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Technology is always expanding. Products that we are using today- can be obsolete in a few months. For businesses to be successful, they need to be willing to adapt to change- as technology is always evolving. This article recommends "maximizing local search engine optimization" which can assist a person searching for something online- and could possibly increase sales and "customer base." SEO (Search Engine Optimization) reminds me of GDS's, as it brings more "brand awareness." Travel agents can also assist with "local SEO opportunities." The article also suggests have a "mobile-friendly website." With billions of people using smart phones on a daily basis- having an accessible, and available website is important. Furthermore, the article states that bookings made on the phone have increased in the past year 7%. Content marketing plays a key role in hotel's marketing. Replying to feedback, or having a strong online presence on social media can increase brand awareness. It is important to stay up to date with digital trends, as this can help build relationships with guests too. Video marketing, which is showing the costumer's what they should be expecting at the hotel- is a practical virtual experience. These current eMarketing trends are transforming the hospitality industry.

Beacon market is an ingenious way for companies to spread their brand and also learn about the market and how to hone in on the target market. It can also help make one company stand out over another when a customer is searching the internet for their next trip or outing.

Location-based marketing allows organizations to target customers at a personal level with online or offline messaging based on their physical location. LBM use a smartphone's GPS technology to track a person's location. Geo-fencing marketing uses real time geo-location data to target users within a geographic area and deliver content based on where they are or what locations they've previously visited.

This article is about a new application: Monscierge that launched in December for the iOS (apple) and Connect for the Android in January. The software allows all of the amenities of a hotel to be available to guests via smartphones. The app is completely customizable for each of a brand's specific hotels. This is an excellent idea for both hotels and guests with the recent rise in smartphone and tablet technology. Guests who may not be as comfortable requesting things in person or over the phone would now have the option to do so digitally. Research of 1,000+ hotels and resorts worldwide was conducted over 3 years and found that the majority of questions to the front desk, bellmen, etc. were related to: services, local information, and recommendations. This app seeks to improve that by making those inquiries easily searchable on a smartphone or tablet, also allowing guests to input their own comments. With this finding it should be expected this kind of technology would be very well accepted, which it was. In respect to benefits for the hotel the app is completely customizable down to specific hotels to suit their image needs. With the use of this application it would also allow staff to be more effective, negating redundant questions. By allowing guests the ability to send digital postcards bearing the hotels brand it gives the company more exposure. These benefits are significant for a company looking for new technologies to give them an edge The benefits of this application are numerous for both the customer and hotel. Hotels may also see benefits moving into future years with easier training due to familiarity with this type of technology and customers with easy-to-use technology. For hotels and consumers attempting to plan completely customized experiences, trip-planning functionality is built into the app providing many possible uses. This app to me seemed to be very logical in the current progression of technology. The majority of people today

This article talks about a successful online training program belongs to STARWOOD HOTELS&RESORTS which is called ProLearing module. This specific online training program is quite beneficial to travel professionals to have a full version of starwood's brands and get familiar with the room rates for agents. Online training systems are commonly used by most internal employees but fewer for externals in hospitality industry. Most of the hotels have their own online training systems for employees to familiar with company concepts, hotel operations, service manuals and even a sales system like StarHot. As a part of training program for externals, ProLearing module does a good job for its company band expansion for agents and finds new market segments which is not just includes regular guests and potential employees. I believe that more and more travel professionals will join this program and make it to succeed.

Hotels are going way beyond in meeting guests' expectations with the modern day's technologies. One example would be the SLS Hotel, a subsidiary of LA based sbe Entertainment, introducing In-room iPads featuring their internal application, which could be used to change TV stations, place wake-up calls, and order room service. Aside from the above mentioned, guests could surely utilize the internet browsing websites, and other features on the iPad which brings up the next question - Invasion of Guest Privacy. SLS Hotel has partnered with AirWatch in developing a comprehensive securing device in order to deliver a customized brand experience to each guests. Securing measures include restricting guests from using the iPad's camera to prevent guests from seeing previously uploaded content by former guests, removal of the native web browser to prevent guests from viewing previous web activity, etc… SLS Hotel is also planning to implement a cross-platform BYOD program for hotel staff which would also create another security concern on managing confidential and sensitive information within the company. Afterall, a comprehensive security plan and measures have to be in place before any forms of technology could be implemented in this industry. One mistake or negligence could cost the downfall of a company.

For this week's article on a POS or point of sale system I chose this article about Chilis. Chilis and another brand have chosen to put point of sale systems right onto the table. Using this technology restaurant patrons are able to order dessert and pay for their meal without having to call their waiter or waitress. While the patrons are able to pay for their meal and order dessert and coffee, the technology has not extended to where it replaces waiters and waitresses. The management at the brand also asserts that they are not trying to replace their waitstaff but rather to speed up the process of paying and ordering dessert. In the future, this could be the case with technology like this.

AccorHotels, which represents 20 brands and over 240,000 hotels, is in negotiation to buy an 80% stake in John Paul. John Paul is a leader in loyalty solution in numerous industries. The company leverages its state of the art technology to do so. With the acquisition of the company, AccorHotels will acquire "the first technology enabled concierge, equipped with proprietary CRM and data platform based on a behavioral profiling and 360 personalization". Having this type of software on hand will allow the company to strengthen its brand by providing a better customer experience. AccorHotels hopes to do so by using the in depth profiling system and strengthening their CRM with data attained through John Paul.

This article explains the benefits of brands being able to send relevant information in real time to consumers mobile devices for the most benefit.

The importance of delivering safety, security, sustainability, and service in the hospitality industry is becoming an important aspect of our society. This article discusses each principle and addresses essential information that can help deliver legendary experiences to guests. As social media and review sites become a way to engage costumers in expressing their overall experiences it is important that you ensure the up most excellent experience in every aspect to create consumer loyalty. * Safety - must be the number one priority in any hospitality business. Any issue that violates the duty of care of any guest should be addressed and taken very seriously to avoid negative affects to the brand. * Service - Excellent and hospitable accommodations is the reason why frequent travelers return to the same establishments. Training your staff to be diligent and welcoming will help promote the brand values. * Sustainability - one of the latest trends is environmental sustainability within the industry. Guests are conscious of the importance of sustainability and want to feel like they are part of the movement by booking hotels that are "Green". * Security - due to the large risks of security breaches any business is susceptible to be a victim of cyber attacks. It is important to promote security by having a proactive and preventive plan in case of a security breach.

Hotels chains as well as independent hotels are using retargeting as a way of making internet advertising campaigns more effective. According to the article one hotel brand said that the average returns of investing in retargeting are between 5-1 and 10-1. Retargeting helps companies to keep advertising to prospective clients even if they have already leaved the page. Advertisements are displayed to users as they visit other sites. According to John Hach, VP of e-marketing solutions for TravelClick, hotels are looking for ways of making advertisement more efficient and what better way of doing this by already knowing who is interested in your product. One of the main advantages of retargeting is that with a small investment and specific information hotels can give the impression that they are advertising through the entire internet. Although there are different media companies that offer retargeting, Google is the leader. Trough Google AdWords a code can be built in a website and when a customer leaves the page a cookie is installed showing they visited the page. After that the user is shown ads that are part of Google Display Network.

I'm trying to understand the re-targeting method explained here. So once the user leaves a webpage Google's 'AdWords' sends them an ad based on key words from the page they just left?

Highlights: REPORT FROM THE U.S.-As revenue management becomes increasingly sophisticated and complex, many major hotel companies are rolling out new platforms and tools to help managers at the property level. Description: There are two main applications of property management system in major hospitality management companies. The first approach is to provide service for hotels without a revenue manager. The second prong is to give revenue managers a set of tools to control their own pricing structure at the property level. Besides combining hotels in a same region together, one advantage of property management system is to save related costs. In general, revenue management needs deep skill and expertise, so the price for hiring employees with these abilities is expensive. In addition, this revenue management system helps managers enter the system easily. With the immediately information about the marketing's pace, managers can open or close rates conveniently. And property level managers can sell strategies to various best available rates. Property management system provides brand supports to hotels. Hilton is making efforts to develop this revenue management system, at the same time, they hire more and more persons with skills to use it. This system provides franchises a new tool to learn customer experience or marketing situation of other areas.

This article discusses how CRM's use social media to promptly communicate with customers. I thought it was very interesting that 70% of the complaints made by customers via a sm outlet are not responded to. Examples are given as to how some companies use teams whose specific responsibility is to respond to customer complaints by text, email, twitter, and/or facebook. I thought it was cool that one guests tweet about loving cornbread, turned into a response by room service to deliver cornbread right to her room.

The agency "Tourism Fiji" will be implementing a new global brand and accompanying communications style, which would take place in each of the Tourism Fiji's international and local markets. This decision was based in accordance of the destination marketing audit of 2011. "A key outcome of that analysis was that taking a global approach to brand communications would create a range of new opportunities and help to ensure Tourism Fiji a maximum return on its marketing investments." The Tourism Fiji agency have received great ideas and proposals of agencies that are very interested in working with them because it will give them an opportunity to make their name known in the industry. These agencies are required to make a full pitch encompassing a full creative and strategic proposal. Michael Meade, acting chief executive officer of Tourism Fiji, claims "the association had already had strong levels of interest from the industry, despite only announcing the pitch on 24 January." Thanks to its communication campaigns, marketing strategies and networking, Tourism Fiji will attract great interest in new markets which will bring a lot of businesses to the agency.

This article basically talks about the importance of social media in the hospitality industry and gives us other thoughts beyond just applying a social media monitoring tool.  Managing the social media is no longer an option, but a necessity, particularly for those of us working in the hospitality industry. By using a social media monitoring tool, you may be able to know in real or near-real time each time your property or properties are mentioned online on every major social media network. On the other hand, you need to compile competitor data and compare it to your own so that you can analyze your brand in relation to competing brands. More and more social media consulting companies will crop up and your competitors may also have the tools you have. For a long-term success, make sure that the people who are speaking for you have the tools they need to resolve issues as well as represent your organization properly and find out a way that can make a difference with your competitors.

This article reveals that Revel Systems is expanding its point-of-sale products with Beautiful Brand International. Revel Systems is well-known for creating the mobile point-of-sale system for Apple used by numerous restaurants and retails. Other popular restaurants currently partnered with Revel Systems are Camille's Sidewalk Café, Dixie Cream, FreshBerry Frozen Yogurt Cafe and Rex's Chicken. This POS system provides a quicker checkout option for customers and offers hotel/restaurant managers the option of powering the software using the cloud or an iPad application. This provides the company a cost efficient, easy to use program that has the ability to customize payroll, track inventory, email receipts and allow customers to make orders online. Most managers who invest in this program make it a requirement for all their companies to utilize in order to provide a systematic approach to maintaining their database and ensuring all locations are managed the same. This is such a popular and competitive tool that Revel is already making $80 million since its origin in August 2010. A major advantage of this system is that it provides the ease of accessing documents with its reliance on servers hosted in the cloud. These systems are quickly being adopted by restaurants mainly because customers are impressed with the style, speed and reliability. Revel Systems forces busineses to upgrade their POS systems in order to meet security standards. This will result in a $34 billion POS market by the end of 2012. Companies selling these systems make businesses believe they need POS systems in order to run their business efficiently. They explain that with servers hosted in the cloud, management is enabe to see data in real time from any location.

The article talk about a POS company that has developed a complete system for retail or restaurant stores that runs on the IPAD and the Cloud. It lowers the entry barrier by more than 75% compared to a regular MICROS POS system, they do this by not having a in house server and using standard hardware.  One of the advantages of using this system is that you can monitor your sales real time on any location that might be using the system.

The article discusses five issues that hotel operations are facing, and how to decrease these issues in regards to data thieves. The first security issue discussed is "Remote Access", the article states "Many hotel operators and franchisors use remote management applications (RMAs)". This enable easy access to manage multiple locations downloads; conduct sales polls, and other systems within multiple companies. A advices to remote control issues are to change vendor default settings, in which you can create unique user IDs and complex passwords. Another advice is to "Configure the RMA", in which users are only allowed to connect to known MAC/IP. I personally don't think that creating a unique ID or account password may solve this issue, but allowing connection capability to a set IP/MAC is a wise intake. Although being able to just connect to a set MAC, will cause a limit on where and when you connect. The second security issue is "Network Security", many transaction volumes are being exposed, brand recognition as well; and that attract hackers. In order to reduce this problem, it is suggested that companies need to install and maintain a fire wall at all time. I agree with this other suggestion which is to Use outside resources to help identify new security vulnerabilities. This is great, because a company will be able to receive an outside outlook in regards to security. The last three issues that are on this list are: Password Management, Wireless Security, and Incident Response Plan. Overall it's evident that any system that has a password requirement is causing a major attraction towards security thieves. The suggestions within this article are great, but from my observation; many companies will have to put in time to track and monitor their systems. Systems can't allow to be left open without monitoring, and the internet is a lead way to all this, so any system that requires the internet must be monitored, and protected.

Technology enables service. That's the idea, anyway. In the hotel industry, thousands of companies worldwide provide hundreds of software applications to help hotels and hotel companies manage operations to provide better guest service. However, the hospitality industry continues to find itself targeted for damaging data compromise events by hackers. There are some good ways to decrease the attack of hackers. For example, Remote Access, many hotel operators and franchisors use remote management applications (RMAs).  Their ease of use in managing multiple locations makes them ideally suited to disseminate business downloads, conduct sales polls or survey inventory. RMAs are often packaged from vendors with default or blank passwords. Creating unique user IDs and complex passwords can reduce the risk of data compromise and help facilitate compliance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS). Another example is about Network Security, transaction volume, brand recognition and the potential for sensitive data retention are all factors that make hotels (particularly franchise networks) juicy targets for hackers seeking to exploit insecure networks via the Internet. The hotel can install and maintain a firewall at all times.  Disabling a firewall can put a business at heightened risk of Internet attacks and potential system compromise.