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This article discusses how to stay ahead in the hospitality industry. During a hospitality conference in Las Vegas, leaders in the industry discussed where the industry is going and the power of foresight. Being great at your job is not good enough anymore. Hotels needs to stay ahead of trends and find ways to innovated before guests do. Here are a few ways hotels and hospitality companies could be proactive to stay ahead of the curve. 1) Embrace Innovation: Using Marriott International as an example, they are always thinking outside the box. At their headquarters, they have an innovation lab that constantly manufactures new ideas. Some of their designs features are looking to implement communal rooms. Where guest will share a kitchen, dining room, and lounge areas. 2) Make Technology Your Friend: Whey a company embraces technology, it has the power to take a company to the next level. The issue is that most people don't normally like change and have trouble adapting to new ways. To be ahead of the curve, it is important for hotels to use technology to their advantage. 3) Personalize Employee Communication: Communication is the key to success in any company and in hospitality, it is very important to personalize employee communication. The staff is the backbone to all hotels and communications between management and staff need to stay constant. In today's society, the guests expect to communicate anywhere, anytime and employees are now expecting the same.

The articles goes over why Hospitality should start making pre-payment the norm in the industry. The examples given are because of high cancellation rates, fraudulent bookings, and cash flow impact.

The article discusses how hotels are one of the E-Commerce industries where payment is predominately received after the service is provided and not at the time of booking/purchase like most e-commerce businesses. This practice has hindered revenue growth over the years due to fraudulent bookings, long lead times affecting cash flow, and high cancellation rate for reservations. Which is why hotels should aim to further encourage payment at the time of booking, which according to D-EDGE (a cloud-based e-commerce company & booking engine) can be done by increasing the number of payment options, exemplified by their partnership with PayPal, that enables hotels to accept payments fast and securely by integrating the widely used PayPal platform to the hotel's website.

This article is about the importance of changing the way payment is done in the hospitality industry. There are negatives to paying after you have completed your stay. It includes people canceling before stays and people booking without any intentions of staying at the hotel.

This article shows a few important steps to make companies staying ahead of the curve. Leaders can create an environment of trust, tap into the creative energy of their people, master characteristics of agility (speed, flexibility, strengths), stay committed to values, staff, and customers, stay uncommitted to anything that may tie you down, master the short-term, but think future.

Marketing and advertising trends are constantly changing due to evolving consumer expectations. These changing expectations are essential for business owners to notice and address in order to stay relevant in the market and industry. Businesses must understand their vision for the future in order to address those expectations. This is the foundation that business will be able to build off of as consumers value truth and consistency. Companies must also stray away from the safe and obvious choices by pushing the boundaries. It is important that business owners are always looking ahead to the future in order to stay ahead of the curve.

This blog post talks about how you can effectively reach your customer base through the use of email marketing, pre and post arrival. One of the benefits is being able to build guest rapport by creating a relationship through this channel. Sending them a few offers prior to arrival or a unique message to follow your twitter page creates this positive relationship and vibe about your brand. This leads to getting a farther reach on your online presence via social media and what not. This is a cost effective marketing channel that leads to more followers, more likes, and more brand awareness. Lastly, you can discover great guest feedback by sending post stay e-mail marketing. It has been reported that the majority prefer to receive a guest feedback e-mail rather than being stopped while they are checking out. This also opens the doors to opportunities, by keeping the relationship, creating customer loyalty, and reaching them through email marketing for special deals. The use of email marketing is one of the most cost effective and leads to the greatest ROI. It creates customer loyalty and leads to repeat business.

The article titled "3 Reasons Why Email Marketing is Essential for your Hotel" provides interesting points in terms of the impact of email marketing. Building guest rapport, specifically a personalized point of contact, is crucial for the guest to feel that there is a connection, and in turn will become loyal. According to the article, "Effective hotel email marketing starts the minute a guest has booked and nurtures your relationship with them long after their stay. It's a chance for you to build rapport with your guests-which translates into positive reviews and repeat customers". Therefore, how can hotels create a positive guest experience and environment? Email marketing, when used efficiently, such as through pre-arrival emails, will allow guests to feel appreciated and taken care of. In addition to this, email marketing is an excellent opportunity to extend the brand's online presence and receive guest feedback. Thus, email marketing should not be seen only as communication from the hotel to the guest, but a great start to a conversation.

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. 

Software is extremely important within hospitality. As guests expect more, our industry needs systems that will provide more options. The more a system can offer us, the more we can in turn offer a guest. With the world moving into a more technological advanced place, hospitality is no exception. Drury has taken steps to provide this as they move to a new property management system (PMS) "Agilysys rGuest." The software promises a pilot that includes benefits for the hotel as well as the guests, such as enhanced efficiency and guest service.

I found this article extremely interesting because in today's world, almost everyone relies on technology for everything. From googling what 25 centimeters is in inches, to emailing your cousin who lives across the world from you. So why not, bring that favorite technology with you when you go away? Like the article mentions, these smart apps, and chat bots, not only helps guests have a more comfortable stay, but also helps things go more smoothly for staff. In addition, these technologies allow hotels to make it a better stay for guests, by recording specific preferences, leading to increased loyalty. All in all, if it helps it make a more convenient experience for both the guest and staff at the hotel, I say it is a winner! 

When well-intentioned plans go awry, you must be able to rebound and redirect your plans and goals in a new way.

We see that this article shares with us three ways in which we can stay ahead of the curve. they broke it down by saying we need to 1. Anticipate- not only whats coming next, but also the play. 2.Capture-Taking action, understanding the new thing, idea or concept. 3. Lead- with decisive leadership you are not going to succeed in moving your team forward,

It is a smart article that linked baseball with business moves. It mentioned 3 things needed to stay ahead of the curve of business. The things were 1. Anticipate: know the transitions ahead and try to respond to them. 2. Capture: realize what needed to do and try to fulfill the needs. In business, customers are barometers. Businessmen need to capture the needs of customers and satisfy them. 3. Lead: to be a leader and make bold decisions to move the team forward in the business. Leaders also need to find out the best path. It sounds like "no guts, no glory."

This article discuses how post pandemic technology integrations will be necessary to stay up to date with the average traveler. Cloud Services, integrations into PMS systems are allowing the guest to control every aspect of their stay by the touch of a button.

Hospitality employees are faced every day with multi tasking which can lead to human error. AI has many benefits in making the majority of these tasks automated. Hatboxes will take a guests information, and record it into the database which will allow the staff to make the stay more personalized with information at hand.

The article simply describes the ways in which AI is apart of our everyday lives and how it has not only impacted us as individuals but in the hospitality industry. Years ago, when we thought of AI we would think of big robots but now AI is as small as a chip in an iPhone, or as intangible as data on a software. AI has enabled a deeper level of personalization to guest experience as well as added close to maximum efficiency in the data and intelligence realm. It allows for multiple processes to be happening at the click of a button, lessening the potential exhaustion of our human resources in these businesses. In my opinion, AI has brought exponential convenience to our everyday lives and although sometimes intrusive, it makes life easier. Being able to rely on a piece of technology to remember certain patterns and trends is convenient and efficient.

In this article, the author thoroughly discusses how artificial intelligence has severely impacted the hospitality industry. The author begins with a short description of what AI really is, stating "The term "AI" doesn't have to refer to an autonomous robot that handles the cleaning in your home. It can just as easily refer to the algorithm used to personalize the marketing emails you receive". They then go on to explain how AI can be and IS extremely helpful to the operations side of the hospitality industry. For example, when the front desk phone rings, AI can be implemented to intelligently reroute incoming calls to the correct department's line, alleviating some of the work off of the front desk staff who would've otherwise needed to stop what they're doing to answer the phone for something as simple as a transfer to a different department. Next is a section dedicated to how AI can personalize the guest experience. By collecting data on guests while they're using your website, you can show them offers and amenities at your hotel that are tailored to them. The example in the article states "You might make special offers that speak to their unique needs, such as child-friendly rooms, all-inclusive stays, or experiences that include a room at the hotel, but also tickets to events or shows in the surrounding area". All in all, AI is vital to the hospitality industry. It not only helps guests have the best experience they possibly can, but it also helps the staff with providing the best service they possibly can to the guests.

Just last year Shangri-La have launched a mobile application for its diverse guests to make reservation on their smart phone. The application is  available in Ipad and android phone. Guest can view special promotion and their membership points (Golden Circle). Guests can redeem their points to book complimentary nights for their next stay. In addition, the applications will have built in QR code scanner.  Shangri-La plans to add features in the first quarter of 2013, that include room text, voice message, special requests, local weathers and to set up wake up calls. User that download the application can also share stories about their stay in "Your Circle". 

IHG launched Guest Reviews and Ratings for each of its seven existing hotel brand websites in Chinese, English, German and Spanish. For customers, this service gives online customers the convenience of reading authentic customer feedback while bookend their stays. For hotels, this service can verify the guests who really stayed in IHG's hotels and gave an unbiased review for recent stay.  IHG is always at the forefront of online booking in this industry. it was the first hotel to introduce online booking system in 1995. In 2002 IHG pioneered Best Price Guaranteed. 

Intercontinental Hotel Group(IHG) now said that the company will try to focus on mobile marketing to counter challenges from aggregators such as Expedia, Priceline.com, and booking.com. These aggregators enable guests to search by showing the price and location and book hotels at a time. They are such an important outlet for sales, however, they drive down the price and also drive down the brand. Hence, IGC now trying to focus on mobile marketing to connect guests journey from search, shop, compare, booking, confirmatiln, pre-staying planning, arrival, stay and depature.

Jason Bradbury a technology expert and futurist spends a night in the Eccleston Square Hotel in London. He states how its a fine example of how smart technology can greatly enhance a hotel stay. Bradbury describes the rooms many technological aspects and reviews his stay entire stay. He states how technology will deliver what the future guest deires which is aunthenticity.

This article highlights the necessity of investing in technologies for the Hospitality Industry. Guests are demanding technology that makes their stay more independent rather than having to deal with present employees. They want to be able to contact virtually rather than go down to talk to the concierge. They also want more in-room technology available for them. This article in my opinion is very important for hotels to take note of just how much guests want hotels to provide them with new technologies, because the percentages are becoming high. People are bored of the same hotel stay they have been receiving for so many years, and investments in technology is a must.

This article is about Allora which is a hotel booking engine created by hotel data firm and powered by artificial intelligence. The purpose of Allora is to change the way travelers find their perfect stay at their hotels of their choosing and this also gives hotels the chance to upsell base on what their guest are wanting from their stay with them.

On my previous article about Oraculo, the world's first predictive algorithm for hotels, I described how personalization in hospitality is no longer a trend but an obligation. By posting this new article I wanted to dig a little deeper into tailoring guests needs through e-commerce. In 2015, American Express Travel reported that 83% of millennials would not object to have their habits tracked if they get a more customized experience. This strong message has prompted the hotel industry to develop and implement website personalization technology that suggests, intuitively, specific room categories or packages to online lookers. Since building loyalty is an investment, improving the direct booking ratio is now the main goal of the industry. From experience, when I travel I try to stay at the same hotel and book directly from the hotel website. The most important thing to me when I shop around is furniture and bathroom. Although these are not generally specified in detail in room descriptions, the brand I'm loyal to is usually very consistent with my needs. If new technology would give me a more personalized stay somewhere else I would definitely change my membership. I have friends who don't travel much except for vacation and long weekends. They are lookers who go to online travel agencies (OTA's) and bounce from site to site trying to find the perfect place. The article explains this newer technology will be crucial to prevent lookers from bouncing to other websites, and encourage them to book directly from the hotel and avoid OTA's. The idea is to make it so personalized that it will be appealing on the spot. These new technologies not only can tailor room types and resort packages based on IP addresses, but it can customize your TV programming based on your web history. Personalizing the guest experience during the stay is no longer enough. Data shows that in order to build loyalty and make the customer return, personalization has to begin in the booking pr

This article describes how personalization of eCommerce can bring better profits, because it is helping guests personalize how they would like their stay. This is more efficient for the guests because it is ensure they get what they want, like if they want to be around certain theme parks, or if they want their rooms a certain way. They even have options where you can fit guests language barriers, like if they speak only spanish they can change the language so spanish speakers can also ensure they have their preferred stay.

This article explains the importance of website personalization. Here, vital information is stored for current and future use of consumers. It is important for industry professionals to have access to this information but protect it from reaching outside entities.

This article overviews the three major technological trends of 2019. Those trends are as follows: Mircro-Intergration of Software Solutions which enable a seamless cohesion of third-party vendor's into the hotel's existing PMS sofware through programming. Frictionless Guest stay, the idea is to make guest stays more efficient by creating apps that are personal mobile concierge. Thus allowing guests to make the most of their time vacationing or "workationing" Employee Focused Technology, for the full service hotels, this idea will help with locating employees by installing panic buttons. Beacon Geolocators will provide the exact location of an employee once they press that panic button.

This is a great read discussing the technological advancements in the hospitality industry over the past few years. The article points out that the use of such technologies is inevitable in the future because "the hotel technology space is growing rapidly and software services are becoming increasingly targeted." The three top hospitality technology trends that the author provides for 2019 include micro-integration of software solutions, employee-focused technology, and the frictionless guest stay. Together with other existing and new inventions, these technologies will continue to shape the hospitality in the next few years.

In 2017, Royal Caribbean announced they were making a huge investment in technology that will make the cruisers' experience easier, more seamless and a lot more fun. They are developing a new app that will first include a cruise schedule and on-board activities. This app will eventually grow and include registration, excursion bookings and facial recognition plus games built in. Royal Caribbean believes to stay competitive you need to stay on top of technology and include it wherever you can. As of this article, the app was available on 2 of their ships and will hopefully be added to their entire fleet (including all 6 of their brands) within the next few years. The company believes in creating this technology from within the company and outsourcing as little as possible.