Group items tagged

The article discusses what practices should hotels adopt to protect their guests, in a world where lodging accommodations are a primary target for criminals and where customers see security as an important factor in decision making. Data breaches can happen online and in the physical world, hospitality companies have to look beyond security software and put into place policies for data storage and disposal of sensitive information, as well as, properly training for employees in information security practices, like proper information handling, and the ability to phishing scams or suspicious emails. In order to ensure that physical or digital sensitive information won't fall on the wrong hands.

This article discusses the importance of data security in hotels and what makes it so attractive to hackers/thieves. The article mentions that about 36% of hospitality businesses don't deem data breaches a big deal. If this mentality continues, more and more data breaches will occur for the company that doesn't take data privacy seriously. The hospitality industry has tons of sensitive data about guests stored online and offline, making it a goldmine for data thieves. Organizations need to take precautions like adequately training employees in order to avoid costly security breaches.

This article talks about a situation the Radisson Hotels had on 2018, they confirmed a data of breach that exposed personal details of small percentage of members rewards. It was first reported by a Business Traveller after receving an email that his details has been compromised. Radisson took incident and did an extensive investigation to prevent future breach of data happening to their customer.

Technology as with anything has the pros and cons. Whatever we put on the world wide web is at risk to be hacked, this is the harsh truth. By simply purchasing online or self check out, we are vulnerable. The sad thing is that hotels worldwide has the traffic of visitors and stores a wealth of information, a field day for hackers. As technology increases so is the need to employ cyber security and perhaps inventing high tech robots to guard information should be coming more to the forefront. Daily there are people developing codes to break in.

The Metaverse and what it means for the hotel industry. It is shifting the way hotels and events reach consumers. It is a new way in providing a different experience for customers in a way they could ever imagine. This article highlights this trend of the metaverse which is picking up and changing the way industries engage with consumers.Many companies are moving quickly to join the community of companies entering into the realm of the metaverse and what its impact has on costumer experience. The metaverse will drive workforce down and increase experience marketing tech touch for the consumer.

Advertising costs were mentioned a few times within this article. With that being said, a few ad channels are becoming limited. For the most part, advertising is currently being done through Google or forms of social media. Chatbot has really become a priority for investors. What this article is trying to find out if having chats means faster/more reservations or reduces time spent with customers over the phone. Getting rid of a phone conversation seems like a plus because most consumers prefer to text or email rather than talking on the phone. China has developed ways for consumers to pay using their smartphones (like Applepay). So far it's been a success in China, being that it's cheaper for merchants and a convenience for guests. Unlike China, Applepay still hasn't been a huge success. Air BnB has been successful in marketing tactics in this generation. This is due to the fact that they change methods/tactics and increased efficiency. Although it may cost more, it is more effective when it comes to more revenue.

Opportunities for adopting green initiatives are becoming more and more common in the hospitality industry. IT updates and implementations have become a sustainable practice to reduce cost, provide a better guest satisfaction and environmentally friendly. One of the ways to start off the green initiatives is by effectively reducing energy and paper consumption; this gets done by using smart phones to replace key cards and using emails to reduce paper flow. Another green initiative is the effective technology practice such as energy star which is the system that powers down a computer automatically after it has not been used for a period of time. The use of digital media (social media) instead of print media is a fantastic way to save money while lowering the impact on the environment. Green initiatives are coming up pretty fast and are required to have a strong commitment but all vary depending on the size of organization, demand of business and location of doing business. I have seen many hotels implementing green initiatives in their facilities which at first can become extremely costly but in the long term very cost effective and environmentally friendly and expand the guest experience. I have seen hotels that have a HVAC system which senses the presence of someone in the room, this system puts the AC temperature high when room is vacant and lowers the temperature when it is occupied. Additionally the lighting of the room works the same; it turns on when someone is present and automatically turns off when the room is vacant. Just these two initiatives alone can save the property millions of dollars in a period of a year. In my opinion, going green is a great way to benefit every one involved, the guest, the environment, and cost efficient (long term) for hoteliers. The green initiative has not yet been a giant boom, but in a few years a larger amount of guest will prefer to stay in a green environmental friendly hotel then with a non green hotel. I believ

This article talks contact tracing with Covid-19. Health care works will contact anyone that person has been in contact with via phone call or text to let them know about the exposure.

Event technology is forever changing and adapting to current environments. With COVID-19, event technology will be more prevalent than ever. Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality can make the attendee feel like they are in the middle of the event while actually being far away. Facial recognition software allows for streamlining check-in, but also allows for entry to be contactless. As most events have become virtual, livestreaming is very important to bring the event into the living room of those that cannot physically attend. Event apps are becoming more and more popular in that they bring all of the event information right onto an attendee's smartphone and allows them to customize their experience. Attendees can participate from far and wide, so having the information be translated into their language increases their accessibility and inclusion. Artificial intelligence collects user data and turns it into personalized recommendations for their event experience. Games brought into an event increases audience engagement and allows for team building and friendly competition. Event planners have project management software available to them to help streamline their planning and saves them time and money by not having to manually do certain tasks.

This article is about Proximity Marketing and the many different specific ways it may be applied. These applications include: QR Codes, WiFi, NFC, RFID, Geofencing, and BLE Beacons. In all of these cases, it is vital to proximity marketing that there be an end-user mobile device (such as an iPhone or Android) as well as location-based technologies. We are all fairly familiar with QR codes as those have become widely used during the pandemic. What we may not have considered though, is how logging into a WiFi gives a lot of information about you to the business, as well as a future means of communicating with you (assuming you made an account and/or gave them important information such as an email address). Geofencing is also really cool because it allows companies to set up a virtual boundary that collects data from mobile devices that pass through that boundary. This allows a business to truly know what kinds of consumers go in and out of whatever establishment the geofence outlines.