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The pros of using the mobile apps for meeting are a lot. It could provide the location-based services and push messaging. Using the mobile apps is not wholly dependent on a Wi-Fi connection. It makes possible to obtain a large delegate list and content without downloading because those are already on the app. Additionally, security and privacy are also much better with an app. On the contrary, mobile websites can be advantageous because they need fewer resources to develop that differs from mobile apps. The mobile websites are easier because there's no writing code for different operating systems such as iOS, Android and Win- dows Phone. For a website, the coding is done once, and users don't have to wait and download it; it just happens automatically. For smaller properties,having a mobile app wouldn't be as useful as trying to communicate with a large group of people. It could benefits more on the large size of groups.

This posts summarized 10 trends in the hospitality technology. Most of them are benefiting the guests directly, such as the wifi access and the self check-in services. However, as more and more hotel in the industry adopting these technology, the competition has been brought on, and every company is working harder to invest more technology in hotel management, development as well as operation. These 10 trends are the most basic ones which have changed the industry greatly, but there are mot to expect in the near future. 

I think Geofencing is extremely interesting. Although it's ultimately singling out a group of people and changing their marketing strategies to fit that group of people's interests, I think it reaches a larger audience this way by understanding what the people want to see rather than giving them advertisements they'll quickly scroll through.

This article takes a deep dive into the emerging tech trends in 2021. They briefly touched on how SaaS is slowly taking over the traditional PMS and how venture capitalist can't get enough of these programs. Another honorable mention in this article is the explosion of guest room tech such as streaming services, voice activation, and guest room tablets. OTAs that have traditionally been top dogs when it came to hotel bookings are slowly declining and big data is becoming super insightful to hoteliers. This article touches on so many avenues of tech and it's definitely a must read!

This article is talking about the ihotel, a new system where  guests are no longer checking on the counter .  This new system started at the Andaz West Hollywood where guests register on an iPad tablet.  These hotels are adopting new system to fit their guest which are trying to keep us with their guests who are technology oriented.  Some of the hotels are a going to adopt a Wi-fi coffee-shop atmosphere in their lobbies.   Nowadays hotels are trying to make their guests fill as comfortable as possible, they are also  installing electrical outlets so guests can power their laptops and mobile devices 24 hours a day. Those hotels are trying their best to make customers feel comfortable and less formal to bring life to their hotel. But the only reason more hotel are not adopting this technology is because those upgrades are not cheap.   For example  at The Andaz removing  the wall between the lobby , bar and restaurant increase their  revenue  because as guest  spend l more hours in the lobby they tend to other more and more food.The lobbies are becoming the more living room which in their hotel which cause the customer to be more loyal to the hotel since thy feel more comfortable.

The rise and rise of consumer technology and the increasing take-up of this technology by our guests combined with the shorter life cycles of this technology creates considerable challenges for both operators and owners of hotels. In the past we stayed in a guest room to experience technology that we could not get at home but now this changed completely and in most instances the reverse is true today where what we have at home is far superior to anything that is in hotel guestroom.

These days, it's very common to find free or inexpensive Wi-Fi connections at many hotels when you travel. The connection's stability and security had become a big issue for Hotel. Rezidor Hotels in order to provide a batter service to guests rolling out superfast internet connections across its hotels and office. And they use SaaS technology to ensure the network reliability. The hotel focus more on the internet speed, the bandwidth were split two separate services ensure the hotel's staff won't share the internet with guests. As we can see this hotel puts a high value on their guests' experience, but it does not seem to mention in the article on how to ensure the safety of Internet. That is another big issue we need to concern.

This article was very interesting because it talked about how you can avoid network treats when it comes to your hospitality business. I like the first step in misconfigured remote access tools, which allows hackers to really guess the password that you put. They had an idea in where if you were to guess the password right, you still have to do something a second time just to make sure that the person is not an impostor. You have to always check that your software security is up to date because if not people can really affect your compare, which is not good at all. If you have everything up to date, you most likely will not get any virus that will make your computer/system slow. You should also always secure your WI FI because a person does not have to be in a restaurant to use the WI FI and get into the restaurant system. So you always want to have separate critical network from wireless network. We also learned in this article that in the computers in a restaurant you should always have antivirus so that you do not catch anything that might get infected. You should not plug in anything that you know has been infected by virus into your companies company because they computer will catch it and thief's can get into it. You should restrict access to the Internet form the internal network. Your goal is to keep any virus or make it hard for a hacker to get into your system in your company to steal your information especially guest personal information, which is very important.

From what I research from the article, VLAN as a local area network itself actually is quite secure cause the fake IP address means a private one.  And it is already encrypted. But the hackers had imitate the hotel's main server. As for the technology developing, it seems like the more secure the system make, the smarter the hacker would be. 

This article introduced how hotels improve their network to enhance security. To reduce the potential for stealing by theft and hacker, the W Dallas Hotel set up virtual local area networks. Compared with relatively rundimentary hub technology and encryption for Wi-Fi, the biggest advantage of this VLANs is to inhibit attackers from using computer to imitate the hotel'smain server. I think increaing a hotel network's security is very necessary, still, people should pay more attention to this and improve the techonology to make sure the security of all aspects.

Copyright 2011 In 1991 I started consulting to hotels, specifically regarding technology. Since then I've been lucky enough to be published in this magazine, to have spoken at HITEC and IHMRS, and also to have presented to many hotel companies.

After reading this article, I thought about my travel experience over the years and how technology has advanced greatly. I clearly remember stay in hotels with 27 box tv , standard alarm clocks and brew style coffee pots.Luxury rooms had VCR and I'm talking circa 1999. Fast forward five years and high speed internet, dvd players and docking stations began to make waves, out with the old and in with the new. Today, with a world filled with smartphones, sleek and slim TV and laptops, social media and WI-FI, staying connect is a must. Hotels are finding innovative ways to keep guest coming back. LCD, LED, HD, 4G are all acronyms that keep guest happy. From access their social media site, using keyless Wi-Fi door openers and having an apps makes a world of difference to tech savy guest, regardless of age. A recent hotel stay left me in speechless, I checked in using the app I downloaded to my phone, I customized my movie selection, orders my favorite snacks from the room service, used my phone to swipe into my room. Yea I was blown away by that fuzzy bar code scanner thingy, actually work. And be part of it all, I used didn't have to change the configurations on my laptop to access any of my favorite sites, I log into everything via a wireless keyboard and there it was 37in HD LCD screen updated me on the happening in my world. Technology, oh where we would we be without you?

Mr. Watt, a customer who was spending his weekend at the Courtyard Marriott in Midtown Manhattan was browsing the website. He realized that there was a strange drawing appeared on the top of the web page, which did not exist before. At first, he did not pay too much attention to it, but he still determined to check source codes to see if there was anything wrong with the computer or the Internet. After checking the source codes, he found lines of code which include references to"EXG". He thought it was a hacker attack, but his IT background enabled him quickly figured out that lines of code that include EXG had nothing to do with a hacker attack, but was a service named Revenue Extraction Gateway used by RG Nets company to inject advertisement secretly without the knowledge of the users, which aims at generating revenue from the Internet access points. Mr. Matt claimed that although this service will not bring harm to the users, but the principle of the thing that upset the users most. The hotel then apologized to Mr. Watt, and promised not to use this service anymore. What I feel interesting is that I also had such problems before, and after I interviewed some of my classmates and friends, I realized that this is a pervasive problem. However, what surprised me the most is the truth that most of the hotels do not know that their hotels' internets are exposed to secret ads injection because this kind of secret service is not on the contracts that the hotels signed with the internet company. In my opinion, it is an unethical service. Customers who use the internet feels that he/she is being spied on, and for the web content creators, they could not get a cut of the revenue from this.

We can learn from this article that guests had some problems using WiFi service during their stay in the hotels. These problems include signal stability, speed of the Internet, how to save their wi-fi payment and the download limitations in the hotel. As we will pursue our career in hospitality industry, it is important for us to identify these problems in the hotel we work. On the other hand, the engineering department and managers should pay attention to upgrade the internet system to ensure that our guests get considerable internet service.

Wireless networking is a important application of computer networks. And this news is very interesting. Because with my own experiences during traveling, I found out that a lot of passengers do not want to turn-off their phones during their flying time, some may choose to turn to the fight mode. And when I took Qatar airline, I found out that they install the wireless services for people to send message or make phone calls. That was the first time I experience this kind of service, I was very excited but calmed down when I saw the expensive fees I need to pay if I want to use. So I think it is time for FAA to look ways which can satisfy travelers' demand through possible new allowances.

I am one of those Americans that have a hard time disconnecting from technology when boarding an aircraft. I usually fly American Airlines and a majority of their airplane offer Wi-Fi available for purchase, I don't mind paying $12.95 so that I can stay entertain, I can't wait to hear the chime at 10,000 feet followed with the message from the flight crew telling me that "it is now safe to use electronic devices." On May 16th, 2012, Virgin Atlantic announced that passengers would be able use cell phones onboard the airplane utilizing VoIP. Can you imagine this technology aboard a plane from Los Angeles to New York? http://www.tomshardware.com/news/Virgin-Atlantic-Cell-Phones-Planes-In-Flight-Cost,15642.html

Hotel rooms are ready to go high-tech with new security products that can enhance the guest experience. As the organization Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals (HFTP) prepared the 2012 guestroom exhibit Guestroom 20X for last week's HITEC tradeshow, the group sought new ways to make the room more modern, efficient and self-serviced.

Hotel rooms are ready to go high-tech with new security products that can enhance the guest experience. As the organization Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals (HFTP) prepared the 2012 guestroom exhibit Guestroom 20X for last week's HITEC tradeshow, the group sought new ways to make the room more modern, efficient and self-serviced.

This article covered information on the projected security of the future in hospitality. The Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals (HFTP) were working on developments that they planned to showcase in the HITEC tradeshow last year. These developments, collectively recognized as the Guestroom 20x, were expected to make hotel rooms more efficient and modern. These developments included obtaining rooms and keys without front desk interaction, video intercoms to replace peepholes, reinforced room safes, and a smoke alarm aid to properly alert guests in case of fire. There were also talks of an energy management system in the rooms included. The developments seem to be a start towards a changing way of hospitality. I believe that these developments are great options for hotels in the future. Of course, there are always risks that must be recognized. These risks could even be the downfall of the developments. Technology's ability to fail or malfunction is too constant at this time. System glitches, hacking possibilities and power outages could inconvenience these developments as well as inconvenience the guests at the hotel that use them. My main concerns lie with the option to obtain rooms and keys through PCs and mobile phones, the smoke alarm aid and the energy management. One technological failure could cause any of these to cease operating, which means that guests could be locked out of their rooms, in danger if there is actually a fire (or inconvenienced because of a malfunctioning alarm), or inconvenienced because of a nonworking room temperature gauge. These issues could lead to many problems for the hotel that hosts these developments. So, the companies should analyze these issues before installing these developments.

USA TODAY assembled five of the industry's top executives last month at the Americas Lodging Investment Summit in Los Angeles in the LA Live JW Marriott hotel for a discussion of the industry's latest developments. They were: Marriott International CEO J.W. "Bill" Marriott Jr.; InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) CEO Richard Solomons; Carlson CEO Hubert Joly; Choice Hotels CEO Steve Joyce; and Eric Danziger, CEO Wyndham Hotel Group. The discussion ranged from hotel Internet fees to iPad apps, new lobbies and chainwide hotel renovations. The hour-long event was moderated by USA TODAY's Barbara De Lollis . The text has been edited for clarity and length.

Thought this was a great article from the perspective of five of the top industry executives. Of particular note was about the issues of catering to the newer wireless data hungry traveler. Interesting to see all of their comments and concerns. Seems like this is an issue that is across the board and there is no consensus at the point about how to tackle.

This article shows that majority of hoteliers know the importance of technology in this industry, however, they just put off adopting new advancements because of the lack of funds and a fear of changing. When the hotel adopts a high technology, majority of working system should be changed which cause a fear to hoteliers. However, most surveys reveal that investment on technology surely enhance the customers experience that directly related to generate revenue.

Meeting industry is fast growing industry in nowadays. It can generate a lot of revenues and provide a large amount of job opportunities for the nation. And the trend of this industry is technology based. Meeting planers and suppliers prefer electronically communication. And video conference is becoming more and more popular. It is safe to say that in today' meeting and convention industry, venues that continues to advance their technological assets will continue to enjoy a competitive advantages over those that go without.

As technology advances so do hackers and criminals. Hotels are placing more cameras in public areas to keep their guests safer. Because cameras are becoming much more popular they are easier to attain and cheaper for hotels to have more than one. Another form of security hotels have been using is key systems. You can track what key and who it was that entered into any room. But hotels are even taking it farther where the guests must use their key in the elevator to get to their floor. All of these steps are in place for the safety and security of the hotel guests. But we still need to be careful as hackers and criminals are coming up with new ways to get hotel stayers. They have even gotten creative enough to make their own Wi-Fi to get guests information. Security teams and hackers will always be neck in neck for who is ahead of the game.