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The Hutton Hotel is a relatively new, boutique style hotel in the Nashville

In order to raise the awareness of The Hutton Hotel to event/meeting planners, quarterly email blasts with photos of thespace and info were deployed, but in order to attract new clientele and gain attention of current clients, something dramatically different was needed.

The campaign has helped to raise awareness for the hotel, and some current hotel guests have even stated that they had not been cognizant of the event space until seeing the video e-mail.

which provides PFC clients a turnkey solution, including a reliable all-in-one point-of-sale system, optional above-store reporting via the mymicros.net business intelligence and reporting platform, and easy installation, training, and support from MICROS’s distribution and service network.   The single vendor solution delivered by MICROS offers PFC clients an affordable POS system with all of the functionality required to successfully operate a business, including managing customer orders, labor and productivity, restaurant operations, and inventory. The addition of MICROS’s mymicros.net extends the ability for management to make decisions across the business based on live data pulled directly from MICROS e7.

Smart controls Hotel smartphone apps have become industry standard, but hospitality industry leaders are using the ubiquitous smartphone in another manner: They’re giving hotel guests the ability to control their rooms via their smartphones. So-called smart controls have been growing in popularity, but major hotel chains are taking them on, leading smart controls toward becoming an expected hotel amenity.

Smart controls Hotel smartphone apps have become industry standard, but hospitality industry leaders are using the ubiquitous smartphone in another manner: They’re giving hotel guests the ability to control their rooms via their smartphones. So-called smart controls have been growing in popularity, but major hotel chains are taking them on, leading smart controls toward becoming an expected hotel amenity.

Beacons Providing two-way communication with nearby Bluetooth-enabled smartphones, beacons went mainstream two years ago. Retailers led the way in experimenting with the technology, primarily using beacons to track shoppers’ habits and send promotional messages to consumers. Big names in retail, including Target, Walmart, and Macy’s have employed beacon technology in their stores. Beacons have become so widespread that Business Insider's BI Intelligence projected that beacons would create $40 billion in retail sales in the United States in 2016.

Fortunately, new technology lets restaurants adopt some of ecommerce’s best practices. From an IT perspective, this requires four key elements:   A system to close the loop at the guest level on promotional offers. It’s not enough to have a POS discount key for “Father’s Day promo” anymore. You need to know which dad (or mom!) responded to that offer, what they bought, and who they brought in with them.   The ability (either directly or through your credit card processor) to access payment data in order to identify individual guests when they return. This data set is essential – it’s the lifeblood of ecommerce. Fortunately, the ecommerce players have pioneered safe, secure ways to get at data without compromising PCI safeguards.   A guest-centric data warehouse to store all the key data sets — check level POS data, payment data, marketing data, loyalty program data if available, reservations, online ordering, guest responses, and third party data such as Prizm or Mosaic.   An analytics layer. The requirements here go way beyond static or standardized reporting. Marketing needs to be able to cut data in an ever-changing variety of ways to identify key patterns and segments.   Marketing, in turn, must partner with IT on determining goals. What is the restaurant trying to accomplish and what can be left out? Take joint meetings with IT to look at vendors to help give a sense of what’s possible. But then let IT do their job. Next, build the business case. Moving to a data driven marketing strategy will require shifting budget from other media, or finding new budget dollars. Determine appropriate metrics and the desired payoff. Setting up high level, high visibility “report cards” is critical. For example, “Our 2015 goal is to grow the annual spend of our top three customer groups by 4%, thereby delivering $17.5M of incremental sales.” That will get the CFO’s attention and the goal is doable. Finally, design and execute the marketing plan. That will likely require a trained data and analytics expert, and/or a close partnership with a company that analyzes data 24/7. Either way, it’s important to not over-reach in the beginning. Year one is about becoming familiar with the data, drawing insights, and learning a new language—segments, deciles, annual spend, customer acquisition costs, and lifetime value. The good news is there is usually a great deal of quick wins, such as offer optimization.     Introducing data-driven marketing may seem like a daunting task, but the ability to predictably drive sales should incent even the most cautious. The benefits of bringing an early mover are huge. These restaurants will have more data to work with two to three years out. More data, gathered over a longer period of time, becomes its own competitive advantage. Just ask Amazon.

Technology has been a key driver of growth for the hospitality sector over the last decade. New technologies for jobs like real-time inventory access, seamless exchange of operational information and collation of key performance data, have transformed the hotel and restaurant business. And the biggest positive from this process has been the enhanced customer experience, leading to higher loyalty. Thus, technology has increased profits for restaurants and hotels, and also helped in reining in costs on a long-term basis by reducing manpower and improving the quality of service.

Key technologies used Currently the most popular technologies being used are accounting systems for back office needs and the Internet, along with POS solutions for front office solutions. These systems are found in over 90 per cent of the establishments in the industry.   K Ramakrishnan, president, Marketing, Café Coffee Day, says “The two key technologies we use are POS for our café operations and ‘SAP IS Retail’ for the back-end warehouse supply chain requirements. Besides, our Cafés are Wi-Fi enabled. We also use Facebook and Twitter to understand and listen to what our consumers have to  say. It serves as an excellent tool to receive reviews on what we do and how we can make the café space more fun and exciting. We use these inputs to refresh our menu, look and overall feel,” he adds.

Touch screen POS: Point of sale systems now have a touch screen  display to allow cashiers and servers to input orders. It automatically sends the order to the kitchen without the need for a call or a manual dining ticket. The latest POSs can even send separate dining tickets for different food preparations, for an order. Stock and time clock management: These two components can be directly integrated in the latest POS terminals, allowing employees to clock in and out of any POS. The central computer keeps tab of the hours worked. It also allows computers to keep track of food and dry stock, based on the orders that are coming back through the POS system. It alerts the server, if a particular ingredient is out of stock. Technology also helps accurately measure the exact amount that goes into a fryer basket or in portions/ servings. This helps in maintaining the same standards each time an order is placed. Modern financial control tools allow managers to make balance sheets, statements of cash flow and income. There are advanced softwares available, which help the management get a clear view of the finances involved in the day-to-day running of the restaurant. Future technologies Many new technologies are also knocking at the door of the Indian hospitality industry. Internationally, these tools are already in use to improve efficiency. For instance, client server technologies (CST) offer great advantages to mid and large sized multi-property hospitality chains. They allow owners to effectively integrate disparate systems like multiple computer platforms or software, accumulated over the years. They simplify report generation and MIS (management information system) support, making these functions more efficient. Players that are in expansion mode and are trying to overhaul their IT infrastructure can use these solutions to reduce their IT costs and improve staff productivity. Software as a service (SaaS) or pay as-you-go services (where software such as ERP solutions are made available on demand over the Internet and users are required to pay a monthly rental based on the time and nature of use) have also emerged as another cost effective way of handling data and processes over the Internet. Here, companies can reap big dividends by effectively cutting down on their system maintenance costs. Green technology is another option, players can look at. It helps improve sustainability in areas like energy efficiency through the use of solar power for cooking or water heating. Solid waste management, plastic and paper recycling machines, rain water harvesting, and water efficient technologies, are other green technologies. If deployed in earnest, restaurants and hotels can reap long term benefits,besides scoring high on environment friendliness and brand image improvement, among customers.

The 2008 milestone that saw mobile Web access exceed desktop computer based access for the first time was hugely significant internationally.

Despite the advantages of Web and communications access, users battle with literacy issues, small screen sizes, inconsistency across devices in terms of functionality and navigation, inability to use cookies or javascript, access speed, incompatible pages, restrictions on the size of messages and the cost levied on both voice calls, text messages and bandwidth charges.

With so many different options for POS systems, it can often be hard for business owners to figure out which systems are the best. BusinessNewsDaily's sister site, TopTenReviews, has done extensive research on POS systems. The site ranks AccuPOS as the best POS System and POS services provider. They earn high marks for providing increased accounting capabilities, as it is the only software that is line-item compatible with QuickBooks and Sage accounting software. Additionally, AccuPOS is easy to use and requires minimal training.

E-Marketing, also called Online Marketing, Internet marketing, I-marketing, web marketing, etc., plays an important role in maintaining hotel revenue as well as occupancy. Several aspects like Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), Social Media Optimisation (SMO), Search Engine Marketing (SEM), Email Marketing , Portal Marketing, Mobile App, Mobile Website, Website Maintenance, Future E-Marketing v/s Offline Marketing have been touched upon in this article in order to give an insight into the strategic importance and role E-marketing can play.  

Future of Online Marketing v/s Offline MarketingGrowth of online marketing was low in the initial years due to inhibitions, but it is now growing with extraordinary pace as the confidence of Indian buyers is increasing gradually. Seeing the current behaviour of Indian buyers, online experts estimated that the trend of online marketing will become a basic phenomenon among buyers in coming years. The present and future e-marketers are keeping their eyes on the Indian market trends and studying the consumer behaviour for creating best and attractive deals potential clients.

Portal Marketing: Another form of online revenue sharing consists in people working together and registering online in a way similar to that of a corporation and sharing the proceeds. A third form of revenue sharing on the Internet consists of enticing Internet users to sign up and create content by offering a share of advertising revenue.

Marriott International today announced the formation of an internal content studio through which it will develop, produce and distribute a slate of entertainment projects that will include web series, short films, TV shows, music events and movies. The goal for the Bethesda, Maryland-based company is to appeal to the “next-generation traveler” — made up mostly of millennials — with story driven content marketing.

With 18 brands, Marriott is the world’s largest hotel company with over 4,000 hotels in 78 countries. Through its individual properties, in-room TVs, websites, mobile platforms and reward program, Marriott certainly has the network through which it can distribute entertainment.

To promote the projects, Marriott will use its website; its mobile app; various social media channels; in-room TV network; and Marriott Rewards, a loyalty membership program that has over 45 million subscribers.

recent research from the Tippie School of Management shows that the majority of travel and hospitality bookings are moving from offline sources to online avenues. In fact, 53% of all travel is now booked online.

The best part is email personalization pays off with a 2.5x higher click-through rate and 6x more sales.

Customers expect personalization

"There's a clear advantage to digital menus," says Lucas Paya, wine director for José Andrés

Each dish at the café has a photo and description, and suggested beverage pairings. "That way, if you're with a date and you don't know much about alcohol, you can still act like you know what you're doing," says owner Steve Martorano.

Despite the bounty of content these new digital menus offer, there are some advantages to the paper version