security systems than other segments

Most hotel employees use their property management systems for hotel operations and should be able to check their e-mails.

To justify the low response rate, previous studies which have compared response rates of mail and e-mail for surveys were reviewed.

the large majority of respondent properties do not have their own IT departments. Second, the people making IT decisions generally do not have IT backgrounds or training. Third, the large majority of respondent properties have little more than firewalls or antivirus software to protect their proprietary data, and these systems alone are not adequate to meet PCI standards, as they do not take steps to encrypt and protect cardholder data, maintain a vulnerability management program, implement strong access control measures, regularly monitor and test their networks, and maintain an information security policy as required by the Security Standards Council.

The respondents were asked to select from a total of fourteen securities related systems

The profile of the respondents revealed that they were experienced hoteliers with more than ten years experience in the industry

Fifty-three percent of the respondents reported that they were with chain hotels that would be considered mid-range properties with an average of 175 rooms (median of 107). Over 80% of the respondents reported working in operations, while fewer than 4% reported working in either IT or engineering (Table 1).

Nearly 70% of the respondents’ properties did not have their own IT department (69.2% did not have, and 30.8% had their own IT departments, n = 234, missing data = 10).

Fifty-three percent of them (n = 244) thought the most important goal for hotel technology would be enhancing the customer’s experience.

second identified goal was utilizing technology to help generate revenue (41%)

differentiate properties from their competition (20%), to lower expenses (16%), and to increase security (6%).

Internet kiosks in the lobby represented the most frequently used self-service technology (36.5%, n = 244), followed by kiosks for airline check-in/board pass

With respect to security systems currently in use, antivirus security systems represented the most frequently used security system (92.2%), followed by hardware firewalls, software firewalls, physical security, and encrypted login security systems.

intrusion detection was the most frequently identified system (15.6%), followed by vulnerability assessment scanning (13.5%), Internet scanning (13.1%), antivirus (11.5%), digital ID server (11.5%), and nonreusable passwords (9.8%; Table 2).

Thus, the hypothesis was supported that there was a linear relationship between the three factors and the adequacy of security systems.

The positive standardized coefficient (β) of .389 indicates that there was a statistically significant (p < .001) linear relationship between IT usage (the number of wireless, self-service, and green technologies a hotel was using) and the adequacy of security systems

The study revealed certain things of interest, the most significant of which is the need for greater emphasis on IT security among hoteliers.

only about 30% of all respondents reported having their own IT departments. Since budget hotel properties are extremely unlikely to have an IT department, it is highly likely that the very large majority of IT decisions throughout the industry are being made by hotel operators for whom IT is not their primary area of concern.

Furthermore, the focus of hoteliers for future IT implementations is enhancing the guest experience (53%) and generating revenue (41%). Very few respondents (6%) identified increasing security as a 5-year IT goal.

While almost all respondents use information systems as part of their jobs, very few are trained in the development, maintenance, and secure use of these systems.

no correlation was found between the respondents’ perceived adequacy of their IT budgets and the adequacy of installed security systems, as adequacy of IT budget did not appear as a significant term in the regression analysis.

Nearly 10% of respondents do not have so much as anti-virus protection for their systems, and nearly half do not even take simple physical precautions to protect their IT systems.

we note that no correlation exists between the respondents’ perceived adequacy of their IT budgets and the number of installed IT security systems, as the number of installed systems was not a significant factor in the regression analysis.

The sample obtained in this study represented the targeted sample: over 80% of the respondents were working in hotel operations. Furthermore, the purpose of this study was to explore hotel operators’ insight of technology usage, IT budget, and security measures rather than to confirm existing theories or to generalize the results.

it is reasonable to conclude that the respondents did not have an adequate understanding of the nature of the IT security hazards facing them for the average property does not have installed systems adequate to meet PCI standards, yet they reported having adequate budgets.

In order to adequately protect proprietary data, one must have an understanding of network security, which is an understanding apart from software functionality.

Properties with their own IT departments, however, reported that they had a higher number of installed IS security systems than did those properties without their own IT departments.

roperties without their own IT departments, in particular, have a less adequate understanding of their IT security needs than may be necessary.

This study found hoteliers’ lack of attention to security provision, training in IT, and PCI compliance can place hoteliers at great risk. For example, the cost of a single incident at a noncompliant property could result in the loss of the entire business.

It will be useful to examine the reasons why luxury properties are more likely to employ adequate security measures to determine whether this greater use is attributable to better understanding of security issues or some other factor.

The study was limited by the nature of online surveys; the response rate was quite low. Future studies could test the proposed research model via paper-based mail surveys to increase a response rate.

The hotel software market is full of options, and each vendor claims his software is the best. However investing in the right hotel software is a complex task and most hotels spend months deliberating on their investment. Unfortunately, hoteliers excel at their core skill, delivering to guests a world-class hospitality experience, and sometimes get ‘talked’ into making a wrong decision on the software they adopt.

"I think that you will begin to see more hotels going to RFID and smartphone entry before using biosystem recognition," says Wolfe. "These systems are expensive, and there are many consumers who just don't want this information stored somewhere -- for a variety of reasons."

Systems that track the other qualities that make each human unique are in development as well.

Yet more card-free security systems are on the way.

Many industry watchers are keeping an eye on Houston's largest hotel, the vast 1,200-room Hilton Americas–Houston. The hotel has a facial recognition system that can identify and track guests, employees, and even suitcases. With 700 employees and an annual $16 million payroll, the system offers benefits such as employee time-theft monitoring and prevention for the hotel. But travelers aren't that concerned about employees taking an extra cigarette break. What it means for you is that the system includes alerts if unwanted people are on the property and a response time of mere seconds if there's an incident. Customer service is heightened as well: Returning guests will be recognized and greeted by name. And with 1,200 rooms worth of luggage in transit, the system makes it a lot easier to find lost or misdirected bags.

not everyone wants to be on-camera, all the time. With concerns about "snooping" and a Truman Show-like lack of privacy, might guests feel that systems such as this are too intrusive in our hotels? "

Technology is opening new doors to hotel safety, and the way we navigate hotels is set to change in the blink of an eye. Or the swipe of a cellphone. Or the print of a finger. With futuristic systems like scent and iris scanners and digital facial-recognition, hotel security is being taken to the next level. #plain_module { width: 590px; height:170px; border: none; float:left; margin:0px; font-size:12px;} #plain_module img {border:none; width: 13px; height:14; border: 0px; margin:0px; } #plain_module .mini_main { margin: 0px; padding:0px; width:585px; height:220px; repeat scroll 0 0} #plain_module .mini_item_header {padding:10px 0px; margin: 0px 0px; font-size:16px; color: #555555; border-bottom:1px dotted #CCCCCC;} #plain_module .mini_item {padding:5px 0px; margin: 0px 0px;} #plain_module a { color: #49A3CA; text-decoration:none; } #plain_module a:hover { color: #F98419; text-decoration:underline;} span.gray {color:#949494;} .mini_main li{list-style-type: none;background-image: url(http://www.aolcdn.com/travel/bullet);background-repeat: no-repeat;background-position: 0 1px;padding-left: 10px;} Those plastic key cards that once seemed so innovative will soon go the way of the actual key. The new thing is contact-less Smartcards and RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) cards that need just be waved to allow room access. Much like the cruise world's one card system, these cards may soon make hotel stays easier by allowing guests to pay for services, as well as to check-in and check-out, through a single device. Travelers may even be able to save preferences on the cards, from pillow type to floor choice. RFID cards are already in use at New York's Plaza Hotel, and Starwood Hotels are considering introducing them into their hip Aloft and Element properties. But travelers worried they will constantly have to traipse back to reception every time they lose their card need not despair. Security systems in some hotels do away with cards altogether. "In addition to Radio Frequency Identification, there are also systems that use a smartphone, such as an iPhone," says Frank Wolfe, CEO of Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals. "When a guest checks into a hotel and provides their phone number, they get an encrypted sound code via text message." You can then play back the code to unlock your room door.

Systems that track the other qualities that make each human unique are in development as well. Movement-activated video-capture systems were showcased in New Zealand in September 2010. Researchers are at work on devices capable of recognizing an individual's gait or walk and even their DNA. Frank Wolfe says, "If you want to go 'way out there', there are some systems being explored that can allegedly sniff someone, and also systems that can recognize the pattern of blood veins on a human being which are apparently unique to the individual," says Wolfe. Quite common in Japan, vascular-recognition systems such as this are still "several years off," according to Wolfe. "I think that you will begin to see more hotels going to RFID and smartphone entry before using biosystem recognition," says Wolfe. "These systems are expensive, and there are many consumers who just don't want this information stored somewhere -- for a variety of reasons."

An HRIS system allows a business to streamline the administration of employee benefits

In support of a firm’s staffing efforts, many HRIS systems provide a sophisticated interface allowing its use by both internal employees, as well as external job applicants

Perhaps the biggest benefit that the use of an HRIS system adds to a business is its ability to create reports and presentations

A human resource information system (HRIS) is computer software employers use to manage the human resources functions of their organization.

In support of a firm’s staffing efforts, many HRIS systems provide a sophisticated interface allowing its use by both internal employees, as well as external job applicants.

A human resource information system (HRIS) is computer software employers use to manage the human resources functions of their organization. It has the capability to maintain employment records of all staff members, and employers can use it to collect metrics surrounding the firm’s staffing, performance management, compensation and benefits activities. Although not all companies utilize an HRIS system, there are many benefits to doing so.

An HRIS system typically holds all information surrounding the firm’s human resources initiatives, including details regarding the group's hiring practices, such as a comprehensive listing of all job applicants, an up-to-date index of job openings and electronic copies of each employee’s onboarding paperwork, such as I-9 and W2 forms

An HRIS system allows candidates for open positions to submit their resumes and contact information to a potential employer from a remote computer. The system then collects the information and archives it so it is easily accessible by the hiring manager.

It is crucial for tourism and hospitality practitioners to proactively incorporate new technologies into their businesses as these will improve service quality and differentiate their products and services.

In order to be able to follow the increasing guests' requests for qualitative services, it is mandatory for hotel management to constantly work on improving its functions and operations. For this it is necessary to keep track of innovations in sectors outside the hospitality, like IT sector that works on creating, developing and introducing new technologies

Hospitality is one of targeted sector that is considered appropriate for application of cloud technologies and services. Hotel Management System or widely known as Property Management System (PMS) is one of the system where IT practitioners saw the chance for improvement by ''moving it to the cloud''.

Hotels will be forced to upgrade their current systems so that they can respond to various and changeable guests' habits and requirements. However, until today, there was not enough academic papers related to usage of cloud technology in hospitality industry even though this sector is under continuous changes caused by usage of new technologies which made search, evaluation and payment of the hotel rooms easier than ever.

After comparing the two groups of hotels, from which one was using desktop PMS and other group cloud- based PMS, the results of the research were derived and presented. In conclusion of the paper, challenges with which the hotels are facing and which affect their decision of starting to use cloud- based technology as well as recommendation for future work will be discussed.

As stated by the Sharif (2010), cloud computing is the latest technology that is being introduced by the IT industry as the next (potential) revolution to change how the internet and information systems operate. The term “cloud” was probably inspired by IT text books’ illustrations which depicted remote environments (the Internet) as cloud images in order to conceal the complexity that lies behind them (Sultan,2010).

The goal of a new computing world is to develop software for millions to consume by easily accessing it over a network. Cloud service providers are making profit by charging consumers for accessing these services.

Products offered via this mode include the remote delivery (through the Internet) of a full computer infrastructure (e.g., virtual computers, servers, storage devices, etc.); the building blocks of an IT enterprise.

Services provided in this category include CPU processing on demand, virtual Web hosting, and storage on demand. The most notable vendors are Amazon’s EC2, GoGrid’s Cloud Servers, and Joyent.

With cloud computing, services and applications that were managed locally in the past requiring hardware, operating systems, web servers, as well as teams of network, database and system management experts are now provided remotely by cloud providers under this layer.

Cloud computing services can be adopted by firms in three different forms (Goscinski and Brock, 2010):

Public clouds - online applications that are open to everyone for free, such as Google

Private clouds - involves firms deploying key enabling technologies, such as virtualization and multi-tenant applications, to create their own private cloud database

Hybrid clouds - mix of the previous two types that are emerging with the intention of providing clients with a level of “control” over their resources

The cloud offers enterprises the option of scalability without the financial commitments required for infrastructure purchase and maintenance.

Reallocating information management operational activities to the cloud offers businesses a unique opportunity to focus efforts on innovation and research and development. This allows for business and product growth and may be even more beneficial than the financial advantages offered by the cloud.

These investments and efforts for a new technology to be presented open a new progress circle of technology advancements and it continues in the same way.

When creating software or an application for a hotel, IT personnel have to possess a certain level of flexibility, openness and creativity. On the other hand, hotel employees are expected to have more insightful and openminded approach towards new ways of performing business operations, sometimes take risks and have experiences with using different programs and applications.

A hotel's PMS can gather and keep valuable information about hotel guests by incorporating business intelligence tools which help hoteliers organize and make sense of the gathered data. Regardless of whether room reservations come from Online Travel Agency, Global Distribution Systems or by telephone, all of them are gathered, stored and managed in the PMS.

Simplicity of the cloud based property management system allows it to be productive. Cloud based PMS's can operate on any advice that has a web browser and the companies are putting their efforts to make it even more friendly on smaller devices like tablets and smart phones.

Business intelligence options provide hoteliers with a threedimensional view of guest data, which allows easily statistical reporting and increased hotel management efficiency.

The aim of this study was to investigate the difference in practical usage of the two types of PMS systems – cloud based and classical (desktop) ones.

On the question about the reasons for using the current PMS type in hotels, answers of Group A were based on usage of their current PMS for years and on the fact that employees in all hotel departments were used to work on it. As time passed by, hotels upgraded their system to new versions for several times and additional customization was implemented with regard to hotel preferences.

Hotels from Group B were consisted of relatively new boutique hotels that operate for more than a year and from those that were not using any kind of PMS solution (they were using Excel tables and creating reservation records manually). The reason why hotels from this group wanted to use cloud PMS was a desire to try the latest technology used in hospitality industry.

Other reasons for using it were: PMS could be reached from any place where Internet connection is available, simple but effective design with lots of visual solutions, more options to enter the important information and the fact that it is working not only on any PC but also on any mobile device due to its mobile applications.

low investment costs were main reason for hotels from Group B to decide in favor of cloud based version.

The similar amount of initial investments were confirmed by the Group A. Being considered as great amount of money for newly opened and small sized hotels to invest, management decided to try out the cloud version which allows access to this system based on monthly subscription with very little or no investment cost, depending on the solution provider.

After initial investments in the system implementation, hardware, software and training of employees, every year hotel makes a one-year-based contract for additional support services and, if needed, extra training. Support is provided any time a hotel reports an issue or malfunction by directly connecting to hotel's computer through remote programs.

Changes are made either for each hotel at a time, or after releasing new version, when provider try to convince all the current users to upgrade to it. Upgrade is provided by the extra charge, so these costs should be also considered during planning investments in classical PMS.

Regardless of which type of system they used, all participants were very careful about and interested in the matter of data security.

However, it is totally different situation with cloud based system, which is mainly open system where all authorized users and providers from outside have access to. Of course, it is up to hotel management to whom the authorization rights will be given and being an open system it makes support, development and innovation activities much easier. Cloud based PMS are hosted on some of the world's best known servers so there is no need for additional computers to be used as servers.

Although there are some great differences in functions and way of managing regarding classical and cloud based system, both have their advantages from which hotels do not want to give up.

One of the biggest advantages of cloud based PMS for the Group B is the fact that this system can be directly integrated with hotel online booking engine. This is considered as a great advantage for the hotels that besides having functional web site, wish to maximize use of its online booking engine, receive more online reservations directly from the guests and gain more profit.

Such a functional connection between hotel’s PMS and online reservation system allow hotels to have a social media integration as well. This means that hotels are able to receive online reservation through their Facebook page as well as receive direct links to its page from the biggest review sites such as TripAdvior.com.

In this paper two different approaches and perspectives on usage of cloud based and classical hotel management systems were exposed. Hotels from Group B have shown a tendency for usage of new technologies and readiness to adopt and continuously learn about them.

Among factors, affecting why hotel prefers one system over another, are type and size of hotel, through which channels are guest reservations coming, previous experience with IT stuff and different programs, etc.

Cloud based program can help them in order to update prices and room availability information to hotel's booking engine. This prevents overbooking, provides easily management of CRM functions and information, with no first investment costs or extra expenses which results in revenue increase.

Hotels that use classical PMS pay a great attention to the security issue because they do not want to risk opening their hotel for external intervention. In recent years we can find in media lots of evidence of information linkage from system that had much higher security measures than an average hotel.

Measuring the performance of cloud-provided services is another challenge for the hotel management, primarily due to the lack of measurement standards.

While investigating the previous knowledge about the other system solutions, hotels in Group A have claimed lack of information about the cloud technology and its solutions.

Even though IT stuff in these hotels has some basic knowledge about it, it is still not enough to convince the other managers about its benefits. Therefore it may be concluded that, besides trying to overcome the above mentioned challenges, developers of cloud based solutions to hotels should also work hard on training the potential clients about the positive aspects and correct usage of cloud technologies.

Lack of measurement standards for cloud-provided services in general as well as for hotels is another important limitation due to which qualitative research was conducted. Authors’ recommendation is that academicians should focus more on topics of cloud computing, cloud solutions for other business operations and on defining measurements standards for cloud services.

American suggests that distribution companies begin using Direct Connect, powered by Farelogix. Travel professionals view this alternative concept as having to use a separate system for American Airlines reservations, possibly complimentary on a trial basis to the travel management company.

This may be the biggest travel industry news in the United States and beyond, since the deletion of travel agency commissions. There is also the possibility that more consumers will begin relying on travel agents to locate the best airfares.

They suggest it will make ancillary fees, such as priority seat and meal fees easier to track for business travel.

Imagine if every airline used a separate reservation system to distribute flight information, instead of the familiar global distribution systems (GDS) in place now. Individuals and travel professionals would have to compare flight costs on every reservation website or call each airline separately.

If every airline decides to utilize a different system and charge for their product to be sold, then travel companies may have to forward their costs to travelers, hence driving up the price of airfares.

American Airlines airfares can no longer be found on Expedia or Orbitz websites, or any site powered by Orbitz. These are two of many airline distribution sites that consumers can compare and book flights they choose. Each did not come to an agreement with American Airlines for a new contract to distribute American Airlines' product.

The contracts for the global distribution systems, Worldspan and Sabre, will be up for renewal soon this year. What will happen with American flights and air fares in those systems? Will American not be offered in those systems as well, if an agreement cannot be made? What happens if other airlines decide to join with American? This may be the biggest travel industry news in the United States and beyond, since the deletion of travel agency commissions.

Though this is a major obstacle for travel agencies and other travel management companies, travel agencies, being fearful of the outcome for consumers, are ready to stand their ground and protect themselves and consumers alike.

As travel professionals are aware, Southwest Airlines are not available in most systems for booking reservations. However, they do not negotiate with distribution companies to sell their product. For the most part, Southwest is self-contained and stands on their own, as far as distribution methods go.

As travel professionals are aware, Southwest Airlines are not available in most systems for booking reservations. However, they do not negotiate with distribution companies to sell their product. For the most part, Southwest is self-contained and stands on their own, as far as distribution methods go.

five of the biggest data security concerns in the hospitality industry and highlights some best practices for protecting hospitality data.

Data Security Concerns in Hospitality

complex ownership structures

groups may use different computer systems to store information, and the information can also frequently move across those systems.

Reliance on Paying By Card

t was reported in 2017 that out of 21 of the most high-profile hotel company data breaches that have occurred since 2010, 20 of them were a result of malware affecting POS systems.

can go unnoticed for months.

High Staff Turnover

In the U.K., for example, the job turnover rate in hospitality is as high as 90 percent.

challenge to maintain teams of well-trained staff.

Compliance

Insider Threats

t involves employees selling data to third parties without the knowledge of the organization that employs them.

Faster innovation With cloud-based hotel PMS, hotels can bring new properties online more quickly. Each new release brings new capabilities to help deliver great guest experiences, improve operating efficiency, and increase employee productivity. Lower IT complexity and costs With cloud-based hotel PMS, hotels can lower upfront capital expenditure on software and hardware. By going above-property, hotels can also reduce IT complexity and IT costs. Increase in RevPAR and ADR With cloud-based hotel PMS, hotels can effectively manage rates and allocation of rooms to various distribution channels, helping to maximize occupancy, rates, and revenue. Enhanced customer lifetime value With cloud-based hotel PMS, hotels get a single customer master with comprehensive guest profiles that allow them to personalize and differentiate guest experiences.

Until recently, hotel PMS solutions were often managed on premises. On-premises solutions include hardware that can take up a lot of space. Resources were needed to manage the systems and software updates, upgrades, and patches needed to be scheduled and installed manually by onsite staff. Cloud-based, mobile-enabled hotel PMS platforms offer hotels an innovative way to engage with guests while enabling hotels to reduce IT costs and simplify their infrastructure.

ncrease housekeeping efficiency with instant updates on housekeeping mobile devices when customers check out, freeing up rooms for cleaning

is now a critical business operations system

that replaced time-intensive, paper and spreadsheet-heavy processes.

seamless guest experience.

Enhanced customer lifetime value.

Hoteliers are challenged with providing a personalized guest experience

olutions help hoteliers deliver the experience guests want, while efficiently managing their business.

Connect operations and financial processes by leveraging prebuilt integrations

Increase room occupancy and ADR through real-time rate

ster innovation.

Lower IT complexity and costs.

aditionally, a hotel property management system was defined as a platform that enabled a hotel or group of hotels to manage front-office capabilities, such as booking reservations, guest check-in/check-out, room assignment, managing room rates, and billing.

rease in RevPAR and ADR.

OPERA Cloud hotel property management system offers hoteliers capabilities to enhance operating efficiency and deliver exceptional guest experiences. The platform integrates emerging technologies with ease, accelerating innovation to meet ever-changing demands. Hotel PMS Defined

The benefits of cloud-based hotel PMS solutions include:

r

Hotel PMS now integrates to other onsite services that impact the guest's complete experience, including:

T

OPERA Cloud hotel property management system offers hoteliers capabilities to enhance operating efficiency and deliver exceptional guest experiences. The platform integrates emerging technologies with ease, accelerating innovation to meet ever-changing demands.

Provide anytime, anywhere service to your guests using a mobile-enabled cloud-based hotel PMS.

Centralize and secure customer data and improve the quality and accuracy of guest profiles with reporting and analytics.

Empower managers to improve ADR with extensive options for setting rates and advanced rate-management features for manual and semiautomated revenue management.

With a cloud hotel PMS, hotels get a single customer master with comprehensive guest profiles that allow them to personalize and differentiate guest experiences.