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This article discusses Wyndham's decision to transition its property management into the cloud based services through Oracle Hospitality. Their decision was based on the several advantages offered by Oracle's cloud based system such as cost savings, the simplified application and use of only one central system and the protection from cyber attacks. Wyndham is the first hotel chain to adopt Oracle's new cloud based version of their management system.

Informative page reflecting Event Statistics - Post-Covid

This article discusses ways that the travel industry can combat cyberthreats. The main cyber concern for hotels' is phishing, which is a scam that collects credit card information by pretending to be apart of a hotel's front desk staff. The article mentions that IT departments should do routinely updates to operating systems and back up data and files. Employees should also be trained to help prevent data breaches. The author briefly touched on what to do when your hotel system is hacked and even dives into how the airline industry is still very unequipped to handle cyberattacks and threats. This is a great read to learn how to keep up with best security practices in the hospitality and tourism industry.

4.15 billiion are active in social networks, this shows social network has a big impact on travelers' decisions. Keywords such as "safe travel" became popular after Covid 19. Hashtags are useful in order to create brand awareness in social media, put hotels on map, making them searchable and creating brand authenticity. Social cause campaigns improve how hotels interact with customers and it helps generate leads. Influencer marketing is a form of word of mouth on social media platforms. Collaboration with influencers in Youtube, TikTok, etc is a good idea since they have their own follower base targeting some of the biggest customer segments in hospitality. The holdbacks of incfluencers marketing should be considered.

This new report is forecasting cloud-based wellness software to be a good financial investment. It is predicted to grow at a solid pace thru 2030. This research is based on the diverse market and detailed analysis from 2017-2021. Some of the top companies covered in this report offer services from in-home massage to health beauty services on-demand. Cloud-based services such as these offer digital technology access at a low start-up cost.

Event Management Software is ever evolving as is the way promoters and companies look to make events, conferences and conventions more profitable and case a wider net of attendees. As those additional revenue streams present themselves, event management software companies are continually streamlining the event process of sponsorships, speakers, maps, virtual meetings, touchless check-ins and much more.

In the emerging "post-COVID-19 economy" hoteliers are having to make serious changes to current operations in order to make guests feel safe to travel again. The biggest tool in this is the reliance on cloud computing for a more contactless hotel experience. Hotels are now working directly with cloud computing companies to create seamless apps for the best hotel stay experience.

China is going to be selling a lot fewer alarm clocks to Marriott as travelers rely more and more on their mobile devices. Since this article was published in July 2021, Marriott has since made it official that alarm clocks are no longer required in guest rooms. The mobile phone has made the alarm clock requirement obsolete. The majority of travelers view this as a positive change as travelers complain about the cleanliness of the alarm clock, being awakened by the previous guest's set alarm that hotel staff does not cancel, needing space on the nightstand for their own mobile devices, and the glare of backlit numerals interfering with their sleep at night. Owners appreciate the cost savings, yet their hotels may experience an influx of wake-up call requests in the absence of the alarm clock; however, most phone systems allow guests to set their own wake-up call through the telephone without operator assistance.

Geo-targeting is a step above geo-fencing and like that of Proximity marketing is a digital marketing technique meant to geographically target consumers within a set of parameters. The purpose of this is that while digital marketing has been around, is being used and the future of it is quite relevant it requires companies to adapt using various methods of marketing to reach the consumer. And geography is an area that is highly required. And unlike geo-fencing, geo-targeting is more generalized in the locale. It is asserted that companies need to have a better understanding of their guests at a basic level than before. "Hotels can no longer take a blanketed approach---understanding where a guest is coming from and the impact of a hotel's digital footprint" is just as important. A reason hotels might want to use geo-targeting is that direct business captures "95% more revenue than that of indirect channels". Interested enough many guests book last minute and that accounts for 72% off mobile bookings. Geo-targeting relies on revenue to determine its success. One issue noted is the use of VPNs can create miss-targeting when users are receiving messages from a location they are not in. Several things to note are prioritizing a focus on existing and prior guests because they cost less than advertising to new guests. Secondly, using CRM can create personalization through guest profiles and add an extra special factor to their experience. One example shown was Denny's and it showed an increase in visits. Geo-targeting is a marketing strategy that can help companies stay relevant.

This take on proximity marketing is interesting in that it requires a little more thought in implementation because you aren't just narrowing it down to a specific locale, you are creating a wider net to catch people in. That means you have to have a broader understanding of who you are catching which would be multiple targets that may not be alike, but have similar needs. They used the pandemic as an example of how it benefited them to use geo-location, While not marketing to a whole section of the US they targeted a more localized net ( a state away) but not too narrow as to leave out a specific target. It showed some success in that they were able to save money and help bring brand awareness to a different type of consumer. They not only target those locally but "neighbors" and I know that I as a new guest appreciate seeing local people utilizing a product or service and come back for more because it gives me an idea that the product or service or both is appealing to guests. This also helps hinge on the word of mouth of the customer. That is an additional positive aspect of this type of marketing. Seeking local rather than national or global customer-created brand devotion.

Automation helps Revenue Managers in many ways beyond just reducing manual work. It makes data-driven pricing easier and reveals emerging market trends in their earliest stages. It decrease the time you spend on back-and-forth communication and discussion.

This article is about the growth of the event management software market. The market is expected to grow to 11.06 Billion dollars by 2021, thanks to drivers such as the need/want to automate the entire life cycle of an event. This is so interesting because I never saw it coming, personally. I was not even aware there were as many different companies out there as there are offering this service.

The article reports the state of Hawaii's hospitality and tourism industry is beginning to become more aware of how going green initiatives will effect the economy in a positive way. A management member of a consulting firm stated the efforts the hospitality and tourism industry need to be known to the community, guest and the staff of the hotels. He feels the research, figures and strategies need to be posted so everyone understands their role in the advancement of the states main industry's desire to become more sustainable. Hawaiian Airlines along with various hotels are reducing waste and sourcing more local items with in their outlets.

This article discusses the hospitality industry's developing technology sector, claiming an age of interconnectivity. This industry has long been plagued by the stereotype of being behind technologically, largely due to long standing and set-in ways that utilize old systems. A few numbers worth mentioning include enterprise hospitality spending an average of 3.5 percent of revenue on IT versus 7.9 percent for financial services, 6.1 percent for public sector, and 5.9 for high tech. In a study done by Lodging Technology Study, 53 percent of hoteliers cited that the outdated tech architecture set-in and the effort it would take to change them is what keeps people from investing in new technologies. Fortunately since then, this sector has been gaining momentum, expecting to be the fastest growing IT sector between 2018 and 2021. The article continues on talking about the barrier of integration fees and how tech innovators today are forced to pay massive fees to be compatible with existing systems, which carry on to consumers of these technologies. For hoteliers to utilize these new technologies, large sums of money have to be paid upfront and there's a significant lag in actually getting to try the product. The rest of the article discusses a few points we do in this week's module: pros and cons to two-way interconnectivity in PMS systems and third party technology providers.

I found with this article that cyber attacks are becoming alarmingly more common than we have prepared ourselves for. Businesses now need to invest in their own cyber security department or, as the article suggests, apply a cyber security budget to each department. With security budgets predicted to increase 14%, money should be collected through the customers over a lifetime of the customer so that the budget is continually there. I found this article to stand out to me because I never thought of cyber security being so crucial, but it easily makes sense. I think a lot of business lack in providing the proper amount of security to prevent cyber attacks. Personally, I never heard of a cyber security department so this was new for me to read about.

This article breaks down the 5 largest threats we face in terms of cybersecurity. Since the pandemic started, cybersecurity complaints have increased fourfold. These losses are piling up dramatically, necessitating an increased level of vigilance and preparedness.

In The Proven Principles Podcast, Ron Swidler explains the future of hotel bars and food & beverage operations - it's robots! This is a part of a larger presentation on the Hotel of Tomorrow" - https://www.hospitalitynet.org/video/69001240.html https://hoteltechnologynews.com/2020/09/the-hotel-of-tomorrow-project-showcases-future-design-and-technology-concepts/ Clearly MSC Cruises anticipated this and included a hefty chunk of capital expenditure budget for this technology investment. They also tried to incorporate the 'human touch' so ingrained in hospitality interactions.

This article talks about when Andy Jassy started at amazon. He also started their cloud computing. Amazon now owns 30% of all cloud computing. This is almost half of the worlds public cloud computing infrastructure!

The article describes how the pandemic accelerated the adoption of technology for many people and how it shifted the needs of people looking for short-term/hotel stays. Companies that thrived during the pandemic were the ones that offered things that began trending as people needed to stay away from others and inside for large periods of time: contact-less experiences and apartment settings rather than traditional hotel rooms. As we move forward from the pandemic and travel begins again, hoteliers will need to re-evaluate their technology and invest in guest experience software tools so their hotels can compete with the new trends in hospitality spaces.

This article provides insight on three various types of IT providers and there methodologies. It definitely emphasizes the benefits of specialized companies that focus on cloud computing as their IT service and business model and their ability to b=continually adapt to the changing environment and their desire to create long term relationships. It also talks about how larger IT companies are more focused on strategy rather than implementation of systems. It also talks about how the larger IT companies are much more focused on their own profit than providing services to the client and how cheaper off shore IT companies basically provide the same services at a lesser quality