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Hotels, conference centers and other meeting venues are increasing group business with new technology, and it isn’t just a hotel app. To invest in the property’s overall capital, hoteliers are creating cool technology tools that market venues, increase group business and enhance the guest experience. Technology is just another way hotels are winning group business and marketing a hotel or conference center. What are some of these new hot tools for leisure and business travelers?

Investment in Hotel Technology Pays Off with Increased Group Revenue Tuesday, July 10, 2012 by Sarah Vining Hotels, conference centers and other meeting venues are increasing group business with new technology, and it isn’t just a hotel app. To invest in the property’s overall capital, hoteliers are creating cool technology tools that market venues, increase group business and enhance the guest experience. Technology is just another way hotels are winning group business and marketing a hotel or conference center. What are some of these new hot tools for leisure and business travelers? Virtual concierge service on guest room TVs At Hyatt Hotels with in-room HD TVs by Roomlinx Inc., guests are able make service requests, check email/weather, use the Business Center, print documents, and receive customized messages from meeting planners. Service requests like housekeeping and in-room dining are instantly sent through the system, improving the venue’s departmental efficiency. All of these virtual functions are hoped to appeal to new markets and drive group business. More efficient billing In the article, “Insert IACC blog post title URL” we learn that in 2012, meeting and group planners are prioritizing finance as very important during in their planning process (which made the top 10 list for the first time). Hotels making large investments in revenue management systems are taking advantage of new features that automate and process data to improve efficiency and increase revenue for properties. Virtual business centers Socialization through technology and food and beverage outlets is increasing revenue for TRYP by Wyndham in the NYC Times Square South property. Google TVs and access to Google Chrome laptops near the Gastro Bar in the hotel’s lobby offers guests an opportunity to enjoy a dining experience with the comfort of complimentary technology use. On-staff IT team When planners were surveyed, reliability was listed as a top concern of IT services in the white paper “What Do Planners and Trainers Really Want in Their Meeting Service?” All IACC-certified conference centers are required to have an on-site IT team to ensure technology functions properly. Now, the need for a knowledgeable IT team that really understands technology and can cater to individuals and group business is spreading to other hotel markets.   These impressive technology tools improve the guest experience and lead to a quick return on investment, especially in F&B. As we move beyond the discussion of required hotel Wi-Fi services, there will be a focus on technology amenities that provide the same comforts of home or the office. To increase group business, hoteliers are comfortable with this investment knowing there’s a return on investment with generated buzz/venue marketing and satisfied guests. Want to learn about other ways hotels are using technology to build relationships? Check out Enhancing Your Social Networking Site with a Social Concierge! to maximize social media and connect with guests, attendees and planners!

With the growing number of smartphone mobile ordering and payment applications, restaurant information technology divisions have gone from a cost center serving brands’ operations to a crucial part of the revenue stream.

With the growing number of smartphone mobile ordering and payment applications, restaurant information technology divisions have gone from a cost center serving brands’ operations to a crucial part of the revenue stream.

The underlying concept of redundant networks is simple. Without any backup systems in place, all it takes is one point of failure in a network to disrupt or bring down an entire system. Network redundancy is the process of adding additional instances of network devices and lines of communication to help ensure network availability and decrease the risk of failure along the critical data path.

All valuable data should be backed up regularly, preferably in another location. A good data center location strategy maps out the best places to replicate and store data so it can be easily accessed in the event that other redundant systems fail and the main network goes down. By using more than one data center, companies can ensure that even if some disaster occurs, they will be able to carry on with minimal disruption.

Colocation data centers regularly conduct tests to assess the integrity of their backup systems and redundant networks. They can test different connections by physically disconnecting hardware to make sure failover occurs as anticipated. If things do not go as planned during testing, data center managers then create an after-action report that lists the items they need to fix as a result of the testing. They also create a procedure to follow for both automatic and manual flip over. 

Pilot Travel Centers LLC, the nation`s largest operator of travel centers, selected an advanced point-of-sale (POS) solution from NCR Corporation (NYSE: NCR) to speed checkout for customers while reducing operational costs. Pilot has deployed the NCR RealPOS 70XRT, the industry`s most powerful integrated touchscreen POS workstation, in all 306 travel centers located in 39 states. The solution includes NCR RealPOS scanners and NCR RealPOS printers. As part of the total solution, NCR provided staging, installation and project management services to ensure an efficient rollout with minimal disruption to store operations. NCR also provides technology support services to Pilot under an existing maintenance agreement.

Chamber says convention center needs new technology

The Winston-Salem Chamber of Commerce says the Benton Convention Center needs new technology or it will be one of many groups unable to continue using the facility for conventions and business meetings in the future.

Joines says that’s why the city and tourism officials are already spending $100,000 to study the center and understand it’s problems.

An effective POS solution for restaurants, bars or food service at attractions, entertainment and leisure venues can streamline a restaurant’s activities, saving time processing orders and money due to potential human error and customer loss.

The great thing about restaurant, entertainment or fun center POS systems now is that as they revolve around cloud-based software, the costs to upgrade to update is much lower as the equipment is already there and ready to go.

Once you’ve set up your entertianment POS or fun center POS system you must transfer your menu into the POS software to enable your servers to quickly record the customer’s order and allow for the customer to be charged the correct amount. To make the most out of the inventory management you will additionally have to record existing levels of stock, and how much each item on your menu depletes the respective products within your inventory. This will also mean that you must consistently update the inventory levels when they are replenished.

Compare WebRezPro vs Oracle OPERA PMS vs ResNexus PMS Property Management Systems vendor comparison between WebRezPro vs Oracle OPERA PMS vs ResNexus PMS. Find out which Property Management Systems is right for you based on realtime data from 407 verified hotelier reviews across 55 countries.

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The hospitality industry is quickly growing as a favored target of hackers and cybercriminals. In fact, according to the 2016 Trustwave Global Security Report, hospitality is the vertical industry with the second-highest number of data breaches, behind only the retail industry.

Hotels are high-value targets for cybercriminals because they not only hold payment card information on guests, but also a wealth of other sensitive personal data that can be used to steal their identity.

The fallout from a widespread data breach that compromises guests’ payment card data or personally identifiable information can be disastrous for a hotel chain. The average cost of a data breach in 2016 was $4 million. This figure encompasses everything from breach mitigation to crisis team management costs, business losses and even the more intangible consequences: damages to brand reputation.

The hotel would be almost 20,500 square feet while the event center about 62,200 square feet with a lounge/restaurant, large event space, spa facility, sports bar, art gallery and conference center to accommodate up to 672 guests, according to city staff

Network redundancy is the process of adding additional instances of network devices and lines of communication to help ensure network availability and decrease the risk of failure along the critical data path.

Redundancy in networks helps to eliminate single points of failure to ensure better network stability and uptime in the face of events that would otherwise take th

e network offline

n order to better support data-intensive applications in data centers, these “richly-connected” network architectures are designed with the major purpose of ensuring high communication performance and robustness. These architectures have two characteristics in common: over-provisioned network resources and inefficient power usage. An excessive number of network devices and redundant links are provided aggressively for the busy-hour load. However, most of the time, the traffic in a data center is far below the peak value and varies greatly between daytime and night, which leaves a large number of network devices to stay idle.

Choice created the software in 2003 as an inexpensive solution for franchisees of its economy brands.

The PMS had a lot of growing pains at first, but eventually it became more and more cloud enabled and was adopted across the company.

“A lot of companies had outsourced their IT and now they’re bringing it back in house because they can do almost everything they need on the cloud or through software as a service.

Aiming to highlight Baha Mar's power to elevate real life moments for every guest into something spectacular, the campaign celebrates Bahamian warmth and Baha Mar’s distinct positioning as a destination offering a moment in the sun and everything else under the sun, according to the resort.

Each family member experiences the same resort destination, whether looking for “me time” or “we time,” and leaves having fulfilled different personal desires and expectations.

We needed to communicate that there is no ‘one size fits all’ approach at Baha Mar. Every nuance of the resort from amenities to special experiences and offerings is purposefully created.”

Recently the Roosevelt Hotel sought a more efficient solution for running their business center. They wanted one-stop for both their solution and customer service. After careful evaluation of the solutions and service offerings of their existing provider and TTI Technologies International, the Roosevelt Hotel selected TTI Techn

ologies business center solutions that included both PC and MAC systems.

TTI Technologies offers both free to guest and paid by guest Business Center services. Consulting with each individual property allows the TTI team the opportunity to evaluate the true needs of the propert

Cool Factor: Future Of Computing Looks Like 'Minority Report'

What is the future of user

interfaces

The virtual platform enables Benchmark to reduce hardware costs for investors, protect corporate and guest data in a secure off-property environment, and collect and process performance metrics for its hotels. Benchmark uses the Internet-enabled Profitvue enterprise back office system from Aptech Computer Systems to centralize property accounting.

Progress depends on radical innovation

the company still released information detailing the progress of its environmentally-friendly initiatives.

an application plug-in that would help automobiles determine where you are going,

Sceptre Hospitality Resources, the hospitality industry's foremost top line revenue enhancement service provider, announced today their "voice services will be powered by Thing5 LLC", the leading provider of telecommunications and reservation services to the hospitality industry

They have a long track record of helping hospitality clients achieve consistent sales revenue growth.

"Thing5 is a managed telecommunications technology leader built on the strategy of offering comprehensive, Communication-as-a-Service (CaaS) and BPO Solutions for the Hospitality and Travel Industries"

Baidu Inc

invest roughly 10 billion yuan ($1.6 billion) in a cloud computing center.

China's leading search engine by revenue has been pushing hard to expand its hold of the rapidly growing mobile Internet market, and cloud computing--or remote online data storage--has been a key part of that initiative.