Group items tagged

From lodging to foodservice, the point of service is the premiere place for customers to get their first - and hopefully not last - impression of an establishment. Streamlining and fine-tuning the service that occurs at the POS is of utmost important and operators are always seeking out the latest technologies to make this possible. The move to mobile payment is always top-of-mind as well, but lingering confusion and trepidation still remains for many customers. Owners and operators must seek out ways to implement the technology without intimidating customers. Last month's POS headlines proved this as stories ranged from a study tracking the public perception of mobile payment to improving drive-thru functionality and reducing maintenance costs with cloud-based systems. Study Shows Interest and Confusion Over Mobile Payments At Mobile World Congress, MasterCard in partnership with Prime Research, has released the first global Mobile Payments Social Media Study tracking 85,000 related social media comments across Twitter, Facebook, Online Blogs and Forums from around the world. The study shows a high volume of conversation and consumer interest in adopting mobile payments but cites security, customer support and confusion over the array of options available today as barriers to entry. Taco Bell Streamlines Drive-Thru Experience Across Franchises Desert de Oro Foods' Taco Bell locations had a range of drive-thru communications systems that were deployed over the last five years. However, restaurants were experiencing poor sound quality due to a limited range of wireless capabilities with the current systems. Poor audio quality led to increased wait times for customers as a result of miscommunications and mistakes. In addition, Desert de Oro Foods knew it needed to move to a digital system as the analog bandwidth of its current systems would be ruled out by the FCC at the end of 2012. Panasonic's Attune® drive-thru communications system offered the o

No industry has a bigger stake in protecting the environment and local communities than the travel industry. Like the article states, if coral reefs are destroyed, there will be no more snorkeling. And if the communities are not able to profit from the travelers coming to the area, their displeasure will show. In order to help green travelers decide if their trip is hurting the environment or harming local communities, or actually doing some good Sustainable Travel Leadership Network has started TravelWell. This project will also encourage the governments in the destination areas to improve sustainability practices, help travel companies decide where to do business.This initiative will score destinations based on the practices of piloted destinations, letting them know what areas they need to improve in. The problem is that while most governments are willing to create a plan, they do not actually follow through with the plans they've made. With TravelWell being implemented, destinations could lose out on the growing market of green travelers and this will affect their bottom line more in the long run. Because TravelWell will also give this information to potential investors, destinations also run the risk of losing potential investors. The main purpose of this tool is to keep the conversation of sustainability alive with governments. It would continually create a standard to measure the effectiveness of sustainability efforts as well as creating new ideas.

From the fore going, the computers are valuable in the management of a business when applied with information communication technology. Correctly and controlled systems are indispensable to a well-run business that wishes to maximize effectiveness and keep one step ahead of the competitions.  Therefore the impact of information and communication technology to the hospitality establishment can not be over emphasized if effectively applied will out perform others in the face of competitions.

Motel.com has now launched an initiative to allow customers to search for green hotels. Before this plan was put into action, customers who possessed that green thumb were unable to decipher which properties would meet their sustainable criteria. With a new "green feature" search, Motel.com lists all of the Hotels and Motels that are considered Eco Friendly or friends of the environment which efforts such as conserving water, electricity and natural gas. These properties listed as Eco Friendly are certified by the Greenkey Eco-Rating System by Green Key Global. "The Green Key Eco-Rating Program and Green Key Meetings Program are graduated rating systems designed to recognize green hotels, motels and resorts that are committed to improving their environmental and fiscal performance." With Americans becoming increasingly environmentally conscious, stay in an Eco Friendly Motel or Hotel has become a priority. Indeed, when I travel, I like to stay at a hotel that is better than my home. With these new initiatives in the back of my mind, staying at a certified Eco Friendly hotel would definitely meet my criteria. 

this article is talking about the sustainability development in hotel industry. every year the waste of water and energy in washing machine is huge. this behavior violates the mind that builds a green industry. in the help of the Green Hotels Association the hotel companies make some measures to save the water and energy like putting a card which ask guests to consider not having sheets changed every day. it is simple word but really playing an important role in developing sustainable vision.

We all know that a lot of hotels leave little cards in the room claiming that they are environmental-friendly and initiate protection of the environment or reducing waste. They encourage customers reuse towels and linens, and so on. This article use Marriot and Four Seasons as examples to describe that this kind of behavior is indeed helpful. Water, waste and cost reduction is resulted. So hotels should keeping doing this and lead to green life-style and reduce waste.

Depends on the worst killer in the restaurant profit, in my opinion is the financial analyzing only in the tax day. This managing decision that not summary the financial statement everyday will lead to the confuse cost management and missing the chance for the maximize profit margin. Especially, cost is the most important part for the daily financial analysis. This article talks about how to manage the cost under effective way and make the property working for more net income. For instance, this article introduce about how to pricing the menu depends on the historical selling data and how to make some development and promotion encouragement for the guests loyal consuming behavior under the low-season.

ALPHARETTA, Ga., Jun 26, 2013 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Agilysys, Inc. , a leading provider of innovative information technology and hospitality software solutions and services, today announced that Apache Casino Hotel in Lawton, Okla., has selected the Lodging Management System(R) (LMS) property management solution and the InfoGenesis(TM) POS system to streamline operations at its casino and new 132-room hotel.

The Apache Casino hotel recently expanded their property, putting them in a position of need for a technology system that would work for all aspects of the property. It would appear that they did their research before deciding on LMS and InfoGenesis to integrate with some of their currently used applications. Not only was it beneficial that they chose a company that works well with current programs, but they lked the partnership approach that Agilsys gave them. It would appear that their technology works hand in hand with multiple variations of outlets at a facility both as an individual unit, and for a property as a whole. Having a system with these kinds of capabilities proves to be very beneficial in being able to properly account for all accounting aspects in a way that can specifically identify profits and losses for the various aspects. It can be a challenge to sort through these details when there are such a large quantity of outlets, such as the room revenues,.food and beverage, meeting space, casino, etc. I wouldn't want to have to break down every department manually to determine if there is a huge profit margin somewhere that we can capitalize on or if there is a huge loss appearing from an aspect that we need to track to correct. Sounds to me like they made a good decision!

Pineapple Hospitality has chosen Zmail from the company ZDirect, as the platform they will use for their email marketing campaign. Because Pineapple Management is a growing company, the want to improve the way they communicate with their customers. Siting that it is important to have a platform that works both ways. Allowing the hotel to contact the customers and allowing the customers to contact the hotel. Zmail operates by using their content engine to capture guest behavior, purchase history and preferences. It then send individual transaction emails, emails that cater to the customer individually as opposed to mass emails to all customer. ZDirect offers this service with Zmail that is directly focused on communicating with the "right customers", those who are most likely to be loyal customers to the hotel and spend more money with the hotel. Because Pineapple Hospitality wishes to expand beyond their current market, Zmail is an ideal tool to use to identify potential customers. Since the company has been using Zmail, they have seen a ten percent increase in click-through rates.

Financial controllers are the one who has clear ideas about their budget in Hotels. Their job is to monitor cash flows, plan how to save, and follow up. However, it doesn't seem like there is anyone who has budget responsibility in engineering department. It sounds very odd but it is true that hotel should have someone who knows where we can save from and invest to in engineering department. On top of that they are still using Excel spreadsheet to handle on the financials, while advanced accounting software is widely used in every other department. Here is the why hotel should have someone who has knowledge about both financial and engineering. There are many expenses can be controlled in engineering department such as A/C, heater, elevators, and so on. For example, air-conditioning is responsible for almost 60% of a hotel's electricity bill and significant cost savings can be released by installing simple energy saving chiller devices, or by optimizing cooling tower performance. Instead of only fixing broken items, it is also helpful to think about which area can be improved and saved. Engineering department simply can adopt advanced accounting system to control staffing and budgeting at the same time instead of relying on financial department.

This article gives us a glance at six different technological trends being used and "revolutionizing" the hospitality industry. The six trends are cloud/software services, mobility, social media, personalized systems, integration, and globalization. The trends are all seen across the board in hospitality nowadays and are making huge changes in the industry. We have been talking about cloud computing and the pros and cons of using a cloud to store information and even with all the controversy, companies are investing and using the cloud. The use of tablets and smartphones has changed the way we interact with technology and the hospitality field is not staying behind. They are developing mobile sites and apps to help customers look at pictures and reviews about a place, check in and check out or make other arrangements. Social media is also revolutionizing hospitality by creating a reputation for businesses whether they be positive or negative. People can freely post about whether they enjoyed their stay at a certain hotel and helps build the online reputation of the company. In addition, more and more companies are looking to become more personalized experience. When I think about this part, I think mostly of the new systems rolling out at Disney World that scream personalization, guests can select their Fastpasses ahead of time, can use MagicBands to purchase things, get into their hotel, get into the park as well as to utilize the Fastpass system and every time a MagicBand is scanned at a touchpoint, the cast members know the person's name and whether they are celebrating something. With integration, customers and staff can access information from different departments all on one system and with globalization companies are trying to use systems that are global and used worldwide. 

Technological developments continue to have a great effect on all aspects of our lives, the hospitality industry not being an exception. Calum McIndoe in his article "Six Technology Trends Revolutionising the hospitality industry" outlines areas of technology that managers within the industry need to take advantage of. Cloud technology, though this concept is fairly new it can provide great financial benefits to companies as it cuts cost greatly due to the fact that it eliminates the heavy hardware requirements traditional technology offered. Mobility, the fact that portable devices can add a competitive edge to the service offered. Think traditional services being provided on the go away from a fixed station. Social; the popularity of social networking sites have changed the face of hospitality and tourism marketing completely. Properties are now forced to monitor social networking sites to learn about customer demands and to also learn about the image their company has out there and how they can improve it. According to Mr. "for any hotel to not at least monitor social medis is tantamount to willingly flying blind." Personalized systems; value for customers within this industry has to do greatly with the personal touch added to the service delivered. These merged systems allows properites to use data to ensure that guest needs are met. Integration; the joining of isolated systems used in all areas of operations on the property. The use of integrated systems allows for the pulling of data from the different departments thus ensuring proper management of services delivered and revenue management. Globalisation; It is important that hospitality companies adapt to changes and trends brought about by globalisation. Whether the current global outlook is taken into consideration when considering how a company operates can greatly impact the final product.

((NOTE: The author already highlighted the article in yellow when I found it, my personal highlighting is in PINK. Sections 5 and 6 are not highlighted in pink because I agree with the parts that the author highlighted yellow in those sections; Diigo toolbar will not let you highlight over something that has already been highlighted.)) This article mainly focuses on the technological changes in the hotel industry in pertinence with storing hotel information versus the traditional method(s) used by hotels that involved little to no technology at all. The article lists six different points or examples and states that businesses, especially small or upcoming businesses, need to follow by these six trends. The part of the article that stood out to me the most when reflecting on the lectures and power points for this week is the first trend. The first trend speaks about a "cloud" software (which I am not really familiar with so excuse me if my explanation is not 100% sound) and announces that "around 85% of the queries we see from hospitality companies and hotels include a serious look at cloud computing". The author lists a few reasons why such a high percentage of hotels are doing it this way. He basically says that you do not need special staff or special training to maintain the system; the system maintains itself so you can have more time to focus on your guests and trends in their patterns. Also, as far as the cost is concerned, "upfront investment is lower with the cloud as there are no initial hardware costs or associated expense…". Even though I am not very familiar with this service just yet, I like the idea of freeing up employee time to go and interact more with the customers; attending to the customers' needs is the most important thing in my eyes. The article goes on to list mobility, social media, personalized systems, integration, and globalization as all equally important parts to this revolution of technology pertaining to the hospitality industr

This article summarize "An investment with a few". In 2009 during the great recession the hospitality industry suffered the most the saw revenues go downhill as many people spent their vacations at home while companies cut back travel. Eight years later the hotel occupancy rates are where they were pre-recession about 65%full versus 55% In 2009 the cash flow is coming back in. Many investors who survived those bad years are now being rewarded by the Bloomberg REIT hotels index is up 10.7% year to date. Now that the economy is improving there are still more gains to be had.

I know of very few aphorisms that tend to be repeated as smugly as this one, particularly by scared people. The implication is that action is generally to be avoided, that the status quo is probably just fine, and that one should wait for a true crisis before intervening. And, of course, that it's your fault if you've ignored this sage advice and intervened anyway. It's ironic, then, how IT departments themselves end up complaining endlessly about how they're always in fire-fighting mode. This prevailing attitude evolves among (and is a telling symptom of) burned-out sysadmins and developers, especially those who are stuck maintaining systems they didn't themselves write or engineer. It can be equally summed up as a "don't touch it, don't breathe on it" kind of superstition. Or, perhaps, it's akin to the proud but defensive statement that "we've always done it that way."

Now this article is about Big Brother and total surveillance. The CIA has laid claims that they would be able to tap into almost all of our daily used devices including our dishwashers. Why I don't know but it is unnerving that they would even bother to see if I separated my darks from my lights. In essence The CIA and the NSA will be able to gain access and control of all devices that are linked to the internet.  The article also reports that anyone who has been arrested in NYC is only released from custody with an iris scan. Probably because of the increased presences of CCTV and facial recognition but they are keeping mum on their reasons.  Oh and for all you email users oh wait that is all of us, the NSA is working on de-encrypting all messages to read, analyze and store. 

I'm not sure but that would be a good guess or perhaps they can bug it for sound?

I'm going to go with the benefit of the doubt and say no to the bugging on the machines. In terms of water conservation the government can monitor individual meter readings from companies through water bills, so that throws out that theory as well. I am still pondering the reasons.

In reference to this article and rise of E commerce and It in the hospitality industry has been a great impact over the years. Statistics show that online travel sales is projected to grow to 8.9 billion in 2002. This amount of sales includes rentals, hotels, and will help to reduce the amount of commissions that are paid to suppliers. Another impact in Hospitality is that of Information Technology. the trend is very fats in the industry because it is easier for suppliers as well organizations that can communicate faster and get better results. With this in mind helps to reduce the cost of overhead, and to help marketing managers take advantage of data that is stored in warehousing that helps target specific markets and competitors.

Hotel Reservation Software is making online booking easier. The advantage of Hotel Reservation Software is that it can show rooms availability, it eliminate double booking, and it provides the availability to reserve specific rooms while giving instant confirmation. The software keeps personal information secure, maintain costumer data base and create custom reports. The crucial part of the technology is it security feature and it is user- friendly. Hotel Reservation Software enables communication between all hotel depart, making booking quicker and easier and provide useful financial and customer reports.

It is a new trend for the hotel to develop the mobile booking system. the hotel should make this system easy to use, and can connect to the social world. While mobile adoption is accelerating in terms of the number of users researching or managing travel, there is no evidence of attrition in website demand. So building both the website and mobile system can benefit to the hotels. 

A company in Denmark has piloted a solar panel system (Zenros Solar Touch Panels) they believe will save hotels 35% in energy costs (heating light and power) over the current sensor based system.The system draws power from natural and man-made light and wirelessly communicates with all electrical devices in the room allowing for efficient function. Unlike other systems, this one does not require rewiring of the hotel because it is wireless. A hotel in Qatar has purchased the system and is set to go live with the new green hotel soon.

It sounds like a good plan. I mean if it will reduce the energy costs by 35% they should definitely try the system out in a certain group of hotels around the world. Some people like to stay in hotels that are all about being green, so if these solar panels can help reduce costs and increase in rooms sold it is basically a win win for everyone. The only thing I would be unsure about is the mechanical aspect of it. It may reduce the energy costs but will the maintenance cost increase to keep the devices running.

I find myself wondering why the United States is not more proactive in green technology. A lot of the information I came across centered around other areas of the world pushing forwards with innovation. I would assume that all technology will require maintenance, but once a system has the bugs worked out of it, most modern technology runs pretty well. Maybe that is why more hotels are not using the technology. They could be waiting to see how the pioneer hotels do.

In an effort to catch up with emerging technology and trends, it is expected more hotels will begin to "go green" this year with their linens and uniforms. I believe this is in part because hotels are being held to hirer expectations as we emerge from the recession. USA Today reports that American Laundry News surveyed several vendors about new products at the 2011 International Hotel, Motel and Restaurant Show in New York. Vendors including popular uniform maker, Cintas revealed more items like the washable tuxedo, made from recycled plastic bottles and the Eco-Cobra Jacket for front door staffers. Hospitality textile maker, Riegel is reportedly getting lots of attention from hoteliers for its recycled polyester tablecloths, also made from recycled bottles. The recycled fibers are expected to cut costs on hotel laundry bills. For example, Cintas estimates the washable tuxedos would save them nearly $1,000 each year. I had the opportunity to attend IHMRS this year, and visited the Cintas display. The recyclable material is no new idea. However, it is apparent that changes are being made to improve the durability of the products. I recall when the recycled fibers were initially used. The material seemed cheap and couldn't be ironed for risk of destroying it. Quality seems to be something hotels and restaurants are forgoing in order to "go green". To add, up front costs aren't necessarily saving companies much money. The USA Today article prompts reader responses by asking if hotel/ restaurant visitors even care whether or not a business has "green" products. I believe this is a fair question. Beyond attempts to save on long term costs, what other motivation do hotel operators have to "go green"?

I think it is important to hotel visitors, especially group & corporate, for hotels to go green. Maybe companies and organizations require their employees to book rooms at hotels that meet certain "green" standards. If I am a business owner, and promote the company as "green", then our actions and choices have to be "green" too. The uniforms made of recycled material sound very interesting! I wonder if they are comfotable and liked by employees.

While many U.S. hotels are moving from recession style cost cutting to updating their properties, it would appear that they have become interested in a more green approach, at least in one area, laundry. The American Laundry news explains that as many hotels seek to buy new tablecloths and uniforms for their staff, they are looking for green products that can help to trim their laundering costs. One of the things that caught the interest of hoteliers is the hotel industry's first look at machine washable tuxedos for the wait staff. Cintas partnered with Boardroom Eco Apparel to produce the tuxedo, which uses recycled plastic bottles transformed into polyester fibers. Cintas has stated that this green, machine washable tuxedo can save the hotel up to $1000 per employee annually. Cintas has also garnered interest in its recycled polyester bellman's jackets, as well. Another green product that hotels can use is the recycled polyester tablecloth. These tablecloths also come from recycled bottles and are also very eco-friendly. Riegel, the company behind these, has said that just using one of their table napkins can eliminate three plastic bottles from landfills. While these tablecloths may not save the hotel money in the short run, Riegel says that the hotel can save money in the long run by pitching itself as a "green" hotel. It is important to note that hotels have been slowly switching to greener products over the years, such as energy efficient light bulbs, to recycled plastic water bottles, and even sustainable organic ingredients in restaurant kitchens.

Great article on the rise of mobile payment systems and how businesses who in the past may have been cash only or otherwise are seeing increased sales as the ability to take credit card payments with little hardware and software infrastructure costs. Down the street from me is probably my favorite Rib joint in town, Uncle Rodney's House of Ribs is the name. I love that place, but rarely go because they are a cash only business due in large part to the fact that the owner does not wish to pay for wireless or otherwise internet related services to make his business able to accept credit cards. What are everyone's thought to the increased use of mobile payment systems for restaurants and other businesses?

This is an interesting article, and it is quite amazing to see how the way of payment is drastically shifting with new technological devices such as smartphones, card readers. Just a couple of years ago, if I wanted to buy something online, I had to start my computer then go on whatever website I bought something from which took some time. Now, however, I don't even have to turn on my computer to purchase something on the web because I can buy many things through my smartphone whenever and wherever I want. It is a lot easier and faster than what it used to be.

Spasibo bolshoe za interesting article! Ona mne ochen pomozhet v moem research!