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E-business is taking over one business segment at a time. In the last few years, hospitality and e-business have been going hand and hand. Hospitality is always trying to stay on top of trends and even more with e-business. E-business does not seem to be slowing down but only getting bigger with our industry. Most of our hotel and restaurant reservations are all via Internet. As well, most people search to find the perfect place to travel and book a hotel by using the Internets search engine. Hotels need to find the right channels on the Interest that our guests are using in order to get the most out of our e-business world.

The growing trend of using mobile payment technology could lead to many opportunities for businesses and consumers alike. The hospitality industry is looking towards mobile payments as a way to make transactions more efficient and profitable for both the business and their customers. Hotels such as the Gaylord Hotel are now using mobile payment methods poolside. By using an iPod Touch, the hotel staff is able to collect payment and even print a receipt from their mobile POS system. This option to use the mobile payment system is a great convenience for their guests as they don't even have to leave their poolside cabana. Not only are hotels starting to use this technology to collect payments but major retailers have also begun to use this technology as well. Retailers such as Target and Walmart have teamed with Merchant Customer Exchange to develop an app that allows their customers to pay for their goods by using their smartphone at the store's register. With this growing technology also comes some concern of security. Businesses are being urged to consider the importance of fraud protection as they begin to use mobile payment. If businesses choose to use a mobile payment app or POS they must follow the proper procedures to ensure the security of their software. The benefits of this growing technology could be great for both businesses and their customers.

Mark Starkov, President & CEO at HEBS Global provides advice as to how to understand and optimize several tools hotels use for bookings. We live in a world where mobile connectivity is on the rise with no fall in sight. More and more people are spending more time and money on and through these devices, and it is something that our travel and hospitality industries are booming from. In 2014, nearly 40% of web visitors and page views were credited to non-desktop computers. In terms of hotels, these devices can also account for over 20% of bookings and 17% of sleeping room nights. Between 2013 and 2014, hotel revenue generated via tablets more than doubled and booked over 77% more room nights than non-"pure" devices. These stats alone should have all hoteliers seeing opportunity. The world of e-commerce is allowing hoteliers and other travel companies to open up many revenue streams. Between DGS, OTAs, and CRM, we are able to reach a much wider audience and bring in an exponentially larger amount of business. These tools do not work for free, as there are often commissions or subscription fees these companies are compensated for. As valuable as these third-party tools are, it is equally important to invest in your direct-booking outlet. Booking direct business keeps the most money in your pocket. Not only will you get optimum rates, you will also save on commissions, referral fees, etc. Just imagine not having to pay a third-party commission of 10% of a $100,000 dollar piece of business. That's 10 thousand saved. Sometimes, when large corporate events are booked, there can be two referral services involved, resulting in 15% commission payout. In terms of direct vs. third-party business, a hotel could not survive on only one.

Malaysia and Southeast Asia is slowly but surely adapting strategic social media and e-marketing into their small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). This article focuses on the opposing views on how these tools are being utilized and adapted to help these small businesses. Scicom Education Group's head of Creative Services Vernon Adrian Emuang is confident that Malaysia is ahead of the games in terms of social media and "widespread public engagement". This may sound like a far cry considering that 64 percent of the SMEs in Mayalsia were not engaging in social media in 2012. Emuang emphasizes the impact that social media can have, considering that SMEs account for 99 percent of the 5 million registered Malaysian businesses. Zeno Group Malaysia's CEO told The Establishment Post that "lack of knowledge is holding back many of the SMEs. They feel they need not use social media for marketing purposes." Emuang also says that many of these companies are not implementing the proper technological infrastructure to support their ecommerce, should they receive an influx of traffic on their servers, etc. He even shamed the customer service that lacks the manpower to follow-up with the volume of customers. Many hotel and lodging businesses are adapting global initiatives, such as registering with Booking.com or Tripadvisor.com. These outlets allow ecommerce to flow to a much wider, international audience, boosting bookings and revenues at venues that wouldn't have otherwise. Julian Matthews, a famous Digital Media Trainer and Consultant, says companies are operating social media on a tactical rather than strategic level. The Trinetizen Media Sdn Bdn tells The Establishment Post that many companies aren't utilizing Social Media for crisis communication-something many companies we are familiar with fully rely on. In conclusion, social media adds accountability and reliability for the companies and their stakeholders.

This article goes in depth on what emarketing is and how it's used. Emarketing is used for business to market and their business online. E-commerce goes hand in hand with Emarketing as it is also an internet venue where people can process their transactions from a business. But Emarketing does go beyond just the internet.

I found this article interesting as it talks about why the GDS is important and also gives some insight to how the booking process has changed over the decades. For instance, thanks to the internet we can book a flight within minutes while comfortably sitting on our cough. The article however states, what I did not know, was that back in the 50's, it took an airline reservationist 1.5 to 3 hours to book a single airline flight for the customer. At the end, the article also states that GDS most probably will not be going anywhere any time soon and still be around, at least for some time, and keep on evolving.

The article describes the importance of GDS to the travel industry. The article describes GDS as "a network/platform that enables travel agencies and their clients to access to travel data, shop for and compare reservations options and book travel." The system is used globally as it helps in generating travel sales in billions of dollars. Travel agents use the system access scheduling and inventory of hotels, car rentals, airlines and bus tickets all in real time. The system achieves this by linking the travel reservation sectors of car rentals, hotels and airlines. The major GDSs in the world are Sabre, Amadeus, Worldspan, Apollo, and Galileo. The authors argue that GDS is important to travel agents as it helps the agents to make reservations in real time for their clients and can complete bookings for their clients within a short time. The end of the article proposes that GDS may become obsolete by 2020 due to technological advances. However, the authors argue that the system will evolve with the technological changes and will not fall into disuse anytime soon.

GDS I feel will always have an impact in the travel industry because it is what it was built for since the beginning. Yes, we advance with apps and direct booking but people will always use travel agencies and GDS I believe will always be the primary source for booking for travel agents because it is what makes them comfortable.

This is a very detailed article about the various ways that hospitality firms are utilizing technology and using their capital to invest in IT related projects. A variety of hospitality firms were surveyed to produce this article on ways they plan to invest in IT and the various projects they feel are most worthy of their dollars. Some of the areas that were most noted and listed as worthy of additional IT investment include improving technology to improve financial performance and enhancements in CRM and loyalty programs, guest experience technology and ensuring the guest stay is always seen as paramount, as well as improved information and cyber security technology as well as an increased focus on understanding big data and improving employee engagement. This article is highly detailed in what it analyzes and it lists a long list of potential investments that a variety of companies will be taking on in the future. The focus of this article was on the year 2017, but many of these concepts still apply to the hospitality industry today and well into the future. Many of these things listed are also things we can see that many companies worked on leading to 2018 and continue to work on and it is the companies that put these IT investments at the forefront that will be leading the hospitality enterprises of the future.

The company Cyber Gear has launched a new website that contains a wide variety of hotel for visitors of Dubai. Cyber Gear also provides many services, specializing in eMarketing amongst other services such as eCommerce, eCRM, Social Media and much more.

This article discusses how a hotel has put hotel owner model second to marketing, branding and technology related functions. Although it may seem like an easy job, however it's actually a huge job due to the heavy competition. Travel is a hard e-commerce category because it's hard to get customers to be loyal to their hotel. It's not simply about loyalty points anymore. Another aspect in this article mentions is how hotels are investing in tech to improve profitability. Having better tech can ensure a guest has a better experience and providing benefits to hotel owners. Specifically, the Hyatt is using technology in order to engage with their guests. Wyndham has installed over 4000 cloud-based reservation systems. Hilton also developed a system for loyalty members to be able to control the lighting and entertainment in their hotel rooms right from their mobile phone. This is called Connected Room and will launch this year.

This article discusses the increasing demand for e-commerce and third party delivery in the food and beverage industry, as well as the costs associated with it. Restaurants are currently facing a growth problem in the United States as foot traffic has declined due to a "millennial generation shift" that sees diners doing more in their homes, while third party companies like Grubhub have seen it's stock rise 141 percent from a year ago. For many restaurants, it is a matter of opportunity cost. As explained in this article by Warren Solocheck, a restaurant industry analyst at NPD, "We're going to see more and more quick-service chains begin to try out delivery," he said. "The margins associated with third-party delivery may be slimmed down. But, the question for restaurants is, 'If I don't do it and I'm not delivering my food, am I in the game anymore? Am I in people's consideration? It boils down to being an opportunity cost. The hope is that at some point people will like the food enough to come in and sit down." I found this article very interesting as a General Manager. We recently decided as a brand to begin offering delivery through third party services as we noticed a decline in covers leading to a decline in revenue. This new revenue stream, although at a higher cost, still brings in revenue that we would be missing out on either way. We also offer free appetizer cards for a consumer's next in house visit to help attract new guests.

The topic of the article is about the use of Chatbot within the industry and how it could be valuable to e business. Chatbot is a messenger tool that allows for customers to communicate with someone to provide a more personalized and better customer experience when booking online. The article mentions that Chatbot is used on a variety of hotels, airlines and even booking agents to provide a different way of booking trips and experiences. It focuses on providing images, prices and descriptions to enhance the "online shopping experience." (Knight, 2018) The way Chatbot seems to operate through different partners by providing the guest with requests, transportation, last minute reservations and up to date information regarding hotels, airlines, etc. Knight takes into account the potential that Chatbot has in the future to help the hospitality industry grow earnings while positive service. Although, Chatbot seems like the newest way to appeal to those guests that are within the technology wave, i feel like apps like these are already implemented. It is convenient to have the information coming from one source, but hotels brands like Marriott have the mobile app and GXI where you can communicate with someone in assist with creating reservations, add requests and also create a profile that gives the hotel an idea of what someone expects at the hotel. The same goes for those airline apps such as American and Delta, providing similar services. What i do take into consideration is that bots like these where it be a direct bot or Chatbot are being used more and more daily to enhance the experience a customer receives which helps to increase sales for the industry.

This is an article about the 3 main GDS in the world and how GDS helps Travel agencies to grow more using an OTA model. It explains the importance of the GDS in the travel industry as well as the possible future for it.

The internet has allowed the Hospitality Industry to significantly grow, by bring their products , which is now easily accessible for customers.

This article presents suggestions on POS selection for companies sized from small to large. I found this article really interesting and reiterates that the selection of the POS is going to be based on company needs/culture. Their research was extensive and conducted market research repeatedly, before suggestions were made. It also touched on the different pricing options, in addition to any special features the POS may offer.

This article talks about the best POS systems for 2020. What I found interesting is that the majority of these systems are cloud-based and offer integrated information services for a variety of industries, not just hospitality. A lot of the systems also are ipad based and work well with third-party POS hardware. They also have automated payment options integrated, for people who like to process payments electronically (i.e. Apple Pay). I think its important to know about these POS systems and what they can accomplish for hospitality companies.

In this article, they talk about the best pos systems to use for 2020. They list each pos system name and then summarize the benefits and give a full review. The first system they talk about is lightspeed, which Ipad pos system has solutions for retail stores, restaurants, and online businesses. It's fully mobile, so you can check inventory from anywhere in the store, show customers product images and descriptions, and ring up orders and accept payments on the sales floor or, for restaurants, tableside. The next system is Vend that has real-time reports, inventory management features, and access to various integrations that can help you run your business, save time, and boost sales. This POS software is suitable for nearly every type of retailer. Whether you run a clothing store, a sporting goods store, or a specialty service-based business such as a car wash or computer shop, Vend has the features you need. Touch Bistro is a simple and affordable POS system that focuses on the unique needs of restaurant owners, with tables, reservations, and delivery management features. It's suitable for all types of food establishments - fine dining, casual eateries, cafes, pubs, food trucks, and more. Lastly, there is eposnow has both retail and hospitality versions of the software are available, each with a robust selection of features to help you run your business. It also has more than 80 integrations, so you can add extra capabilities and connect to the business programs you already use.

Innoviti Payment Solutions announced that it will start extending its cloud-based reconciliation technology to full-service restaurants, that need payments to be collected at a customer's table with automatic reconciliation with the bill. Innoviti processes over US$ 6.5Bn of payments annually from over 1000+ cities in India and is backed by major financial investers like Catamaran, India, Bessemer Venture Partners, USA, and SBI Venture Capital, Singapore.

This article discuss the idea that cybersecurity has been neglected according to consumers and more emphasis should be placed on protecting their private information. It has been found that point-of-sale systems are the most common victims of these breaches, and most often at restaurants. Attackers are targeting systems with weak points and outdated software, making them at a considerably higher risk for breaches and cybercrime. Companies must start investing more in heightened security measures in order to retain consumer loyalty.

This article introduces GDS, OTA and Meta in a short space. GDS stands for Global Distribution System, GDS is a rather costly selling channel that mainly allows the sale of rooms in larger quantities to bigger companies. Small independent hotels usually do not need GDS. OTA stands for Online Travel Agency. meta stands for Metasearch Engines. For small hotels, the cost of GDS is high and it is generally difficult to adopt. OTA and meta are two methods worth considering.

This article focuses on current packaging trends along with the diversification of brand management. Additionally, how companies, through smart packaging with QR Codes and NFC tags, can keep up with the below-mentioned trends and achieve higher ROI for their business. Successful incorporation of these technologies will help companies achieve product transparency and authenticity, supply chain visibility, elevated consumer experience, and many more positive outcomes.

This article discusses how AR has been around for a while but has now had a boost thanks to the pandemic. The article mentions how companies such as Lenovo, Panasonic, and Apple are going about the implementation of AR through their product offerings as they are sensing and responding to demand created by the pandemic in order to adapt to changing consumer preferences.