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Switching to the cloud from a client server platform pays off with a big drop in both the initial capital outlay and the ongoing operating costs for the property management and other systems.

pects of a franchisee’s business, from guest check-ins and housekeeping services to billing and finances. Over time new features have been rolled into the software platform making it more robust and useful for hotel owners—it’s currently distributed in eight countries and available in four languages. And while plenty of cloud-based PMS packages are now available from third-party vendors like Micros, Maestro, and RoomKey, Choice’s internal solution has garnered its fair share of attention. “We had been getting knocks on the door from IT vendors at other hotel companies and individual Choice franchisees that own other brands, saying they were interested in our product,” says Pacious, “So we set up a new division so we could take a look at other opportunities we could develop.” This led the company to launch SkyTouch last year, a new division that develops and markets cloud-based software solutions to hotels inside and outside the Choice system. Pages: 1 2 3 4 2013-06-18 Sean Downey !function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs"); (function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js#xfbml=1"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); }(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk')); (function() { var po = document.createElement('script'); po.type = 'text/javascript'; po.async = true; po.src = 'https://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(po, s); })(); (function() { var li = document.createElement('script'); li.type = 'text/javascript'; li.async = true; li.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https:' : 'http:') + '//platform.stumbleupon.com/1/widgets.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(li, s); })(); inShare0 Related Articles attachment-3

his led the company to launch SkyTouch last year, a new division that develops and markets cloud-based software solutions to hotels inside and outside the Choice system. Pages: 1 2 3 4 2013-06-18 Sean Downey !function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs"); (function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js#xfbml=1"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); }(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk')); (function() { var po = document.createElement('script'); po.type = 'text/javascript'; po.async = true; po.src = 'https://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(po, s); })(); (function() { var li = document.createElement('script'); li.type = 'text/javascript'; li.async = true; li.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https:' : 'http:') + '//platform.stumbleupon.com/1/widgets.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(li, s); })(); inShare0 Related Articles Hotel Market Insight: Cleveland a

This led the company to launch SkyTouch last year, a new division that develops and markets cloud-based software solutions to hotels inside and outside the Choice system.

Today, the vast majority of hoteliers are primarily focused on and investing in Guest Services Technology, while underinvesting in Guest Engagement, Acquisition and Retention Technology.

Guest Services Technology

Guest Engagement, Acquisition and Retention Technology

cloud hosting and CDN (Content Delivery Network) provides far better server response times and faster download speeds.

In other words, hoteliers’ technology focus and investments end where the OTA focus and investment begin.

With nearly 59% of online travelers now visiting the hotel website from mobile devices,

a mobile-first website design is a must.

Mobile-first responsive website with

Today’s hoteliers must create and manage a robust digital presence and engage, acquire, service and retain travel consumers in this increasingly mobile-first world.

Quite often different teams at the property use different sets of data in their day-to-day operations, creating a total “data integrity mess,” which directly affects the property’s guest acquisition and retention efforts.

They must understand and invest in digital technology and marketing that enables the best possible user experience, provides the best customer service, increases efficiencies and boosts revenues.

From a technology perspective, the challenge to hoteliers is to create a hotel and room environment that at least matches but preferably exceeds their guests’ home environment. In other words, hotel and room technology, amenities, and features should be the same or better than what guests already enjoy at home. These include:

The future of this technology is the Smart Guestroom which will be completely personalized to guest preferences and loyalty member profile.

“Imagine a world where the room knows you, and you know your room.”

Hoteliers are overwhelmed by the amount of technology, data, and digital marketing silos and the need to work with multitude of vendors in their guest acquisition and services efforts.

Each team has its own technology tools, databases, and vendors which are not in communication with the other teams.

These are the major impediments to the industry becoming a digital technology-driven and technology-savvy industry:

Reluctance to invest in digital technology:

Antiquated accounting in hospitality:

The technology and data fragmentation in hospitality

Unlike hoteliers, the OTAs are focused exclusively and investing only in Guest Engagement, Acquisition and Retention Technology since they do not have to worry about on-property technology and guest experiences.

Recently, an independent hotel introduced room service delivery robots, which would have been great if the rest of the hotel tech stack were in order, and if it weren’t for the 6-year old property website, and absence of any CRM technology.

Hotels should first focus on the fundamentals of the technology stack before implementing more advanced things.

The U.S. hospitality industry is a $155 billion industry. This provides endless opportunities for smart technology vendors to thrive and service the industry with state-of-the-art solutions.

The industry needs fewer, as opposed to more, technology vendors servicing the industry.

The industry has a “vendor deficit disorder” in the sense of being overwhelmed by the number of tech vendors and solutions out there.

Hoteliers need to monitor, proactively inquire about and familiarize themselves with the Next Generation Technologies that are already making their way into hospitality, including Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), Voice Assistants, Chat Bots, Robotics, and Blockchain.

Over the next 3-5 years we will witness wider adoption and implementation of the following next gen technologies:

Hoteliers must wake up to the fact that by being primarily focused on and investing in Guest Services Technology, while underinvesting in Guest Engagement, Acquisition and Retention Technology, they are allowing the OTAs more visibility to engage, acquire and retain the online travel consumer.

Unlike hoteliers, the OTAs are focused exclusively and investing only in Guest Engagement, Acquisition and Retention Technology.

Digital technology is making its way into every aspect of the industry: hotel operations, guest services and communications, revenue management, distribution, CRM and marketing.

Today’s hotelier must understand, know and use digital tech solutions in their everyday environment, and be able to assess, evaluate, recommend and acquire technology solutions to improve guest satisfaction, operational efficiencies and productivity, customer service and revenue.

Website Technology: The property or hotel brand website has become the gravitational center of all hotelier’s efforts to engage, acquire and retain the customer. Any marketing efforts of the hotel today lead the potential customers to the hotel website. Today’s website technology includes cloud-based Content Management System (CMS), comprehensive merchandising suites, reservation abandonment tools, personalization pricing and content, technical SEO, cloud hosting, and robust analytics suite

The goal here is very clear: bridge the guest data and technology silos in hospitality and create an end-to-end solution, empowering hotels to acquire new guests, engage current guests, and retain past guests by combining digital marketing, website, and CRM data into one cohesive marketing and personalization platform.

The “digital way of life” adopted by today’s tech-savvy travel consumer is forcing the hospitality industry to accelerate the adoption of digital technologies and become a 100% digital technology-enabled industry.

he hospitality industry is also one known for producing exorbitant amounts of waste.

In order to make more green, here are some of the tactics within the headlines of late that are being used to keep up with the sustainable practices to woo this generation, and those others to come.

Thanks to technology, hotels have been making strides to becoming more environmentally friendly without breaking the bank.

According to Forbes, millennials consider social responsibility and environmental friendliness when making their purchases, so brands have to rise to these significant expectations millennials have when it comes to spending their money.

Through the use of an intelligent camera, smart scales and AI-based smart meter technology, Winnow Vision analyses ingredients during food preparation, as well as plates returned to the kitchen, to assess which food items are most wasted and in what quantities.

Cruises Also Taking a Stand with Tech

the cruise line is implementing technology to help reduce its ecological impact including clean LNG as fuel on its new ships, installing an Advanced Emission Purification system on most of its fleet, making progress with its program to eliminate single-use plastics, and is increasing its number of ships that are zero landfill capable

Hotels Continue to Innovate

According to the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA) trend survey released earlier this year, supporting sustainable initiatives remains important to the lodging industry as a whole.

This tells us that hotels need to continue to innovate and the future of technology in hospitality has to be green, or those brands that do not adopt to these emerging standards face being left behind.

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

From the perspective of cybercriminals, hospitality appears to offer an ideal target vector for conducting crimes such as identity theft and credit card fraud due to the existence of multiple databases and devices containing both Payment Card Information (PCI) and Personally Identifiable Information (PII).

challenge to maintain teams of well-trained staff.

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.

Reliance on Paying By Card

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

Insider Threats

Compliance

Others go belly up, leaving behind millions of pounds of old gadgets piled in mountainous heaps atop land which has lead levels many times normal.

You’re probably not screaming into a paper bag about the $20 billion or so of gold that’s trashed in electronics every year worldwide. Precious metals come and go. But if you care about the soil that comprises the land of the brave, you should start thinking about what happened to last year’s smartphone (even if it’s just sitting in the garage).

This list of reasons isn’t exhaustive, but serves as a solid starting point for understanding the United States’ e-waste dilemma and what can be done.

U.S. e-waste recycling laws are often outdated or nonexistent

Only 25 states (plus Washington, D.C.) have legislation that addresses e-waste recycling. The other 25 don’t have comprehensive programs, and don’t report what happens to the electronics beyond occasional voluntary numbers, says Jason Linnell, head of the National Center for Electronics Recycling (NCER). Federal laws don’t explicitly address e-waste recycling.

The U.S. isn’t good at recycling

The current level and effectiveness of e-waste recycling depends on which state you live in and whether or not you trust locals to “do the right thing.” The hope for improvement sits with congressional reps, state lawmakers, manufacturers, and gadget freaks (yes, you).

Single-stream recycling hasn’t helped

Between 2005 and 2014, single stream recycling programs increased from 29 to 80 percent in American towns and cities. During that same time period, material contamination rates increased from 7 to 25 percent.

E-waste legislation regularly disappears in Congress

This is not the first Congressional session in which similar bills have been introduced and allowed to die like a first grade classroom goldfish on summer break. SEERA currently sits with the house’s Foreign Affairs Committee. Why is it so tough to pass e-waste legislation?

The U.S. is an environmental rogue

As of late 2018, 186 states and the European Union have ratified it and follow its legal framework. The United States has signed the Basel Convention, indicating an intent to ratify, but is the only developed nation that hasn’t actually done so, which

After the initial Basel Convention was adopted in 1989, many organizations said the treaty didn’t do enough to address the disposal of waste from first world countries into the developing world, and pressed for an update, which eventually became 1995’s Basel Ban Amendment. The tweak — which was attacked by many industrial powers, including the U.S., Canada, and Japan — needed three decades before it was accepted by enough countries to go into effect. In August 2019, Croatia became the 97th country to ratify it, which transformed the updated stipulations into international law in December 2019.

EPA regulations are incomplete

Federal attempts at regulation have stalled, been killed

U.S. pushes back against international efforts

As a part of the 2003 Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive (WEEE Directive), the public was guaranteed free recycling services, and conveniently located collection centers. Around the same time, the EU also passed the Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive (RoHS), aka the “lead-free directive,” which restricts the use of several toxic materials in the manufacture of circuitry and electronic products.

In Japan, the Association for Electric Home Appliances requires consumers to help pay for the processing of their goods and manufacturers to set up recycling programs. Electronics recycling has been promoted as such a point of national pride — because Japan is both a huge consumer of gadgets and the country has few indigenous precious metals — that there’s serious talk of making the 2020 Tokyo Olympic metals out of recycled materials. An estimated 80,000 cell phones need to be pulled apart and picked over to complete the plan.

State-level e-cycling programs are uneven

Certified e-cycling programs are important, but also confusing

If you’re the compliance officer who has to make sure the company’s used servers don’t wind up getting tossed in an Indonesian landfill, and you won’t have to nervously answer questions in a “60 Minutes” exposé, you probably want to get that e-waste removed by a disposal team with one of these

That all sounds great until you listen to Puckett, who helped create the e-Stewards protocols. He’s one of several people who took part in the development of R2 for over two years and then refused to continue when the proposed guidelines seemed to be too tainted by lobbyists, including ones at the Institute of Scrap Recycling (ISRI), an organization that favors a free market approach over regulation. Puckett and 13 recyclers created e-Stewards, which describes itself as the “the cleanest, most globally responsible standard for e-waste recycling.” He points out that the R2 certification still allows recyclers to export to developing countries. E-Stewards’ doesn’t. R2 recyclers can drop toxic e-waste in landfills or incinerators in the event of “circumstances beyond their

Scrap recycling lobby doesn’t like regulations

The announcer proudly explains e-cycling is a vibrant industry that adds 20.6 billion to the U.S. economy and supports 45,000 jobs domestically, “safeguarding our environment,” along the way.

Can anything be done? Possibly

Recycling isn’t the only answer for fewer landfills filled with decaying circuits. Chris Wellise, Chief Sustainability Officer for Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), which installs and recovers tech, emphasizes the importance of designing products for longevity, disassembly, and reuse.

“On average, 85 percent of the environmental impacts can be addressed in the design phase,” estimates Wellise.

Similar challenges exist for smartphones. Review IFixit’s guide for repairability and you can expect the phones that are easy to disassemble are also easier to refurbish or scrap. In an unusual display of transparency, eco-minded electronics company Fairphone sells spare parts on its site and has visual cues printed on the pieces to help novices figure out where everything goes. In case you’re wondering, it’s possible to make a Fairphone work in America, but most of the company’s sales are in Europe.

In 2018, Apple gave birth to Daisy, a robot that can disassemble 200 of the company’s phones in an hour — 1.2 million a year. The company has an installation of the machine in Austin, Texas, and another in the Netherlands. Daisy’s supply chain of used products comes from the company’s in-store trade-in program and a partnership with Best Buy.

Pretty awe-inspiring, right? Keep in mind that Apple sold over 217 million phones just in 2018 and has moved 2.2 billion iPhone units since the product line launched in 2007. The two Daisy divisions aren’t even working at capacity. Apple is willing to license the robot technology so any company can use it to disassemble phones, but none have approached them yet.

, Europe is expected to hold the largest share, thus dominating the global smart stadium market in 2016, whereas the Middle East and Africa is the fastest-growing region.

The worldwide market for smart stadiums is experiencing huge growth, mainly owing to the following factors: Rising trend of digital transformation and adoption of IoT technologies Increased focus on attracting home viewers Growing demand for better customer engagement and experience Upcoming national and international sports events across the globe like 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar Increasing government initiatives for smart building projects Growing need for modernization of network and telecom infrastructure

On the flip side, inability of traditional stadiums to match up with the smart stadium technology and low investments in smart technology by the stadium owners in its deployment are the major factors that may hamper the growth of this market.

global market for smart stadiums include Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. (China), Intel Corp. (U.S.), NEC Corp. (Japan), Cisco Systems, Inc. (U.S.), International Business Machines Corporation (U.S.), Fujitsu (Japan), Johnson Controls (U.S.), Tech Mahindra Ltd. (India), Volteo (U.S.), and GP Smart Stadium (the Netherlands).

new implementation of Oracle E-Business Suite

implementation of Oracle E-Business Suite 11i for supply chain, finance, HR, and payroll. Marriott's North American operations had a long history of

Marriott Hotels, Ltd., faced huge challenges in 2005 when the U.K.-based management company needed to separate its IT infrastructure from its parent company, Whitbread PLC, after hospitality company Whitbread sold its hotels business

the same week that Marriott's U.K. franchise completed a new implementation of Oracle E-Business Suite 11i for supply chain, finance, HR, and payroll. Marriott's North American operations had a long history of using Oracle's PeopleSoft applications, so Marriott UK and Hewitt faced

Ironically for Marriott, the Whitbread organization announced the hotel spin-offs in the same week that Marriott's U.K. franchise completed a new implementation of Oracle E-Business Suite 11i for supply chain, finance, HR, and payroll. Marriott's North American operations had a long history of using Oracle's PeopleSoft applications, so Marriott UK and Hewitt faced a decision: to stay with Oracle E-Business Suite or switch the U.K. operations to PeopleSoft or even another platform.

Ironically for Marriott, the Whitbread organization announced the hotel spin-offs in the same week that Marriott's U.K. franchise completed a new implementation of Oracle E-Business Suite 11i for supply chain, finance, HR, and payroll. Marriott's North American operations had a long history of using Oracle's PeopleSoft applications, so Marriott UK and Hewitt faced a decision: to stay with Oracle E-Business Suite or switch the U.K. operations to PeopleSoft or even another platform.

“MyCheck’s reordering capability is a powerful technological innovation that revolutionizes in-location ordering and the guest experience because unlike tablet solutions, our branded mobile payment apps seamlessly connect to the point-of-sale, link guest consumption to rewards and foster ongoing brand engagement,” said Tal Nathanel, U.S. CEO of MyCheck.

location

MyCheck creates custom apps for hospitality groups and restaurant chains to extend their brand into the mobile world. With faster checkout, increased loyalty and customer engagement, MyCheck turns a clinical payment process into a dynamic experience for the guest, providing tools to understand customers better and interact with them in more mea

Unlike traditional tablet solutions, MyCheck does not require any special hardware or related installation or maintenance. Because it is integrated with a restaurant’s POS, the MyCheck platform extracts data and analytics on consumption that can illuminate actionable marketing programs.

“MyCheck’s reordering capability is a powerful technological innovation that revolutionizes in-location ordering and the guest experience because unlike tablet solutions, our branded mobile payment apps seamlessly connect to the point-of-sale, link guest consumption to rewards and foster ongoing brand engagement,” said Tal Nathanel, U.S. CEO of MyCheck

MyCheck creates custom apps for hospitality groups and restaurant chains to extend their brand into the mobile world. With faster checkout, increased loyalty and customer engagement, MyCheck turns a clinical payment process into a dynamic experience for the guest, providing tools to understand customers better and interact with them

Millennials (24- to 35-year-olds) believe they are most vulnerable to a cybersecurity breach when staying at a traditional hotel rather than when booking with Airbnb.

More than 25 million U.S. consumers self-reported that a restaurant visit has resulted in a data breach.

Earlier this year, Morphisec discovered FIN8, a cybercrime group most known for targeting the retail industry, was actively targeting POS systems within hospitality companies in the U.S. and abroad.

“Increasingly, attackers are targeting weakly defended point-of-sale systems as an entry point into the broader hospitality organization network. With many POS devices in the hospitality industry still running on Windows 7 or even Windows XP-based embedded operating systems, they are increasingly vulnerable to breaches, and cybercrime groups are taking notice.”

aware of the new 20-percent deduction, which has restrictions based on income and asset base but also offers upside for entities that qualify.

the bonus depreciation provision will phase out after 2023, but for now investors can expense personal property in real estate assets acquired after Sept. 27, 2017.

business interest deductions.

which has hit a 30-year high in the U.S.—in some markets

hat would mean average daily rate and revenue per available room would start to slow in those markets.

s up 2 percent year over year with almost 180,000 new rooms in the works as of June.

Transaction pace increased about 4 percent during the past 12 months ending in June

Home-sharing services are still top of mind for the hotel industry because many hotel guests have flocked to these accommodations.

t’s been hovering near 3 percent since

Capital is abundant now, but lending could tighten quickly if interest rates rise fast

online visibility

user-generated reviews

240 small and medium-sized hotels

online retailers have thus been gaining increasing market power in influencing customers’ purchases (i.e., Inversini and Masiero, 2014, Silva, 2015, Yen and Tang, 2015) and have improved market transparency and uncertainty for travellers (Toh, Raven, & DeKay, 2011). For this reason, their role is now considered an infomediary (Chen, Yang, & Wang, 2015) because their capability to add value in transactions depends primarily on collecting and processing information about prices, destinations and travellers’ reviews.

positive effect on hotel revenue growth

outweighed by a negative effect on gross profit margins.

managerial implications discuss how hotels should use social media features according to a strategic view based on pursuing the horizontal and vertical differentiation of their services in an attempt to create more economic value from their online visibility and to protect profit margins from the intermediation in their customer relationships.

Online reviews provide additional information for travellers to mitigate the uncertainty about the quality of a hotel and about its fit to their needs and preferences on accommodations and destinations.

50,115 user-generated reviews on TripAdvisor,

shake up long-lasting reputations through reviews posted by unmonitored influential opinion makers

Internet can be a value-destroying mechanism for small businesses and can deter hotels’ capacity to defend profit margins

empower buyers

ncrease the degree of rivalry among firms that sell and distribute their products/services

bargaining power

First, online ratings can have a beneficial effect on the occupancy rate of rooms, which is especially important for larger hotels that bear a greater cost of idle capacity, especially in off-peak periods. Second, visibility on social media can allow hotels to apply a price premium thanks to greater economic value generated by market transparency, the reduction of the search costs for both parties involved in the transaction

brand image of hotels,

maller hotels with opportunities for market growth in segments in which they have a limited market presence

exploring the relationship between online visibility and the creation of economic value in terms of increase of sales and profitability for a panel of 240 Italian small and medium hotels

ive million registered users who visit the platform 30 million times per month on average

we consider only the profitability (the value appropriation achieved through online visibility) and not the increase in sales (the value generation achieved through online visibility) because hotels’ market positioning affects a hotel’s capability to appropriate the economic value brought by online visibility and influences hotels’ ability to negotiate the infomediation fees, which in turn impact hotels’ profitability.

social networking (i.e., the opportunity that users have to connect with people with similar travel interests, needs or experience) and knowledge sharing

travellers can more easily find persons who share similar travel preferences and needs. In a similar way, a user consulting travellers’ reviews can see if the reviewer is a member of his/her friends’ social networks on other platforms, such as Facebook.

beyond allowing hotels to improve their room occupancy rates, online visibility may allow hotels to apply price premiums.

respond strategically to online reviews

positive relationship between online visibility and sales

three different forms.

first is the rating assigned by users, who can express their evaluations on a quantitative scale.

rates given by users are distributed over the scale.

number of reviews that users give to hotels

we may expect that online visibility on social media – seen as a composite measure of the three above-mentioned elements – can positively impact hotels’ revenue growth

hotels’ market positioning between their online visibility and profitability.

Online visibility has a negative effect on the gross profit margin of a hotel.

Consequently, high star-rating hotels apply price premiums for their superior quality and attract less price sensitive customers, who have a higher willingness to pay for quality

we expect that less price sensitive customers are willing to pay more for hotels with higher customer ratings on infomediation platforms because they perceive these hotels to be more valuable

The relation between online visibility and sales profitability is stronger for hotels with high star-rating.

iche tourism appears to offer a more meaningful set of experiences, given the knowledge that tourists’ needs and wants are being met

“what makes a tourism destination truly competitive is its ability to increase tourism expenditure, to increasingly attract visitors while providing them with satisfying, memorable experiences, and to do so in a profitable way” (p. 2).

However, a number of studies have reported that online user-generated reviews are perceived as more credible than traditional word-of-mouth when they come from persons with similar attitudes and preferences

Hotels in niche destinations are thus better positioned to extract more economic value from online visibility.

to tell us about the state of the industry's telecommunications revenue stream - a stream that includes Internet fees.