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With sustainability at the forefront of hotel operators and investors hotels are becoming conscious of the guests needs as more and more travelers are requiring and are staying at properties that are serious about environmental conservation. The article highlighted the fact hotels are big consumers of energy, therefore have construction that are LEED certified will not only benefit the environment but also the bottom line of investors.

Travel Weekly takes a look at hotels taking real initiatives to their commitment to going green, especially in Sin City. Hotel groups are looking not to save money through transparent initiatives asking guests to simply reuse their towels, rather the article looks at "hotel owner-developers to invest in systems that cut energy usage, save water, and reduce waste". It seems in addition to other environmentally conscious west coast cities, Vegas has set a standard by setting goals for increased recycling, decreased energy consumption, switching over to LED bulbs, composting food waste, reducing overall carbon footprint and emissions. In light of continuing green development, Sabre Holdings has launched an Eco-Certified Hotel Program taking the lead out of the other four major GDS's to tip their hat to eco-friendly hotels. As travelers, GDS's, hotels, travel websites, and developers alike place greater emphasis on the preference for environmentally conscious lodgings, the more likely the industry is going to continue adopting these measures.

Hotels are becoming more green world wide. MGM hotels is on board with a green initiative. Hotels electricity and water add up because they have to cool a building , clean and maintain the hotel. IT costs about 800 per room annually in electricity and water costs. MGM hotels reduced the electrivity they use which can help power 12, 000 houses. HOtels are also trying to reduce its carbon emissions. Although as the article states " its very difficult fot hotels to be trully green by their nature" every little bit helps.

This article is very interesting because it does not focus solely on one type of technology, but rather summarizes several technologies and discusses the importance of their uses. Green technologies in hotels can vary from anything affecting the water heating system to air ventilation and even plumbing systems in hotels. As stated in the article, it is extremely important for hoteliers to be aware of these changes that are occurring. Hoteliers may not have to immediately alter their current systems but they should definitely be aware and in tuned to the ever-changing "green" technologies - for if they don't they may be putting their hotels at risk.

This article is basically talking about the different green ways that a hotel can operate. For instance in Denmark they have stations set up where a guest can pedal stationary bikes to produce energy which in exchange they receive a free meal from the restaurant. To make hotels more green the hotels are using higher technological systems like changing the ventilation systems that provide fresh air indoors and have timers on the exhaust in the bathrooms. These technological advances to the properties will be more pricey than normal systems but in the long run they will save these hotels money and help them be more earth friendly.

Having worked in the meetings industry for 5 years now, we have also seen the increase of the more eco friendly traveler/meeting planner/attendee. Our accommodations have taken an active stance to incorporate more of the green friendly features to meet the needs of this traveler, but also to cut costs and increase operations efficiency.

This article basically talks about four different types of POSs for restaurants, a brief overview of the main contenders and considerations.  The one of the interesting POS systems in the article is The Rail which is introduced last month, a digital bill folder that enables restaurant customers to self-swipe credit or debit cards at the table without the cards ever leaving their possession, thereby protecting against credit card and identity theft.  The basic Rail system includes POS integration, the BaseStation, a secure wireless system, a set of Rail devices (generally 1 device per every 3 tables), and monthly maintenance. Basic Rail devices incorporate a credit card swiper with encryption, billing touch screen display, bill splitting, tip calculator, signature field, NFC payment capabilities, LED stage lights, and receipt email program. The other POSs in the article are Card Case, Tabbedout which are a mobile payment system with smart phone, Square which is mobile card reader, and Chain-Specific Apps which permit the patron to call up menus, locations and nutritional data, as well as to order and pay on-line. Nowadays, many mobile payment systems tailored for restaurants and other food vendors are being introduced. Since they are new and challenges to restaurateur, considering what the pros and cons are and what kinds of POSs best fit to their establishments will be necessary and critical to remain competitive with others.

This article talks about the DaVinci Hotel in Johannesburg South Africa. It was constructed to 'make use of solar panel power.' This makes the DaVinci a green hotel and gives them a solar powered water heating system. 'The solar powered water system, which has the capacity to warm up 30,000 liters of water, will result in a 60% reduced energy bill for the hotel..."  Saving on operating costs should be enough incentive for new hotels to be built green. Also it appeals to many guests who look to reduce their carbon footprint and however small, the percentage of the population who want to go green is growing. A hotel is a home away from home and homes how are being built green. It is in a new hotel's best interest to follow the trends that will have a major affect on how business and life is run. The article says that the 'DaVinci has set the tone for the hospitality industry' and I believe the actions should be followed. Newly constructed hotels shouldn't be the only eco-friendly hotels in business. Hotels that are currently in business have regular maintenance and upgrades to do. They can add in green items like LED lights, water saving shower heads, and implementing eco-friendly cleaning products and kitchen appliances.

The National Restaurant Association has implemented a new "green" restaurant initiative to persuade owners of the US's 945,000 restaurants to adopt measures to control energy use and waste. They have some celebrity firepower in billionaire Ted Turner, who owns Ted's Montana Grill causal dining chain. His restaurants use straws made from biodegradable paper, and the menus are printed on recycled paper, among other initiatives. The NRA makes recommendations like using LED lights, composting, installing low-flow valves, and using recycled materials. In practical terms, however, going green doesn't necessarily mean "making green." In a tough economy, most people won't pay for the extra costs of green initiatives. In a poll, just 29% of consumers said they would be more likely to go to a green restaurant. Those numbers make it difficult to convince a restaurateur to make that extra investment. 

The article I read was called, "What is a Hotel Management System?" In the article it states that in the early 90s Gartner came up with the term ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) that automates a large number of business functions such as finance, accounting, and human resource. "A hotel is a hive of numerous operations such as front office, booking and reservation, banquet, finance, HR, inventory, material management, quality management, security, energy management, housekeeping." All of these activities need to be taken care of at hotels and doing so can sometimes be a lot of work. This led to the introduction of property management systems, an automated software which can optimize hotel operations and keep a tight control on costs. It important for hotels to understand the needs of their guests, if they want them to come back to their hotel, they need to know what they like and dislike. Using the PMS it allows them to make a profile of each guest and they write in if they want a beach view room or if they want a mini bar in their room. There is a difference when it comes to PMS and ERP. "A property management system usually consists of front office software and other best of breed solutions." The ERP, is usually a comprehensive solution from a single vendor. I really enjoyed reading this article and it helped me get a better grasp on how hotels use property management systems.

I completely agree that technology is making deep inroads into the hospitality industry, and hotels across the world are looking to use technology to make operation smooth and efficient. Any operating system that can help optimize the hotel experience is going prosper in their business.

I didn't really care for the passage that talked about PMS vs ERP, I though they could have been more specific... they just said ERP is better, could someone provide an example? Also, they mentioned how when a hotel becomes more complex problems arise in the PMS, how? All the hotel would have to do is come up with another PMS system that would provide them with greater resources, etc whats the problem??

This article is about the effort of Marriott Hotels to reduce the usage of CO2 in their hotels throughout Europe. This is an ongoing effort of the corporation to remain competitive while protecting the environment. The first phase of the initiative was to install smart metering, high quality data, use of LED lighting and the combined heat and power to monitor energy consumption. Additionally, this initiative will allow associates to track their energy consumption and build awareness among the hotels. This initiative by Marriott hotels could be implemented across all their properties and more hotel leaders should follow this initiative without affecting guests' satisfaction.

SocialTables is one of the latest and most successful hospitality start-ups. It is essentially a hospitality SaaS. It was founded by Dan Berger, an event-planner turned programmer. Founded in 2012 and based in Washington D.C., one of the premier corporate hospitality locations in the US, the start-up has recently raised $8 million in Series A funding. The round was led by Bessemer Venture Partners, and followed by Thayer Ventures. This funding adds to the previous $1.6 million the company raised, which helped them streamline their event planning tools. According to its website, SocialTables is a cloud-based solution that offers event diagramming, seating, and check-in tools for event planners. The software can make room layouts that event planners can use to show clients, compose detailed seating charts and arrangements, and it offers a fast check-in app. All of this is done on a colorful, intuitive, cloud-based site with mobile integration. In two years, SocialTables has grown considerably. It has over 2,500 customers and 30,000 users. Additionally, two-thirds of its customer base is actually composed of venue-owners, including major corporations like Hyatt Hotels and Caesar's Entertainment. Academic institutions like Harvard Business School and The Ohio State University also subscribe to SocialTables. Additionally, one-third of its customers are private party planners. SocialTables is becoming an affordable, customizable, tech-progressive solution for event planners of all levels. Industry leaders like Hyatt and Caesar's already subscribe to its services. In the future, I think that the start-up should focus on increasing its ability to provide affordable and capable solutions for private event planners, particularly in the wedding category. While that is an extremely competitive and saturated market, SocialTables could provide an industry-leading software solution and use its credibility to entice private planners into its cloud-based ecosystem.

I found this interesting interview of Tina Hoang-To by Jeanette Mulvey. Tina describes what led to the creation of Wedding Spot (the stress of her own wedding) and the growth her company is continually experiencing.  Wedding Spot allows couples to browse, price and compare wedding venues around their preferred location, eliminating the stress of having to visit a high number of different places in order to get of quote. As she described it, I realized it was very similar to what Yelp does for restaurants and bars.  I am not currently planning a wedding but I went browsing through the website and in my opinion this can prove to be an invaluable tool for brides and grooms to be as it saves them time and reduces their stress. It also has a feature that allows users to set a budget.  As more venues join Wedding Spot, I am sure it is only a matter of time before it is a necessary first step to planning a wedding and choosing a venue. 

VivoAquatics, a software to manage water and energy consumption in hospitality organizations, has received additional funding through a software automation company. This investment allows growth for the VivoAquiatics company to not only to provide more conservation methods to the industry, but also conserve the earth's resources. The platform is already utilized by many hospitality attractions such as resorts and waterparks. VivoAquatics is set apart from the competition because of its expensive experience in the market in energy and water conservation.

This article talks about how important software is in the hospitality management industry and the different types of software that particularly businesses may use to best serve their needs. Property Management Systems provide a whole host of functions for hotels, including keeping track of guests checking in and out, monitoring room charges, and supervising the housekeeping of rooms. Because this software is so vital to the hospitality industry, there has been an upsurge by software companies trying to make their mark in the industry, which has led to a market fragmentation due to the numerous options available. This also puts a strain on managers, as there is much confusion about which software is best and the most cost-effective. There is a system to determining which management software best suits any particular company. Two key features in this process are the ROI, Return on Investment, and TCO, Total Cost of Ownership. ROI provides a cost-benefit analysis of a particular software with regards to the speed with which a company will make the money back that they invested in it, as well as the numerous features that a company would need from the software. TCO is an analysis that companies use to accurately ascertain the costs of the software. Companies should seek a lower TCO and a higher ROI when making any software purchase decisions. Because the technology market is ever changing, companies must stay up-to-date with the newest software in order to provide the best service for, and to keep up with the demands of, their guests. This can be exemplified with the recent trend in cloud-based PMS.

This article is about how hotels should take advantage of solar energy. Hotels are becoming more green, whether it be by switching to LED lighting, more efficient equipment, key card that deactivate power in the room or movement sensors in corridors, they are doing what they can to be more energy efficient. However they should do more by installing solar panels. Solar panels will save tons of money in the short run and the long run. Government is giving lots of benefits to the companies that are going green. Hotels that switch to solar panels can receive tax credit. There have been hotels that save an average of $7,400-$8,800 per month when they switched to solar panels. I believe it will be very beneficial for many businesses to switch to solar panels.

Airbnb wants to invest in Africa due to the many touristic attractions that bring in people from all over the world. Additionally, through this technology, they will boost people-to-people tourism in Africa, building a new economic engine for local families and their communities.

The article discusses the ways hotels can become more sustainable for the environment by using green technology which will reduce energy and cut down water usage.

TripActions is a travel management company for businesses and business travelers. Booking and managing travel can be done on the web or via a smartphone app. To fund the credit service, TripActions has raised a debt facility of up to $500 million led by Silicon Valley Bank with participation from Goldman Sachs and Comerica Bank.

The Primary aim of this research was to undertake a qualitative study of how public sectors events developing agencies in Australia determine strategies to foster events tourism and the stakeholder orientations they adopt in shaping these strategies. Events tourism has been described as the planning development and marketing of events as tourist attractions to maximize the number of tourist participating in events as either primary or secondary attractions. A strategy is an integrated set of policies and programs intended to achieve the vision and goals of the organization or destination. For this investigation, three different framework of events tourism strategy making depicting alternative stake holder orientations were created. They include: * The corporate market-led framewook * The community destination framework * A synergetic framework The reactive-proactive model of strategy making employed by Australian event agencies appeared to be associated with Corporate market-led strategy making.

I believe it is important for hotel brands to evolve with the people who are staying there. Nothing beats being at home; however, it is pretty awesome when you are staying away from home and do not feel as if you are missing out. This article covers just that, making a bold statement with their title; "High Tech and High Class: How Luxury Hotels are Embracing Technology". Modern hotels are on " a deeper level of connectivity than a simple iPod doc, or a reliable Internet connect". Many are using state of the art devices and software which allows their guests to control from the lighting in the room to even housekeeping. The article also talks about Shane Krige, General Manager of the Plaza in New York City. He purchased a few iPads for the hotel lobby for his guests to play with. The feedback led to the hotel putting an iPad in every room at the Plaza. The Star Hotel & Casino in Sydney Harbour now offers a Control4 systems which gives guests a touch screen control for the TV, lighting and temperature and even music. Even better than the touch screen control the suites all feature "a button labeled "Leaving Room" by the entry door that automatically places the suite in an energy-saving mode: With a single touch, it closes blinds, turns off lights and dials back air conditioners for energy savings. Should you forget to press this on your way out, after 30 minutes the system will sense there is no one and trigger the button automatically. Upon return your room will greet you by opening curtains, turning on the lights and displaying a welcome message". Greener might be more expensive; however, it pays for itself and saves the hotel money in the long run.

The obvious initial measure hotels take to reduce energy cost and become more "green" are by replacing lights bulbs with LED, switching to paperless options, and other small tasks. The most cost efficient though is the conversion of their central air conditioner and heater, as this makes up a large percentage of costs for the hotel, which is also a burden on the environment due to the excess use of gas and electric to power the system. The new Energy Policy Act that was put into effect helps hotel not only save on long-term costs in the HVAC department, but also get a tax credit. This credit can range from $0.60 to $1.80 per square footage of the hotel. This is helping to encourage hotels to make the switch. This type of technology allows the air to be controlled by different zones in the hotel, which can be each individual room, floor, or however the hotel sets it up. This also prevents the air constantly running in the hotel room when it is unoccupied by hotel guests.

this article is about the increasing demands of cloud computing, and is also leading to a rise in dollar spending. Remote working has been the drive for the increasing demands of cloud computing but as the result of the Covid-19 pandemic and the slow down of large business advising led project. The concern is that while the demands are going up, the actual growth of cloud computing is not.

And check out this 5 sustainable design ideas for hotels.