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Compared to large hotel chains and airlines, the GDS can play a different role for businesses of smaller sizes. For small hotels, it may be beneficial to make use of a channel manager instead of depending on sales from a GDS. The article suggests to smaller hotels that channel managers, who work directly with travel agents, can mean more profit for your business. Using the GDS and a travel agency, you are technically paying 2 commissions. With a channel manager, you would only be paying one. Having this business relationship will cut out a middle man, and hotels with smaller budget will find this strategy more efficient.

I find this article a little misleading. The GDS are channels, can be managed by a channel manager, or in conjunction with, or separately but usually for smaller hotels require an intermediary. Accessing the GDS(s) are used less by smaller hotels for two main factors: 1. Costs and Fees 2. Scope of demand (driving the right customers). 3. Program Fees The article cites figures which have changed substantially since 2015, as of Q4 North American GDS growth was up 6.4% and ADR was up 4.2% YOY with 18.4% of all bookings coming through GDS. TravelClick, Inc. (2019, March 4) What isn't highlighted in the article was the fact that margin agreements with OTAs for smaller independent hotel range anywhere from 20-35% . If the article had done an actual cost comparison (access through intermediary to GDS instead of OTA) the 10% commission + access and delivery fee may have proven more profitable. It would have been better if they had done a little more comparative cost analysis. TravelClick, Inc. (2019, March 4). GDS Booking and ADR Growth Drive Strong Q4 2018 RevPAR Performance in Hospitality. Retrieved from https://www.hospitalitynet.org/performance/4092226.html

This article from the Little Hotelier talks about what exactly is GDS and the Channel Manager and which on is better for Small Hotels. Small Hotels should opt for the system that gives them what they need, but in their price range and for the size of their business.

This article summarizes the findings taken from research done within the Expedia Group's global hotelier panel consisting of 1,215 hotelier participants that used a choice-based study to compare technology investments between defined hotel chains and small independent hotels. In summary, chain hotels were likely to invest twice as much in technology when compared to small independent hotels. Conversely, small independent hotels were likely to invest more in rooms reservations than chain hotels. The I.T investment strategy varied among the two hotel segments. Small independent hotels choose technology based on affordability, value, and complexity of technology, whereas chain hotels bought technology based on its ability to integrate into their existing systems, the price was not mentioned.

My opinion on this article surrounds my personal experience in the way I have been able to experience third party extranet portals and because of these enhancements that Expedia has developed for hotel partners, I have seen a tremendous amount of return on investment that goes into technology development. Many consumers have been influenced by these third party sites because they offer a type of experience that is different from traditional booking methods and often times consumers are able to snag cheaper rates than they would with booking hotel direct. I would like to see how this trend goes on in future years because I have seen more third party bookings in recent months and it should follow that trend for years to come.

The article focuses on applying technology in the hospitality industry, based on the study conducted by Expedia Group (Big Think). The article summarized the research study conducted on 1215 hoteliers worldwide, assessing the focus and prioritization of technology investments by these businesses. The study provides that Chain of hotels are twice as likely to invest in technology than SME in the hospitality industries, with these SMEs being 1.5 times more likely to invest in renovations. In the year 2019, approximately 54% of hotels focused on increasing their technology investments, with only 8% focusing on reducing the same. This provided that more hoteliers were willing to "stay ahead of the curve" than those that focused on adopting the "wait and see" approach. In this respect, hoteliers identified that their main technology investments were influenced by the value and affordability of the same and the capacity to integrate them with existing technologies. On the other hand, the main challenges associated with the technologies were complexity, affecting 25% of the respondents, and ease of use, affecting 33.33% of the respondents (Big Think). In focusing on technological advancement, the Expedia Group focused on technological elements such as Partner Central Mobile Application improvements, new "rooms and rate," page improvements, new "marketing" improved pages, new homepages adaptive, as well as multiple-property portfolio dashboards. With regard to the market perspective, digital marketing/website optimization, smart room, reputation management, revenue management, guest check-ins, and payment solutions were the main technological focuses for the hoteliers. Focusing on the reasons hoteliers were motivated to invest in technology, the study established that improving productivity, improving loyalty and repeat visits, improving guest experiences and reviews, reducing costs, and improving revenue generation topped the list.  

Capterra is a webiste that offers the proper research for businesses to look for a software that works best for them. The article discusses the most popular software solutions that works best for small hotels. The list of the software's discussed already included what reviewers loved, their advice for improvement, and cost. This is a great article for small hotels to look at because it is an easier way for them to select a software that suits them best.

These are the most popular software that are used by small hotels specifically

Smaller hotels run with tighter profit margins. This article discusses the 7 top softwares that are available to a small hotel that have many features i.e. front desk, bookings, food and beverage - all in one software application.

This article introduces five ways about how small hospitality businesses improve information security. Compared to big hospitality companies, small business owner(SBOs) are not fully aware of the importance of security and in turn, they are vulnerable to damage their brand and potentially sink the business. Especially, small business highly depends on word-of-mouth to advertise their brand. If they face the security issue, they might have no resource to recover when we consider their business size and budget. In order to help SBOs strengthen their information security protocols, first, disposal protocol should be kept when they dump or change the computer. In other words, they should remove and safely destroy the hard drive to ensure information is not recovered. Second, training is necessary. Training is one of the easiest ways to protect confidential data and employees should be knowledgeable of handling the information. Third, organizations must understand the responsibilities for data protection and ensure their protocol comply with new laws. Thus, they should keep up with any changes in legislation. Fourth, paper shredding is necessary. Though we pursue paperless office, still paper is being used, so paper shredding is required to avoid the risk of data breach. Lastly, SBOs should use locked storage consoles to protect sensitive data.

Smaller properties such as independent hotels don't need an elaborate PMS (property management system). They can go by with some advanced ones without having to pay an outrageous cost. The ones listed in this article are Opera, Ezee Master, Roommaster, Hotelogix PMS, MSI Cloud PM, Frontdesk Anywhere, and Rozlynx PMS. The property's needs have to be compared with what the systems have to offer and from there, the management can select the best one. Larger properties that belong to corporate companies usually have their own PMS systems that they use at every brand that has their corporate logo. For instance, Hilton has OnQ PMS system, which whether you are at a large Hilton property such as a resort or a small Hilton property that is a franchised property, they will use the OnQ PMS system.

This is a very important feature. Where the system can go either work off the cloud or can be installed.

I found this article to be very interesting. This article gives us a walk through 9 different software solutions for small hotels. This article made it very clear to me that in the hospitality industry it is crucial to find the right software that best matches your hotel. Software has an immense impact on the overall experience of the guests and that brings credibility and customer loyalty. The articles gives us the positive and negatives of each of these systems. This made me realize, that as an aspiring hospitality industry employee and manager, it is crucial to learn about these programs and use them properly.

Factors Affecting the E-Commerce Adoption by Small Hotels Introduction In today's world, ICT's are absolutely necessary for just about every facet of life. More and more people around the world are finding themselves increasing their use of the internet to assist them in almost everything they do. Computers and the use of the internet have become daily tools in the lives of people, changing the way we live, communicate with each other and educate ourselves. The use of the internet for commercial purposes has also increased significantly. Many businesses depend on computers and internet for their daily operations. The internet serves helps small businesses by bringing their customers together in one setting to conduct business transactions and discuss pertinent matters. It is also a very inexpensive way to conduct business transactions and still maximize profits for small businesses. The use of computer and Internet has affected many industries, however, the one most impacted is the hospitality industry. Despite this, small hospitality business owners still do not use the internet and the web to its full advantage. As a matter of fact, only a small number of these businesses use a secure server for online bookings (Hudson & Gilbert, 2006). If the small businesses expect to remain competitive and sustain their businesses, they need to adapt to the revolving technological environment. Conclusion After examining a small percentage of small hotels to ascertain what some of the factors are affecting small hotel's adoption of e-commerce it was determined that the implementation process was not as easy and straight forward. They also found that it was not a uniformed process for everyone. Finally, despite some of the hotels adopting the implementation process quickly, it took longer for others to adopt the e-commerce applications. Further, the study also highlighted the perceived benefits and complexity as the most important factors affecting the adopt

The human resource department is a vital section of the hotel industry. Human resources is everything involve the companies employees. From how employees get treated, to payroll, to healthcare benefits, to providing information, system help and more. It is crucial for a hotel to have a strong human resource department to maintain a stable staff. Sometimes, however, small hotels may neglect the HRM department believing its not important compared to other departments. HRM is an investment That can lead to business sustainability and success, since staff members are the most precious resource that a service sector firm has.

Going Green is something we all hear about in todays market and the importance of it. Many big business have been finding ways to go green any chance they get. However, with small businesses they have been slower to go green. Embracing sustainability practices for your business is something that should be practiced at any business no matter what size. With small businesses it's much more easy to move towards sustainability versus larger ones. Though their IT department don't have the financial resources of enterprise businesses. Their sizes gives them the ability to change direction quickly something that happens when initiating green practices. There are six reasons why you should embrace sustainability, which are it attracts talent, it's a market differentiator, more efficient, reduce risks, and most importantly customers demand it.

Who doesn't like to "feel good" when choosing to use a product or stay somewhere. Going green makes perfect sense. Companies that adopt green policies and procedures allow their guests to feel better about choosing their goods and services.

To know who your guests are and what they like is definitely a competitive strategy for hotels. From this article, there're tons of Apps working to assist and improve Customer Relationship Management system. According to what I searched, infusionsoft is very time consuming and team initiative to customize properly. It's hard to make each application perfect but the purpose behind them is clear: to communicate with customers as more as we can. Those Apps make teams spread across large distances (and businesses set in one location) to collaborate on leads, contacts, discussions and other items and make this extremely simple to do. So being able to collaborate on more aspects of your daily operations is much more beneficial to overall sales and customer experiences. Some applications bring collaboration to a few narrow aspects of CRM, some bring collaboration to the center of the app, and regardless if you're managing other aspects of your business through software you will need to find ways to collaborate on that as well. Many companies accomplish this by using a variety of applications, but it absolutely brings integration issues and high monthly bills. So a lot of helpful solutions are center collaboration with a feature-consolidating environment across a variety of aspects of business management software. WORKetc is a business management app that combines CRM, PM, Finances (expenses, invoicing, etc) and help desk software into one - and brings collaboration to all of these aspects. Thus, it's essential to collaborate them wisely instead of combining as more as possible.

This is an article that compares the new form of cloud property management systems versus the original installed in the property PMS. It compares the features missing from both ends such as the fact the installed PMS can not get free upgrades but it does not require IT expertise. The article makes a great point in stating that both systems can be great for a small business, where as most people assume only an installed PMS works for a small business because it is the more affordable option but because of the fact that one person is usually running the small business they can benefit from having access to the PMS from anywhere which is only capable from a cloud PMS. It is also important to remember that when moving to a new system it can not be assumed to be exactly like the previous system.

This article summarized the advantages and disadvantages of using human resource information system. An HRIS is used for employment actions such as applicant tracking, performance management, attendance, compensation and benefits management, work force analyses, and scheduling. A very popular use of HRIS is employee self-service. There are a lot of advantages of HRIS, such as it is monitored by qualified specialists who know technology and HR functional and tactical processes can manage compliance with federal and state laws, streamline processes for recruitment and selection, and produce analyses, data and reports for internal and external use. What's more, it is easy to use for qualification computer technology specialists, accuracy of information and the ability to perform HR audits using any combination of parameters. It saves a lot of time. The disadvantages included that HRIS may involve human error during information input, costly technology to update the system and malfunctions or insufficient applications to support the human resources needs. There should be a qualified specialist with human resources functional area knowledge to manage this system. The cost to hire an HRIS specialist may be far above the average salary for a computer technology specialist.

With the development of high-tech management system, HRIS is no long strange for us. The HRIS is a software or online solution to data tracking, data management, or all of the data needs of the company within the human resources department. The reason why HRIS is becoming  more popular is that it has some useful functions such as the employee self-service through which employees can find answers to common questions by themselves while not ask a human resources representative. This system can help to save time and money for the company in certain aspects. But in this article, the author compares the advantages and disadvantages that HRIS brings to the company.The disadvantages can be that it may involve human errors during information input, costly technology update and so on. So if a company wants to apply this system, it should also look at these disadvantages, compare them with the advantages and then make a final decision in order to avoid suffering from the bad sides of the system. 

The HRIS is used for applicant tracking, performance management, attendance, compensation and benefits management, work force analyses, and scheduling. HRIS can be also used for employee self-service. The human resources department staff can find answers to common questions they would have asked a human resources representative from the HRIS. HRIS has many advantages. It can help organization manage compliance with laws, streamline processes for recruitment and selection, and produce analyses, data and reports. The ease of use for qualified specialists, accuracy of information and the ability to perform HR audits using any combination of parameters. However, there are still some disadvantages, such as human error during information input, costly technology to update your system and malfunctions or insufficient applications to support human resources needs. In addition, the cost of hiring an HRIS specialist is also a problem for the small business.

A PMS system should greatly increase the efficiency of a small hotel that is using manual booking techniques. The cost of a hotel PMS system usually varies according to the amount of features it has and is paid either through licensing fee, monthly subscription , or commission on sales. Some of the most important characteristics of a good PMS are portability and flexibility (making cloud based systems extremely popular). The functions a PMS should achieve include: increasing revenue per guest, managing sales channels, improving efficiency, guest communication, manage international bookings, automated inventory management, and much more. When selecting a PMS software provider, it is also extremely important to consider the level of technical support that is offered. Nicholas Reynolds

This article examines how internet marketing is affecting the success rates and occupancy of bed and breakfast establishments in Canada. Though implementation of technologies and by various methods such as Search Engine Optimization, it enables small businesses to drive brand awareness, increase customer base and accelerate lead generation. By the use of internet based technology the success and efficiency rates can be tracked through various analytics tools, helping marketers adjust their strategy accordingly. Internet marketing is recognized as a cost-efficient tool to boost customer awareness quickly, and can be used by large and small businesses alike. Through implementing internet based technology, business owners are also able to receive instant feedback about their products and services from customers and gives them a chance to take corrective action in any areas that need improvement.

This article analyzes how user-generated ratings have a positive impact on hotels revenue growth. It looks at this through three different methods: one, ratings that the uses provide, two at how those ratings are "distributed over the scale," and three, the number of reviews that hotel receives. The article observes 240 small to mid scale hotels in Italy. Some issues we see come up revolve around the subjectivity of user-generated reviews and how that can positively and negatively affect hotel occupancy and interest. Ultimately, it appears that hotels that already have a high star rating will benefit most from these user-generated ratings because they have a stronger bargaining tool. The other benefactor are small, niche hotels whose increase viability and unique qualities help it in encouraging new tourism and high level experiences.

CWT M&E has created a new website platform to help hotels and other venues streamline the process of booking meetings and small venue events. This is a helpful tool for meeting planners who are able to access over 250,000 meeting rooms easily and be able to book and modify any meeting room reservations directly through this website, instead of going through a variety of different channels in the past. The reason why this website was developed goes to show the first kind of solution for small meeting bookings which represented over 70% of client's budget before the pandemic. My take on this is that once pandemic restrictions are lifted, there is going to be a huge surge in demand for these meeting spaces so it will be crucial for hotel properties to be able to list their availability on this website which would be reducing any additional costs that go into booking meetings.

DoorDash unveils that it is testing in-app reservations for local restaurants. It's emerging as a new restaurant technology in partnership with small local restaurants, DoorDash, and SevenRooms. This feature will give Doordash an edge over other food delivery services, while also supporting small restaurants.

EMarketing is the ability to market your products or services with Internet capabilities. In other words, it includes emailing, websites, follow-up, and every other marketing approach. Through computer/Internet capabilities, small business owners that embrace eMarketing will save themselves hours of time. With eMarketing, business owners can automate nearly all of their business management functions. That means that eMarketing capabilities are taking care of the day-to-day tasks small business owners and their employees would normally be engaged in. eMarekting also has some other benefits. E-marketing eliminates the printing and postage costs of direct mail and is substantially less expensive than other traditional forms of advertising. Customers opt in to receive your news via email. E-marketing is affordable, so you can advertise more often.

EMarketing is the ability to market your products or services with Internet capabilities. In other words, it includes emailing, websites, follow-up, and every other marketing approach. Through computer/Internet capabilities, small business owners that embrace eMarketing will save themselves hours of time. With eMarketing, business owners can automate nearly all of their business management functions. That means that eMarketing capabilities are taking care of the day-to-day tasks small business owners and their employees would normally be engaged in. eMarekting also has some other benefits. E-marketing eliminates the printing and postage costs of direct mail and is substantially less expensive than other traditional forms of advertising. Customers opt in to receive your news via email. E-marketing is affordable, so you can advertise more often.

This article is to emphasize the importance of point of sales system, including the advantages that help restaurant operating business every. For instance, counting is the simplest approach to checking your inventory on the shelves in a small business and this is called stocktaking, especially, for small businesses, like a small toyshop, stocktaking is a thoroughly practical approach. However, most of the time stock management is not that simple, and sometimes the practical option is not the best option. There can be discrepancies between the physical and the stock records, especially when it concerns annual stock management. This is why it is advisable for every business owner to use computerized POS systems in stock management. The best thing about having a computerized POS System in the retail business is: as new stocks arrives and as it is sold, it keeps the stock levels current and updated, hence making it is easier to identify which items are selling and which items are not. A POS System is also good in checking for any obsolete or out of date stock that needs to be disposed. For the managers, if they are still counting the inventory manually on the shelves or in the warehouse, something should be thought twice about the lacking of efficiency method, for there are many advantages in using a POS System mentioned in this article. One advantage of a POS System is its ability to help the business achieve detailed real-time stock level information. In addition, a POS System can also give some information such as weather forecasts, public holidays and major sporting events, which can be of great help in determining the stock level of seasonal products. Managers can now efficiently and effectively handle their stock management accurately.

"One goal of the new guidelines was to recognize the increasing globalization of the hotel industry, Temling said. "Many of the changes are reflective of what's happening in the world in our industry," he said. "Chains based in the (United States) have generally adopted the guidelines; that's not the problem. But we also hope chains domiciled outside this country will accept the changes outlined in the book." Some of the changes are small, but symbolic, Temling said. In previous editions of the book, accounting for some employee benefits reflected terminologies used by U.S. companies. "Up through the 10th edition, we called it FICA or social security for employees' benefits," Temling said. "This time around we call it social benefit contribution, which is more universally acceptable." Large hotel companies might have more difficulty adopting the new guidelines than will smaller ones, said Michelle Russo, founder and CEO of Hotel Asset Value Enhancement, a hotel asset management and real estate advisory company. She is a member of the financial committee that created the latest edition. "It's actually harder for larger operators because they often have many divisions," she said. Examples she cited affect reporting of telecommunications, labor and segmentation data. "We created a new (information technology) department, and in a large company that is worldwide that operates on multiple accounting platforms, the mapping process is massive," she said, adding that some companies have decided to defer adopting the new IT department guideline until 2016."

This article discuses the changesin technology and increasing globalization in the world with a highlight on the hotel industry. It explains the guidelines large are small hotels take to adjust.

This article explains the changes and increasing globaliztion in the world and hotel industry. It explains the new guidelines and the procedures large and small hotels take.

In class we spoke about how the internet has an impact on small businesses and how small businesses are having a hard time being compared to the bigger businesses. This article talks about how they are being ranked in the search engines. When a consumer goes online to search for a product, he or she will like at what the article refers to as an established brand such as hp or dell in computers oppose to smaller brand names which although theyre known theyre being bypassed by these big brand names. The article talks about the "bid per click" bases that business advertisers use to promote on google. This makes it hard for a smaller business to compete with a bigger business because of their promotion level. It is very expensive.