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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.

sacrificed a chance to connect with your customers.

Human interaction and connection building can't be automated. Some tools may aid in that relationship, but ultimately people matter.

Automate the things people can't see and put as many human beings into helping customers and building connections as possible

The benefits or Visa’s 3-D Secure™ are clearly seen: high level of security for consumers, a significantly lower chance of chargeback and credit card fraud, and overall confidence in CNP transactions.

As for MasterCard’s SecureCode™ is resembles Visa’s 3-D Secure™. MasterCard credit card holders register at MasterCard’s SecureCode™ website and asked to provide a personal secure code, which will then be asked for when purchasing online.

he benefits for e-Commerce merchants using Visa’ 3-D Secure™ and MasterCard’ SecureCode™ technologies are:

The benefits for consumers who make purchases at e-Commerce online stores bearing the 3-D Secure™ or SecureCode™ logos, thus using 3-D Secure™ or SecureCode™ for safe processing are:

3-D Secure™ and SecureCode™ will definitely improve the world of e-Commerce and CNP online shopping.

It can become challenging to track each employee’s availability and providing updates to all of your staff as soon as possible.

Having an employee time tracking tool that’s integrated with your payroll system ensures that all data can easily be found in one place. This eliminates the need for multiple systems, where information can be easily misplaced.

By having employee information readily available, it allows your employees to easily access and track their time worked.

By having a tool that allows you to automate calculations for gratuities, you have the ability and control to accurately pay out employees based on the hours worked in a certain position.

Ultimately, by automating these calculations you not only save time, but you can ensure that you are accurately paying gratuities to your staff.

Now that your HRIS reporting tool pulls the payroll and scheduling information into one place, you no longer have to verify consistency across all those other systems.

A better hospitality HRIS reporting tool should support your payroll and people

But it should also assist you in your budget reports, for things like occupancy rates and creating weekly cost profit analysis reports.

This gives you the control you need to accurately and confidently track the amounts due and paid.

Your hospitality’s payroll and people operations will become more efficient.

Level up your HR Tech, and have full control when it comes to managing your people.

where 26 percent of travel agents stated that they used their GDS platform more often than in the past and 19 percent said they used the GDS Shopping Displays more often than before.

"Travel agents are increasing GDS hotel use, and have once again confirmed their confidence in GDS Shopping and Booking Displays,"

Travel agents in 25 countries across the Americas, EMEA (Europe/Middle East/Africa) and Asia/Pacific regions who subscribe to one of the four major GDS systems were asked to participate.

n the survey, travel agents worldwide also indicated that promotional messages are effective and often prompt bookings: 66 percent of all travel agents surveyed who were aware of promotional messages requested additional information by looking at the screen attached to the promotional message.

"This survey definitively shows that promotional messages are not only an excellent way to reach travel agents, but also a valuable sales catalyst,

s the leading provider of revenue generating solutions for hoteliers across the globe. TravelClick offers hotels world-class reservation solutions, business intelligence products and comprehensive media and marketing solutions to help hotels grow their business.

is one of the fastest growing marketing research firms in the United States. With offices across the country and in Europe and partnerships with many of the largest companies in the financial services, consumer package goods, automotive, healthcare, media, technology and travel and leisure industries worldwide, PMI also offers advanced advertising and brand measurement along with direct marketing expertise.

One example that Napoli finds interesting is how retailers are teaming with influencers to co-create exclusive collections. (Think Something Navy's success with Nordstrom). "Those kinds of partnerships allow the influencer the ability to reach out to their following," says Napoli. "Not only is the influencer co-creating with the brand or retailer, but also really leveraging Instagram tools, which are polls and submitting feedback, to determine what to create next."

new apps are starting to pop up with social commerce at the core of their business.

Each brand or store on Countr, including Bloomingdale's, Outdoor Voices, Aritizia and hundreds more, is personalized with product recommendations based on the user's social activity.

"Starting Countr came from the realization that online shopping is still really inefficient and, more importantly, shopping is fundamentally a social experience,"

In January, Eric Senn launched Storr, another app in this space that essentially turns people into retailers. "We're really excited about the potential that Storr has to revolutionize traditional retail and capitalize on the social commerce movement in a way that empowers people to make money that would normally go to traditional retailers," says Senn.

"We're moving away from channel-first commerce to people-first commerce."

"Along the way, we lost the social experience that shopping can be, which so many people have enjoyed throughout the history of commerce."

"What Twitch did was it created not only a livestream experience, but a meaningful interaction through that livestream over a shared experience."

Creating a space that's a one-stop shop where people can have a community and share images of items they may be able to purchase back and forth with friends — there's a real ROI to that. That's the revolution here."

Baha Mar is billed as one of the largest hospitality projects ever built in the Western Hemisphere, with partners including Grand Hyatt, SLS, Rosewood, Jack Nicklaus, sbe, Peter Burwash International and luxury retailers including Bulgari, Cartier, Rolex, Tiffany & Co., amongst others.

2. Automated data integration and consolidation  Hotel chains that manage multiple business units require to see the bigger picture via one standardised, integrated report.

3. Business planning  This feature allows managers to compare data through different variables (time, department, cost centre) and different scenarios, thus, enables them to plan for the future in details. 

4. Collaboration tool 

An accounting software that allows simultaneous connection across the organisation can minimise the time and effort needed to send documents back and forth, ensure that only relevant personnel will be involved in the process, correct data/ documents are forwarded to the right managers for approval, and more importantly, guarantee reports are done on-time and complied to industry standards. 

5. Reservations 

The accounting and reservations functions should be tightly integrated to ensure all inflow of data and money is captured whenever a booking is made, and deposits/payments are done. 

The customer's information stored in CRM feature and their spending recorded in the accounting software is also useful for future marketing campaigns. 

7. Food cost control 

8. Customer relationship management (CRM) 

6. Labour scheduling  Integrating labour scheduling into accounting software allows managers to control costs and employee expenses better by ensuring minimum staffing, containing overtime hours, and scheduling the best performing staff during the busiest times/ seasons. 

Cloud accounting software not only offers all of the aforementioned features but also contains these four “impossible to ignore” benefits: 

Automation and accuracy:

Anywhere, anytime access:

Ease of use:

Speed and efficiency

The growing concern over sustainability in the business sector led to developments in innovative environment friendly processes and tools collectively called green technology

Green technology enables the eco-friendly practices of business firms.

The concept of sustainability emerged in the field of natural sciences in recognition of the scarcity of natural resources and the need to rationalize usage to secure sufficient resources for future generations (Kirk, 1995).

The concern of sustainability is ensuring the continuation of the well-being of people and protection of the environment from wasteful use or destructive activities.

The implementation of sustainability plans involves innovative methods and tools accessible to hotels and responsive to the multi-dimensional issues including impact of operations on the environment experienced by hotels. Green technology understood as eco-friendly tools and processes or environment friendly products support the successful implementation of sustainability plans in the hospitality industry.

1.      Minimized pollution and rational energy and water consumption. 2.      Respect for culture and tradition. 3.      Community involvement in the hospitality economy. 4.     Consideration of quality instead of quantity in terms of the visitors to tourist destinations. 5.      Economic benefits redound to the community. (Robertson, 2007)

In relation to environmental sustainability, there are also considerations for inclusion into the sustainability plan of hotels to ensure that they meet environmental compliance (Butler, 2008)

However, even if sustainability planning is a tedious task, the expected outcomes are long-term and compelling because this determines the continuity or viability of hotels, firms whose future survival depends on sustainability (Butler, 2008).

1.      Scale and distribution of operations in a given area. 2.      Hotel demand and means of alleviating the negative effects. 3.      Protection of key assets historic buildings, townscape or coastline. 4.     Contribution to other related areas such as economic development and cultural preservation. (Sharma, 2004)

Since the sustainability of hotels spans multidimensional aspects, the contribution of hotels to other areas such as employment or job creation also supports its sustainability.

Green technology received recognition as an aspect of human society and therefore part of sustainability. In a sustainability panel of representatives from the hospitality industry, sustainability as a strategy meant addressing today’s needs without adversely affecting tomorrow’s needs (Knowles, 2008).

Examples of product enhancement are energy saving appliances and fixtures such as fluorescent instead of incandescent lights or intelligent air conditioning systems that regulate room temperature depending on the presence of its occupant

The extent of reduction of waste varies since this could range from minimal to significant decrease in the volume of waste generated, capacity of landfills, and transportation needs. By benefiting the environment, economic benefits also accrue. (Billatos & Basaly, 1997)

dopting waste management processes and tools accrues financial, economic, and environmental benefits for hotels.

Key to these activities is the ability to harness the full functional value of materials and product components at the least possible additional processing cost for recovery and reuse. (Billatos & Basaly, 1997)

First is design of recycling or the cost-effective manner of recovering and reusing materials. The design provides support during the disposal stage to ensure low added cost for recovery. Second is design for disassembly encompassing the methods enabling the minimization of cost in segregating reusable materials. This leads to savings that accumulate when design interventions are made during the stages of material selection and assembly that already separates reusable materials

Third is toxics management comprised of the activities of controlling and eliminating toxic materials that are innate components of products such as cadmium or lead. Excessive levels of these toxic materials are hazards to health and the environment. (Billatos & Basaly, 1997)

Environmental benefits include reduced accumulation of waste and lesser risk of soil, water and air contamination of toxic production. (Billatos & Basaly, 1997)

Pollution prevention involves the elimination of processes in manufacturing that cause pollution. This requires change by redesigning the production process in a manner that prevents the accumulation of harmful by-products or the redesign of the finished products so there would be no use for processes that result in hazardous by-products. The prevention of pollution in production design exacts capital investments but the cost of redesign is deemed less when compared to the cumulative cost of controlling pollution, which would likely increase with new regulations imposing more active methods of pollution control. (Billatos & Basaly, 1997)

Green technology as a process and a collection of tools addresses four objectives, which are a) waste reduction, b) materials management, c) pollution prevention, and d) product enhancement (Billatos & Basaly, 1997). There are processes and tools specifically targeting any one, some or all of these objectives so that the appropriate choice depends on the priority of hotels.

The technological development of product enhancement innovations is escalating and promise greater functions for business establishments. (Billatos & Basaly, 1997)

Utilizing product enhancement technologies influence the sustainability of hotels in terms of savings on operating cost, lesser pollution and waste in the built environment, and value creation for environmental conscious customers (Yaw, 2005).

Overall, green technology supports the sustainability of hotels by decreasing a wide range of economic and non-economic costs to support the financial viability of hotels in the long-term and conserving the natural environment on which the hospitality industry depends for the continuity of business. By adopting green technology, hotels gain processes and tools it can use to secure its sustainability.

A range of energy saving technologies is available to the hotel industry. These technologies could make hotels green buildings by targeting various areas for energy saving.

One is electric heating pumps as alternatives to conventional electric boilers or condensing/non-condensing boilers requiring gas to run. The use of this green technology by a hotel in Hong Kong with a rooftop swimming pool showed a reduction in energy consumption by 26.5-32.5 MWh and a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 12,000 kg. When computed over a ten-year period, using this technology would save the hotel HK$226,400 in energy cost savings. The hotel can earn back the cost of adopting this technology in two years. (Chan & Lam, 2003)

Building designs able to harness alternative sources of energy comprise green technologies that support the sustainability of hotels. Solar panels continue to gain function in energy saving for hotels (“Building in a green edge,” 2008) although the payback period is longer than expected, the energy saving potential extends to the long-term. The use of building designs that harness natural light such as skylight atriums that do not use artificial lighting during the day are also green alternatives for hotels (Kirby, 2009).

Another direction of green technology for the kitchen is the reuse of exhaust heat from the kitchen by harnessing the heat from the exhaust or condensing hot air to produce steam for use in cooking. This is a means of recycling energy. However, this involves the integration of the design in the structure of the kitchen or the building itself, which means greater investment. (Higgins, 2008) Nevertheless, further innovations in this technology could enhance practical value for hotels.

In other areas of hotels such as rooms and bathrooms, e-sensor systems and LED lights comprise green technology options. E-sensor systems apply to different systems such as lighting and air conditioning. The e-sensors have the capability to change automatically the lighting or air conditioning settings depending on the area of the room where there are people or temperature changes in the room. LED lights offer greater energy savings than fluorescent lights so this represents the third generation in lighting technology. (Kirby, 2008) Systems thinking in energy management comprise a promising green technology in saving on energy costs (Sobieski, 2008).These technologies are widely available and accessible to different hotels. The energy saving is experienced in the short term and the payback period is shorted. The problem with this is hotel guests tampering with the system leading to added cost for repairs. This means that awareness and information dissemination are important for the effectiveness of these technologies.

Another green technology for rooms is the biodegradable key cards. These have the same life span as the conventional key cards except that these are biodegradable or recyclable. (Gale, 2009) These require little cost with high environmental impact.

This involves the placement of water treatment plants that recycle water used in baths for flushing in toilets. (Edwards, 2004) These comprise viable and accessible water conservation practices that would contribute savings on the cost of water to rationalize the consumption of water as a scarce resource.

One is the conscious involvement of hotels in the protection of the environment since the nature of the business of the hospitality industry and the closely connected industries such as tourism heavily rely on the soundness of the natural and socio-cultural environment for business

The other is the investment in environment protection in a manner that secures economic and financial as well as a range of non-monetary benefits for hotels in the long-term (Vermillion, 2008).

Energy consumption is also a benchmark of the eco-friendliness of hotels

The water conserving technologies provide the process and tools for hotels to achieve this benchmark.

Waste and pollution management are also benchmarks of the ecological involvement of hotels.

Green technology takes the role as an enabling process and tool for hotels to become sustainable.

With hotels competing to maintain its customer base and pull customers to shift to the hotel’s services, green technology could become an enabler for hotels to become competitive.

Investing in green technology enables hotels to significantly cutback on operating cost. This enables hotels a wider profitability margin and room to offer promotional prices to attract more customers (Jones, 2002).

Green technology has taken a central role in the sustainability of hotels. The concept of sustainability of hotels involves the aspects of environmental protection and business viability.

The use of green technology also contributes to the viability of business firms in terms of financial standing and non-financial competencies in the long-term. Going green attracts the niche market of environment enthusiasts that contribute to sales. Using the range of green technologies available would also result in savings from operating costs in the long-term, which increases the profit of hotels and gives them flexibility to invest in marketing activities.

It is a sound strategy for hotels to consider green technology as a process and a collection of tools in support of sustainability goals.

to cool, shelter, and shade the shopping center.

know how the wind, sun, and rain behave at the Brickell site: Would the breezes off Biscayne bay flow down the middle of the shopping center? Is it realistic to think wind would provide enough coolant? The designers at HDA didn’t have to guess about weather patterns on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. They conducted digital simulations to reenact the natural forces of Miami’s climate, enacted upon a 3-D model of the development’s buildings.

Horowitz was looking for applications of robotics technology that could be improved.

Since 2016, nearly 5% of the tourism & hospitality entities that BitSight tracks (out of a total of almost 2,000) have experienced a publicly disclosed data breach. This is the 4th highest percentage of breach out of the 23 key sectors BitSight monitors, trailing only healthcare, education, and government.

For all companies, tourism & hospitality has the 2nd highest percentage of companies with an Open Port grade of D or lower (Education is 1st).

For example, Fortune 1000 tourism & hospitality companies are performing poorly compared to the sector as a whole when it comes to reducing unnecessary Internet exposures (“Open Ports”).

Though it is often assumed that larger organizations perform better in cybersecurity, the data on Fortune 1000 companies in this industry suggests otherwis

Ultimately, cyber incidents like the Marriott breach confirm that companies in this industry need to be much more about proactively mitigating the risk posed by their supply chain given the sensitive consumer information they contain in their databases.

Handheld wireless Point of Sale (POS) systems are a portable version of a POS system, which is defined as the time and place in which a transaction is made. Point of sale computer systems include cash registers, optical scanners, magnetic card readers, and special terminals.

This market provides a large opportunity for the handheld wireless POS system in today’s customer satisfaction driven industry, especially since the once costly systems are finally poised to make the transition from niche product to mainstream acceptance

These benefits lead to cost savings and return on investment for the pur chase of a handheld POS system. Customers are the reasons restaurants are in business, and the time saved by using a handheld device, rather than waiting in line to place an order on a traditional POS system that averages over four min utes per order, can be used to better serve the guests.

Handhelds can also ensure accuracy by prompting servers with cooking temperatures and salad dressing choices and also offering up-selling suggestions.

One option for the handheld devices is a portable receipt printer that can allow servers to print out checks instantly without waiting in line at the POS station. Customers can also pay immediately if the handheld POS systems also offer credit card payment capability with a swipe area built into the unit.

This tech nology can also be used to inform a server when an item has been 86’d (no lon ger available) enabling the customer to make another selection immediately rather than finding out minutes later having the guest be even more disap pointed.

a key advantage to what handheld POS system a restaurant purchases will be what ports it has to hook up bar-code readers, cash drawers, voice-over IP capability, printers, fingerprint recognition and other emerging technologies

Some handhelds can even be used for back office inventory control before the restaurant opens by de-coupling software applications onto the interface (On Technology, 2004). Other benefits will be handheld systems that are easy to upgrade and service.

While many of the drawbacks and problems are only perceived or occur only in early models, some are still around today and just emerging.

the largest problem and reason that every restaurant doesn’t im plement a handheld POS system is cost. Even though the costs are starting to come down, it is still a pricey investment especially for smaller restaurants.

Restaurants need to budget for installation costs, training costs, printing materials, system supplies, electricity, power protec tion devices, software upgrades, modifications and the costs of supporting the systems/improvements (Scavone, 2003). These costs add up quickly.

Also, needing complex and error-prone configuration actions, like configuring security settings, is another security drawback

RevPASH, or revenue per available seat-hour, is the mathematical way to see the value of purchasing a handheld wireless POS system.

Although restaurant problems such as reservation issues cannot be solved with easier more efficient POS systems, such issues of duration management can.

operators could realize a 9% increase in revenue if managers “cut dining time from one hour to 55 minutes, without making customers feel rushed.”

If the cause of a restaurant’s long table time and low turnover is due to the time it takes servers to get the order from the guest to the kitchen and also the time is takes a guest to close out a check, then implementing handhelds would be a way to shorten the length of those times.

Unfortunately, going handheld doesn’t solve all problems, and the kitchen overcooked a guest’s filet mignon. Mike handles the situation by apologizing and notifying the manager on his handheld wireless POS system.

use the same handheld device during the day but load it up as an inventory device and complete her inventory and or dering in 1/3 the amount of time, thanks to the same radio frequency identifica tion technology that lets the hostesses and servers know who is in the restaurant.

When a customer signs up for a customer appreciation card, all of their preferences are stored in the cus tomer database

These marketing attempts have helped bring in more business.

The menu is also more effective because data mining was used to determine what items bring in the most revenue, what items have the highest margin, and what less popular items are most popular with customers who bring in a large amount of business.

This market provides a large opportunity for the handheld wireless POS sys tem in today’s customer satisfaction driven industry, especially since the once costly systems are finally poised to make the transition from niche product to mainstream acceptance