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Our smaller properties do not have to install the software or be responsible for upgrading or backing it up

Carefully choosing the right time to upsell a guest's hotel booking is crucial to a hotels' additional revenue stream. After a booking has been made there is a fresh window of opportunity to upsell, as guests will reflect on their budget spend and perhaps feel there is room to spare on extra luxuries and see what they may be missing out on.

Having all the data in one system makes presenting and acting on the data much more effective. For example, Amazon don't deliver packages 100% of the time but the rest of the experience they control, making it so easy for people to buy from them. Hotel systems will need to move this way in order to provide similarly strong guest experiences." Says Andrew

In a recent survey of 2,654 consumers by the Travel Leaders Group, 78% of respondents said they would like to see self-service kiosks more widely available for check-in2.

Omni channel platforms enable you to centralise operational systems, take back control of your revenue flow and transparency of guest data, so hotel management can focus on creating the best experience for customers.

Consumers are becoming accustomed to self-service systems as they appear across retail, leisure & transport industries. Another study, suggested that guests favour hotel self-service check-in's as it provides a faster service, results in more privacy and waiting time/lines are much shorter3. Hoteliers could consider how their core data system might be centralised as much as possible in order to make it a less complex & more efficient guest journey from booking to check in. Technology such as guest portals can be efficient for customers to retrieve their invoices quickly and will centralise all the data for the hotelier.

We needed a cost-effective, low-upkeep system that is lightweight enough to provide the same responsiveness to island resorts in Asia, as it does to city hotels in Europe for example

“We also wanted a solution that could provide enhanced guest recognition. Our company’s vision is to create Natural Enjoyment for our guests and partners around the world. In Opera cloud, we found a system that ultimately benefits our guests—through recognition and improved operations.”

provide critical business intelligence insights to marketing and revenue management teams that drive decision making from the center and at property level.

but it's not always feasible even outside of management issues

there will be no point in having separate systems for central reservations and property management, as application service providers will be the primary method of delivering software

at least one pilot scheme for the NDC would be up and running later this year

NDC is a common standard to enable airlines to provide more detailed information about their flights and ancillary products on global distributions systems and to allow customers to search for flights using a range of criteria, not just price

enable third parties to compare fares from all carriers

airlines to sell all their ancillary products

"pro-competition and pro-consumer"

customers

more choice

lower fares

airlines to tailor offers to passengers

NDC is not a system but a standard, which will allow airlines to sell via GDS in the same way that they sell on their websites.

"Data is the new oil." she said. "You are rich with the data you have.

"Agents should not give data away for nothing."

representatives from Sabre, Travelport and Amadeus who attended the conference all said they had reservations

about NDC and none of them believed it was necessary to develop a common standard.

'understanding the distribution model of the future', it had left him confused."I've got more questions than answers

Businesses will differentiate themselves on the uniqueness of their products, competitive pricing and the quality of their service operations.

As customers demand more from their e-commerce Web sites, their preference for consistency while shopping online must be satisfied.

What's interesting here is that 53 percent of best-in-class merchants list Web 2.0 technologies on their road maps for development initiatives in the next 24 months.

Forty-two percent of all retailers strive to improve data integration processes by centralizing databases and sharing information throughout their enterprises, according to the study.

Leverage the use of analytics to determine online customer behavior, buying patterns and habits

Adoption of online tools should facilitate interaction by customers -- e.g., interactive product imaging and site search.

Effective personalization and use of analytics as a dynamic function can lead to increased customer conversions, higher customer satisfaction and strengthened brand loyalty.

Our investment in technology infrastructure will not only benefit hoteliers but the many business and leisure travellers who book and stay at Choice-branded properties in Europe

Network computing has enormous implications for marketing to customers on a global basis, as well as hotel operations. Consider the potential for the industry to connect with vendors worldwide for electronic purchasing, potentially achieving economies of scale and leveraging not yet possible. World purchasing functions will allow companies to customize their own catalogs. Virtual channels of distribution using computer networking capabilities will also allow hotel companies to market products and services - some traditional to our industry, others not - to customers whether they are in the hotel, at work, or at home. This will require a migration from today's central reservation systems to tomorrow's customer information systems using network-centric solutions. Development of customer profiles and guest recognition will make it possible for hotel organizations to interact in entirely new ways with customers, regardless of their physical location. Clearly, the large hotel companies will need to be the first to address questions raised by global networking capabilities and what this will mean in terms of technology investment. But for many hospitality companies presently struggling with the high cost of technology and the confusing state of our industry's technology affairs, this will not be an easy task. And the decisions will ultimately become further complicated by the opportunity to outsource certain functions into subscription-based networks. It is unlikely that the hospitality industry will be forced to bear the entire burden for networking infrastructure. Strategic alliances with major technology companies will be the catalysts in building this capability as they become strategic providers of networking capabilities to hospitality and other industries. And as network-centric computing comes of age and a company's proprietary information is stored in cyberspace, security will become an ever-more important issue requiring solutions. Whether it is an e-mail gateway through an internal network or customer access via the Internet, network fire walls and encryption systems will be required to mitigate the concern many will have with system security.

Network computing has enormous implications for marketing to customers on a global basis, as well as hotel operations. Consider the potential for the industry to connect with vendors worldwide for electronic purchasing, potentially achieving economies of scale and leveraging not yet possible. World purchasing functions will allow companies to customize their own catalogs. Virtual channels of distribution using computer networking capabilities will also allow hotel companies to market products and services - some traditional to our industry, others not - to customers whether they are in the hotel, at work, or at home. This will require a migration from today's central reservation systems to tomorrow's customer information systems using network-centric solutions. Development of customer profiles and guest recognition will make it possible for hotel organizations to interact in entirely new ways with customers, regardless of their physical location. Clearly, the large hotel companies will need to be the first to address questions raised by global networking capabilities and what this will mean in terms of technology investment. But for many hospitality companies presently struggling with the high cost of technology and the confusing state of our industry's technology affairs, this will not be an easy task. And the decisions will ultimately become further complicated by the opportunity to outsource certain functions into subscription-based networks. It is unlikely that the hospitality industry will be forced to bear the entire burden for networking infrastructure. Strategic alliances with major technology companies will be the catalysts in building this capability as they become strategic providers of networking capabilities to hospitality and other industries. And as network-centric computing comes of age and a company's proprietary information is stored in cyberspace, security will become an ever-more important issue requiring solutions. Whether it is an e-mail gateway through an internal network or customer access via the Internet, network fire walls and encryption systems will be required to mitigate the concern many will have with system security. In the final analysis, networking solutions will drive down the cost of technology investment "on-property" where hotel real estate and business interests merge. The solutions that hotel organizations will be able to choose from in terms of networking should also be less expensive than the current profile of technology spending. And we can expect that change to occur sooner rather than later, given the present rate of investment in Internet-based technologies.