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This article talks about 3 stages for the telecommunication development in hotel. Hotel could absolutely use the phone 2 decades ago which is much more convenient to keep in touch with each others because of the lack of the mobile phones. But after the cellphone came out, hotel couldn't make more benefit from the phone calls which were just used for internal communications, morning calls, housekeeping and so on. After 2000, another technology was created which is call VolP( voice over the internet or IP phone) which could do more than a phone, such as Ads on the IP PHone. but it could not be widely used because of the complexity and cost. There is a new technology coming out called cloud which combines all the stuffs-- Telephones, PMS, Internet, and cable plant together and make employees or customers easier to learn. For example,a hosted provider of not only voice, but PMS, Internet access, premises infrastructure. Several hybrid IP systems now support a gateway mode - where the on-premises solution is effectively a gateway controlling all the analog rooms. Centrally managed and controlled - integrated into a multi-tenant web based PMS - backed by a 24-hour help desk and NOC, could be the ticket to get hospitality VoIP.

In the hospitality industry, the main focus is customer satisfaction and providing great service. Providing quality services to guests more often then not means physically taking items to patrons, escorting them somewhere et cetera. Mobility is key to providing services to guests and it is important to communicate between staff within the hotel in order to keep track of employees and their whereabouts. Dated technology, such as loud and brick sized walkie talkies, were becoming hindrances to the effort in providing exceptional service. New wireless communication technology can make communications between employees more efficient and less intrusive on guests. Minimizing the amount of background nonsense they hear will surely improve their view on service in the hotel industry.

This article deals with the theft that happens on a daily basis in the hospitality field. It happens when credit cards are used to pay for something, like a reservation, and thieves want the information, so they can use your credit card number for whatever intentions they may have. As the article states, "our data is under attack". I can relate to those people that have had credit card numbers stolen, because it has happened to my husband and me, and it is a horrible feeling trying to get your life back on track and recover your money.  I think it would be a great idea, with some research, to get the point to point encryption technology in a field where credit cards are used so often, not only to cover the business (hotel), but also to protect the guest, so they feel at easy when they travel on vacation or business.  The overall point of this technology is to encrypt the information as close to the point of entry, i.e. the swiping of the credit card, as possible. This would in turn "significantly reduce a merchant's card data environment", as the program would encrypt the information so that hackers cannot access the customer's information. As I mentioned earlier, questions should be asked before buying this technology, as there is always something new on the market that may be better. Credit cards are not always swiped, but can also be manually placed in the system, so you want to make sure, that both transactions are protected. Overall, the establishment should always be concerned about the customer and their safety, whether physical or mental and always be prepared for the worse.

Great article! Personally after being a victim of credit card fraud, I'm very apprehensive of where I shop, who handles my card and how long it takes them to return it. I recently cancelled a large purchased after the cashier insisted on rubbing my card number on the reciept after the transactions had be approved. In my mind, I was thinking "If I let you do that, then I've open the door for anyone to charge thousand of dollars. I don't think so." As a manager, who hands credit card numbers for manual input, I'm very cautious of them and want to insure that they don't get into the wrong hand. Aftern each transactions is approved, that number is shredded and the credit card machine is batched out. Companies don't realize how important it is to PCI compliant. The risk in exposing sensitive information of our clients and customers can cost thousand of dolllars in fines and fee, in addition to the lost of that customer/client.

Marilyn, Great Article...as a Front Desk Manager, it is my responsibility to randomly check our computers to ensure employees are not placing USB driver to collect data from our system. Our company has taking this a step further by putting metal locked case around the PC to avoid possible fraudulent activity. If we have to open a PC, we must log it to show proof why a PC became unlock. Companies should adopt similar procedures to protect the consumers/guests. Nelson

Ecotourism is usually perceived as a form of alternative tourism distinguished in three ways from other forms of tourism. It emphasizes relatively undisturbed natural environments, it serves as a focus of attraction. Interaction with nature is motivated by a desire to appreciate or learn about the attraction. Most guests at ecotourism resorts aren't hard-core environmentalists, several people at Jungle Bay emphasized that they weren't "greenies," but they were impressed by the nature: the density of the rainforest and the views of Dominica's coastline, with its few swimmable beaches, ferocious surf and massive cliffs.

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

"Going Green" is no longer the standard, it is now how to greener than your last innovated green project. Why is the guest/ consumer not made more aware of these green accomplishment? They may notice the ones that directly effect their stay, however the indirect ones i.e, cloud computing to monitor solar power panels, removal of big box TV's and computer monitors are having a greener impact on technology in the hospitality. The energy savings are impressive, the continued effort made by these companies has a huge on the environment. "It is the collective consciousness of the whole human race that has to make people aware that this is important."

I am all about going green...hotels are adding sensors for when guests leave slidding door open to shot down A/C units as well as when the room is not occupied, the A/C with a sensor will rise the temperature. The technology is so amazing, that engineering staff can simply reset temperatures with a handle from outside the room. Beside A/C temperature control, hotels continue improve electricity savings by utilizing new light bulb and re-designing lighting around the hotel. At the company that I work at, we have light sensors in the offices, if you are not in your office after a certain amount of time the light goes off.

Hotel Reservation Software is making online booking easier. The advantage of Hotel Reservation Software is that it can show rooms availability, it eliminate double booking, and it provides the availability to reserve specific rooms while giving instant confirmation. The software keeps personal information secure, maintain costumer data base and create custom reports. The crucial part of the technology is it security feature and it is user- friendly. Hotel Reservation Software enables communication between all hotel depart, making booking quicker and easier and provide useful financial and customer reports.

This article suggests that consumers now purchase in a more customized why with new technologies offered through applications and data plans through consumer's phones, tables and laptops. Airline consumers have recently changed their purchasing habits to choices such as in-flight WiFi, priority boarding, premium seating, meals or doubling their miles instead of the traditional schedules and fares. Airlines have veered to selling these types of customized travel services through direct selling to consumers and have eliminated the use of global distribution systems GDS. Airlines have found that the use of GDS's are more expensive to both the airline and consumer and that GDS's technology has yet to evolve to enable the kind of customer-focused and customized shopping that other industries have embraced. Now GDS's has ask that the Department of Transportation DOT to protect its market dominance by having DOT force airlines to give them, free of charge, the ability to sell options services as checked bags, seat upgrades or club access. Airlines believe that consumers should know what the are paying for.

This article claims that GDS systems are actually limiting consumer choices. The author suggests that using new distribution technologies that connect us directly to reservation systems would be better for consumers because it provides them with all the choices the airlines can offer, without the extra charge. Purchasing a ticket through GDS is three times more expensive than purchasing the ticket directly. Airlines, which aim to support consumer choice and transparency with its customers, try to tailor travel options to accommodate a passenger's individual needs. However, GDS opposes this movement by urging airlines to use outdated equipment that requires its due fees, which in turn raises the cost of travel for consumers.  

In an effort to catch up with emerging technology and trends, it is expected more hotels will begin to "go green" this year with their linens and uniforms. I believe this is in part because hotels are being held to hirer expectations as we emerge from the recession. USA Today reports that American Laundry News surveyed several vendors about new products at the 2011 International Hotel, Motel and Restaurant Show in New York. Vendors including popular uniform maker, Cintas revealed more items like the washable tuxedo, made from recycled plastic bottles and the Eco-Cobra Jacket for front door staffers. Hospitality textile maker, Riegel is reportedly getting lots of attention from hoteliers for its recycled polyester tablecloths, also made from recycled bottles. The recycled fibers are expected to cut costs on hotel laundry bills. For example, Cintas estimates the washable tuxedos would save them nearly $1,000 each year. I had the opportunity to attend IHMRS this year, and visited the Cintas display. The recyclable material is no new idea. However, it is apparent that changes are being made to improve the durability of the products. I recall when the recycled fibers were initially used. The material seemed cheap and couldn't be ironed for risk of destroying it. Quality seems to be something hotels and restaurants are forgoing in order to "go green". To add, up front costs aren't necessarily saving companies much money. The USA Today article prompts reader responses by asking if hotel/ restaurant visitors even care whether or not a business has "green" products. I believe this is a fair question. Beyond attempts to save on long term costs, what other motivation do hotel operators have to "go green"?

I think it is important to hotel visitors, especially group & corporate, for hotels to go green. Maybe companies and organizations require their employees to book rooms at hotels that meet certain "green" standards. If I am a business owner, and promote the company as "green", then our actions and choices have to be "green" too. The uniforms made of recycled material sound very interesting! I wonder if they are comfotable and liked by employees.

While many U.S. hotels are moving from recession style cost cutting to updating their properties, it would appear that they have become interested in a more green approach, at least in one area, laundry. The American Laundry news explains that as many hotels seek to buy new tablecloths and uniforms for their staff, they are looking for green products that can help to trim their laundering costs. One of the things that caught the interest of hoteliers is the hotel industry's first look at machine washable tuxedos for the wait staff. Cintas partnered with Boardroom Eco Apparel to produce the tuxedo, which uses recycled plastic bottles transformed into polyester fibers. Cintas has stated that this green, machine washable tuxedo can save the hotel up to $1000 per employee annually. Cintas has also garnered interest in its recycled polyester bellman's jackets, as well. Another green product that hotels can use is the recycled polyester tablecloth. These tablecloths also come from recycled bottles and are also very eco-friendly. Riegel, the company behind these, has said that just using one of their table napkins can eliminate three plastic bottles from landfills. While these tablecloths may not save the hotel money in the short run, Riegel says that the hotel can save money in the long run by pitching itself as a "green" hotel. It is important to note that hotels have been slowly switching to greener products over the years, such as energy efficient light bulbs, to recycled plastic water bottles, and even sustainable organic ingredients in restaurant kitchens.

Expedia hopes bloggers can serve as an important plank in its effort to re-engineer the way people shop for hotel and airplane tickets by incorporating those transactions into a marketplace driven by social networks. A senior director for travel research firm PhoCusWright, believes Expedia's plan is a viable one. Expedia's goal is to make planning the entire trip - from flights to hotel to transportation, with even restaurant selections and amusement park tickets - an integrated shopping experience. For example: your family is planning a spring break trip to Orlando. After booking flights, your hotel search would incorporate friends' views on particular properties. There's already some evidence that social networks spur sales in the travel industry. Expedia's plan could pose a threat to the largest source of online hotel reviews, TripAdvisor. Both company and bloggers say they aren't concerned that readers may be turned off by commercial relationships between the travel agent and writers.

Of course the company and the bloggers aren't concerned about what the readers think. The company wants to increase business any way that it can and the bloggers want free trips. Personally, I would be turned off by knowing that the blogger was compensated for their trip review. I recently watched a special on Aulani in Hawaii run by SamanthaBrown who works for the travel channel. I was very irrritated to hear her clearly non-objective opinions of the resort. I am far more interested in what other non-paid travellers think. I think that companies should be concerned about the perception of them paying for the reviews. I can understand the bloggers wanting to be paid for access to their followers, I just personally don't find any validity in these types of opinions. I think Expedia should keep looking for ways to tap into the social network as a business strategy, but I will trust the opinions of my actual friends over paid bloggers. I appreciate that Expedia would allow for negative reviews, but if a resort is paying Expedia for a review and Expedia is paying the blogger, then in my opinion precious objectivity is lost.

Two Companies have come together to provide services to hotels at a cost efficient price that can provide features, control, and reporting capabilities of an expensive system. Frontdesk Anywhere Inc. will provide their software capabilities with RingCentral's telephone services. Frontdesk Anywhere Inc. provides web- based hotel management software that enables hotels and hotel groups better manage sales and guest interaction processes. RingCentral is a business phone system provider that offers cloud- based systems that can be accessed from anywhere via softphone desktop software, allowing access to any room from anywhere and in particularly their front desk. These two companies combined services will allow hotels to focus on their guests rather than their IT needs. I think this is a great investment for hotels. Most people spend a lot of time trying to figure their systems out rather than putting their extra effort into their guests. I believe that having the ability to access these services from anywhere also offers them a great advantage. And, most importantly it comes at a low monthly rate.

No matter what telecommunications strategy a property takes, one thing is for certain, it needs to be a different one from the past. The early 1980s marked the beginning of an era of profitable hotel telephone departments. The advent of call accounting systems (thanks to deregulation) enabled hoteliers to easily mark up calls to a profitable (some say too profitable) level.

In modern society hotel need more attrahent thing increase revenue. The traditional way may lose competitiveness, like telephone services. Because almost everybody using personal cell phone and more and more people prefer to use internet to communicate such as email and skype. In my opinion if hotel build some telecommunications use internet such as physical skype phone and provide cheap service that may be attract more people to use that.

With the emergence of "self-contained guest," hotel telecommunications departments must change its offerings because old strategies no longer apply. A self-contained guest is one that does not need the traditional amenities hotels would offer for telecommunications, such as fax machines and printers. Guests now look for a fast, free internet connection as an amenity. Some may not even need wifi, because they have a faster mobile service that they use. Even hotel telephones, guests no longer want to use the land line and pay hotel fees to make a call. Cell phones have eliminated that need (even for international calls). So hotels must not stay the same, and must change their strategies for producing revenue from their telecommunications department.

This article was particularly intersting to me because it highlights the active "green movement" in the industry, but it also points out that many hotels that claim to be "going green" are actually employing practices that are anything but sustainable. The "green" notice you see when you enter the property, is nothing more than a marketing ploy in case they may encounter a customer who actually values sustainability. As much as eco-friendly organizations may inspect, certify, and supervise the industry, it is still very easy for companies to take the cheaper, more traditional road of ignoring the very principles of sustainability they claim to operate by. As much as we may try to regulate this movement, our efforts are never enough. Becoming environmentally sustainable has had a global impact already, but the level of awareness is not high enough to reach a globally effective level yet. Sustainability is our obligation to the earth that lets us live rent free. It is our responsibility and we must all take the initiative to ensure our global destinations are still around for future generations to enjoy. The problem, as this article points out, is that you can still polute and waste energy and hide behind the sign on your property that says you are eco-friendly just in case you come across that customer out there who actually values sustainability. It is sad that with all the sustainable technology available today, we still don't appreciate its importance. We have the technology to manage HVAC systems, waste processing, and renewable energy to name a few, but it is cheaper and more convenient to employ the traditional methods that are not sustainable. Many travel industry organizations have figured out that all they have to do is post signs saying they have sustainable technology and what it does without actually having to practice what they preach. I believe government agencies need to move in the general direction of coercing sustainable practices under s

In 2009 the GDS usage declined from 98% to 79%. ALthough there has not been a demand to use this technology, there has been a demand in the first quarter in 2012. There has been an increase because of corporate business demand. GDS is being used to transfer room inventory to global distribution partners as well as travel agents and OTA's. Hotels using the GDS technology offer a percentage to a client instead of a fixed rate. This happens as long as companies have access to the hotel's system everyday. According to Robert Cole, The GDS system is notgoing anywhere because of its unique solutitons to hotels and travelers. It makes it easier for everyone.

This article is about how global distribution systems are still in demand even though they were said to be dying out. Industry leaders thought that with the development of online travel agencies, GDS's would soon be out of business. This isn't the case though. Well it is proven that member travel agencies have been using GDS's less this could be linked to the economy. The people who are purchasing travel through online travel agencies are still using the GDS every day. Business travel is also up in the past 10 years and also an increase in business travelers extending their stays for leisure. With that leisure and corporate traveler are help keeping GDS's alive. But GDS's would be even more profitable if they lowered their transaction fees.

The GDS has decreased steadily over the past decade, but recent studies have shown that there has been a small increase. The increase is thought to be due to corporate travel.  Many hotels are trying to increase the use of the GDS through dynamic pricing models. This model offers a percentage off the hotels best available rate depending on what the demand is. The GDS provides many benefits like facilitating the online search process, offering immediate access to information without using a marketing budget, and high sense of security. The only downfall is that the distribution costs are too high, because transaction fees usually are around $5. 

The article talks about how a business owner was able to reduce the paper used at his restaurant in the back office. While doing this he finds out that it is much easier to control his business, the cloud and technology initiatives provide him with accountability and easier way to expand. This is a lesson in the how to achieve two objectives with one solution. 

I think going green is a must but its not enough. The system of producing-consuming needs to be comletely changed. Actually im happy companies start thinking about bringing less harm to nature.

Going green is such a win for every party. I would argue that there is a big difference between wading through piles of paper and having a clean organized electronic system. The more automated the back office of any company can be, the more efficient and therefore profitable it will be. The popularity of cyber communication, data storage, bookeeping, etc is only going to increase rapidly in the next few years.

Highlight: IHG (InterContinental Hotels Group) is inviting preferred business accounts across Asia Pacific to move to a dynamic pricing model, guaranteeing corporate travellers to always pay less than best unrestricted rates at its InterContinental® Hotels & Resorts, Hotel Indigo®, Crowne Plaza® Hotels & Resorts, Holiday Inn® Hotels and Resorts, Holiday Inn Express in the region. My Description: InterContinental Hotels Group is making efforts to turn its original accounting and pricing system into a more dynamic and flexible one, which can make more market-sensitive hotel rates according to the demand situation. Currently , IHG is trying to increase the scale of market-sensitive rates to the traditional contract rates. Therefore Corporate travel managers should feel confident they have access to the best possible rates in hotels of IHG. This model guarantees they will pay less than any other unrestricted rates. One advantage of this market-sensitive accounting and pricing system to annualized rates is to respond to unexpected market condition. This dynamic pricing system will not only help corporate managers to reduce related costs but also bring more convenience to corporate travelers as the increase of booking channels. The application of IHG's dynamic pricing system bring many positive feedbacks, especially as these corporate customers usually end up paying less than their RFP-contracted counterparts

This article is about a decision made by Texas Western, Hotel Management Company, to introduce Cloud-Based Business Intelligent system. According to the interviews with the company executives, this investment is really paying off. This system has taken system responsibility off their hands and allowed them to cut labor costs which were used to prepare daily revenue reports or spread sheets. Mobile access to all the information also appears to be a useful feature offered by Cloud-based system. 

The Basel Convention is a great step forward in controlling e-waste, the US still needs to get on board and deal with electronic waste within its own territory and not send it abroad to be dealt with. Once this happens then the reality of how much waste is produced will be evident and actions will be taken to reduce, reuse and recycle.

It is important for companies to get involved in protecting the environment. The need to ensure that we are recycling e-waste properly to protect our lands is vital. The government needs to mandate that technological companies protect the environment and force them to ensure that e-waste is being performed correctly. It is great to know that both Dell and Microsoft are working together to make this happen (http://venturebeat.com/2010/04/22/microsoft-joins-with-dell-to-tackle-e-waste-on-earth-day/).