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A survey of nearly 200 international hotel operators found generally favorable results for those that had offered a daily deal, also known as a flash deal, according to a study posted by the Cornell Center for Hospitality Research.

Piccoli and Dev found that Groupon and LivingSocial were the two sites used most heavily by these respondents, and their top reasons for offering a deal were branding, customer acquisition, and boosting occupancy in shoulder periods. Ironically, the hotels that were avoiding daily deals were especially concerned about compromising brand standards.

David Jerome, senior vice president of corporate responsibility at InterContinental Hotels Group, three critical myths are (1) that "green" is expensive, when in fact sustainable practices save money; (2) guests do not care about sustainability, when in fact many guests and group planners specifically look for "green" practices; and (3) hospitality firms can wait to implement sustainability programs, when in fact waiting is costing them both money and business.

By October 2015, all restaurants and other merchants will be subjected to new Europay, Mastercard, and Visa (EMV) standards, which reflect a shift from magnetic-stripe credit cards to chip-and-pin cards.

, the chip-based cards require insertion of the card into a terminal throughout the entire transaction.

chip-based cards are less susceptible to fraud.

Amex says the deal will allow it to combine two "advanced travel technology and development platforms" in a bid to create more products and services to the pair's corporate customers.

Amex GBT CEO Doug Anderson says: "The technology roadmaps of each business provide a powerful platform from which to drive future innovation. We will deliver a superior client and traveller experience through fully-integrated travel management solutions, including booking and expense management products."

The acquisition marks a reasonable shift in the power base of the major corporate travel management companies.

Booking Holdings Buys Activities Distribution Startup FareHarbor – Skift

Booking Holdings said Thursday that it will acquire U.S.-based, experiences booking-software provider FareHarbor.

The FareHarbor acquisition will help provide content to expand Booking.com‘s upselling of consumers on tours after the consumers have already bought another product from the online travel giant.

Buoyed perhaps by the launch of a same-day hotel booking service on its mobile app, Priceline has launched a similar service for its global hotel service Booking.com.

Booking.com Tonight with initially be available only for Apple devices via the iTunes appstore

and will use last-minute inventory from its portfolio of 200,000 properties in 165 countries.

this seamless integration will benefit clients by allowing them to realise cost savings through increased efficiency and productivity.

"We are very privileged to be able to fully utilise BlueSky's CRS and online booking tool.  Its ability to provide accurate real-time information makes it the most advanced travel booking system in the Chinese travel market,"

Features such as best buy, lowest fare search and itinerary generator will provide a wider, more detailed range of travel options

It’s an understatement to say that the global distribution companies have evolved away from their traditional airline focus to bring accommodation into the mix.

reveals that the GDS “had lost share in lodging distribution” 

Sabre had developed the platform in response to demand for more content and functionality from both the supply and demand side.

They work completely on the web and are based on the cloud.

It is the age of the Internet, the age when many businesses solely run on the Internet. From marketing to reaching new people, there is a lot that can be done with the help of this medium.

one of the major boons of Internet on the hotel industry has been the web based property management systems. Unlike previous applications which would burn a hole on the pockets, these online hotel software are user-friendly and do not need any additional hardware or software expenses. They work completely on the web and are based on the cloud.

The purpose of this research is to explore and define the digital maturity of events using the Industry 4.0 model (I4.0) to create a definition for Events 4.0 (E4.0) and to place various relevant technologies on a scale of digital maturity.

These surveys and the thorough literature review that preceded them allowed us to map the digital technologies used in events to levels of a digital maturity model.

This study has responded to calls from the academic literature to provide a greater understanding of the digital maturity of events and how events engage with digital technology.

Planning an event is a massive undertaking. Before you get too far into it, think about why you want to host it

ou don’t want to pick a

date where there are a lot of other conferences in your target industry for a few reasons:

Despite all the innovation that has taken place in the sector over the last decade, there remains massive, untapped opportunity and potential in many categories within the hospitality arena.

Life House, a tech-first hotel experience, shows proof-of-concept: that hotels that invest in technology drive higher revenue, better guest reviews, and a higher star-rating

Most revenue management systems focus on reporting and data visualization; the addition of white label software to the backend of an RMS can improve price optimization, letting hoteliers spend their time on higher value tasks and strategic revenue management.

The major search sites routinely leave out flights (lots of them) and even entire airlines. A lot of the flights they do show are ones you don’t want, starting with “basic economy” fares that hit you with tons of restrictions and fees, so the price you see isn’t the one you end up paying, along with connections way too short or way too long, ones that no responsible travel agent would let you book.

The reality is that while it was widely predicted that the internet was going to kill off travel agents when digital tools were placed at every traveler’s disposal, that just hasn’t happened, for several good reasons.

“They can find crazy deals”; “They will be your advocate”; “They’ll take care of the little things”; “They’re true experts” and “They don’t usually cost extra.”

More than 80% of the world’s population now own a smartphone, and a huge chunk of these smartphone owners are constantly sharing their location for different reasons.

This marketing strategy is all about marketing to your customers at the right time and place

How Can Proximity Marketing be Used in Restaurants? Proximity marketing allows you to target a specific location. Unlike broad-based marketing tools, you can focus on a particular customer group that is easier to convert based on their proximity to your business. 

Nearly 1,700 executives from around the world, across a range of industries and functional areas, responded to this year’s survey.1 1.McKinsey Quarterly conducted the survey online in June 2009 and received 1,695 responses from executives across industries, regions, and functional specialties. We asked them about the value they have realized from their Web 2.0 deployments in three main areas: within their organizations; externally, in their relations with customers; and in their dealings with suppliers, partners, and outside experts.

As was mentioned above, the retail POS systems help in the sales transactions processes. The POS systems are one of the simplest and they are created in a way to operate with the purchase processes in ease and efficient way. Hence, the software has options for entering data which could possibly represent the whole inventory in the shop, for example. Additionally, when the purchase is made, the system automatically counts down the item from the inventory list and helps in that way contributes for improved inventory management. Also, regarding the customer relationship management and providing sales reports, there are other settings that could additionally be set in the particular POS software and all that for the purpose business operations to be more productive. Apart of the retail businesses, hotels and restaurants should have more complex POS systems. This is due to the fact that in such businesses which are service orientated, the POS software applied should be able, for example, to customize various orders from different tables and in alignment with that to keep track on price variations. The fact is that the POS systems that apply to service sector businesses such as restaurants, hotels and fast food businesses should be able to customize and manage multiple orders. Either the example is for fast food business, or dining out restaurant or even a hotel, POS software should operate with various orders made during the service process, and still providing the right bill for the right table, or the right bill for the right room order if the hotel business is taken into consideration. Clearly, when starting a business it is important to take the industry specific POS system into account. Therefore one should not just trying and finding the best deal, but rather invest in the system that will work best to make the everyday businesses activities more effective. Understanding why each system is unique will help when trying to make the decision for what type of POS system to purchase.