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Marketing and advertising trends are constantly changing due to evolving consumer expectations. These changing expectations are essential for business owners to notice and address in order to stay relevant in the market and industry. Businesses must understand their vision for the future in order to address those expectations. This is the foundation that business will be able to build off of as consumers value truth and consistency. Companies must also stray away from the safe and obvious choices by pushing the boundaries. It is important that business owners are always looking ahead to the future in order to stay ahead of the curve.

Module 2 Article Summary After reading this article, I found that it was discussing the topic of how hotel PMS technology is on a rise and beginning to take a change. Many hoteliers are looking for innovative ways to operate their hotels while making sure they are getting the needs of customers and providing great service. With that being said, studies have shown how many hoteliers are turning to a cloud based computing system. There were main benefits that discuss the incorporation of using this system such as it being more efficient. They see reverting to this cloud based system as a money saver. This can get rid of many things that are associated with traditional hotel PMS systems such as hardware costs and so forth. Using the cloud based systems, hoteliers are able to be more flexible and mobile. Utilizing the cloud allow for them to access and use the data whenever and wherever. Also, by using the cloud, hoteliers are still able to engage with guests. A lot of guest may have personal and special preferences while staying at a hotel. Having this information stored in the cloud can allow hoteliers to effectively accommodate their guests based on a guests experiences and habits. This form of technology is "easy to use and intuitive at the end user level." It won't take much to train employees on this type of technology and they'll have accessible information readily available for them to use at their fingertips. Overall, converting over to using a cloud based PMS hotel system is cost efficient, extremely manageable, and be able to allow hoteliers to interact with guest on a real time basis.

Older hotels have been reluctant to make the change to the new PMS's coming out on the market. They have been stuck in time with their outdated systems. However in the past few years more and more have been making the switch. The 5 trends of new PMS's are the cloud, mobility, guest engagement, endless integration and new sleek designs. Hoteliers are needing to make the change if they want to stay with the ever changing technology.

Hospitality executives sometimes are reluctant to switch to more modern PMS, sometimes because being old timers or being afraid of moving onto something else. The reality of the situation is that cloud businesses revenues are going up because year by year more and more hospitality industries are moving to all of the benefits of being a cloud based company. "cloud, mobility, guest engagement, endless integration and sleek design" are the top 5 trends in hospitality PMS.

Checkmate is an app which allows customers to check into their hotel as well as communicate with them during their stay via their smartphone, According to Tnooz CEO Drew Patterson, there have been changes is consumer expectations. For instance one of the changes that his 41-employee company found was that customers, regardless of age, like communicating with the staff over a text-messaging style interface. Interesting enough, properties that have implemented such technologies, have been receiving higher guest satisfaction evaluations than before. The article mentions that one property for instance, had a 20% increase in customers satisfaction due to this kind of technology.

Although this article is not specific to the hospitality industry it discusses how new technology has changed accounting and how the role of an accountant has evolved. The author mentions five ways that technology is transforming accounting. I found the following very interesting and believe they relate to the hospitality industry. These include: cloud computing, innovations in tax software, mobile accounting, and OCR technology. We have already covered cloud computing and its benefits in previous modules. Cloud computing allows accounting professionals to perform tasks remotely by accessing the cloud. Advancements in technology has allowed tax software to be much more powerful and useful to accounting. In the past when tax laws would change accountants would spend months learning the new laws. It is now much easier with modern technology and software. OCR technology in my opinion helps all industries that require any soft of bookkeeping/ file keeping. With OCR technology you can convert scanned docs, PDF files, and even images into editable data. The best benefit of this technology is that it allows you to organize all data and make it searchable.

The article introduces the trend of HRIS system in 2017. As information technology have considerably improved, its functions have heavily impacted on human resources management. Especially, it is said that the human resources technology market is one of the fastest growing segments in business IT and with an HRIS, companies can align HR strategy with business objectives to maintain the workforces and adapt the changes quickly. HRIS is integrated with training, payroll, HR, success planning, recruiting etc. and centralized, which encourages staff to access easily from anywhere within the company and reduce work redundancy. This article emphasizes that as one of the 2017 trends, mobile HR Apps will be spread out, so employees can expect to see the update via their smartphone. As the functions are centralized in one place, the data will be managed easily and it can increase focus on employees. Also, the cloud system can be applied in the HRIS, which means increased flexibility, faster updates, and decreased costs. As the HRIS features are getting various, a company should investigate an HRIS that fits their goals, objectives, mission, and values and choose the best options.

This article highlights the need for technology innovation to be more inclusive within the sector. It focuses on senior level roles but also emphasizes the importance of including all levels within the evolution of the industry. It also highlights that these changes would have occurred with or without the pandemic but was expedited because of it. It speaks about including lower levels of management with invitations to trade shows and other technology exposition in order to include a larger net of point of views and perspectives. It also highlights the need for further automation in order to help with large scale global issues like climate change and continuing touchless actions like check ins to maximize efficiency and the guest experience.

For recent years, the operators in the hospitality industry are looking for the suitable solutions that allow them to break down the tableside ordering barriers, such as the mobile phone-based POS. In the annual report analysis for the POS Software Trends, the hospitality industry takes a look at industry-wide innovation priorities for this system. Among the talking with the developers for the enhancements for POS software in 2011, many developers focus on launching new options for mobilize operators.In this year, social media, cloud computing and mobile solutions are the three top and will continually growing in 2012. A trend for 2012 POS purchasing plan is, more investment in the year ahead. It is a full reversal of the results of this survey. Greatest number of operators plans to add new functionality and features to their current POS software in the year ahead. A third of operators plan to expand the installation base of the POS software they currently use. Researching and testing new POS solutions for possible future deployment will be the focus for 20.5% of hospitality industry.

This article introduces the trends of POS in hospitality industry. It lists some data to show the hospitality operators consider mobile phone-based POS instead of tableside ordering devices. It also list the information about the hospitality operators plans to add new functionality and features to their current POS software.

The points of sale have changed over the years. The hard wires, all in one unit are being replaced by mobile devices. As the article mentions, hospitality operators have been looking for solutions to break tableside ordering barriers. After motorola released a tablet, the software community has been working in developing applications for both consumers and employees. The POS software developers are been asked about the improvement happening in the technology. Social media, cloud computing and mobile solutions are growing trends. Hospitality operators were asked which POS platform innovation are they looking for. The POS features in demand are: Online POS Mobile phone based POS ordering Enterprise wide centralized POS Table side POS ordering Cloud computing Software as a service Open source There is an increase in investment for POS development. The POS features purchasing plans: Add new functionality features and modules to POS Test and research new POS solution for possible implementation after 2011 Install POS on a wireless network.

The article basically discusses the differences between investing before and investing now since the internet has been born. Previously, people had to try and gather as much information about the company they were interested in investing in by going to the library and reading as much as possible but now it is easier for investors to search a company up and gain all the information they need and more to invest in that company just by entering keywords. Therefore, the internet has changed the investing game completely and even lowered the amount in fees that brokers pay immensely.

Nowadays consumers want an experience that is transparent, immediate and connected 24/7. E-commerce travel companies need to change their focus which include wider choice of rich content, more comparable offerings, more focus on relevance than magnitude, and an increase in automation and personalization that enables customer self-service.

Juice it Up's new CEO started right before the corona virus hit. And while at first that seemed to be a daunting task, her goals ended up aligning with the needs of this new era: get better technology. For a mostly franchised brand, Taylor new that getting this tech up and running was going to be difficult, but also that it was going to be necessary to the success of the company. The "brand didn't need to change it's business model because most of their business came from to go order already," but Taylor found the company to be seriously lacking in technology. Her goal: a mobile POS system that would offer menu information, nutritional elements, the ability to order ahead, leave a tip, and schedule a pick-up. What is unique about this app and this system, is that it is not through a third-party system, which is what most restaurants are currently using. It opens up the potential for more companies, specifically large brands, to begin to do a similar thing. This will be an incredible save for profit margins if it proves to be successful, as the current crisis of third-party delivery and POS systems is wreaking havoc on our nation's restaurants.

An excellent article that discusses how companies have changed their social media approach during Covid. Instead of selling the destination or the experience itself, hotels are trying to sell the concept of safety and security. Also, the article goes into detail about flexible date plans and more, all being advertised through their social media accounts. Overall, social media is still as important as ever, but the way companies approach it has changed drastically.

The article talks about major trends in tourism events, ranging from green initiatives through F&B to the 2nd largest reason people go to events is networking opportunities and providing quiet areas where people can network in is a good idea. More events are being planned so it is necessary to book event venues early.

Like everything nowadays is evolving, also the meetings are evolving in order to stay trendy and appealing for consumers. Meetings are growing exponentially YOY at a rate of between 5-10% according to the prestigious CWT meetings and events company for 2020 (without counting coronavirus). The reality is that the meetings industry also needs to evolve in order to stay in business with the new trends, clientele and times. This list provides 19 trends that every event planner needs to consider to make their event a success, including but not limited to the new demographics in the world (millenials).

This article is about 19 event trends that event planners should be informed about. People are expecting different things from events that in the past years where not expected. Trends have changed, for example, it is a trend now to have minimalistic events instead of gaudy ones. Now people also expect creativity out of the event and to have a unique event. People also care about security of the event and fast WI-fi. All these trends are important to know and will continue changing with the years.

This article jumps into some challenges facing the hotel industry with respects to accounting. It touches on various topics we have gone through as a course, and ends with an emphasis on technology.

This article talks about the need for hoteliers to be up to date with technology. By having systems that have all the data in one place, helps owners make better decisions. Also having an accounting system that helps with making decisions and offer the proper tools is imperative. When it comes to accounting it is important to be prepared for the worst case scenario.

Although I'm not a 100 percent fan on the cloud base systems, technology is ever changing and i somewhat believe that we should keep up with it providing that it is in out best benefit personally or from a business security point of view. We see how this article reveal to us challenges and how technology helps alleviate some of them.

This article is about The Albion Hotel in Miami Beach. It talks about how they were losing business due to their outdated PBX (Private Branch Exchange) phone system. It was not reliable. They switched to a cloud based system called TCN (Total Connect Now). They are now, not only saving money, but they are able to work from anywhere at any time. This shows the benefits of cloud computing!

In the hotel world, as technology is ever evolving and change it is most times necessary to keep up with change. This hotel was at least 20 years old in the business what worked back then to five years ago even one year ago may not work today. Granted not all hotels need to be tech savvy but if that's the majority of their clientele due to their location they may want to keep up to date to ensure that they are meeting their customers needs.

This article pays close attention to the POS capacity for payments. Taking into account different possibilities that could come up in regular hotel or restaurant business operations. As payment methods change, POS technology must also change and evolve.

Food buffets will change, the amount of spacing required will change & social distancing will be in play; this will definitely play out in the events planning industry, as well.

COVID-19 has affected the way in which we interact with one another. Although it is uncertain as to when we can begin to have planned events, there are four options this article suggests to have meetings and event. These options are to go on with the show (with some changes), take your in-person event online, postpone your event, or cancel your event. -Planners must consider the crowd density, venue layout, the number of participants, and the age of attendees when making critical safety decisions. -Communication is key in virtual events - changes should be communicated with attendees, speakers, exhibitors and other stakeholders. Address their concerns. -Encourage your speakers to spruce up their presentations to make them more interactive in virtual meetings. -Postponing your event allows planners to continue to sell tickets and build hype around the event, and thus is less costly than outright canceling your event. -If you postpone the event you may see a decrease in event attendance (keep in mind costs) and you may have difficulty keeping the same venue/time. -Event cancellation insurance is insurance that protects event expenses and revenues against the risk of unforeseen circumstances beyond the planner's control and generally includes, cancellation, relocation, postponement, or abandonment.

This article uses diagrams and gives the step to let us know the processing of managing the risk. Also, it teaches a four-step process- Mitigation, Preparedness, Response, and Recovery to address a crisis successfully.