Group items tagged

The article covers a great deal of the technology products in all of the hotel aspects. it also focuses on the fact that hotels are investing a lot in offering technological tangible services to the clients where must shift its focus a bit and invest more in the guest engagement technology to close the gap between them and OTAs.

Hospitality is being transformed into a 100% digital technology-enabled industry; however, it is very challenging to maintain. Employees are overwhelmed by the amount of technology they need to lear to do their job efficiently

This article focuses on the fact that technology is now being used in almost every aspect of the hotel industry. This is because hoteliers are beginning to understand that guests are expecting to enjoy the same level of technology used in the comfort of their homes when they are at hotels. Therefore, hotels that are more technologically advanced are more empowered to satisfy guests' technological needs, but the information collected by the hotels' systems also enables the hotels to acquire new guests, engage current guests and retain past guests; as such, there are benefits to both the hotels and guests when the level of technology offered is updated.

SoftBrands, the second largest provider of hospitality software worldwide, has announced about the acquisition of Amadeus PMS, who is one of the biggest DGSs in the world. This acquisition benefits customers with access to complimentary applications to the latest technology and they will be served better, because of the global reach of SoftBrands.

This article comments on the perceived effectiveness of daily "flash" deals distributed through the internet to provoke the usage of services of a hospitality enterprise. It also addresses current industry challenges hotels face with regards to sustainability and corporate social responsibility. The first Cornell study surveyed approximately two hundred international hotels. The results showed half of the hotels have used the e-Marketing "flash" deals technique while the other half abstain siting concerns of brand reputation. However the issue of dissatisfaction from those hotels who use daily deals is also prevalent. The conductors of the study recommend those who use the deals to "start small," clearly define the reason for the deal and examine every aspect of the deal, including limitations, to increase ROI and satisfaction. If the deals are tailored to fit both the hotel and guests' needs they should attract and retain customers. The roundtable discussion then dives into an important branding issue of CSR. It highlights common misconceptions related to sustainability such as going "green" being being costly, guests not appreciating sustainable efforts, and the "wait and see" approach being smart for implementation. With education and communication the hospitality industry can inform their internal and external customers of their sustainable business practices and increase customer acquisition. Rather than being reactive, businesses should be proactive and concentrate on their "long-term brand focus."

Sabre Technology, based in Southlake, an affluent suburb of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, recently acquired neighboring technology company Genares. Genares now provides GDS connections to Sabre, in addition to other major players, including Apollo, Worldspan, and Amadeus. Genares provides CRS, hotel marketing, and revenue management solutions, particularly to independently-owned hotels and chains, with a network that is over 2,300 strong. This will provide Sabre some control of the market as new competitor Booking.com, owned by The Priceline Group, enters the B2B arena with its recent acquisitions of Seattle-based hotel digital marketing startup Buuteeq and Barcelona-based Hotel Ninjas. Genares became a part of Sabre Hospitality Solutions, a subsidiary of Sabre Technology, which generated $711.7 million of the $3.04 billion in revenue that Sabre made in 2013. The acquisition of Genares will give Sabre more avenues to access independent and boutique hotels. It is worth noting that Sabre Hospitality Solutions already controlled "approximately 27% share of third-party hospitality CRS hotel rooms distributed through [their] GDS," making it the largest third-party provider in this space last year.

A human resource information system comes with three major applications - talent acquisition, talent management, and talent optimization - all this with the effective backing of data.

Apple's $20 million acquisition of WiFi Slam, announced over the weekend, is more than a business move. What it does with the new technology brings the question of consumer privacy to the forefront and puts the spotlight on what's called proximity marketing, which companies like ISign Media Corp., are using to help brands.

AccorHotels, which represents 20 brands and over 240,000 hotels, is in negotiation to buy an 80% stake in John Paul. John Paul is a leader in loyalty solution in numerous industries. The company leverages its state of the art technology to do so. With the acquisition of the company, AccorHotels will acquire "the first technology enabled concierge, equipped with proprietary CRM and data platform based on a behavioral profiling and 360 personalization". Having this type of software on hand will allow the company to strengthen its brand by providing a better customer experience. AccorHotels hopes to do so by using the in depth profiling system and strengthening their CRM with data attained through John Paul.

I find this very exciting for the Hospitality industry as both Oracle and Micros have been groundbreaking and their joint venture will bring new innovations for Hotels, Food and Beverage outlets, retailers, etc. I especially found interesting how they plan to use Oracles data-analysis technology and all the information which already exists in Micros POS systems. As we talk about personalizing experiences and being able to use data already collected to the companies advantage, it looks like Oracle is one step ahead with this acquisition and looks to specifically tap into it.

This sounds like a great match. With Micros' expertise in the industry and Oracle's expertise in big data, it looks like a win, win for both companies and the industry as a whole. Could this create a monopoly and force prices up for the industry? Maybe. It could also be the beginning of more modular systems across the industry.

This article covers a new online distribution channel called TripConnect. This website was created by Trip Advisor and essentially removes the involvement of a third party when booking hotel rooms online. TripConnect connects hotels directly with potential customers via the Internet. This is helpful to many properties because there is no minimum requirement of size or rating to get involved. The property must first be a part of Trip Advisor, which in turn provides essential information for the property to understand their demand and customers in the first place. TripConnect minimizes the cost of consumer acquisition and maximizes revenues, in the end, becoming a very beneficial tool for many hotels.

While short this article is about Amex Global Business Travel acquisition of Hogg Robinson a B2B travel services company that deals with payments among other expense management systems. This deal centers around a major IT investment and advanced integration in the corporate travel market. 

Nowadays consumers want an experience that is transparent, immediate and connected 24/7. E-commerce travel companies need to change their focus which include wider choice of rich content, more comparable offerings, more focus on relevance than magnitude, and an increase in automation and personalization that enables customer self-service.

Social media marketing is impacting the hospitality industry and if you don't already have a strategy you need to start one. You can do this by reviewing your goals which might include increasing engagement, brand awareness, analytics, acquisition, content marketing or customer service. Next you will want to pick a social channel to implement your strategy on and be creative with it. Whatever you decide strategy wise start small and build on it to reach new customers and build loyal ones.

This article show cases Subway Digital's recent acquisition of a 20-person team from Avanti Commerce. This team's main focus will be the expansion and customization of an innovative e-commerce and onmi-channel platforms. Apart from that, the team is also developing a new program for in-restaurant kiosks.

Growth in tourism activity in South-east Asia and acquisition activity represent benefits for Amadeus. Sebastian Gibergues from Amadeus IT group, communicates the resiliency and growth experienced by the company facing the challenges of an ever evolving industry. Gibergues considers GSD is still relevant due to the level of fragmentation in the market.

In 2012, with an eye on becoming more competitive, hotels are looking in to becoming more effective in their revenue management strategies and maximizing business efficiency by integrating their online distributions with their PMS and RMS systems.

SiteMinder is the world's leading online distribution company used by thousands of accommodation providers. It helps increase revenue through online services, and lower acquisition costs. Online bookings sites like Orbitz, Expedia, and Booking.com can be accessed for a monthly flat rate and 0% comission fee. This article also discusses the importance of social sites such as Facebook and Twitter, and an increase in consumer sites like Groupon.

This article talks about the acquisition of Restaurant POS system company, Breadcrumb, by Groupon. This will provide seamless service to all Breadcrumb and Groupon  customers. This will also allow Goupon to observe customer spending patterns which it was not be able to see before. 

This article illustrates how using e-commerce can increase a hotels profits/revenue. In the article three major strategies are being used. Customer acquisition and retention, personalized service and web site upgrade are the three strategies mentioned in the article. The customer acquisition and retention strategy involves of initiation of customer loyalty program, email campaigns, and continues web site improvement and the web site as a single stop shop. The personalized service strategy consists of personalized content presentation and advance customer care. The web site upgrade includes of creation of micro sites, implementation of content management tool and quick web site searches.

Briefing discusses issues faced in convergence and trend toward migration to cloud based PMS / RMS. It also discusses the effect convergence will have on the way information is gathered (data acquisition and mining) and aspects of RMS such as  and average daily rate (ADR) and occupancy.