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E-marketing is not unfamiliar for us and it has become a powerful tool for hotels to promote themselves. Hotels can make profit from it if it is applied in a proper way. This article introduces a successful example that IHG focuses on developing apps and mobil features to engage with guests throughout their journey and the monthly revenue from mobile booking reaches over $20 million. IHG's mobile strategy focuses on connecting with guests at all touch points throughout their travel planning and stay experience not just on the first step of room booking. IHG will continue their mobil strategy with launch of the Priority Club Rewards app for iPad that can help guests easily find and book rooms, check rates and increase flexibility to manage their reservation and view member details. This provides guests great convince and leaves them great feeling about this brand. Some new features, functions and offers will be customized for different category of guests such as corporate guests and leisure guests in IHG's e-marketing plan. So the efficiency in targeting the right market is increased. IHG benefit a lot from e-marketing and is multiplying more methods in this area to keep up with the trend. Success of IHG in e-marketing can be a good example for other hoteliers.

Should brands be using Facebook Timeline? Yes they certainly should. With the ability to post photos and videos, brands are given a great oppotunity to advertise themselves with more than just plain words to see a significant boost. Comments and likes from fans and non fans will increase the popularity of a brand. Facebook Time like has become the new way for marketing at a low or no cost.

It would be interesting to see their growth because of the chronological set up of Facebook Timeline. Pictures are also very effective.

Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts brand has been recognized by L2 Think Tan's Digital IQ Index: Hotels for the use of plenty digital platforms. By analyzing the needs and wants of guest and potential customers Four Seasons decided to invest in technology obtaining great results. "We are thrilled to be recognized by L2 for our commitment to transforming our guest experience through digital and social media platforms," said Susan Helstab, executive vice president, marketing, Four Seasons. Four Seasons saw the great influence technology has in the way we conduct business and communicate therefore the brand applied the newest technology to create a competitive advantage among its competitive set. "The L2 study reflects just how meaningful this is to the guest experience, and solidifies the importance of Four Seasons continual advancement in the digital realm." Some of the recent innovations Four Season applied to the properties are the new website FourSeasons.com that includes real-time search and videos. It also includes maps, Facebook, and blogs among others. Creating a powerful and global social presence in YouTube, Facebook and Twitter that gives them more publicity, Innovating with Emerging Platforms and Mobile Access "The brand has seen 110% growth year over year of business booked through iPhones and 200% increase via iPads." Four Seasons is attracting more groups, leisure and commercial demand thanks to its technology.

Hilton prides itself with strong brand identity, but also seeks out innovation and is constantly adapting for new technologies. Hilton has developed a website, the Hilton Design Studio, which allows owners, developers, and design firms to create their unique design utilizing Hilton styles of FF&E and artwork. This website allows users to fully integrate their creativity within Hilton's guidelines, but minimizes costs through the rendering of virtual representations in minimal time. Hilton is allowing flexibility of design while maintaining brand standards. "Part of the design philosophy is creating the Hilton Design Studio as an education tool for owners and developers to know the Hilton look and feel". The article also discusses the new Hilton Valet, a multifunctional armoire with refrigerator with three types of amenity components for owner to choose aimed at "creating a smart, clean design". Also featured is Hilton's Connectivity Station, which is offered in three model choices to provide additional technology convenience to guests.

It gives a discription of how nowadays'  hotels develop and use of their PMS. Some brands develop their own PMS such as Marriott and Starwood; some look more to the independent and resort market expanded their PMS. It seems that we don't need so much kinds of PMS and so many function. According to the analysis of the market and demand, it comes the conclusion that a well- designed, intuitive and well-interfaced PMS module is still the core of operational success at every property.

This article goes into details about the new technology emerging in the hospitality industry and how it is that hotels are able to stay ahead of the cutting edge trends of today.

I found this article interesting as it is closely related to the discussion board topic for this week. It touches on the point that guests expect the same level of convenience that they can experience at home when they are travelling. Voice recognition devises are on the rise and this new technology is affordable enough to be a regular house-hold item. It's difficult for hotels to have a competitive edge while trying to stay one step ahead of the game. Maintaining excellent customer experiences while avoiding unnecessary touch points for the guests is the goal for many businesses. The article mentions that Hilton as a technology "test" property, where all new technology is transparently tested on staff and guests and valuable feedback in derived. I think this is an excellent idea that more hotel brands should incorporate.

This article talks about how there is a serious concern in the hotel industry when it comes to credit card and identity theft. They talk about how all the major brands in the hotel industry were all victims of highly publicized, major breaches in the last year alone. Also, including airline and banks, hotels maintain a wealthy amount of database of personal and financial data. For example, with new technology systems being created, POS systems are a weak security point for many networks because they are constantly in use and are not always updated or even protected from vulnerabilities. The article talks about personal details for hotel guests are frequently stored in a variety of locations including restaurants, facilities, and government buildings, so hackers have a greater possibility to access your personal information. The bigger hotels are in more danger because of the volume of guests that come in and out of the location. Smaller hotels should be concerned not just about their security but also by ransomware, an increasingly favorable tactic to extort hoteliers by hackers who encrypt the hotels data making it inaccessible until ransom is paid for. I believe hotels need a toolbelt of various securtiy technologies that can be used to prevent future malicious attacks. I think by managing and implementing a firewall is essential which helps get rid of dangerous traffic from coming onto the network and preventing sensitive data from being hacked.

MOD 10: This article discusses the main tactics of cyber hackers that target hotels. Point of sale (POS) systems are easy targets for hackers due to their constant use during operation hours and because of that their security measures aren't always up to date. Hotels have large data banks since they're storing consumer profile information such as home addresses, phone numbers and credit card numbers. There's a large risk when it comes to security breaches within franchises because they have access to their parent company's regional, national and global systems. If their systems are hacked and breached, then that puts the whole system of the brand at risk. Security breaches within a system can also damage a brands reputation with the public. According to the article, "Recent major breaches at Fortune 500 companies and household names across the retail, restaurant and hotel sectors demonstrate that anti-virus, anti-malware and firewalls alone are not enough to secure businesses from the ever-evolving threat landscape." Smaller properties are even at a greater risk because not only do they have to monitor their compliance with PCI but also monitoring their security systems for their database and PMS system. Some of the recommended software's that should be used by hotels looking to be proactive with their company's cyber security is File Integrity Monitoring(FIM), Unified Threat Management(UTM), and Security Information and Event Management(SIEM).

This article explores the different tactics hotels should use after a cyber attack. The article mentions several different type of attacks such as Phishing when hackers trick customers into giving up their login credentials. Ransomware, when hackers encrypt data making it unusable and inaccessible for the hotel. Not one solution but rather companies should be equipped with a series of technologies from firewalls to file monitoring programs. Some of these technologies, like SIEM requires an intelligent IT team to have the capabilities of analyzing and monitoring the reports produced. This may be more difficult for smaller businesses to implement and maintain.

This article is about how technology can reduce the cost using sustainability. Although that some people believe that green operation is more expensive and that guests are not interested in hospitality. According to Cornell University for hospitality research, the reverse is true for both. Recent advances in technology related to renewable sources of energy are beneficial and have cut the costs for energy. Not only that investment in environmental technology reduce the costs but also has a positive impact in our guest experience.

This article is about how technology can reduce the cost using sustainability. Although that some people believe that green operation is more expensive and that guests are not interested in hospitality. According to Cornell University for hospitality research, the reverse is true for both. Recent advances in technology related to renewable sources of energy are beneficial and have cut the costs for energy. Not only that investment in environmental technology reduce the costs but also has a positive impact in our guest experience.

This article explains the various sustainability efforts of hoteliers in effort to limit their negative impact on the environment. Although, going green is beneficial to the world around us, hoteliers have also realized its benefits within the industry. One important factor has been its cost savings and economic incentives. Going green also enhances the brand image of hoteliers which in turn creates a market for a specific type of traveller, whom deems it necessary for a hotel to maintain sustainability efforts.

This article brings us the real version of how important to launch cyber security system, as there are actual cases in which hotel face loss because imperfect security net. Thus, the professor Mangal suggests that all hotel employees should keep an eye on the threats. At the same time when we protect our customer, we protect and branding our reputation as well. In the future, advanced technology such as biometric technology will be implemented to restrict access to data. Although hotels are unlikely to hire IT professionals directly, but they truly need cooperate with firms which specialized in cyber security, at the same time, help hotels strengthen the training of employees.

Since this week's topic involved IT investment, I figured this would be a great article to post to help us better understand what hotel business people are investing in and how they are using their investments for their companies benefit. Due to a decrease in their revenue during the 2017 fiscal year, Expedia is doing whatever it takes for consumers to book through their platform, even if it means spending $170 million. Expedia is listening to its consumers through data mining and they've found out that consumers are searching for more independent hotels and less name brands so they've decided to invest in supply to drive demand across their brand. Companies like HomeAway and Airbnb are investing in technology that is making them ahead of the curve. If Expedia doesn't act fast, it could greatly detriment their business.

Site Minder by GDS experience, serves as good example to better understand the impact of a GDS's impact on the hotel industry. GDS by SiteMinder provides a single point of entry to over 500 000 travel agents across the globe, which means that hotels can target many type of travelers in multiple geographic regions. By connecting hotels directly to the world's major GDS providers - Sabre, Amadeus, and Travelport - and travel agent network, GDS by SiteMinder offers a major convenience to participating hotels. Through this service, hotels don't have to worry about signing up with each one of these providers. Another advantage of SiteMinder is its affordability; there are no commission fees, rather, just one flat transaction fee per reservation. The company offers free services from GDS experts and free technical account management advice which are other benefits. For instance, in another article, in mid-2013, South Beach Group who has boutique hotels in the heart of Miami Beach, decided to switch its 12 hotels to GDS by SiteMinder. After moving to GDS by SiteMinder, South Beach Group representative highlights the significant increase in bookings leading to a growth in annual revenues by17% in 2013. In essence, GDS by SiteMinder advertises participating hotels to more customers globally within an incomparable distribution platform, with real-time and two-way GDS connectivity. As we can see in the article, in 2016, just within 12 months the total number of users of GDS by SiteMinder increased from 250 to almost 900. This article underlines the importance of GDS for the growth of travel industry. With Site Minder by GDS, one can realize how GDS helps increase hotel bookings by placing hotels on more virtual channels (an analogue of supermarket shelves) globally.  

As technology advances so does the way consumers buy products and services. In order to keep consumers happy the hospitality industry has adapted itself to be more mobile and convenient. Mobility and convenience are two very important factors when making a website or app for E-Commerce. Many hotels and restaurants have created apps for cell phones and tablets so that guest can have convenience and mobility when booking a reservation or ordering a meal. E-Commerce profitability is maximized by using digital marketing. Two major sources for digital marketing are search engines and social media ads. Through digital marketing companies can constantly advertise to consumers anywhere at anytime in a cost efficient manor. Search engine marketing allows companies to increase the number of visitors to their website by putting them at the top of search engine results.

To summarize this article, it mainly discussed how the layout of digital marketing within the hospitality industry is constantly changing and highly important. This is something that is a challenging task for most hospitality businesses, especially hotels. It was said that there are many factors/questions to consider when approaching digital marketing such as " How much does it cost to acquire a new guest and how do we encourage this new guest to book directly through a brand's website?" Websites are plays a vital role in digital marketing are one of the main starting points. Hotels and other hospitality businesses should be frequently updating websites with useful information that compliments more visuals such as images and videos. In addition to that, it was even mentioned how making sure that the website is easy to navigate and readily accessible to customers is essential. After carefully reading more into article, SEM (Search Engine Marketing) was mentioned. This is more like an assessment in a way and a method to show where a hotel or business stands as a brand. For example, if your were to simply google the word hotel, brands such as Marriott and Hilton would most likely be at the top of the list. That is actually good and will benefit those brands greatly in the aspect that there reputation, which possibly stems from online review sites and social media platforms, is well known. These online review sites are capable of monitoring and responding to customer inquiries/comments. The article also touched basis on how the demand of social media presence is vital and should not be overlooked. Social media proves to be cost effective and efficient. Simply using hashtags with either the brand name or keywords can attract prospective customers which in return will generate more revenue. Overall, the article was clear that as far as the hospitality industry goes, digital marketing is something that has evolved in so many ways and can generate good revenue if the plan

Digital marketers in the hotel industry are adapting to the changing climate for OTA's guest expectations, advertising, and competition. Hotel Websites must be clean, low text, and image based with opportunities for guest to comment or ask questions. How to guests find you online? How can we create strategic links from the website to a brand's social channels for increased retention? Business owners will need to learn search engine marketing (SEM) to ensure that sites appear high on listed results of search engines. Paid advertising and Geo-targeting advertisement will be essential in offering the right products to the right markets. Markets must set measurement goals to monitor performance at different stages of ad campaigns and decided if ads should be adjusted. Lastly, the social media craze is still going strong, and being aware of current trend such as Instagram and hashtaging will be crucial in for current success.

This article emphasizes the importance of security in any hotel. "It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it." This quote stuck to me as you can spend all your life working on a brand, for it to be destroyed due to a lack of safety measures. When going to a hotel, or traveling in general, a guests main concern is their safety. However, too many safety measures can actually have an adverse effect on guests, making them wonder why there are so many safety measures and if they are actually safe in this hotel. For example, going through a metal detector in an airport is accepted to be normal, however, if a hotel had such, I am sure this would have most of the guests feeling unsure about staying in the hotel. Too much security and you are deemed as unsafe, and too little security can ruin your brand if something were to happen, therefore, a good balance of security is necessary. Some security measures in this article are: key card access, evergreen background screening, after-hours access, assessing local crime statistics, security officers must be properly trained to welcome and protect, and emergency response plans must be practiced.

Light Human Hotel Miami Beach is the first of eight properties to open.These hotels are engineered to go above and beyond being LEED certified. They will offer electric vehicle chagrining stations, farm to table restaurants, bicycles that generated additional electricity. The creators stated "hotels are designed for people and that's the reason why they are sustainable places with well-being as a key factor not only for guests, but for the staff and for the local community in the neighborhood also." Centering the human factor at the core of the business allows it exploits technology. They utilize bioclimatic processes in the orientation of the buildings and will adjust all hotels based upon surroundings. A hotel brand like this could utilize air conditioning cut offs, and flow meters in order to reduce waste. The opportunities are endless for a brand like this because guests have higher expectations than ever from hotels on environmental efficiency. Implementing smart technologies combined with the utilization of surrounding would create extremely efficient businesses.

This article describes how often, the security breaches that hotels suffer are actually not a result of their own lack of security, but that of their third party vendors. Brands such as Four Seasons and Hard Rock Hotels have suffered breaches because of security failure from their reservations system, SynXis. The challenge is that to the guest the fault lays with the brand, and the brand thus suffers from the loss of loyal guests.

Improving hotel's sustainability with the use of environmentally-friendly materials is now of utmost importance. It is a myth that green operations are more costly to obtain and maintain. In fact, renewable energy sources have improved economically and have now become alternative energy source at property level. Governments are now strongly supporting the use of renewable energy sources by providing tax write-offs and quickly expedited regulatory permitting. There will also be increased recognition for brand image and corporate brand image which creates a positive guests experience and attracting better talent. The savings are exponential by investing in better operational procedures and emerging environmental technologies. The green technology is inspiring and forward-thinking.

This paper analyzes and demonstrates the importance of sustainable design in the hotel industry from the perspectives of economy, law, guest experience and corporate responsibility. With the progress of science and technology, sustainable development will become more popular and become a major trend of hotel industry in the future.

This article is about Chili's success with their EMenu technology. The article was written in 2016 and includes an interview with Chili's VP of Digital Innovation and Customer Engagement. The EMenu has been a huge success for the chain and the interview touches on everything we discussed in class.

Meyers have created a new way for hotels to avoid physical contact and contamination by using a disposable paper room card. This kind of card also has the advantage of reducing plastic waste and allow hotels to customize their cards. The article also has mentioned that the card can have a layer of anti-microbial coating if needed. Generally, this kind of card is a nice solution to be more eco-friendly and safe.

The company Meyers has created a new, safe way for guests to enter their hotel rooms with the current conditions of the world today. "Meyers has developed a paper RFID key card - called the AssureCard - that looks and feels like a plastic key card but is made from renewable paper pulp and may be disposed of after a single use." It has been customary in the past for hotels to reuse plastic room keys from guest to guest. This practice is often a deterrent for guests and is also quite unsanitary. Provenance Hotels has been using this technology since January of 2020. Their corporate director, Christopher Bebo stated, "the single-user key concept provides a fresh card to each guest and prevents germs from getting passed to your guests or your employees... Plus, hotels that use AssureCards can do so with the environment in mind by helping to reduce the plastic that goes into landfills." I believe that this technology is an amazing advancement for the health and safety of our guests. The keys are produced at similar costs to what organizations are already paying for plastic keys and they can still provide guests with something that meets their brand standard and expectations. AssureCard is a "proven technology" that is good for the environment and it is going to help to keep our staff and guests safe in a time that is so uncertain.

Virgin Voyages which is the new adults only cruise line from Richard Branson is one of the most sustainable cruises in the industry. Sustainability is the core of Virgin Voyages values. Virgin Voyages actively seeks out partners that are green and sustainability friendly as well like Intelligentsia Coffee and Emerald Brand. Intelligentsia Coffee will be served complimentary on Scarlet Lady which is Virgin Voyages first ship. Intelligentsia uses a direct trade model which means that they purchase directly from the growers from coffee producing regions. Emerald Brand produces tree free and plastic free products such as bath and facial tissue, straws, bottles etc. Virgin Voyages will no have any single use items on their ships. In addition guest will be have filtered and sparkling water complimentary on board from Natura filtered water filing stations.