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What should hotels look for in their financial management system then?Handling currency complexityRapid globalisation means that hotels are likely to report in more than one currency. Thus it would be a tremendous help if hotel accounting software can handle multiple currencies. However, it is worth noting that currency translation is not as simple as it looks. Complexity arises when different categories of exchange rates are required depending on circumstances. This is especially problematic when hotels have to follow more than one set of accounting and business rules. Handling multiple languagesEven though English is the default business language globally, it is not necessarily the case that everyone in an organisation grasps all English terminology and statutory reports, especially those that handle day-to-day operations. They are more likely to do the work in their own language. Moreover, different countries have different units of measurements and formats, which need to be reported as well. Hence, it is vital that hotels’ financial management software can handle all of these. Handling multiple entitiesA hotel chain with various branches in different countries or jurisdictions has the extra workload that entails complexity. As a helping tool, a hotel financial management system should be capable of consolidating results from discrete entities for statutory reporting and tax purposes. In other words, it should help the mother company and its subsidiaries keeping track of one another’s financials without interfering with their various legal structures.Supporting multiple charts of accountsAccording to Ventana Research 2011, “maintaining multiple charts of accounts may prove to be both simpler in the long run and more productive” despite some saying that it is best to have one chart of accounts only. The rigid approach of a single chart of accounts is especially unsuitable for companies with different lines of businesses, those in joint-venture arrangements or those acquiring businesses in different countries. Thus, accounting software for hotels should be able to handle simultaneous charts of accounts.Handling multiple calendarsIt is a fact that businesses around the world do not operate on the same fiscal year. To save time from having to recast figures into different calendars, hotels with multinational operations should implement a financial management system that can create local, regional and consolidated reports as needed for management or statutory purposes.Handling tax complexitiesFor hotels operating in various countries, their accounting software should be able to handle the complexities associated with different tax regulations and help defending tax audits. Apart from addressing issues such as multiple entities, charts of accounts, calendars and depreciation schedules, their system should be configured to be tax-aware. In other words, it should provide hotels with automated maintenance of rules and rates.Reporting using multiple accounting standardsGAAP, IFRS and local accounting standards require different accounting treatments. Thus, accounting software for hotels should allow different books for recording transactions under these various accounting rules. Automating the process from closing these books to creating financial statements and reports using multiple accounting standards also helps hotels save time and effort without risks of errors.Supporting different levels of corporate reportingA multinational hotel’s accounting system should be able to create a consolidated headquarters view as well a consolidated statement of several subsidiaries at an intermediate level. Management should be able to view and analyse these reports right at the source.Supporting global accessFinancial management software that allows web-based access can help hotels avoid incurring costs from installing the system individually at all branches or at branches with limited on-premise support. Having a system that can be installed locally, deployed centrally and accessed globally gives hotels a competitive advantage without compromising security and reliability.

E-Booking The first role of the internet in the hospitality industry is online booking. As aforementioned in the past, travel agents were the most common source for booking hotel rooms and other travel components like flight tickets and travel tours. However, the internet has changed this; manual booking and reservations have been transformed to E-booking or online booking via Central Reservation Systems (CRS). As of March 2008, there are over 1.4 billion internet users (Internet World Stats, 2008) and according to the Computer Industry Almanac, this number is assumed to increase to 1.80 billion in 2010 (Clickz Stats, 2005). The Travel Industry Association in the United States stated that in 2002 about 64 million out of 619 million online users were online travelers and used the Internet to purchase travel-related services and products (Zhang, 2004, p.3). "Online leisure travel sales totaled $20.4 billion in 2002 and hotel booked online reached $3.8 billion" (Ibid). In 2005 the online travel revenue reached $27.7 billion in the U.S. alone and has steadily increased (Webmetro, 2005). Now imagine how big these figures would be on a global basis.

Another important role of the internet is the use of it as a marketing tool. Before a hotel can offer e-booking it has to set up its own website. The hotel can apply attractive designs and offer guests a virtual tour of the entire property and show various room types. This strategy is considered a minor but may get a lot of appeal from online users. The internet also allows hotels to reach more customers by using search engine optimization (SEO), which is a tool that helps increasing the traffic and page ranking in search engine results (Hotel Travel Check, n.d.). Another internet marketing strategy for the hospitality industry is electronic customer relationship management (eCRM), which are activities to manage customer relationships by using the internet and web browsers (Hotel Marketing, 2007).

A computer to be used for web design should have a large hard disk and Random Access Memory, high processing speed and large storage capacity to be able to process the large video files.

Two servers are needed, the hardware and software servers which are important for web hosting. The relevant software for instance Dreamweaver and Microsoft front page need to be available before any progress can be made in construction of the site.

It is important to have a good antivirus or software that prevents the website from external threats.

Mobile systems are transforming the payment environment. According to investment bank Barclays Capital, U.S. mobile commerce sales--that is, purchases made on smartphones and tablets--hit $5.3 billion in 2011, up 83 percent from the year before. Generator Research, a consulting firm specializing in digital media, projects that by 2014, usage by consumers will grow 600 percent to 490 million worldwide.

Inspired by Green Goal 2006 and by previous experiences with major international events in South Africa, the South African LOC developed a Green Goal programme for the 2010 FIFA World Cup™.

FIFA has encouraged and engaged with Local Organising Committees (LOC) in regard to environmental protection since 2005 when the German LOC launched the Green Goal environmental programme for the 2006 FIFA World Cup™.

around

indigenous

He recommended the recruitment of indigenous youths to keep  surveillance, provide  protection and  report suspicious movements in and around tourist sites.

attack made headlines for locking guests out for their rooms

discuss how ransomware can affect the hospitality industry and what hotels and restaurants should consider to protect themselves from future cyber attacks.

Travelers may be annoyed, but for the hotel, ransomware can be a major business disruption.

Point of Sale software is a new-age technology tool which replaces the age old system of manual reporting and entry that hoteliers use to follow.

This tool has provided a big relief to hoteliers by eliminating large chunk of workforce, especially from the departments that are involved in regular outflow and inflow of cash.

A POS eliminates the chances of errors and mistakes that often happen during transactions.

After five minutes of waiting we got slightly annoyed and started wondering if there isn’t a technology out there that takes care of this problem

Because of Millennials, what they want and how they want it. Everything now spins around technology, so why not a restaurant menu?

Here the eMenu lets them have translations in virtually as many languages as they want to, without turning the menu into a tome

E-commerce solutions are varied, and seller, buyer compatibility with it is necessary to work with a chosen one.

It facilitates local community access to tourism market and minimises the financial information leakage. It links local communities and hospitality industry directly with the tourists. It could help building up local finance along with the national foreign exchange. It increases small enterprises by directly marketing the local products and industries anywhere in the world.

t monitors, evaluates, creates faster transactions, empowers the participating communities, makes information interchangeable through organised and flexible web services. It

“It is possible that AI will be replacing so many functions but that’s going to take some time. Self-drive cars in the next few years? It’s crazy. I would be the last person driving that car. I really think that voice, near term, is going to have the most impact. You saw the demo – voice is going to change so many things, and it’s just at the beginning, but it’s adoption is going to be enormous and it’s going to affect a whole lot of things.”

In consideration of how investment in hospitality technology can support business growth, rather than being an added cost, or unnecessary financial burden, to a hotel – it is important to look at what operational efficiencies the technology can bring, including any improvements in staff activities and morale that can be delivered and how the technology will ultimately benefit the hotels revenue performance.

There are many technologies that tick all of the above boxes, including: Energy Management Systems Revenue Management Systems Property Management Systems In-Room Technology Sophisticated Telco System

Equally as important, when considering whether to invest in new technology within the hospitality sector, is the need to recognize that technology is constantly changing and improving. Decision time frames are shortening. International hoteliers that have a good view on the future, realize that the technology decision they make today will only be relevant for the next 3-5 years at the most and are already planning next generation migrations. There is an onus on the vendors to also re-invent themselves and re-invent their technologies. The concept in 2009 – 2010 of having something ‘future proof’ is both outdated and naïve.

The point of service is becoming untethered from the point of sale. The next-generation point of sale is being shaped by the call for the POS to be all things for all people.

This year’s results indicate that restaurants are preparing to take an active role in the evolution of the POS. More than half are testing and researching new POS solutions for 2019 and beyond, and 46% plan to add functionalities to current software in 2019

the top three business drivers that will be prompting POS enhancements, two — adding mobile POS and enabling new payment options — speak to a bigger issue: providing customers with frictionless ways to pay, wherever and however they want.

Despite the shock to this hip, bohemian town, the future is slowing starting to look up for this popular destination on the Mexican Riviera.

waves as one of the most expensive restaurants in the world and catering

Nomade, Nest and new developments from existing resorts like Jashita, Sanara and Be Tulum, including high-end luxurious offerings never before offered in the area.

Today, through the use of SaaS hotel property management systems, hotels have the flexibility to exceed service expectations and still increase their top line revenues.

Even before a guest checks in, cloud-based hotel technology enables you to send relevant offers that the guest may want to purchase pre-arrival.

By offering these types of options, you are giving greater choice to the guest and enabling them to personalize their stay on their own terms

The benefits of using event management software It can make your life easier The main benefit of using such solutions is that they can help you maximize registrations, while minimizing the resources that may otherwise have been needed. Once you’ve set up an event on your chosen software, then you should just be able to press go and let it get on with things – leaving you to concentrate on promoting the event. If you’re running multiple events, or a regularly occurring event, then this can be particularly useful. Saves time needed for manual processing Good solutions will help you automate most processes. They will offer features like registration tracking, payment processing and also tools that can aid audience engagement. You’ll be able to grab a quick snapshot of what’s happening, who’s registered, who’s paid, who went on to attend and more. Plus, you’ll have an easy way to track how much money an event is bringing into the business. It will save time for your communication sequences too. With just a few clicks you should be able to send out tailored emails, including “thank you for attending” messages to those that made it and “sorry we missed you” to those who didn’t. Aids professionalism and the overall experience A further benefit is that it can make the management of the process feel that much more professional. The whole experience should run more smoothly. Nothing should be missed, which you can easily risk with a manual system. The payment of any monies can also be managed more easily and you’ll have the ability to manage multiple events easily. Can help increase engagement Engagement is at the heart of all marketing. It needs to start long before an event takes place and be supported and encouraged during and after. Good event management software will provide tools to aid participant communication at all stages. It will also give you the ability to see and analyze the global picture of your overall engagement levels. Supports targeted activity Marketing is at its strongest and most effective when it is highly targeted and tailored to an individual. (The key principal of account based marketing). You can use specialist solutions to tailor your event and all associated marketing activity. For example, by creating unique guest lists and email lists, and sending out targeted emails to those different attendees using certain parameters. A holistic approach Overall, event management software can act as a hub, holding together all elements of the event’s process. It can help keep everything connected, from the agenda, to speakers, any sponsors and the attendees.

thinks it’s easier.

past nine to 10 months looking at what are the systems that still are relevant, and are cornerstones of our operation and what are the things that need to be changed or updated,

launching mobile ordering and finding a way to bring in more customers.

New technologies are providing different channels for marketing and management that improve the capabilities of society. And computers are providing faster and more reliable processing with lower cost continually.

In Hospitality and Tourism industry, hardware, software, information management, and telecommunications systems have allowed for the processing and information flow amongst organizations. The way in which tourism organizations take advantage of IT tools may determine their future success in the marketplace [4]. We consider the importance of the trend of Information Technology by implementing an effective IT system for advertising, distribution, encouragement and co-ordination of the industry. It is important that Hotel Industry take the lead of the emerging technologies to improve management abilities and develop business plans focusing on the most efficient income of delivering value added products to clients.

B2C transactions involve business-to-customer interactions.