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Pinterest has been all the rage recently, with various news sites and brands sitting up and taking notice

Pinterest.com user base is:

Fairly affluent, with $100k+ avg incomes and 28.1% users “well off” The time (15.8 mins) users spend on the site is significant (more than Facebook and close to YouTube)

There is no medium that allows tracking like the Internet does,

Website and campaign conversions, ROIs, pathing and behavioral metrics have become standard, and many hoteliers are turning to more sophisticated tools to measure these essential metrics.

SiteCatalyst, though a paid website analytics application, proves to be worth the expense.

Quora is not the only social technology company that presents an antisocial attitude to callers

LinkedIn’s voice mail lists an alternate customer service number. Dial it, and the caller is trapped in a telephonic version of the movie “Groundhog Day,” forced to work through the original phone tree again and again until the lesson is clear: stop calling.

On the other end of the line, however, some people may not know how to Google, or do not want to use Twitter. These users may be older, or less technically adept, and they are finding the method of communication they have relied on for a lifetime shifting under their feet. It does not make sense, they say, that a company with products used by millions every day cannot pick up the phone.

Travelport: GDS Code of Conduct out of date, needs level playing field

CEO Gordon Wilson questioned the relevancy of the GDS Code of Conduct in Europe.

can even an organisation such as Google be included in the Code,

HeBS digital Blog Archive for the ‘Online Travel Agencies (OTAs)’ Category The OTA Billboard Effect or the Lazy Man’s Approach to Hotel DistributionMonday, August 1st, 2011 The following article is Max Starkov’s latest contribution to the “Successful eMarketing” blog on HOTELS magazine’s website The existence of the so-called billboard effect is not a new marketing phenomenon. It has existed long before the online channel became a reality. As confirmed by many studies, any marketing exposure by a hotel produces a billboard effect:  when you launch a banner advertising campaign; when you purchase a full-page ad in the New York Times travel section; when you launch a paid search campaign on Google, etc. The OTA Billboard Effect Lately Expedia reps have been aggressively using a new Cornell Hospitality Report, namely “Search, OTAs and Online Booking: An Expanded Analysis of the Billboard Effect” to convince hoteliers that they should use Expedia in order to generate more bookings from the hotel’s own website due to the so-called “Billboard Effect.” The Cornell Report, based on data from Expedia and InterContinental Hotel Group (IHG) from 2008-2010, is a continuation of a previous report on the subject, heavily supported by Expedia. The report’s analysis determined that when an IHG property was listed on the first results page of Expedia, this created an increase of between 7.5% and 14.1% in bookings for the same property on IHG’s own brand website. In other words, this is a confirmation for Expedia’s billboard effect, which hoteliers should take into consideration when griping against the 25% plus merchant OTA commission. When these “billboard effect bookings” are taken into consideration, Expedia’s commission “would effectively be reduced to single digits,” states the Cornell Report. Hoteliers, rejoice! We have found the perfect recipe for success: we do nothing as far as marketing the property website is concerned. Instead, we plaster Expedia with our sales promotions and wait for the travel consumers to come to our own website and book. As discussed, the billboard effect is not strictly an OTA territory. In my view, the Cornell Hospitality Report is a one-sided research project, very proactively supported by Expedia, similar to the first report on the billboard effect published in 2009. Cornell, the finest hospitality institution in the U.S., should know better than to come up with this half-baked “scientific” research, which does not account for the complexities of hotel distribution as well as the “digital information cloud” we all live in and the resulting marketing and distribution channel convergence which directly affects the purchasing habits of today’s hyper-interactive travel consumers. This report makes conclusions that do not take into account, among many other things, the following: Complex Travel Planning Patterns in Hospitality Many surveys show that people are shopping around on a number of hotel and travel websites before narrowing down their search. Typically in hospitality, these sites include a hotel search on a search engine e.g. Google (65% market share), an OTA website, TripAdvisor, the hotel’s own website, etc. Therefore jumping from an OTA website to a hotel branded website and vice versa is at least partially due to particular travel research patterns unique to the users and not due to the so-called billboard effect: Step 1: “I always search on Google first where I identify a property I like” Step 2: “I go to Expedia and see what the rate for this property is” Step 3: “I visit TripAdvisor to read my peer reviews for this hotel” Step 4: “I visit the hotel website and book if I like the location, rate and what I have read and seen about this hotel”

Network inside your organization is as important as outside. Things not end there; when some guests reach your hotel you will need a network to keep track of reservation, inventory, services, and maintenance. Free Wi-Fi accessibility, guests’ connection with front desk and monitoring for safety; these things have now become the signature of modern hospitality. LAN connection for easy and safe data transfer and all other things are needed in networking for smooth running of your hotel.

nization is as important as outside. Things not end there; when some guests reach your hotel you will need a network to keep track of reservation, inventory, services, and maintenance. Free Wi-Fi accessibility, guests’ connection with front desk and monitoring for safety; these things have now become the signature of modern hospitality. LAN connection for easy and safe data transfer and all other things are needed in networking for smooth running of your hotel. In hotels, computer networking play a vital role, communication between workers and staff creates a stable environment. Communication between front desk and manger office is important as in case of any unusual event. And the link of rooms with the service providers’ staff creates a healthy effect on guest’s mind when services are provided to them in no measure of time. Fire alarm or emergency alarm in case of any accident ensures the guest’s safety and also increase the rating of your hotel. The interlinked electronic systems in rooms which control all the electronic devices in room are too much helpful. The Wi-Fi accessibility now becomes an essential thing in hotels. So networking makes it possible to provide that service efficiently. Some five star hotels provide alarm bells on the table in the dining restaurants. These bell ring in the kitchen and makes it possible for the staff to attend each incoming guests at that time and avoid complaints. Here we present a complete solution to all your network problems; Network Solutions Why Network Solutions? Network Solutions is an organization with an extensive geographic stretch providing IT guides. They have worked with almost every kind of business organization and have an extensive vision of their work. They have genius IT specialists who not only show their professional aptitude during their work but also show personal interest in your business that content you mentally. They have an experience of almost all fields as they have worked with almost every genre of business you can think off from health care to education or flaunting fashion to secret secure banking systems. They know perfectly how to prove themselves as the best option available. They work with you, understand you, give respect to your needs and know how to use resources efficiently and bring up with something that does wonders your business. Some of their core networking values are: Envisage They do a lot of research work and observation, and try to sum up things. First they give a close view to your business in order to know your need of networking. They predict the average traffic you are going to have on your network. So that they can provide you with the best and never disturbing network facilities. In Hospitality industry the network traffic depends on your choice, how much you want to give ease to your business or your guests, connecting every room with the front desk or you just want to establish a connection between you workers and manager. Identification  They observe your style and know your needs. And now is the time to identify your problems and your pains. In hotels the problems you face in network in unresponsive and slow communication which creates irritation both among your guests and workers. So to save you from pain Network Solutions is there. Monitoring They monitors the WAN accessibility and the performance of the established network. Measure Fair usage policy and to monitor the traffic of net is another important thing in networking. Network Solutions has made it possible for you. Analyze Analyze the general or common pattern traffic utilization patterns and try to make it more seamless. Automation The network change and configuration are under Automation. Troubleshoot Any kind of trouble in network afterwards, network solution is there to fix it.  To ensure the quality of their  service. (function() { var po = document.createElement('script'); po.type = 'text/javascript'; po.async = true; po.src = 'https://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(po, s); })(); Leave a Reply Click here to cancel reply. Comment

17 Things You Didn't Know About Ecommerce

Online shoppers can buy cars, clothes and millions of other things with the click of a button and figurative swipe of a credit card. In fact, U.S. consumers spend $1,200-$1,300 per year online, but that number will increase by 44%, to $1,738, by 2016. In that year, ecommerce sales are expected to hit $327 billion.

1. By connecting a modified domestic television with a phone line, Michael Aldrich invented online shopping in 1979.

Make more by spending less!

helps you redirect reservations from expensive online travel agents to your own booking engine.

Your website is listed in the BOOK Button dropdown, but no price displays. LuxuryRes will connect to the BOOK Button and will display your pricing info to compete with Expedia, etc.

The Hotel Electronic Distribution Network Association (HEDNA) has joined a partnership with Hospitality Technology Next Generation (HTNG) and The OpenTravel Alliance, to advance distribution technology in the hospitality industry.

a community of interest to advance electronic distribution in the hospitality industry. While the missions of the three associations are different, they all share the goal of improving the traveler experience from the searching and booking process through to the conclusion of the trip.

In addition to uniting around distribution, HEDNA and HTNG will further their collaboration, including promoting each other's events and partnering on other future activities.

Current technology trends are on the rise, influencing several industrial sectors, among which is the travel and hospitality industry, where enhancing the guest experience of the utmost concern

Integration between hotel systems, such as connecting a property management system (PMS) to another smart tool, will allow hoteliers to create a detailed customer profile.

The vast majority of hotel systems and software are cloud-based and can enable multiple operations, which allow proficiency in reducing time consumption

Marketing Tailored to the Youth of America

According to ecommerce statistics from the Pew Research Center, millennials are projected to become the largest demographic in the United States by 2019, surpassing baby boomers. This also means that Millennials are on track to surpass Baby Boomers (as well as Gen X) in terms of purchasing power.

In addition to PayPal, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and other digital payment systems, this trend is making it faster and easier for consumers to make payments and for ecommerce organizations to process them. Blockchain and cryptocurrency are also on the rise, leading many businesses to consider expanding their payment options to accommodate consumer demand and provide a more secure transactional system.

SAN DIEGO: SOCi, Inc., a centralized platform built specifically for "next-level" multi-location marketers, today released its annual Localized Marketing Benchmark Report, which revealed that an optimized localized marketing strategy can yield up to three times more business growth.

More than 250 multi-location brands were evaluated on their overall presence, ratings and reviews, and community engagement across the top three localized marketing platforms - Google My Business, Facebook, and Yelp. 

When executed effectively, localized marketing can help brands build and maintain an engaged base of loyal customers, propel their presence to the top of organic search results, and, ultimately, drive increased foot traffic and in-person sales.

Now, merging technologies help empower hotels to increase customer interactions.

Voice search in the hospitality industry took off so much so, Amazon’s Alexa announced a new platform, Alexa for Hospitality.

The new AI assistant in hotels can be programed to include key guest information, like check-out time or wake-up calls.

The information is stored on physical servers maintained and controlled by a cloud computing provider, such as Apple in regards to iCloud. As a user, you access your stored information on the cloud via the Internet.

By using cloud storage, you don’t have to store the information on your own hard drive. Instead, you can access it from any location and download it onto any device of your choice, including laptops, tablets, or smartphones.

Fees are usually set at monthly or yearly rates, depending on the services you are using.

Rwandans with tech or innovative business solutions will this June have an opportunity to pitch their business ideas that could help the country’s tourism and hospitality sector recover from the coronavirus (Covid-19) crisis.

Rwanda Development Board (RDB), Private Sector Federation (PSF) ICT and Tourism Chambers will this June 4, host an online conversation and workshop to identify innovations and solutions the technology sector currently has, or could build to support the recovery process.

The digitalisation of tourism will play a big role in leading the needed recovery for the economy just like it is helping in other sectors like trade, education and healthcare as global economies face-off the Covid-19 pandemic,”

beacon technology needed time to mature and there were a number of integration issues that had to be addressed before it could be widely adopted

This means proximity marketing will be a priority for a lot of brands in 2020.

One of the most ambitious use cases of beacons has got to be Amazon’s cashierless convenience stores, which have opened up across Chicago, New York, San Francisco and Seattle. Amazon Go stores use beacons to remove the queues and checkouts from every day in-store purchases.