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My article is about all the issues that come with network in the hospitality industry. The hospitality industry is one of the world's largest industry and therefore generates billions of dollars. For example, more than 50% of hotel or travel reservations are made online which means a lot of data are being stored and collected online. Not only guest information (personal and financial) are being stored online but also employees information like social security numbers and medical information. With all of the advanced technology comes high exposure for data breach security. A security breach for any hospitality industry brings a lot of consequences. For example in a hotel if the information causes damages, the hotel operation could face liability claims for falling to protect the data by maintaining reasonable safeguards and there are so many other consequences that come along with that. But there are exclusive hotel insurance program for limited and full-service hotels that offer data breach coverage. In my opinion, If I was a manager of a big hotel, I would definitely have an insurance program because there would be a limit of liability for privacy, network security and media claims and more.

Going Green is something we all hear about in todays market and the importance of it. Many big business have been finding ways to go green any chance they get. However, with small businesses they have been slower to go green. Embracing sustainability practices for your business is something that should be practiced at any business no matter what size. With small businesses it's much more easy to move towards sustainability versus larger ones. Though their IT department don't have the financial resources of enterprise businesses. Their sizes gives them the ability to change direction quickly something that happens when initiating green practices. There are six reasons why you should embrace sustainability, which are it attracts talent, it's a market differentiator, more efficient, reduce risks, and most importantly customers demand it.

Who doesn't like to "feel good" when choosing to use a product or stay somewhere. Going green makes perfect sense. Companies that adopt green policies and procedures allow their guests to feel better about choosing their goods and services.

The Courtyard Marriott in Midtown Manhattan installs a software that can insert some ads or cut off some articles on a website that a hotel guest is visiting. And this was found out by Justin Watt, a Web engineer. After he post it on his blog, it came to a big discussion. Is it legal for a hotel to get into a personal's visit on a website? But this kind of technique also has some potential use in the future, such as hotel can deliever the newspaper to each room with all some ads or some articles being cut off by using that technique, or adding hotel's daily special menu or event on an online newspaper and also pint it delievering to each room.

I believe the security issues is what we will be getting everywhere, because what is made online, always can be tracked and checked by some smart ITs. Another aspect - is anyone exept us is interested in our security? More often we can hardly guess what is really secure ...

The Nation 2010 report mentioned that 41% of UK hospitality business do not have capability to trade online, but the chance of internet cannot be overlooked in the future. Website: a website can provide your customers a good place to visit ,they can see the plenty of food quality and high resolution images of your hotel Google: google is a well known tools which can help your business cannot be overlooked. If you put your hospitality address on google map ,customers will find you when they use google maps. That is an effective way to do your online marketing business. Social networking: company can use twitter ,facebook of youtube as social networking tools to maximize marketing. Youtube： when put a simple video clip about the location of your company, or you use the video show your products to customers, the method can attract a lot of potential guests . Offer vouchers online: online voucher sites are a good way to enhance your presence online and reach new customers. Broadening your reach: over 60% of UK dinner go online to research restaurants and more and more customers choose to search hotels through internet ,it is convenient for them to visit these information at home or abroad. Online orders: software form companies like supercontrol can be integrated on to our site to provide real time booking information. Some tools may not be so appropriate to some age groups but do not rule anything out. You can conduct a survey to figure out which one is your customers most often visit.

Too many companies do not realize how important it is for them to have a representable website. A company that has a webiste shows people it is more likely a legitimate company. A company with a nice website tells people its employees take whatever they do seriously, in which make it easier for potential customers to consider using its service. How many times have people nevigate away from a website only because how pathetic it looks not even caring how good the company is? All the money a company spends on advertisement and marketing can go to waste after just one click.

This article discusses the effects of technology on the hospitality industry. It discusses that the bottom line of using technology is to create a better level of service quality and customer satisfaction. These are including the software that the employees use to check in the guests as well. how social networking helps market to those on the web and there is minimal costs associated with this. It also talks about the next important steps that hospitality industry needs to take from other industries like stately formulation for restaurants. In conclusion this article states that technology plays a key strategic role in the growth and progression of the industry and i completely agree. with out it no company will be able to keep up with their competitors.

Technology plays an important role nowadays in different areas. Without the updated technologies, its hard for the organization to compete with its competitors. In my opinion, organization should do the environmental scanning on what competitors have in order to keep up with them.

The article is talking about that FastBooking, one of the world's leading e-marketing and online technology solution providers announced FastBooking Updater Premium which has been added new functionalities to industry-leading channel management tool. New features include the powerful reporting tools that collects and stores reservations made on internet distribution sites in a single database and generates business reports for the hotel, the centrally managed inventory that allows allotments to be automatically adjusted and dispatched to all channel, and the automatic, real-time booking of the PMS to minimize manual intervention.

The functionalities of FastBooking seem very interesting such as collecting reservations made in different websites. In this manner the productivity and performance would be more accurated providing a best service for the potential guests.

It looks like the restaurant industry slightly started recovering from the recession in 2011. an increase in revenue and guest counts let to a positive effect on information technology spending in the industry. Restaurants' information technology budgets reflected that they allocated the most money to it than they had in the past 2 years. This rise signifies that restaurants on concentrating on the important of new information and innovations to set their locations and and environments apart from others. The article states that the biggest percent of the IT budget goes to internal personnel, followed by software, hardware, external service, and last, compliance. The industry pays close attention to information technology because it is tool that helps in cutting costs and increasing efficiency. Some of the IT features in restaurant that are popular are point of sale systems, credit card swipes, and touchscreens. The latest trend toward IT investments in the restaurant industry is a sure sign that the entire hospitality industry is both becoming more interested in technology advancement and getting out of treacherous economic waters.

Technology investment seems a necessity for the upper level hotels. Nowadyas, people are not only want to stay confort, but also want to feel the high technology which can bring them comfort. The expense on the intelligence technology has become one of the most main expence among the expences. The more data can be collected from customer can gain more loyal customers and has a big impact on the revenue.

Yes, technology has a great impact in our industry and it gives a competitive advantage for those that decide to invest in the newest technology.

The debate over "high-tech" or "high-touch" is largely a thing of the past in the hospitality industry as emerging technologies drive unprecedented change in the way hotels operate and serve customers. It is clear that investments in technologies can generate greatly improved operating efficiencies, higher hotel revenues and enhanced guest services. The pace of change, however, has been so extreme as to leave many hotel organizations uncertain about what types of technology to adopt and the best ways to create a seamless integration of systems company-wide. In addition, investments made by many hotel owners and operators during the last five years have lagged as a result of the serious downturn weathered by the industry. Many hotel organizations are using technologies so outdated as to place their companies at a competitive disadvantage in the marketplace. The technology life cycle provides a model to assess how and when companies and individuals adopt new technologies. Pioneers are generally the first to acquire new technologies and take the greatest risk. A second category of technology users -- leaders -- adopt relatively unproven technologies, but the risks are known and accepted. Obsolete technology at the other end of the spectrum may seriously impair a company's ability to compete. In terms of costs and benefits, the best balance appears to be with the leaders who invest significantly less than pioneers and incur reduced risks, yet their technology investments can yield similar benefits.

Roger Smith Hotel in New York is now accepting online reservations through their Facebook page, coining the term, "Facebookings". Guests can now use their mobile devices such as any smart phone, tablet or operating system to do so. Pegasus Solutions, a company that provides technology and corporate services to hospitality industry, uses OpenView to do the "Facebookings". Roger Smith hopes that with using the power of Facebook and mobile devices, his revenues will increase.

POS systems are what keep the hotel industry operating smoothly. Technology such as this allow for employees to provide speedy and quality service as well as maintaing sales records and important data. These systems are necessary for maintaining proper documentation of guests, length of stay, rates, presences, contact information, credit card data, etc. Without a unified system, information would be much harder to store and locate when needed.

More than 52,000 surveys were completed by the American Hotel & Lodging Association regarding various concepts of hotels. As for this weeks theme: Hotels report that ecofriendly practices are still a top priority. According to the website, water saving programs are in use at 75% of properties and about the same about have a linen and towel reuse program. Although a short article, the results from the survey were able to be found. The numbers prove that the hospitality field is clearly moving towards a greener foundation; whether that is because of political pressure of because they actually care about the environment is till up for grabs.

This article introduced the new website of the Four Seasons Hotel, what the new functions are added to the new website, and how the new website help the hotel attract new customers. There are some differences between the old hotel website and the new one. Six key features of the new website can respect the strengths of the new website which are Ease of booking, On the go, Access to review, Every property has a story, Location and Personalization. Four Seasons Hotel also unveils its Four Seasons Luxury Trend Report. Some of the insights from the report include: Luxury is back, Branding moves to the social sphere, E-commerce is king, The rise of the iPad. Nowadays, most customers choose to use website to get to know a hotel, so the website has a great meaning for the hotel. The website not only needs to have enough information, images, but some unique functions to attract customers and provide better service through the internet. Like the Four Seasons Hotel's new website, it allows for multi-destination, multi-hotel, and multi-person reservations, it will paint an authentic picture of the local culture, and it will collect guests' personal interests, related content and recommendations, this information will become available on a guest's next visit and over time, delivering a completely personalized experience. Four Seasons Hotel notices that E-commerce is the king, as Seventy-eight percent of the affluent participate in social networking sites, with more than half using social media to connect with a brand. The luxury consumer is increasingly going online to research and make purchases. It is important for the hotel the keep up with the latest technology such as the iPad. According to the Four Seasons Luxury Trend Report, One-third of wealthy consumers own a tablet or e-Reader. Four Seasons revenue generated from the iPad and other tablets has grown 200 percent from 2010 to 2011. The new technology has a close relationship with the hotel and the e-business.

According to this article the Electronic commerce name as :e-commerce, has been allowing the information to fallow a course through the Internet on a worldwide web without any barriers. The fact that it has an enormous cost saving, It is also consider as an advantage for most companies around the world in the hospitality industry. This article also point how IT has become a trend in the Hospitality industry. Most people tend to look-up and travel information and destination online because it is a faster way, cost effective, time consuming most of the time more reliable than other ways. And with the evolution of the technology nowadays, software, hardware, information management, and telecommunications systems have facilitated the process between companies in the travel industry.

I agree with this article that e-commerce helps the airlines companies to save a lot of money and exceed the guest expectation with a fast and convenience service. Even though; at the beginning the companies has to spend a lot of money to implement the latest technology in order to reach markets around the world, but at the long term this investment will give back to these companies high profit.

I completely agree with the idea that e-commerce allows information to spread through out the internet, essentially, without barriers. This results in a vast potential for reaching a target market. The development of e-commerce will facilitate the growth of the hospitality industry.

Prospera Hospitality is a successful hospitality operator with 18 properties under the most recognized flags of the industry. In the article it is said that one of the reasons for this company's success is its centralized accounting software that allows them to create flexible financial reports. As different owners have different goals, thanks to its flexibility they are able to deliver them personalized reports. The software that is use by Prospera is Profitvue web-based enterprise accounting and performance management that generates individual and multi-property general ledger, enterprise resource planning, accounts payable, statistics, and financials. This software also generates side by side reports that help owners compare the performance of each hotel and identify problems or successful practices. Being a cloud based system creates a great number of advantages for this hospitality operator. As some of their properties are small with select services they don't have the resources to support on- property software. The software is installed on bigger properties and in the smaller ones only a PC with internet connection is needed.

The web-based and cloud-based PMS is becoming a must-have system in hospitality industry taking so much more advantages of IT technology to manage the hotel property instead of paperwork and pen features. By using this PMS system, hotel can reach goals of cost-control, inventory management, time-saving, high-efficient booking and double booking and so on. Customers are feeling much more satisfied about services and convenient functions. on the other hand, the cloud-based PMS is easier for employee to apply.