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In 1992 Rotana Hotel Management Corporation (Rotana) was founded, and are one of the leading hotel management companies in Turkey, Africa, and the Middle East. By 2020 they are planning on operating 100 hotels in those markets. It was announced in September 2017 that they will be implementing the xnPOS by Xn protel System for their Centro Hotels in Saudi Arabia as well as for new hotel openings. According to the article, "xnPOS provides comprehensive functionality and scalability that meets the needs of hotel F&B, table service restaurants and hospitality foodservice operations." Further, the article also mentioned that the xnPOS is already in use in approximately 50 countries in the Middle East, Asia Pacific, and Europe.

The article introduces how to manage revenue and cost strategies for boutiques and independent hotels. Compared to big brand hotels, boutique and independent hotels have less brand power, and less power of a brand sales team. So, they need to find the right tools to adapt and fit their own property. Firstly, GDS is a good source to gain an exceptional return on investment, but it costs a lot to adopt for small or mid-sized hotels. Thus, direct bookings can be the most cost-effective way for them to choose. By identifying the sales from group and OTA, revenue can increase and optimize profits. Hotel can hold events as one of the ways to increase revenue. Mixing F&B and event can achieve financial success. Also, independent hotels can use destination marketing to emphasize tourist spots and host more business trip. Lastly, the importance of social media and website is very high for boutiques and independents. As they constantly update their site, search engine optimization should be kept up with. Considering GDS system in the context of small property, they are not afforded to adopt the system though it has a lot of benefits to increase revenue. Thus, they should find the right tool to adapt while considering the budget or common booking tool utilized.

The article by Shiji Group (2020) focuses on how companies can utilize technology in responding to post-crisis operations, increasing their competitiveness in their respective industries. In itself, the Shiji group is a software solutions company that provides its services in the Food, hospitality, entertainment, and retail industry. The company was founded in 1998 and currently employs approximately 5,000 individuals in its over 80 subsidiaries. As of 2020, Shiji Group serves approximately 200,000 restaurants, 74,000 hotels, and 600,00 retail businesses (Shiji Group, 2020. To this effect, the Shiji Group (2020) provides that the utilization of point-of-sale software and technologies is the best suit technological alternative for foods and beverages companies in the post-crisis period. In this line, the article indicates that the best alternative in implementing such technology is ensuring that the company's systems can communicate effectively. In this line, Shiji Group (2020) notes that approximately 65% of all purchasing decisions are affected by the availability of point-of-sale features, modules, and functionalities. Shiji Group (2020) further provides one of the transitioning alternatives: the utilization of cloud-based technologies that provide secure, convenient, flexible, and open application programming interfaces (APIs). Some of the accrued benefits include better customer experiences due to software ease of use, multi-function applications and reports building, and capacity to alter the software and hardware accessibility. Having noted these advantages, Shiji Group (2020) provides an example of its software business partnership with Barstock Exchange. They focused on helping Food and beverage businesses extend their capacity through the upgrading of its technological base. This was achieved through the upgrading and integration of the point-of-sale software and their cloud-based software functionality, hence increasing their operational capacity and effi

This article focuses on the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the hospitality industry, with a critical look into the approaches that hotels F&B have applied to combat the new challenges. It is apparent that businesses in this industry have been adversely affected by the fact that they are no longer allowed to host customers, and some have even been closed down. The main challenge is that the businesses have also had to adjust their operations, with respect to the provision of an environment where there is minimal contact between customers and the employees. This article reveals some of the feasible approaches that have been applied by some of the businesses to ensure they continue serving their customers. Some of the strategies include the development of contactless food delivery options, providing gift cars and certificates to entice the consumers to purchase discounted offers, and promoting online ordering for food and other products. "Since most governments are prohibiting food and beverage outlets from opening fully for dine-in guests, contactless food delivery options have gained momentum." (Williams, 2020). Such innovations are bound to be the only way for the players in the industry to survive. However, they also need to embrace the fact that they have to lay off most of the workers and to repurpose some of the facilities. The hotel industry has to continuously embrace the challenges being presented by the restrictive laws meant to enhance the safety of the people by preventing the spread of the viral infection. The amicable solutions should be the diversification of products and services to meet the new needs of the target markets, while also ensuring that the entities are not operating at a loss.

The article talks about major trends in tourism events, ranging from green initiatives through F&B to the 2nd largest reason people go to events is networking opportunities and providing quiet areas where people can network in is a good idea. More events are being planned so it is necessary to book event venues early.

Like everything nowadays is evolving, also the meetings are evolving in order to stay trendy and appealing for consumers. Meetings are growing exponentially YOY at a rate of between 5-10% according to the prestigious CWT meetings and events company for 2020 (without counting coronavirus). The reality is that the meetings industry also needs to evolve in order to stay in business with the new trends, clientele and times. This list provides 19 trends that every event planner needs to consider to make their event a success, including but not limited to the new demographics in the world (millenials).

This article is about 19 event trends that event planners should be informed about. People are expecting different things from events that in the past years where not expected. Trends have changed, for example, it is a trend now to have minimalistic events instead of gaudy ones. Now people also expect creativity out of the event and to have a unique event. People also care about security of the event and fast WI-fi. All these trends are important to know and will continue changing with the years.

This article details a number of green features that hotels can put into place, including several with an important tech factor. These include automated energy-saving measures (including in-room temp controls) and the use of solar or wind energy, Although not explicitly mentioned in the article, it's easy to see how even the "non-tech" measures would benefit from computerized controls and assessments: water-saving practices, waste disposal and recycling, local ingredient sourcing for the F&B department, and harmful chemical avoidance.

I was unaware of the capability of 3D printing until today! It is truly amazing the avenues that this will open up. This can be a great way to increase F&B in a hotel with limited BOH space.

The enhancements of ordering food & beverage by this improved app will help to reduce the need for staff and provide a more personalized experience for guests. It offers the ability to manage new revenue streams for example wine sells can be sold as a glass that were not a previous option unless ordered with a staff member. There are endless possibilities of using this app with other hotel departments as well.

Hotel certified wedding planners and event and catering managers can promote social media walls to weddings, social groups, and business conventions to not only enhance the guests' hotel experience, but to also generate organic UGC (user generated content) to use in its social media marketing strategy. A relatively minimal amount of hardware is required as building a social wall can be accomplished with either an LCD projector or LED screens and a social media aggregator tool. Hotels can create new revenue streams for their F&B Department.

This article describes one of the worst situations that could occur when operating a hotel. According to the text, Wyndham Hotel Group failed to implement a strong enough security system, resulting in hackers breaching the network and stealing over 600,000 credit card numbers and over 10 million dollars in fraudulent charges. The FTC is suing Wyndham Corporation for failing to take the proper security measures to guarantee the security of the most important customer information. The FTC also states that Wyndham used improper software configurations that presented credit card information in a manner that was clear and easy to read. Michael Valentino, spokesman for Wyndham Worldwide, the company made prompt efforts to notify those whose information had been compromised and according to Valentino, no hotel customer had experienced a financial loss as a result of the attacks.  Despite Valentino's claims, the FTC is suing Wyndham for unfair and deceptive practices in failing to protect the privacy and personally identifiable information about guests. The FTC claims that Wyndham failed to address the security failures that occurred after the first breach in 2008 and did not implement technology that could have detected unauthorized access to networks. In 2009, hackers used similar techniques to break into the network again as steal as much personal information as they could. 

This article deals with cloud PMS and its advantages. Some of the advantages stated by the article are efficiency, low cost, and provides guest with more contactless experience. This is a new trend we are starting to see emerge into the industry especially now more than ever after the events that have occurred due to the pandemic.

Seems to me this took a lot longer for companies to start getting onboard then I would have anticipated. The cost perspective and ease of use should have attracted people right away. Not having to house or protect on site servers from damage and theft is also a critical point. Not to mention the ability to grow the system when necessary.

The article discusses traditional PMS, an on-premises software platform that can range from very basic to extremely powerful and complex. Installation, training and maintenance are expensive for such platforms, and they stifle innovation by not allowing third-party integrations, applications, and solutions. Cloud-based hotel management systems with Open API integration platforms are the future of hotel management software. They are cost-effective and offer many operational benefits. Operating expenses such as the OPERA Cloud PMS improve cash flow, are easy to install, train personnel, and automate many administrative processes. Also, it provides easy access to reporting and performance analytics, as well as contactless guest experiences and mobility.

Over the few years, travel agents are using booking through Global distribution systems. Hotels however are having to pay a 20% booking fee when people book through GDS. Travel agents are also now using Airbnb, and alternative booking, because they aren't seeing any commissions on them. GDS is a large computer network that represents a single point of entry to travel agents and meta search sites. GDS are heavily used in the business and corporate travel accounts. GDS corporate business typically delivers more revenue for hotels because business travelers usually eat and drink in the hotel, rather than travel outside the hotel and spend money. Travel agents use commissionable and non-commissionable booking that, where commissionable bookings must add typically 8-10% agency commission on top of the GDS fees. GDS can be a good source of incremental bookings and increase margins.

Over the few years, travel agents are using booking through Global distribution systems. Hotels however are having to pay a 20% booking fee when people book through GDS. Travel agents are also now using Airbnb, and alternative booking, because they aren't seeing any commissions on them. GDS is a large computer network that represents a single point of entry to travel agents and meta search sites. GDS are heavily used in the business and corporate travel accounts. GDS corporate business typically delivers more revenue for hotels because business travelers usually eat and drink in the hotel, rather than travel outside the hotel and spend money. Travel agents use commissionable and non-commissionable booking that, where commissionable bookings must add typically 8-10% agency commission on top of the GDS fees. GDS can be a good source of incremental bookings and increase margins.

The article was talking about how the hospitality firm can learn something from other industry, technology. As we all know the leader of the IT industry are Google and Apple inc. What is the most successful strategic to attract the customers? Through the article we can obviously find out the chrisma of the product is the most significant thing they have, the customer always expect some new things and improve at their new product, next version, this is the most important point of them to catch the customers' attention.  For the hotel industry, their have a lot similar things with technology area. The invariable system can not have any attraction in modem life, the hospitality leaders need to find out what is wrong with current system and operation and then find the solution. They should substitute some fresh thing for the old one, looking forward for the performance of new version, so the customers will have more increase in greenness and exception of the  new product in the future.

This article looks at hotel maintenance management from an engineering perspective, with some attention to I.T. It lays out and explains in detail requirements for successful operation and upkeep of a physical plant. For example, it discusses building maintenance, citing "roofing repair leakages, reproofing the entire building, taking care of building surfaces, pitting, & erosion of exterior surfaces," etc.

Business facing a short supply of workers should increase output through innovation - just like the restaurant which uses robot woks, here in Singapore. Labor shortage is a constant problem that F&B sectors are facing. Through the government arm of SpringSingapore where you can get funding for being innovative in your business. Ruyi Restaurant which showcase their robot wok at their outlet at Resort World Sentosa, The machine cost around S$18,000 or US$14,000. It does make a really good fried rice though.... Here is the Youtube Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOj_6b-GfQU

This is an interview between and head of hospitality practice and a technical specialist. They talk about the benefits the telecommunication skill brings to the industry, including to the hotels and  the customers.They also discussed some of the problems, such as the respetive practices overlap. The TMT team provide some legal support in this area.

Clear Sky Software Reduces Cost and Labor at Hotel Nikko San Francisco The clear sky software is a program that gives a comprehensive, perpetual inventory system that tracks and controls the F&B products. The system can assist with purchasing, receiving, outlet transfer/issues/returns and physical inventory. Managers will never have to wonder if they have enough veal ordered to make it through a Friday dinner service again. The software will track historically how much veal one typically uses on a Friday night, what you have in inventory and order recommendations. By implementing this software managers will not need to worry about over or under ordering a product. This will save them countless hours and money. The system also has a feature to help with food costs and gives real time cost of the products one is purchasing. This will allow the company to stay ahead of the curve and have real time pricing. If this software is successful at Hotel Nikko it will revolutionize how a Food & beverage department is ran. It seems the main goal of the software is to make things more efficient and cost effective, which is every manager's goal. I look forward to seeing how this product does long term and what new features will be added.

The Aptech is a financial and operations technology solutions and service company which include 2500 properties to leading the hospitality industry valuing the human relationships and solve business problems by their understanding of the financial operational data. The newest Profitvue enhanced productivity ,reduce the expenses, provide professional training and increase profitability for more than 1000 properties. Many companies choose the Aptech by their previous experiences. They thought the Aptech keeps their financial processes running smoothly which include the revenue and expenses for rooms, F&B outlets, spa, and gift shop. The Gold Eagle Lodge also selected the Profitvue because the extremely stable make it become the best system to automate our accounting processes for the company and with accurate, same-day financials to guide business decisions. .