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The article tells us how the social networks important to the hotel business. The study shows the network and social media are benefit to hotel marketing. And the ARCOTEL sees this potential opportunity in social media and network application Facebook. Nowadays, the network and some third party such as kayak, priceline provide many hotels boost in booking and increase in guest loyalty and public relation. But study shows that only 24 percent of the users would like to join hotel profiles on Facebook. The ARCOTEL hotels have integrated the apps into their Facebook sites. By using this app, the fans can directly book their favourite hotel and read ratings and other information through the app. The social media will get after them to offer excellent services. Both of them were done on the internet. At the same time, the fans who use the app to book hotel will also get prize draws, special discounts or a user-friendly booking function with extra tools. Although the network has given the hotel a instrument to contact with the guest, the modern technology still can not replace the classical booking and marketing paths, the network is just like the catalyst. As the internet business is rapidly growing worldwide. Hotels have to focus on combine their classical marketing with new technologies such as smartphones, ipad and facebook. They will help the hotel gain business and be success.

With smartphones evlving and getting smarter, smaller and speedier it is allowing for advances in mobile point-of-sale technology especially in the restaurant industr. There are now numerous POS platforms that support both iPhone as well as android. Tablets and iPads are also supported so that restaurants can process payments in the field with a credit card reader. Traditionally POS have been very costly and structured; now with mobile technology the flexibility is convenient, fast and user friendly. New applications allow restaurants to store customer spending patterns without retaining their personal credit card information. the use of smartphones also opens up very exciting opportunities when it comes to business-consumer communication. Restaurants can send text messages containg discounted coupons to their establishments. The key is to not over do it as customers may become annoyed with too many text messages. This article delat mainly with the restaurant industry but did mention the evolution of technological advances with the use of smart phones. Form personal experience I have used my iphone and ipad to conduct credit card transactions utilzing squareD which provides free of charge a mobile credit card swiper that is connected to the microphone port of either the iphone or Ipad. there is not monthly contract or fee. The only charge is 2.5% per settled credit card transaction and the amount is automatically deducted from the batched amount and within 1-2 business days the funds are deposited directly into ones checking/savings account. This is convenient, fast, and easy. I have been able to secure payment right on the spot instead of either handling cash which is always a ahzard or the risk of accepting checks. the use of smartphones and tbalets have revolutionozed the way business is being conducted making it fast, easy, and convenient to both cutomer and busoness owner alike.

Many restaurants use their POS as their basic needs. They probably did not realize what other functions the POS has. This article introduces 3 ways to save cost by using the POS. First, it helps keep track of inventory management. It will track the products from the beginning of the day until you close. It prevents from theft and keeps track of the proper timing to order products when running low. New employees may not be trained enough to charge the proper amount of discount or daily specials meals. Instead of relying on employees to input the correct price, you can utilize your system to input the correct calculations for them. At the end of the day, you are not going to experience money being short. Third, it also helps to manage time and attendance for the employees. It is easy to lose track of your employees' attendance especially in the early morning or late night shifts. To avoid employee time theft, it is possible to set up the time and attendance software in your POS. In conclusion, the POS system does more than what people think. The POS is being underestimated and it is a good idea to take an advantage of the system to save your cost instead of setting up systems that cost much more money than this.

This article talks of seven ways in which a POS system can help a small or medium size business through making the owners responsibilies easier to manage. The tools provided by the POS system can help with everything from payroll, to inventory, to pricing and coupons or sales.

Hotel Concepts- Brilliant, a leading global provider of advanced PMS, recently announced its integration of Flip.to into RezExchange. For a small monthly subscription, Flip.to acts as marketing platform for hotels, restaurants, and airports. Customers can use it to comment, post feedback, and recommend the establishment to friends who in turn can get discounts. It also allows loyal guests and customers incentives to spread the word. RezExchange allows customers to manage their sales channels directly from the hotel management system and will receive all reservations from these channels directly into their own database. With this integration customers don't have to present printed coupons and any earned incentives are automatically credited to their hotel profiles. Hotels, restaurants, and airports that already use RezExchange and integrate Flip.to into their system will become more streamlined making it that much easier for customers and guests to build up and use their incentives.   L'Auberge Carmel hotel in California is the first property to go live with this integration and thus far, this integration has proved successful. Approximately 15 to 25 percent of guests who book rooms at participating hotels engage with Flip.to, and for every 100 engaged guests, an average of 10 to 20 additional room nights are booked within six months. 

This article introduces a profitable e-commerce for hotel. A mobile app which can help customer makes reservation of same-day hotel room on their mobile rather than on the internet. This app helps customer book same-day hotel with the deep discounts, and it also helps hotels sell their unsold room at the end of the day. Compare with book hotel room on the internet customer can book wherever and whenever through this app. This mobile app also bring more new customers to hotel, about 91% of the customers who use the mobile book hotel rooms had never stay in the hotel before. Customer should first conforms his location when he uses the Hotel Tonight app. After select the city the mobile will show a list of hotels can be chosen with the price and one-word description. Customer can choose the hotel he wants and uses his Facebook account to complete the reservation. Those hotels list on the mobile app are three-star rating or higher rating hotels with good reviews on popular travel web site. The hotel discount will not appear in the app until noon in order to make sure the hotel manager can sell their rooms at higher rate.

This article describes how a new company, HotelTonight, is attacking the market of spontaneous travelers. The company made an app for iPhone an Android users that sends "Impulse Rates" to users who have the app. Impulse Rates are heavily discounted rates on hotel rooms offered by hotels through HotelTonight for rooms that have been unsold that day. If users like the offer, they can book the room through the app in eight seconds with only three clicks.  There is also a little interview with HotelTonight CEO, Sam Shank in which he answers questions about how the company runs.  I think this is a great idea for company. It helps everyone involved - hotels increase revenue by selling rooms that otherwise would have been empty, consumers get great deals on rooms, and HotelTonight profits off of a nominal fee for processing the transactions. This is similar to the Ding! app from Southwest airlines but designed solely for mobile devices. 

Here is a link to the company's website. I don't have the app but it looks like it would be pretty easy to use. http://www.hoteltonight.com/

A great idea. Truly a win-win for all. I'm glad that they are finding the impulse rates are not affecting the amount of regular booking guests. I would like to try this myself and live life to the fullest.

I have a key chain full of membership cards, tiny ones. I have Wallgreen Balance rewards card, Salon Centric professional store card, PetSmart PetPerks card, Winn Dixie Grocery store card, my vehical elite member card, and my gym membership card to name a few. I think those business (retails) got me. I can't resist their benefits even though I know they try to get my money. It's nice to get a discount here and there, and it really makes shopping fun and keeps me coming back for more with coupons and stuff. I think having a customer loyalty program within POS systems is a great idea especially when enabled via mobile devices.

So, for the consumers that are used to booking their vacations by themselves, I don't think this article applies to you. For the ones that are trying to save money by not going through a travel agent, I think thesis the article for you. A study conducted by AH&LA shows early signs that almost 2.5 million bookings for hotel properties made online through "fake websites" are being accounted for. This is a huge security issue. Consumers are booking their travel thinking that they are getting certain room types, ample amenities, amazing discounts, and good deals, but turns out they are just getting scammed. Other then not making the clients happy, this also hurts the reputation of the hotel property because when things don't go our way or something happens, we tend to blame the property. And in today's society, most take to the internet to voice their opinions in addition to speaking with the hotel; and bad word-of-mouth is the last thing our industry needs. Also, this can lead to loss of revenue. The survey stated that 56% of customers prefer to book directly with the hotel. It is always recommended to book directly through the property themselves, but for the new guys, how are they supposed to differentiate the difference between real and fake websites? 

Food Trucks no longer have to worry about internet connections, cables and loss of power. This system is on the go and perfect for them and even has a way for them to reach out to customers when they are in a slow time. If food trucks are having a slow day they can just tweet to all of their followers special deals or locations even to attract more business.

Having the iPad POS system in the food trucks is a great idea because the owners no longer have to worry about lots of hardware in the truck just to be able to take payment from customers.

Technology continues to advance in every aspect of the hospitality field even for food trucks businesses. The Revel System has released a new iPad-based restaurant POS system. This system is very convenient for food truck employees. There is no longer need to worry about the hustle and bustle of loose cables and poor router connection. As social media plays an important role in today's day and age the new POS system is equip with Twitter. Food trucks owners can send a tweet out about promotions, discounts, and their current location. This is very much an innovation for food truck businesses.

The following article explains why many people expected travel agencies to go extinct once Expedia started being used and all the reasons why that did not end up happening. In todays age there are still many people that use travel agents, in fact the article even states that there have been spikes of usage in recent years. It speculates that this might be because of millennials always using the easiest and quickest ways of getting things done. In fact the simplicity of travel agents is one of the main reasons many people use it along with their ability to get package deals, assist with group or complicated trips, their ability to get discounts, and they prevent problems.

This explores how the OTA Expedia is bypassing the rules of the rates they are given by hotels to show unauthorized prices and thus affecting how the customers shop for rooms in the future. Customers will see these lower rates, which are only meant to be sold as part of a larger package, then compare them to the hotels site, which of course will be higher and in the future disregard the direct buy from the hotel, not knowing that the rates they were given should have never been available without a package which includes airfare and car rental.

This article explains the way the hospitality industry is responding to the Corona virus crisis using digital and online capabilities. One obvious support that the industry is giving to the response efforts is by providing beds to respond to the emergency cases in the crisis like in the examples of Cloudbeds working with Sabre, Marriott, and RateGain and Hotels for Helpers, in the Netherlands which is offering discounted hotel rooms for those in need. The hospitality industry are also adapting to the crisis by finding online solutions for their employees to work from home and also providing wide range of resources on the crisis for users.

The hotel industry is highly competitive and it is important to maintain an appeal to your customers and gain a competitive edge. Smart technology strategies is a way for a hotel to be able to ensure business and remain relevant to the target audience.

This article examines all of the highlights that using a QR code for your hotel of business establishment.

In today's world, being able to conduct business via mobile is a must for business travelers. A whopping 79% said they would use check in/check out features associated with hotels. Business travelers would most likely prefer a smooth process from start to finish and having the ability to check in and bypass the front desk, and possible long lines, would be a life-saver for them. Not having to stop at the front desk to check out can also save a great deal of time. Additionally, the article addresses the desire for business travelers to utilize specific services even after checking out of the hotel. Offering discounts to get travelers to check in via mobile is mentioned, as well. Today's society promotes convenience across the board and being able to check in, check out, reserve/utilize services after checking out, and even taking advantage of discounted services via mobile, is the wave of the future. Erica

Jack Li, of Datassential, says safety is the main thing consumers want and that restaurants must provide as more and more of the country reopens. He also stresses that discounts and other promotional methods should be limited and used for a short time only. Consumers are looking for foods they could not cook themselves while locked in their homes. Lastly, eating out is something that most people associate with providing a sense of normalcy and most liken it to visiting friends and relatives.

This a article about the events industry. The CEO of eventbrite.com was in this article, she gives insights on what she sees is happening with events. Right now, the biggest focus is smaller, more intimate events.

Encouraging Return Customers With Rewards Customers are able to earn stamps through a Malibu Poke digital rewards program and redeem them for free bowls or discounts after downloading the app to their Apple or Android devices. "Rewards are just a really easy way to give a value add to your loyal customers." He added that because Malibu Poke's restaurant offerings tend to be more expensive than many other QSRs', loyalty programs work better. Opportunities for customers to seamlessly access discounts can provide the restaurant with meaningful ways to retain customers.