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As we know, cloud computing provides an ease of access system for data storage and on-demand computer system resources. This is something that certain industries, especially the hospitality industry, have used to reduce overhead costs and increase profits. This article discusses a few key players in this fight to be as innovative as possible while saving money and promoting new business practices that contribute to the industry. When looking at things like regulatory compliance and industry-wide needs, cloud computing is a great way to keep up with the ever-changing demands of today's modern consumer marketplace.

This post helped me better understand cloud computing and the benefits associated with doing so through an industry-focused lens.

Cloud computing continues to transform the hotel industry by providing the opportunity to reduce cost, improve experiences, build responsive infrastructure and personalize guest offers. Cloud-based software can save the industry money and seamlessly implement a new system without the lengthy installation process. A great way to meet hotel objectives and increase guest experience.

Cloud computing contributes to many different factors in hospitality. From the moment the guests arrive cloud computing is already playing a role in providing a better experience. By saving guest information and make it readily available to all members of staff, personalization is provided form the start. Cloud computing will also keep previous stay information which allows employees to see customer preferences. "Predictive maintenance can handle by cloud computing to reduce downtime, especially during peak seasons.The cloud offers a true end-to-end solution for hospitality, restoring the thrill of travel."

POS systems play a large role within the hospitality sector and develop by being used within different company types and industries. One main place where a POS is used and is extremely important is in retail. Along with creating speedy checkouts for customers, it is now a basic need for most of these POS systems to be using an inventory calculating software.

This article is in essence about the broken tipping system within American culture today. The title in my opinion is a bit exaggerated but is truthful nonetheless. People within the service industry are being horribly mistreated by being underpaid and forced to rely upon tips for wages. The issue with this is that specifically women are being forced to dress skimpy and act a certain way (possibly flirtatiously) In order to possibly get better tips. With their salary being on average around $2 an hour, without tips they are being forced to live far below the poverty line. So, it's not tipping that makes you inadvertently sexist, it's that tips contribute to woman acting in a more appealing way to male customers in order to pull the standard tip percentage (20% to 25%).

This article dives into the increased popularity of artificial intelligence (AI) in the hospitality industry. AI allows businesses to serve guests as accurately and efficiently as possible, ultimately increasing their satisfaction. AI also contributes to having effective revenue management and sales and operations systems.

The article discusses the various applications of cloud computing in the hospitality and hotel industry. It focuses on the use of cloud servers in property management and includes several benefits such as scalability due to the seasonal nature of demands, ease of connectivity, better accessibility and reduction to IT and infrastructure costs. The article also shows how cloud computing helps hotels transform the guest experience. Various categories of cloud-based apps have been discussed as well including marketing, booking appointments, POS transactions, and managing reservations and events. The article concludes by cautioning hoteliers to partner with the right cloud service provider as it is necessary to align the business objectives with the service offering of a particular provider and ensure synergy.

This article gives the general basis of why it is important to have a security department for your front office. The front office is the communication center for the hotel. Therefore it is an area that breeds a healthy amount of human interaction for which you must have a secure, safe plan in the event of an emergency. In my opinion, I agree that front office associates deal with a lot of people on their job and having the appropriate knowledge for the appropriate situation is important.

The article revolves around new technological concepts that the main cruise lines are adding to the cruising experience. While they have heavily focused on the ships hardware, they want to implement new software that will make the experience more enjoyable and simpler for guests to enjoy. Carnival, would like to implement a "medallion" called the Ocean Compass, that is crossover between the Disney Magic Band, and the band seen at the Universal Volcano Bay water park. It fits the Disney aspect, because it holds information,can open doors, and links guest pictures to the technology. It is similar to Universal, because it informs guests of when to attend something, so that they do not have to wait in a line. Royal Caribbean, likes the band idea that Disney presented, and wants to make bands of their own, that have similar functions that the Ocean Compass from Carnival has. In addition, Royal Caribbean wants to expose their guests to Virtual Reality. They hope to create an immersive experience for their guests, from the comfort of their rooms. Norwegian and MSC are mostly developing smart phone applications, that allow guests to check-in, book excursions, and open rooms. It is obvious that Disney developed a great idea with combining a "magical" band and phone application. The concept is so successful, that other players want to utilize the same formula. Let us see how well it works in the cruising industry.

Cloud computing has come a long way. The hospitality industry is quickly incorporating cloud computing services for guest satisfaction and productivity of employees. The article shares several real life examples where cloud computing were beneficial.

Cloud computing is the future whether businesses want it to be or not. With the growth of technology, we need to embrace one tool that is become very developed, cloud computing. It gives more efficiency to businesses who need to know more about their clientele and also can provide information and data that humans could never do. It gives a more personalized experience to each guest while organizing data much faster than on a excel sheet that stuff have to manually update. It improves experience and reduced cost for business as well. It allows information to be reached anywhere and business can be taken home or traveled with. It brings a new level of security to businesses and customers and allows more flexibility in service in the hospitality industry.

Cloud computing transforms hospitality by a offering seamless experience to customers while reducing obstacles to service from the staff side. It also offers individualized, quick solutions in an industry that is highly competitive.

PCI compliance is a crucial and necessary set of guidelines that all hotels must follow. The Payment Card Industry Security Standard was created in 2006 and outlines rules regarding accepting, storing, and/or processing card information. These rules were put into place to protect consumers sensitive information. For example, in 2014 Marriott hotels was attacked and 300 million guests information was compromised. This attack led to new regulations being put into place, the Payment Services Directive 2 (PSD2). These regulations take into account international customers and enhanced guidelines for sensitive data.

Cloud kitchen utilizing technology to create a whole new market

Understanding what each hotel system works for and the departments they connect or overlap with can benefit from integrating such systems to make smoother operations. By integrating PMS and POS in a hotel, it can be easier for the guests to check in, etc., but it's also easier for staff to manage and track all guest information this way too.

This type of integration is not new to the hospitality industry. Many hotels link their PMS system at the front desk to the POS system at the outlets. This integration is very efficient and convenient because guests can just simply charge their spending at the outlets to their folio, also known as "charge to the room."

A self-service hotel kiosk named eZee has just recently been added by a popular hospitality management solutions provider. This kiosk will be able to do various amounts of things to process customers faster such as checking people in, checking identification, and taking payments. The plan of this solution is meant to "accelerate the growth of the industry."

Cloud computing offers a more efficient way for hotels to keep up with data and programs for their company. When a hotel uses cloud computing, they are able to create more of a positive experience for their guests. It also is extremely helpful to use a cloud-based system because hotels could access their cloud-based application on any device. Cloud-based software also gets better with age because the updates can be made at any time so this will get rid of negative depreciation.

The article discusses the hotel industry's adoption of cloud computing. By using cloud computing, you can use programs, upload files, and access data over the internet instead of storing them locally. Cloud computing and local storage are used together in some applications. In addition to hardware, software, training, and maintenance, IBM offered an extensive range of services. Due to Cloudbeds' ability to integrate with other tools, they have experienced rapid growth. Integrations can offer upgrades and analyze reviews, among other things, so you can provide better service and increase revenue. By implementing cloud-based software, hotels can stay ahead of the competition, save time for employees, and give their guests a better experience.

This article describes what cloud computing is, and what it isn't, so people understand how it can be seen in the industry. The storing of data on the internet has been a huge innovation as it expanded storage beyond the typical storage offered on a device. By switching to this new technology, businesses may minimize future investments as the technology tends to work for many years and only requires quick updates. By researching what your business and customers need, you can make the right choices on whether this investment is worth it or not for your property.

Even though using beacon technology for proximity marketing is still in its infancy in the restaurant industry, this technology has already demonstrated some of its potential by virtue of increasing labor and overall operational efficiency while boosting customer satisfaction and loyalty. Beacons can help increase restaurant and bar sales, improve customer service, and provide more value for their customers, which should lead to customer loyalty. The possibility of applying beacon technology in the restaurants and bars opens a window of opportunity to engage diners and also enables restaurants to create more tailored experiences for them. Restaurants can use beacons to send alerts to people nearby about many table/seat availability and encourage them to make reservations or walk in. Or if the restaurant is very busy, restaurants can send the menu to their phones, so they can browse it while waiting for their tables. Restaurants and bars can build profiles of returning customers and provide offers based on past preferences. Thus, returning customers can benefit from improved and personalized customer service. During quiet hours or days, restaurants and bars can efficiently manage their staff and service, because of the data they have been collecting using beacons. Diners can even pay for their meal or drinks using their mobile device without having to wait for the waiter to come over and accept their method of payment.

This articles talks about what beacon-based proximity marketing is and its usefulness in restaurants.

Beacon technology has been around for a long time - prior to 2013 - but cost kept it unpopular. Initially only real big hospitality players had this tech. Now cost is no longer a limiting factor, but companies are limited to customers/potential customers who have a compatible app or the companies own app already on their phone, so they can push the proximity messages.

This article investigates the adoption of cloud computing in the hospitality industry across the world. While identifying the benefits and challenges of this system, the findings suggest that cloud computing is utilized in hotel groups today, more often than not. The article is not an opinion piece but rather an investigation searching for evidence to support the theory that cloud computing is growing in the hospitality industry. It bases its arguments from the observances that in order to operate a hotel group on todays scale, you have to be willing to fall in line with the trends of today- technology + convenience. It also is described how operating systems that streamline property management in terms of reservations, billing, ticketing, etc aren't exactly inventions of right now, but have been developed and corrected more and more as time has gone on and necessity has demanded of them. Four hotel groups, across 2-3 regions were involved in the study where participants were all senior IT directors and managers, across hotels with varying levels of rooms. What they ultimately found was that majority of the information systems used by these hotel groups were based on the cloud system. When the benefits and challenges were surveyed, it was found that the most common reason groups were utilizing this system was relieving the site from not having certain hardware to perform certain functions, and transferring security related risks to the system suppliers instead of the hotel. However, challenges noted was that operating expenses increased, the on site IT leaders don't have access to the environment the hardware lives in, and information security concerns. Working with a cloud computing system daily, I thoroughly understand and appreciate the benefits of having one streamlined services for guest logistics. It creates multiple levels of ease for all aspects of the organization as well as the wider hotel group. For operations that span across the globe, there probably i

This article talks about planned obsolescence and US e-waste. This article talks about how tech companies engage in planned obsolescence to encourage technology turnover. They talk about ways that the US can stop this planned obsolescence. One way would be to enforce durability standard for products creating a longer life time. This could be partnered with an enforced longer warranty on electronic devices.

AI is an incredibly important implementation that constantly aids in a company's growth. All hospitality businesses are implementing the use of artificial intelligence to help staff provide better experiences for guests and to collect market data. In hotels, these experiences range from the time of booking to check and everything in between. AI has been used to develop chatbots for guest assistance, adjust pricing based on data collected, and even a robot concierge. Overall, AI aids in efficiency and personalizing guest experience.

Cloud computing is proving to be the way to go. It's pros are much more than the cons, this including the financial saving any company can have by implementing cloud computing. "95% of people have used the cloud in some way or the other but are not aware of it." Cloud computing is becoming essential for hospitality, specially hotels and resorts, because of the flexibility it provides the business. Also because people are becoming used to certain services that are only possible because of cloud computing. Benefits of cloud computing can be allowing clients to check-in and out without having the need for a front desk clerk. This alone saves time and money for the business and guest alike.

In this article, there are discussions on many interesting and helpful facts about cloud computing in the hospitality industry. Cloud computing plays a very crucial role in the industry, and has changed the game for the industry in such monstrous ways. It has been extremely helpful for the hospitality industry, making the functionality of a business much simpler. An example of one of fun facts about cloud computing is that it makes taking bookings from guests a breeze. "Hotel businesses now don't need to give away most of their profit to online and offline travel agencies. They can improve their own website and start taking direct bookings". It can eliminate a hotel having to outsource or pay a third party company to take their bookings, meaning that the hotel can take home all the profit and not have to give a cut to someone else. Another fun fact touched on in the article is that by 2021, "Over 50 billion devices would be connected by Cloud". This is beneficial for hospitality companies (and in other industries as well) because data analytics that are found in cloud usage can help build a better customer experience, and that "services are seamlessly integrated". Overall, cloud computing in the hospitality industry has been increasing over the years and will further shape it into a more technologically advanced industry.

This article is showing us that cloud computing is a big innovation in the hospitality industry as well as other industries. It tells us that cloud computing is a mixture of SAAS, PAAS, and IAAS. It shows us a diagram explaining why it is a mixture and it also gives you different opportunity ideas. The article is mostly mentioning hotels and different examples like how cloud computing makes it more convenient to be able to do a faster check-in. Technology really is becoming a major driving source regarding hospitality.