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In the Digital Era, technology is everywhere; people can connect to your company, your employees, customers, providers and competitors through laptops, smartphones and even wearable devices.

With increasing reliance comes increasing risk, many of which are outside the Enterprise’s control.

Legal and regulatory problems bring their own special range of issues. Locking horns with regulators, litigants and judges is the last thing that business needs.

Information thieves are increasingly targeting hotels due to the large amount of personal information collected from guests.

hospitality industry accounts for 87% of point of sale breaches

Failure to take precautionary measures can ultimately affect your hotel’s bottom line, and lead guests to feel unsafe and not wanting to return.

The turnover rate in hotels is an astounding 73.8%; it should be in the 10-15% range (DailyPay). Three quarters of staff will leave this year. It's an expensive problem to have.

In other words, what does your PMS have to do with staffing? It's a two-fold issue, which is a bonus because it means you can have double the impact. The first impact is in retention. The second is in training and usability.

Especially for front-of-house staff, an easy-to-use PMS can make or break their ability to do their jobs successfully, and for everyone else, the PMS must integrate fully with all other core systems to reduce time toggling between systems and/or manually handling data transfers.

Why you should consider Self Order Kiosks for your Restaurant

 Self Order Kiosks are typically considered to be touchscreen computers that allow customers to enter an order into the computer on their own.

The increase in minimum wage is reaching an inflection point at which the cost to invest in solutions like Self Order Kiosks might cost less overall than investing in POS and employees to operate them.

Ask any hotelier and they will all agree that a hotel management system plays a key role in their hotel’s success.

At the back-end, hotel software is even more important. The front office module, point of sale, accounts receivable, banquets and conferences, restaurant module, housekeeping, inventory, HR and Payroll, along with a host of other modules and apps in a hotel software must work in an interconnected and smooth manner.

This being the case, it is encouraging to see some hotels are making moves to lock down their data security practices. There is clearly a great deal of work that needs to be done, but if a hotel can demonstrate it is capable of protecting customer information, it may be more likely to inspire confidence in consumers, which, in turn, could afford the hotel a competitive edge.

According to a 2010 Wall Street Journal report, the most common security vulnerability in hotels is point-of-sale software. Often, hotels do not require employees to change the default names and passwords of these programs, making it easier for hackers to break in and steal customer information. To overcome some of these and other concerns, McBeth said hotel operators are applying the best practices detailed by the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), which aims to address data security for businesses that handle payment cards. However, he admitted that the task of ensuring protection throughout an organization is difficult, given the number of channels where vulnerabilities could be uncovered.

According to a USA Today report, a panel of IT executives from Starwood Hotels, Hilton and other lodgings operators recently told an audience at the LodgeNet’s Customer Technology Symposium in Chicago that protecting customer data is becoming their top priority.

"There's a growth problem for a lot of restaurants in the U.S. Many fast-casual dining-type restaurants are mall-based or attached to retail spaces and consumers are just not going there as much," said Tom Champion, a Cowen analyst who follows Grubhub. Grubhub stock has shot up 141% from a year ago.

a millennial generation shift.

They typically share 20% to 30% of a bill with third-party delivery services. That matters in an industry with 10% to 15% operating margins and high fixed costs, including rent and staffing.

Watson shared with Hotel Management four of the most common challenges he sees when it comes to hotel finances and accounting and offers advice on how to solve them

The real challenge then becomes how hoteliers can implement affordable and scalable solutions without enormous cost that will also meet owner expectations

The solution: Partner up

GDS, OTA and Meta: What’s the difference?

how can they help your hotel gain more online visibility and sell more rooms?

Hotels usually sell their rooms for 30% cheaper on GDS

Waste is one area with the potential for big improvement. In many cases, hotels end up throwing out a lot of waste that could have been recycled. The reason is a lack of local support for recycling programs, Jachimowicz says. "We would move forward with recycling if the local trash haulers had the ability to do that today," he says. "We're recycling at 60 percent of our properties. We'd like nothing better than to get that number up. Short of separating it and hauling it ourselves — and we're not in the trash-hauling business — we're at the mercy of the local haulers." One way to work around the recycling challenge, Gaines says, is to reduce potential waste brought in the door in the first place. "We eliminated the USA Today," he says. "That's huge. All those newspapers? They're gone. Everybody's reading it on their iPad."

"You want to continue to give people a comfortable, acceptable shower without sacrificing using more water,"

On the operations side, facility management staff has a large role to play as well. The first thing they have to do is understand that it is a balancing act when it comes to what guests want versus sustainability efforts.

The Internet has consolidated itself as a very powerful platform that has changed the way we communicate, and the way we do business.

The hospitality industry has always been among the first to capitalize on new technologies.

E-commerce has been defined as "the buying and selling of products and services by businesses and consumers over the Internet.

, NDC and retailing in the corporate space is the simplification of the traveler’s experience.

the traveler buys their fare here, their bag there. Why can’t that all be wrapped up in one bundle and sold at the point of sale for the corporate traveler

“It eliminates expense report nightmares

Cut night site lighting. “Depending upon how your site lighting is operated and circuited, you can create an ‘economize mode’ for overnight when the site is at its lowest occupancy. Keep perimeter site lighting on around your property and all entrances and main drives lit.

 Replace older lighting with LEDs. “Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center chose LEDs to replace existing lighting in a parking garage open 24/7, halving the garage’s power consumption. Meanwhile, Mediapolis Community Schools in Mediapolis, IA, also embarked on a retrofit of LED exterior lighting.

Implement a sustainable facility design plan. “Sustainable design is more attainable and affordable than it’s ever been, especially when you think in terms of years instead of days and weeks. It’s also worth noting that sustainable design is very well favored among the public, which is an extra incentive for companies interested in reinforcing their reputation as socially responsible and environmentally concerned

AI in Hospitality: The Impact of Artificial Intelligence on the Hotel Industry By Hotel Tech Report Last updated January 25, 2023 9 min read Revenue Management Systems Livechat & Chatbots TABLE OF CONTENTS Hotel Operations Hotel Revenue Management Hotel Marketing Hotel Sales & MICE Guest Experience Human Resources and Labor Large Chains

estimated that 14% of jobs across 21 countries are at high risk of automation.

rtificial intelligence (AI) can greatly improve hotel operations by automating repetitive tasks such as booking and contactless check-in processes, freeing up staff to focus on providing personalized service to guests.

The machines are expensive to install, often break down and can lead to customers purchasing fewer items.

higher losses and more shoplifting

In the past decade, televisions have grown bigger, then flatter, then bigger again. The emphasis is on the new: buy now, because your old television is clearly, decidedly obsolete.

The demand for the current and the top of the line strikes a chord especially in the hospitality industry.

equal to, or greater than, those offered by their competitors.