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Usually most of computers in the hotel won`t close include in the guest room and work station. It will make huge of waste. With this green IT strategy , hotel will reduce energy consumption and save tones of CO2 annually. Fairmont's strategy is a "great example" of where businesses can hit next

It is amazing how even a small initiative of shutting down work stations after an hour inactivity can be this impactful generating such savings. My only question is that the fact that Fairmount is a global company can they really have a centralized center controlling all work stations? In any case this initiative is driven by their corporate leader and is a powerful message in terms of social responsibility.

Fairmont Hotels & Resorts announced a comprehensive green IT strategy by addressing technology infrastructure and IT operations for all 56 of its hotel properties worldwide. A key part of its green initiatives is a central-managed power-down schedule that all of its internal desktop will be shut down one hour of their activities. One of the spokesmen said that this green IT approach is suitable for hotels that do not traditionally have a data center. He also pointed out that this new green IT approach is easily applied in North America and part of the Europe, whereas a little harder in Asian countries because of the different standard that they use. So what they are working on is to getting everyone to understand its value and set up international standards.

Opportunities for adopting green initiatives are becoming more and more common in the hospitality industry. IT updates and implementations have become a sustainable practice to reduce cost, provide a better guest satisfaction and environmentally friendly. One of the ways to start off the green initiatives is by effectively reducing energy and paper consumption; this gets done by using smart phones to replace key cards and using emails to reduce paper flow. Another green initiative is the effective technology practice such as energy star which is the system that powers down a computer automatically after it has not been used for a period of time. The use of digital media (social media) instead of print media is a fantastic way to save money while lowering the impact on the environment. Green initiatives are coming up pretty fast and are required to have a strong commitment but all vary depending on the size of organization, demand of business and location of doing business. I have seen many hotels implementing green initiatives in their facilities which at first can become extremely costly but in the long term very cost effective and environmentally friendly and expand the guest experience. I have seen hotels that have a HVAC system which senses the presence of someone in the room, this system puts the AC temperature high when room is vacant and lowers the temperature when it is occupied. Additionally the lighting of the room works the same; it turns on when someone is present and automatically turns off when the room is vacant. Just these two initiatives alone can save the property millions of dollars in a period of a year. In my opinion, going green is a great way to benefit every one involved, the guest, the environment, and cost efficient (long term) for hoteliers. The green initiative has not yet been a giant boom, but in a few years a larger amount of guest will prefer to stay in a green environmental friendly hotel then with a non green hotel. I believ

This article provides a detailed approach on the negative and positive impacts of electronic waste from a global standpoint. This article also provides statistical data to show the various types of technological gadgets that contribute to e-waste, the materials they are made from, and new initiatives put in place to recycle these items.

The article "the pernicious side of electronics: the growing problem of e-waste," discusses e-waste and what we can do as a community to eliminate the issue. E-waste produces tonnes of toxic waste each year and it was predicted that within the last year around 2.13 billion PCS, tables, and cellphones were shipped worldwide. To eliminate this issue moving forward we must increase education on the harmful impacts of e-waste, improve designs for more sustainable electronic devices, and upgrade infrastructure where the consumer is able to recycle electronic goods safely.

At this moment the majority of hotels and resorts are using disconnected technology to manage check-in/checkout, billing and on site food and beverage charges. Toast POS provides an integrated platform which allows guests to pay bills more efficiently all with one payment. "Toast for Hotel Restaurants will deliver a more efficient way to let guests pay bills by charging them to their room, making the payment process faster and more efficient for both hotel and restaurant staff across full service restaurants, in-room dining, grab & go, bar & cocktail, event venues and poolside dining."

Sometimes, we focus more about Robots replacing humans, but we don't see the whole picture. Robots work with better accuracy which reduces the amount of time and materials wasted. It is a fact that will impact people's jobs; However, by helping company saving money, the price of good will be more affordable.

The article explains how the pandemic offers a "good opportunity for pioneers to act". In a study that was conducted, there was a preference for a robot-staffed hotel. This could be due to, however, the contagious nature of COVID-19.

Like other QSR, Veggie Grill uses a combination of cashiers and kiosks to take orders. Their kiosks, however, have an option to use facial recognition, which aids in recognizing regulars and is able to suggest add-on items. Responding to the often repeated claim that kiosks will cost jobs, they argue that there is always a demand for the guest-facing experience, and that kiosks could contribute to greater demand for BOH staff.

Nothing ground breaking from what we have already heard. But the lack of response from the majority of the industry to implement is astonishing.

Rapid Check-in, Easy & secure payments, Personalized Guest Experience, Quick Payment all sounds really good but there's other uses, tracking employees.

This article talks about the biometrics in hotels. For example, In China, there is facial recognition to check into the hotel. Facial recognition can also be used as a "room key" as well.

More hotels are now using contactless check-ins by allowing the guest to be able to use their mobile devices as their digital room key. This is great for the pandemic to social distance but potentially risky due to hackers. As long as hotel operators adopt multilayer security strategies then they can provide a safe and secure environment for everyone.

This arctic is about what is a global Distribution System, history of the GDS, how does a GDS work and what benefits GDS offer.

A GDS or Global distribution system can come in handy for many different purposes. Some of these companies such as Expedia and Travelocity are know ones in the United States. It is important to weight pros and cons when deciding who to book with when choosing a hotel or an airlines especially since there are so many options. Depending on how you book especially when bundling with a GDS you could get a great deal.

This article evaluates the past and current roles of GDS in the travel and tourism industry. It is clear that the GDS has adapted and changed with the times and now is able to do even more than at its initial conception. However, as the article pointed out the all the functions of the GDS it is clear that OTA's ad websites are also able to provide a lot of these same functions. We discussed this week whether the GDS system is still currently a relevant system and most agreed that it is. However, as we look to the future it will be interesting to see what evolutions the GDS has yet to go through and how it will attempt to remain relevant in the ever changing tourism market.

This article gives many tips on how to use social media for advertising purposes. You may think that you know a lot about how to advertise or what to use, but this gives you more ideas as well as better ways ito implement you posts in a better and timely manner so that you know your ROI.

As technology advances, major shifts are happening within the event industry. Gone are the days of paper and pen registration as RFID chips or tags are issued to attendees for sign in. Event specific apps are loaded right onto the attendees phone enabling them to communicate and be notified of event-related information. Augmented and virtual reality allow attendees to see a product or experience in a whole new way, taking engagement to a whole new level from the pop-up banner stand that used to line trade show booths. All of this technology also allows event organizers to have more access to analytics due to the amount of data that is able to be gathered. As technology grows, so will the engagement of attendees through these new systems.