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This article is talking about Optima Property Management System for hotels. First of all, it introduces that Optima PMS should meet the technology of the next generation. Because Optima PMS is a state of the art, windows based Property Management System that incorporates the latest in advanced technology. It is designed to provide all the features of a sophisticated Front Office system linked with other computerized hotel applications on the same relations SQL database. Secondly, it is said that Optima PMS should have efficient management. It places all the vital information needed for optimum operation at the manager's fingertips. What is more, it provides the hotels with all the tools necessary to give better, more personal and more efficient service to the guests. Thirdly, Optima PMS is an easy and friendly operation, and a flexible, customized configuration. Last but not the least, it introduces what kinds of modules and comprehensive sophisticated capabilities include in Optima PMS.

Optima is a most powerful and advanced Front Office system based on years of experience and on highly sophisticated development and focus teams, including superior hoteliers, engineers and front office specialists. These teams have researched and 'brainstormed' to meet the highest standards of the hospitality industry for the next century.  

This article introduces a PMS software-Optima PMS, which is a state of the art; Windows based Property Management System that incorporates the latest in advanced technology. It is designed to provide all the features of a sophisticated Front Office system linked with other computerized hotel applications on the same relational SQL database. Optima PMS places all the vital information needed for optimum operation at the manager's fingertips. All information can be viewed on-line, printed in a large variety of reports or shown on graphs. It is a profitable marketing tool, as it captures a wide range of data needed to make the correct marketing analysis. Information analysis is simple, quick and precise, emphasizing revenues, budgets and yearly comparisons in combination with data of occupancy, segmentation and other guest information.

There is a lot of talk within the travel industry about the future of travel distribution. Some argue that direct bookings from airlines are the new future, while others are arguing that the continued use of GDSs still remain essential to travel distribution. ASTA and Travel Weekly conducted a survey of travel agencies to get their take on GDSs. Although the use of GDSs continues to shrink, the declining rate of use has been slowing down. In 2010, the rate was 76% and in 2011 the rate was 75%. In 2012, surveys found that 72% of agencies surveyed were still using a GDS. ASTA predicts that the rate of decline will eventually stop because no other method of booking flights beats the GDS System. Agencies surveyed said that they continue to use GDSs because of the speed, and the ability to easily compare airlines and hotels. Airline bookings continue to be the main reason for the success of GDSs, with 90% of air bookings made through the GDS. 95% of car rentals are made through a GDS, and 50% of hotel bookings are done through GDS. GDS systems continue to drive competition, and make it easier for agencies to negotiate with suppliers. Agencies also continue to receive incentives from GDSs as long as they use a GDS. I believe that as long as travel agencies stay in business and are continuing to turn a profit then the GDSs are safe. Travel agencies are not likely to switch to a new system if the easily accessible, and easily manageable system is still GDS. If travel agencies begin to become less popular, then GDSs may see a rapid decline in the use of the system.

This article is talking about the comparison between the traditional retail model and the E-commerce model. People put more attention on the online business rather than the traditional system. From the data of Martec international, it says the spending in the IT has declined since 2003. In the helping of the computer and internet technology people understand the benefits in online. The internet is fast and convenient so that retailers can stay at home and manage their products. People do not be out of home and talk with customers face to face. In the past, the store system was the major part of the IT budge. But nowadays people are seeking another way to decrease the expense and focus on the mobile sales. With the demands of the retailers the CRM, mobile and cloud-based applications are designed, these application are working for implementing consumer solutions and then enable a Omni-channel experience for customers. Now even though the e-commerce does not have many users, the potential users is worth to be mentioned in the retailers. The e-commerce has a bright future prospect.

The financial crisis of 2007-2008 is considered by many economists to be the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. It resulted in the threat of total collapse of large financial institutions, the bailout of banks, and downturns in stock markets around the world. The bursting of the U.S. real estate bubble, which peaked in 2006, caused the values of securities tied to U.S. real estate pricing to plummet, damaging financial institutions. Prior to this crisis strategies to develop new hotels or acquire existing assets with a small percentage of cash out of pocket were plentiful. Today to secure funding it may take 30%-40% of hard cash to move a deal forward. The Small Business Administration (SBA) is offering a way to leverage funds at well below market rates for major renovations and new construction with as low as 10% cash down. The catch? Some money-saving energy efficiency or renewable energy measures must be in the mix. Millions of dollars in SBA 504 loans have been available for decades to help small businesses grow. The greening of the program began when the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 added 3 public policy goals that could qualify businesses for a loan for construction, renovation, or refinance to: 1.Build a new facility (or retrofit an existing building) that consumes at least 10% less energy. 2.Incorporate sustainable design such as LEED into the new construction or renovation projects or building purchases. 3.Incorporate the production and use of renewable energy onsite for the business and/or for the local utility. Another area the 504 green loan program can assist the hospitality industry is to bring cash to the table for major renovations. Hotel franchise companies have been lenient over the past several years on product improvement, as not many hoteliers have had the financial ability to perform major renovations. In the past several months the need for franchise companies to protect their brand have

POS is quite widely used in the field, at least in some restaurant chains. But this article points it out that although many restaurants are using POS, they still underestimate how useful this system can be. So this article introduces five features that POS can have if managers integrate these into POS. All of these features introduced in this article can be summarized into one word, that is tracking！POS can help to keep a track customer information and their preference to build a customer loyalty; POS can track inventory without counting every item in storage; POS can track employee's working hours and give managers alarm; POS can even track the menu information to help managers to make judgements if the menu item are profitable.  It is an investment to have a POS and it is also a waste of using only part of POS features. 

This article mainly talks about what is hospitality accounting software, where it usually be used in hospitality industry, and what should be pay attention if you want to install one. The challenge in finding software today is to locate a program that offers a solution that deals specifically with your company's needs. So to find a suitable one is important!

In 01 Mar 12 someone share a article about the global hospitality accounting system. That article talks about how the Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals (HFTP) are in the process of making a user guide for the global hospitality accounting system. This article is an update that publish recently. It shows where does the project stand right now and what is next for the project. However, the first part of phase one- covering the UK and continental Europe- is now well in progress.

HFTP's Global Hospitality Accounting System Users Guide will set a global method for hospitality industry.   Recently, research is being conducted into current practices. This research will identify who is doing what in different parts of the world, with a view to establishing best practice and providing practical guidance for students, practitioners and professionals involved in the industry.

Hospitality Financial and technology professionals was developing a global hospitality accounting system in the past year. Their fist step is to cover the UK and continental Europe. The second step is to do search about South and central America and cover them. The third step will begin for China and India, and the last two segments will be Russia and North America. This is quite a large program. If the program was completed, a globally accepted method that financial professional, ownership structure, investors and benchmarking information services can use to support  efficient operations will be formed, and a globally accepted method to monitor investment performance from region to region will also be formed.

This article concluded the advantages of IT in hospitality industry. Information technology becomes more concerned about by hotel managers, but they spend relatively little of their budget on technology. Much knowledge of technology in the hotel sector resides at corporate level, with data released to select recipients at specific times, such as budget planning. Much knowledge of technology in the hotel sector resides at corporate level. IT benchmarking helps to understand where an individual property ranks in comparison with other hotels in its competitive sets. The author talks about it on Research design, key benchmarks, and comments on results three aspects. several reasons of why the hospitality sector spend so little on IT, including that IT employees can be ineffective at internal marketing and competing for a share of the budget, the hotel industry is high-touch rather than high-tech and upscale properties are more likely to employ extra staff than additional technology, IT is not considered a core competency, hotels have no need to be innovative with technology, IT budget decisions are frequently taken by owners rather than operators or managers, and IT is viewed as a cost rather than an investment.

Global Distribution Systems were originally created by airlines to reach more customers, and provide access to fare and flight information to travel agents. They have expanded into the hotel and car rental industry, and are widely used by online travel agencies. As peoples access to the internet increases, airlines have tried to get consumers to move away from the GDS, and book directly on their websites. This has proven to be a difficult challenge, and it is clear that the GDS will continue to play a major role in the way travel is booked, at least for the near future.

Overall this article speaks on the upcoming services and software offered to meeting and events planners. The article outlines some new programs such as VIP organizer, EnnectEvent, and others as well and even talks about the purpose for each one. The point of the article is to inform readers on the new services that are being used in order to simplify the event planners and the consumers experiences.

The article, iPad POS Use Rising Among Restaurants, reflects the evolution and implementation of both hardware and POS software within the restaurant industry. The iPad is revolutionizing POS systems, helping to increase the efficiency for the restaurants. According to Chris Wishart, restaurateur of the Trio Restaurant & Bar, "You don't have to worry about servers coming back into the kitchen 10 or 15 times a night asking questions". This allows for the quicker and more efficient placing of orders that contribute to higher customer satisfaction, which is to an extent difficult to measure. As well, Wishart comments about the hardware cost an estimated $3,000, in comparison to the typical upfront POS system costs of $12,000 to $20,000. Including, the use of the cloud base technology has eliminated the need for store software upkeep. The iPad is a versatile hardware that has allowed POS software companies to benefit mutually along with restaurants.

This article introduces using ipad as a POS in restaurants. Customers liking ipad, this is a big advantage of using ipad to take the order. What's more, ipad can improve the efficiency for the restaurant and decrease the workload of servers. "You don't have to worry about servers coming back into the kitchen 10 or 15 times a night asking questions, and the recipes for all the bar drinks are there, too," And ipad POS can bring the benefit for the cost of the restaurants. In addition, it also has the reliability to assure users.

It is a revolution that tablet brings to restaurant industry. Taking orders, reservation, planning and inventory, all things are possible with iOS platform devices. Both restaurants and guests like new tablet POS because it improve experience and time efficient. Both servers and restaurant owners like it because it is cheaper to set up comparing with traditional POS.

This article gives an overview of security considerations of a cruise liner. Initially it cites a comparison between cruise security concerns and that of a hotel, which are basically the same, such as secure doors to cabins (rooms), having an exact record of all passengers and onboard staff, as well as having surveillance such as cameras taking constant video recordings. Whereas hotels are mostly open to outside traffic, cruise ships are limited only to those who have purchased passage, are working there, or are conducting business onboard. This has led to boarding procedures which are as stringent and detailed as those conducted when passengers board a commercial airline. Safety concerns for cruise ships have been a forefront concern since the 1985 hijacking of the MS Achille Lauro (See next comment) which led to minimal security standards issued by the International Maritime Organization (IMO). The tragic events of 9/11 compelled US issuance of an International Ship and Port Facility Security (ISPS) to strengthen security protocols. This includes requirements that any "ship over 500 tons…not (be) allowed into the United States unless their last ports of call conformed to ISPS code." The ISPS code, however, involves minimal adjustment for cruise lines currently in compliance with IMO rules. Newer ships are being constructed to include the infrastructure for video fibre optics and metal detection equipment. State of the art equipment will have crew member's photo and data available to be checked with each swipe of their ID card. Biometric fingerprint detection equipment is another safety layer that is available, but is not currently in use, although it will certainly be put into place promptly if a major incident occurs. The odds of such a major incident are high when considering the volume of cruise passengers in the last decade. Since other commercial ships have witnessed attacks, cruise lines are strongly advised to progressively

Additional information regarding the 1985 MS Achillies Lauro hijacking: http://www.britannica.com/blogs/2010/10/remembering-the-achille-lauro-hijacking-picture-of-the-day/

In today's society, being green is very important to many consumers but not all. The green conscious consumers have come to expect that the companies they do business with have the same beliefs. A companies green initiatives could be the deciding factor for some whether or not they frequent a business. Hospitality businesses must be aware of these green expectations from their consumers. They also must know how to communicate specifically to their green consumers explaining their specific green practices.. The article supports this when it states: "Green consumers are reasonably distinct in terms of identifiable characteristics and behavior patterns. Targeting specific marketing strategies to potential green consumers is likely to be more effective than directing these strategies to the entire population by assuming that all members of the population are potential green consumers," Unfortunately, it sometimes can be rather difficult to target green guests. It is much harder to identify these types of guests in comparison to non-green conscious guests. Also about 75% of green conscious guests aren't willing to really impact the comfort level of their stay to save the environment. Green guests may be green conscious but studies have shown they aren't really willing to give up the comforts such as daily housekeeping, high-pressure showers and fresh linens instead of reusing sheets during an extended visit. The article supports this when it states: "Although industry research has shown that a significant percentage of hotel guests would prefer to stay in a hotel that cares about the environment, guests are not always that predictable. Barber noted that a study by a major national hotel operation opposite findings: 75 percent of their guest respondents said they would not give up daily hotel room service activities." This is why green initiatives specifically targeted at green consumers are essential. The green consumer even though they may no

Computer reservations have become the primary means of disseminating air travel information to the airline-sales distribution system. These systems have greatly impacted competition within the airline industry. Sophisticated automation is changing the method by which reservations are requested and accepted. Never before have airline reservations come from so many varied directions. The lack of capital barrier to entry, the mobility of financial and physical capital and a well established information and distribution system seem to preclude any carrier from maintaining unreasonable rates and services without inviting a timely competitive response

This article gave me a different perspective as to how the GDS system has affected the airline industry.  According to The Economist, the airlines chronic unprofitability is due to two strategic errors of their own doing. One was to stop paying direct commission to travel agents and the other was to set the reservations systems free. Despite their best efforts airlines are now having very hard time getting travelers to bypass GDS agents and come to their websites. A majority of the profit margins in the travel business are seen by the GDS systems and airlines are left footing the bill. In hopes of resolving this problem, the airlines international association is working what is called "new distribution capability." Through use of this service it would become easier for travel agents to utilize computer systems that would deal directly with the airlines. However, ambitious IT projects have failed hundreds of different times across hundred of different industries and getting the airlines to agree to make such a dramatic change in IT would be a daunting task. Both the airlines and GDSs argue they hold the true consumer advantage.  On one hand, airlines are able to provide flyers with personally tailored service, while on the other, the GDSs allow customers to compare flights for the best value. Whether it be the airlines or the GDSs that prevail, the future of travel is now online. 

From PMS to POS-the 20 year evolution of hotel computers : This article talks about how the computer applications such as PMS or POS has evolved and changed the way hotels / restaurants operate. Twenty years ago, the value of a PMS was in its computerized capabilities as properties began to switch over from manual systems. Ten years ago, the more valid comparison was between a DOS and a Windows-based system. Today, the frontier is on-site vs. online systems. The article is very detailed one explaining more about PMS & POS. A must read for better understanding of its use in hotel and tourism industry

This article, posted on seekingalpha.com discusses the success behind Kayak. Kayak is an OTA that "gives consumers a one-stop research solution to best fares along with other value-added services like flight status updates and pricing alerts." However Kayak's revenues stem primarily from advertising and referrals. The article futher breaks down the percentiles of the profits with ads at 55% and referrals at 38%. Kayak's stock is at a premium and only seems destined to improve. A very interesting graph portrays estimates of its improvements for both ads and referrals.

Prospera Hospitality is a successful hospitality operator with 18 properties under the most recognized flags of the industry. In the article it is said that one of the reasons for this company's success is its centralized accounting software that allows them to create flexible financial reports. As different owners have different goals, thanks to its flexibility they are able to deliver them personalized reports. The software that is use by Prospera is Profitvue web-based enterprise accounting and performance management that generates individual and multi-property general ledger, enterprise resource planning, accounts payable, statistics, and financials. This software also generates side by side reports that help owners compare the performance of each hotel and identify problems or successful practices. Being a cloud based system creates a great number of advantages for this hospitality operator. As some of their properties are small with select services they don't have the resources to support on- property software. The software is installed on bigger properties and in the smaller ones only a PC with internet connection is needed.

Whether you are looking for a web-based or software-based POS system, you will want it to be a complete package. It should not only improve customer satisfaction, but also meet your needs as a retail business. The following criteria are what we looked for in these systems to meet both points. This article provides 10 Pos systems, and all of them are above good level in experts' and customers' eyes. It offers a detail analysis from hardware aspect which should include a PC or module, display, keyboard and mouse, high-quality cash drawer, barcode scanner, credit card reader, receipt printer and label printer, from the inventory & Other Features that will help track, organize and supply your inventory, from the customer tracking & labels that is quite beneficial to be able to retain customer information for future transactions, from employees & security that has multiple levels of security access and password protection, from help & support that provide training, technical help and warranty.