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seems less risky.

In reality, a “wait and see” approach has much more risk than the action being avoided

Today, new competitors can emerge rapidly, and they can even be from another part of the world.

ew and emerging technologies often impact the value of existing models and services

which leads to many companies re-evaluating and transforming.

‘technology that displaces an established technology and shakes up the industry or creates a completely new industry’.

Most companies taking 'wait-and-see' approach to coronavirus

North American companies are bracing for negative business impact due to the coronavirus outbreak

Despite rising concern of the effect coronavirus will have on their businesses, most U.S. companies are taking a "wait-and-see" approach when it comes to adjusting their executive pay and sales compensation programs

the global cybersecurity market is set to increase to $270 billion by 2026. This signals the priority boardrooms have placed on cyber risk management even as digital transformation takes place en masse.

COVID-19 has become the catalyst to trigger change in the ways we manage and operate technology.

Virtual desktops emulate a computer system so that IT can control access as such adding input/output devices as well as software and applications. This could become an important control point when remote workers are operating outside the safety of a corporate network.

HeBS digital Blog Archive for the ‘Online Travel Agencies (OTAs)’ Category The OTA Billboard Effect or the Lazy Man’s Approach to Hotel DistributionMonday, August 1st, 2011 The following article is Max Starkov’s latest contribution to the “Successful eMarketing” blog on HOTELS magazine’s website The existence of the so-called billboard effect is not a new marketing phenomenon. It has existed long before the online channel became a reality. As confirmed by many studies, any marketing exposure by a hotel produces a billboard effect:  when you launch a banner advertising campaign; when you purchase a full-page ad in the New York Times travel section; when you launch a paid search campaign on Google, etc. The OTA Billboard Effect Lately Expedia reps have been aggressively using a new Cornell Hospitality Report, namely “Search, OTAs and Online Booking: An Expanded Analysis of the Billboard Effect” to convince hoteliers that they should use Expedia in order to generate more bookings from the hotel’s own website due to the so-called “Billboard Effect.” The Cornell Report, based on data from Expedia and InterContinental Hotel Group (IHG) from 2008-2010, is a continuation of a previous report on the subject, heavily supported by Expedia. The report’s analysis determined that when an IHG property was listed on the first results page of Expedia, this created an increase of between 7.5% and 14.1% in bookings for the same property on IHG’s own brand website. In other words, this is a confirmation for Expedia’s billboard effect, which hoteliers should take into consideration when griping against the 25% plus merchant OTA commission. When these “billboard effect bookings” are taken into consideration, Expedia’s commission “would effectively be reduced to single digits,” states the Cornell Report. Hoteliers, rejoice! We have found the perfect recipe for success: we do nothing as far as marketing the property website is concerned. Instead, we plaster Expedia with our sales promotions and wait for the travel consumers to come to our own website and book. As discussed, the billboard effect is not strictly an OTA territory. In my view, the Cornell Hospitality Report is a one-sided research project, very proactively supported by Expedia, similar to the first report on the billboard effect published in 2009. Cornell, the finest hospitality institution in the U.S., should know better than to come up with this half-baked “scientific” research, which does not account for the complexities of hotel distribution as well as the “digital information cloud” we all live in and the resulting marketing and distribution channel convergence which directly affects the purchasing habits of today’s hyper-interactive travel consumers. This report makes conclusions that do not take into account, among many other things, the following: Complex Travel Planning Patterns in Hospitality Many surveys show that people are shopping around on a number of hotel and travel websites before narrowing down their search. Typically in hospitality, these sites include a hotel search on a search engine e.g. Google (65% market share), an OTA website, TripAdvisor, the hotel’s own website, etc. Therefore jumping from an OTA website to a hotel branded website and vice versa is at least partially due to particular travel research patterns unique to the users and not due to the so-called billboard effect: Step 1: “I always search on Google first where I identify a property I like” Step 2: “I go to Expedia and see what the rate for this property is” Step 3: “I visit TripAdvisor to read my peer reviews for this hotel” Step 4: “I visit the hotel website and book if I like the location, rate and what I have read and seen about this hotel”

Amazon and many other companies. I think of those competitors as vending machines: They are hyper-efficient supermarkets with standardized offerings

If you go to a supermarket or a McDonald's in Japan, you'll find an extremely high level of hospitality and customer service -- in contrast to the atmosphere in most Western markets, where customers are much more focused on speed and convenience.

Today Rakuten is the world's third-largest marketplace for e-commerce, behind Amazon and eBay.

Wristbands, which open doors, come for an additional price but are free for children.

The app will also have facial recognition to allow crew to identify passengers. Other features include way-finding navigation — like Google Maps for ships, — the ability to make purchases, request services, book excursions and plan daily activities in-app. The MSC for Me app will also offer suggestions based on guest preferences.

The Miami-based cruise line announced earlier this month a new Cruise Norwegian app that will allow passengers to check in ahead of their vacation, book excursions, make dinner and show reservations, and purchase drink packages or other amenities. Unlike the Carnival or Royal Caribbean versions, the app doesn’t change the physical embarkation process, but it does offer the option to go paperless with the documentation needed to go aboard.

Going green is going Hi Tech. As hoteliers continue to embrace the necessary tools to be good environmental stewards, and of course reduce operating costs, leading hoteliers are forging new ground in how to utilize technology to significantly reduce energy consumption while also weaning themselves off fossil fuels. It’s a one-two punch that is just starting to catch on. And though these pioneers have some major challenges they’re forging the way for industry wide success.

“It is a tremendous opportunity not only because of where customers want us to be, but because there will be a cost now or later. We need to think about borrowing from the future,” said Daniel Connolly, an associate professor at the University of Denver, who noted that he expects energy costs to continue to rise so it’s best to invent in energy saving technologies presently.

At Hotel 1000 they went for a lighter shade of green approach by cutting energy costs by tying the energy management system through the PMS. That way, when a guest checks in a signal is sent to the room to start cooling or warming the guest room. However, they still have to preset the room by leaving lights and the television on (at least its Energy Star compliant, Incao said) to create the appropriate guest arrival experience. When the guest leaves sensors alert the system to allow the energy to go off to a predetermined set back level.

ATRIO dramatically reduces on-property technology requirements and data security risks. PAR Springer-Miller employs agile development methods with ATRIO, resulting in frequent product releases and the ability to react quickly to market needs for new features.

“The notion of moving to the next generation property management solution in the cloud, without the hardware investment of traditional PMS, attracted us to ATRIO PMS,” commented Winter, Moonstone Hotel Properties. “The move from a capital expense to an operation expense with the SAAS model of service will also allow us to be more nimble in how we can allocate our resources.”

The ATRIO hospitality technology platform continues to expand with ATRIO POS and ATRIO Distribution, reducing the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) for hoteliers and management companies by embracing true cloud computing, minimizing on-property technology, and reducing implementation and training costs to increase staff efficiency and productivity.

While most inventors would love to create something completely new, that's not always necessary. Often, it's enough -- and a brilliant marketing tactic, even -- to imitate your rivals and then add a few tweaks.

Pandora used imitation and a delayed launch to woo paid streaming-service users with the promise of a more personalized experience.

Instead of being first to the marketplace, being last may actually present more opportunities and stability.

Instagram started as a photo posting site and would have never imagined the impact it would have on driving travel inspiration and building a relationship between the guest and hotels.

BCV, one of the leaders in helping hotels leverage social media, started on this journey ten years ago to help hotels realize the value of social media and the role it can play in driving engagement and, eventually, revenue.

Before we entered 2020, in Asia, 55% of millennials were basing their booking decisions on social media

The “as-a-service” approach also has other benefits when it comes to flexibility. It’s much easier for a business to scale up and down as required. For example, adding new devices and services on a monthly basis or removing them. This flexibility ensures the business only pays for what it needs at the time, rather than having additional tech that is no longer required gathering dust in the warehouse.

Traditionally, if a business wanted to invest in IT equipment, such as new laptops or PCs, they would pay for their technology upfront as a capital expenditure (CAPEX).

Cruise lines have arguably been well ahead of the game when it comes to new technology in the travel industry

-- even before the COVID-19 pandemic took hold in March and led to a global suspension of operations.

What COVID-19 has done is to add a more 'urgent' element that will force the industry to speed up that process of adding to the passenger experience and enhancing health protocols."