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There are several major global distribution systems that house and process the majority of data from hotels, airlines, and other distributors. These include Amadeus, Sabre, Galileo, Worldspan, Apollo, and Pegasus.

Because cruise travellers rely heavily on travel agents for their trip arrangements, it’s highly likely any hotel bookings will also be made through this channel.

Cruises tend to rely on more conventional channels like travel agents to reach and convert guests.

With the cruise industry currently in a state of growth, it represents a chance for hotels to get a slice of the revenue.

It appears travel agents are driving most of this success, with 70% of cruise bookings made via this channel.

Cruises do all the hard work to book their guests but often they will arrive a day or two early or depart a day or two after their cruise, booking at hotels for the extra time.

The GDS is often used to tap into the corporate travel market because it has the ability to present hotels, flights, and car rentals in one simple interface which is convenient.

Live rates and availability are sent from a hotel’s property management system (PMS) directly to the GDS and online booking websites via a channel manager.

What are the major GDS systems?

here are several major global distribution systems that house and process the majority of data from hotels, airlines, and other distributors. These include Amadeus, Sabre, Galileo, Worldspan, Apollo, and Pegasus.

There are several major global distribution systems that house and process the majority of data from hotels, airlines, and other distributors. These include Amadeus, Sabre, Galileo, Worldspan, Apollo, and Pegasus.

Amadeus GDS

Sabre GDS

Galileo GDS

Worldspan GDS

Apollo GDS

Abacus GDS

Pegasus GDS

– like the ones mentioned above – so you don’t have to worry about signing up to each one

individually.

In one fell swoop you can access all the retail and traditional travel agents you want:

There are a few specifications which will greatly aid successful GDS connectivity: Being centrally located Being located close to an airport Room capacity of more than 20 rooms Lodgings that are set up for corporate markets and not affected by seasons

Here’s a checklist to ensure you’re using the GDS to its full potential:

1. Pooled inventory

2. Commission-free structure

3. Integration capabilities

4. Comprehensive reporting

5. Ability to target specific markets

6. No lengthy contracts

7. Simple and affordable connection

Essentially, the GDS can increase hotel bookings and revenue by placing hotels on more ‘supermarket shelves’ globally. This approach is particularly effective at capturing international corporate travellers. You can gain lucrative international corporate business, particularly if you’re near a major airport gateway or close to government or commercial enterprises.

The number of bookings generated through a GDS generally outpaces that of direct bookings

That goes together with concepts like digital “immunity passports” that ride along with travelers carrying vaccination data and other encrypted personal health information.

but some hotel chains and management firms have looked to digital ID solutions to address consumers’ safety concerns.

MGM Resorts debuted a contactless check-in process that allows customers to use its mobile app to verify themselves, pay for their rooms and even receive digital keys.”

Biometrics are playing a huge role in new identity needs, and that function is widening.

Beacons can help users identify any lost item as long as the device, and the missing item is well within the beacon range.

Several companies are rolling out wearable bracelets that help with social distancing and tracking the virus with the help of BLE beacon. 

As restaurants and pubs begin to gear up the safe reopening, technologies such as QR Codes and beacons are being implemented for secure ordering to curb the virus’s spread. 

Bluetooth beacons can pinpoint an item’s location and send updates about a piece of equipment that needs maintenance and even a routine check-up. 

Beacons can now be assigned multiple actions to a single beacon, allowing developers to edit the code by adding them to the beacon dashboard. 

, Europe is expected to hold the largest share, thus dominating the global smart stadium market in 2016, whereas the Middle East and Africa is the fastest-growing region.

The worldwide market for smart stadiums is experiencing huge growth, mainly owing to the following factors: Rising trend of digital transformation and adoption of IoT technologies Increased focus on attracting home viewers Growing demand for better customer engagement and experience Upcoming national and international sports events across the globe like 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar Increasing government initiatives for smart building projects Growing need for modernization of network and telecom infrastructure

On the flip side, inability of traditional stadiums to match up with the smart stadium technology and low investments in smart technology by the stadium owners in its deployment are the major factors that may hamper the growth of this market.

global market for smart stadiums include Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. (China), Intel Corp. (U.S.), NEC Corp. (Japan), Cisco Systems, Inc. (U.S.), International Business Machines Corporation (U.S.), Fujitsu (Japan), Johnson Controls (U.S.), Tech Mahindra Ltd. (India), Volteo (U.S.), and GP Smart Stadium (the Netherlands).

People who specialize in event management work with budgets, schedules, and vendors to create the best possible events for their clients.

When you work in event management, you'll be involved in planning, executing and evaluating corporate, association, nonprofit, government, and social events.

Event management requires strong organizational, budgeting and creative skills.

The job market for event managers is growing, with some estimates that the need for event managers will increase by one-third in the next decade

A successful event manager is a true people person and has excellent organizational skills, interpersonal skills, and multitasking skills

A planner's main responsibilities involve keeping track of time during your events, ensuring proper set up as established by the client, managing the wait staff, catering liaison, and other venue-related tasks that are pivotal to the success of the event.

Event managers, on the other hand, are there with you every step of the way. Managers orchestrate all the event details, handle vendors, create and manage budgets and timelines, assist with contract negotiations, and manage the venue selection process.

This type of data risk is more subtle, and it involves employees selling data to third parties without the knowledge of the organization that employs them

Data security risks in the hospitality industry extend far beyond the reputation hit that a hotel can take if guests’ data is compromised. Industry and political regulators are becoming stricter in governing how organizations process and store personal data.

the job turnover rate in hospitality is as high as 90 percent

High Staff Turnover

From the perspective of cyber criminals, hospitality appears to offer an ideal target for conducting crimes, such as identity theft and credit card fraud, due to the existence of multiple databases and devices containing both Payment Card Information (PCI) and Personally Identifiable Information (PII).

Information security is a pivotal aspect of many industries

Complex Ownership Structures

Reliance on Paying By Card

Here are five of the biggest data security concerns in the hospitality industry:

Compliance

Insider Threats

Best data-protection practices for companies in the hospitality sector include… Always encrypting payment card information.Operating a continuous training program in cybersecurity to maintain a well-trained workforce.Always adhering to relevant regulations, such as PCI DSS.Use cybersecurity measures such as firewalls, network monitoring, anti-malware, and traffic filtering to protect against common threats.Conduct tests against your organization’s cybersecurity defenses in which you mirror the behavior of an actual hacker.Know where your data is and enforce the principle of least privileges to limit acce

ss to sensitive information.

organizations in the hospitality sector are better placed to implement a comprehensive information security strategy that entails the necessary procedures, processes, and people to improve cybersecurity within the hospitality industry.

focus on digitalisation of the tourism sector as the new driver of the economic recovery for tourism businesses, which have been one of hardest hit in the country as a result of closed travel for local and international visitors.

We want to be inspired with new ideas. Not only digital way to also expose more ideas, answering the potential challenges that we have, not locked to one way (digitalisation) but many more alternatives of improving the sector going forward,” Kariza told KTPress today. 

session will expose the sector to listen into new concepts and ideas that they (participants) have, so as to tackle different challenges emerging from Covid19 but also for the overall sector.

government has embarked on starting up a Rwf100billion Covid-19 economy recovery fund, which will largely support the tourism and hospitality, industry, and water, electricity, road infrastructure projects among other income-generating activities.

online workshop aims at opening up new opportunities for technology companies to better understand the need in the tourism sector and in doing so develop solutions fit for driving the sector’s growth.

largely focus on strategies that could leverage technology to encourage domestic tourism covering but not limited to travel and hospitality sectors.

ICT Chamber has been working with the Chamber of Tourism to promote digitalization of the industry, by supporting companies that are serving in the industry through incubation programs at the ICT Innovation Center in Kicukiro district.

accelerate digitalization of the tourism sector through public private dialogue. 

RDB’s intent is to leverage technology and the solutions we have to stimulate domestic tourism and help the sector’s recovery. Taking lessons from what has been done with e-commerce and the online e-learning platforms. RDB will also present to us their challenges that tech companies can turn into monetize-able opportunities

The role of dive supervision was assessed by recording dive guide interventions underwater, and how this was affected by dive group size.

Over recent decades, tourism activities benefiting from the pleasing aesthetics and biodiversity of coral reefs, primarily SCUBA diving and snorkelling, have experienced rapidly increasing numbers of participants globally

We found evidence that the ability of dive guides to intervene and correct diver behaviour in the event of a reef contact decreases with larger diver group sizes. Divers from operators with high levels of compliance with the Green Fins programme exhibited significantly lower reef contact rates than those from dive operators with low levels of compliance.

Damage to corals on dived reefs often occurs as a result of skeletal breakage, particularly in branching species (Guzner et al. 2010;H a s l e ra n dO t t 2008). Tissue abrasion can also result from diver contact (Hawkins et al. 1999), and a recent study reported a higher incidence of coral disease in areas heavily used for recreational diving

It is possible that other diver characteristics such as qualification level or dive experience may affect the ability to respond to dive briefings, although several studies have failed to find a correlation between divers’ reef contact rates and experience

Due to the difficulties of effectively addressing global stressors, an emerging recommendation is the focus of coral reef management on local scales (e.g. Anthony et al. 2014). A frequent challenge facing managers and policy makers at local levels relates to the maximisation of tourism benefits whilst simultaneously reducing its environmental impacts

Alternatively, previous experience and possible affinity and attachment to a specific dive site may influence how closely divers follow pre-dive briefings and affect their behaviour underwater, as suggested by place attachment theory

The methodologies which have been developed to minimise the environmental impact of SCUBA diving on coral reefs can be summarised as follows: (1) managing or restricting diver numbers, (2) regulating the locations in which SCUBA diving activities occur, (3) regulating the types of equipment used, and 4) implementing programmes which seek to manage the methods used by the dive industry in providing their services. Restricting diver numbers is based on the concept of a reef dive site’s ‘carrying capacity’; a level beyond which diving impacts become readily apparent.

Restriction of SCUBA diving equipment has focused on banning the use of accessories believed to increase reef contacts within marine protected areas such as gloves, muck sticks, or underwater cameras; however, such regulations are often unpopular within the SCUBA diving community

Governments and reef managers seek evidence that the effort expended in implementing programmes translates into measurable benefits; however, research into the effectiveness of such programmes at influencing diver behaviour and reducing diving impacts is limited.

In this study, we focused on dive operators participating in the Green Fins diving programme at three major dive locations within the Philippines.

Nonetheless, levels of dive supervision underwater would intuitively appear to be linked to rates of reef contact, and when examined, the willingness of dive guides to intervene in correcting diver behaviour underwater has been found to significantly reduce diver contact rates

Malapascua Island, Moalboal, and Puerto Galera.

divers may have been aware that a Green Fins compliance assessment was taking place, but they were unaware that diver contacts with the reef were being specifically recorded. Green Fins environmental assessments and diver observations were conducted simultaneously.

Dive guides and guest divers from 44 dive operators participating in the Green Fins programme were followed

Diver characteristics with potential to influence underwater behaviour were categorised as the following factors: diver qualification level (three levels), dive experience (five levels), and previous number of dives at site (three levels).

Divers were assigned a unique diver number, and then followed and observed underwater for the entire duration of their dive.

If the overall group was very large such that the dive guide could not be seen from the rear of the group, the pair immediately behind the dive guide was selected.

Compliance with the Green Fins approach was determined by utilising diver contact rates and dive guide intervention rates as at the dependent variables of interest, and by defining dive operators according to those who had received a high score (above the median score) versus those with a low score (below the median score) on the most recent conducted Green Fins assessment

The part of the body or item of equipment making contact with the reef was recorded as follows: hand, fin, knee, camera, muck stick (a handheld stainless steel or aluminium rod approximately 30 cm in length) and equipment (e.g. tank, submersible pressure gauges, octopus regulator), and multiple (parts of the body and equipment simultaneously). The time during the dive at which the contact occurred was also recorded.

If observable damage (i.e. breakage, obvious physical damage, or injury) occurred as a result of the contact this was recorded, together with the apparent awareness of the diver to the contact, regardless of damage caused.

Contacts made with a camera (77.7 %) accounted for the highest proportion of contacts which resulted in damage, followed by contacts made with the knee (43.3 %), multiple body and equipment parts (38.2 %), equipment (30.7 %), fins (29.8 %), hands (24.7 %), and muck sticks (23.5 %).

A total of 100 SCUBA divers were observed at three diving locations within the Philippines (Table 1). The majority (72 %) of these divers were male, and diving experience ranged from those completing diving training to those who were instructors elsewhere with experience of hundreds of dives.

Following dive completion, divers that had been observed underwater were asked to complete a survey to determine diver characteristics.

Most contacts were made with fins (45.5 %, n = 261); however, hands (19.5 %, n = 112) and dive equipment (15.9 %, n = 91) were also major contributors to the total number of contacts

Interventions were defined as an event in which the dive guide intervened in diver behaviour through signalling or demonstrating correct behaviour in order to minimise or prevent contact with the reef.

A total of 81 interventions were observed (in comparison to 573 reef contacts—see Fig. 4 for the distribution of contacts and interventions);

Camera systems were carried by 55 % of divers; camera-wielding divers accounted for 52.7 % of the total contacts made with the reef. Of divers who utilised a camera, 35 % carried a non-specialist compact type and 20 % carried an SLR type within a specialist underwater housing.

Mean (±SE) dive time was 49.3 ± 0.42 min. A total of 573 diver contacts with the reef were recorded during all assessed dives.

The difference in the frequency of interventions was statistically significant (ANOVA, f = 4.81, P = 0.03)

although a significant portion (36 %) appeared unaware of the contact they made with the reef.

In addition to overall contact levels, some studies have also quantified reef contacts either as the mean number of contacts per diver over the duration of a dive or the diver contact rate per minute of dive time. The mean contact rates of 5.7 contacts per dive, or 0.12 contacts per min, which we observed at dive sites in the Philippines are lower than those previously reported

All divers observed within the present study were diving with operators participating to various degrees in the Green Fins environmentally responsible diving programme.

Identifying factors and policy measures which influence SCUBA diver behaviour underwater can help coral reef managers determine where to most effectively focus effort and funding with respect to dive management. In this study, we found that 88 % of the divers observed made at least one contact with the reef at some point

Divers who are more conservation aware and who contact the reef less may preferentially choose to dive with environmentally ‘accredited’ dive operators; indeed, this assumption partially drives dive operator participation in such programmes.

Underwater interventions by dive guides have been suggested to be the most successful deterrent to diver contact with reefs (Barker and Roberts 2004). In this study, there was no significant difference in the intervention rates between dive centres of high and low Green Fins compliance. Therefore, we cannot attribute the observed difference in diver reef contact rates to differences in intervention rates between these two groups.

Studies examining the effect of carrying camera equipment on the frequency of diver contacts with the reef have produced conflicting results.

Additionally, the administration of a pre-dive briefing can influence diver contact rates underwater (Medio et al. 1997). The Green Fins programme incorporates the use of a pre-dive briefing that emphasises the importance of refraining from contacting the reef, which would be expected to result in lower diver contact rates.

A concern amongst representatives of the diving industry is the use of muck sticks to manipulate animals unnecessarily—pushing animals out of holes for better viewing, stressing animals to show customers their stress behaviour (e.g. an octopus changing colour), and physically breaking hard coral to be used in photographs.

When examining the part of the body or dive equipment which made contact with the reef, we found that the majority of contacts were made with fins, in agreement with Krieger and Chadwick (2013) and Rouphael and Inglis (1998).

It has previously been noted that dive guides customarily perform different roles at dive locations globally; at some locations, they act primarily to lead the dive group around the reef, whilst at others, pairing with and closely supervising individual divers throughout the course of a dive

this suggests that dive guides carry out the closest supervision during the initial phase of the dive and then switch to a ‘dive leader’ role at the front of a dive group.

This study provides evidence that the effective implementation of environmentally responsible practices, via programmes designed to reduce diving impacts, may translate to reduced diver reef contacts.

Many diver characteristics which might intuitively be expected to impact reef contact rates, such as level of qualification and overall experience, were not significant influencing factors in this study, and high versus low levels of Green Fins compliance did not influence the number of interventions made by dive guides underwater.

For continued economic benefit and conservation of Philippine reef dive locations, we recommend that management measures facilitate high levels of compliance with environmentally responsible diving programmes to reduce the impact of diving on coral reefs.

keeping up with a growing number of channels to integrate with can be a real challenge.

Switching technology providers can be painful. Integrations and mapping take considerable work and switching a provider means redoing that work all over again; while there might be numerous benefits, these may not make up for the cost of switching.

The most significant risk lies in the exposure of guest data.

If a hotels distribution technology is spread over numerous vendors, managing those vendors and their security involves significant time, organization and cost.

. Many hotels do not intend to take a lead in implementing new environmental technologies as hotel managers are not often well educated in these technologies, causing the hotel industry to lag behind in their us

Energy, water, and waste in the hotel industry

. Hoteliers can use technology in a number of ways, from taking guest reservations to saving energy and water in hotel guest rooms. Energy and water saving require environmental technologies. Examples of environmental technologies related to the hotel sector are a key-card system for energy saving, a centralized air conditioning system that can reset a guest-room's temperature to the hotel's established temperature when integrated with a building management system to save energy, and light-emitting diode (LED) lights and heat pumps. In addition, many advanced environmental technologies have entered the market such as solar heat pumps, solar control film, solar batteries, light pipes, energy efficient lighting, light sensors and dimmers (Chan, [17]), different types of food decomposers, and water-saving devices.

B2B transactions involve business-to-business.

B2E transactions involve a business and its employees.

C2C transactions involve two or more consumers (customer-to-customer).

The industry can make profits to many countries and pull foreign currencies into the country.

The travel distribution system is currently facing many changes as online agencies such as Priceline, Travelocity, Expedia, etc. have introduced a way to access travel suppliers directly via the worldwide web. In general, Global Distribution Systems have not shown much of an effort toward targeting on-line customers. As an alternative, Customer Relation Systems have remained trustworthy to their travel agency distributors.

The Internet is not the full solution to success in the Hospitality and Tourism industry. However, the Internet is the “overall business answer” across industries

The success of the Hospitality and Tourism industry will depend upon the abilities to identify and answer quickly to current and potential customer needs

Starwood Hotel Group was standing ahead of other Hotels to offer a online “virtual tours” of its properties. This feature provides a site visit to potential guests without having to travel to each property. And now, many well-known hotels are also providing this promotion feature for stand top of the roles to attract potential customers.

Google presented the vision of Internet marketing is likely to grow by 2015. Some of them are worth to be informed and aware about.

50% of ad campaigns will include video ads bought on a cost-per-view basis 50% of ads will be bought using this real-time bidding technology to tailor experiences for different viewers Smartphones / mobile phone will be the number one screen for digital brands to engage users There will be at least 5 metrics that advertisers will regard as more important than the “click” 75% of web ads will be “social” in nature such as facebook. Therefore, Ads will be shared, discussed, subscribed to and recommended Multimedia formats enable great creativity and interaction – these will grow from 6% of display ad impressions to 50%, especially for brand building campaigns Digital display advertising is going to grow to a $50 billion industry This forecast shows that competition to attract potential customers via worldwide web will be more and more drastic.

World Tourism Organization (WTO) estimates that over 1.5 billion tourists would take international journeys in the year 2020.

Another e-Commerce model such as Auction style-pricing models are becoming customer preference, where the customer are able to control the price of the products and services to be consumed.

Airlines have a stronger straight link to customers as they compete directly against travel agents [23]. Furthermore, they could have stronger control over the customers due in part to the e-ticketing. In this respect, online technology has replaced the travel agency by adding value via fare shoppers, promotions, and personalized recommendations

Customers are almost guaranteed that they will obtain the best price by negotiating via an online agent such as Priceline. But a shortcoming to all of this is that the customer will not understand all of the normal benefits of air tickets as they are sacrificed via online auction purchases. For example, in many cases the travel ticket does not permit any changes or accrual of or without significant penalty charges.

Online companies have more of a chance at success in Hong Kong due to the dense population, strong education systems, high credit card and cell phone usage. This leaves room for the future development of the next Priceline or Travelocity in Asia which could pose a major threat to hospitality & tourism organizations. Based on the high volume cell phone usage in Hong Kong, Mobile commerce should be a new trend on next stage. [29]

As low cost computer real-time data, fast speed internet access, voice and video communications become a reality, travel agencies may no longer be needed. On the other hand, the Internet challenge can also mean chance. Hotel owners and operators who understand and master e-commerce or m-commerce challenges will be able to jump ahead of online threats from large players such as Priceline. Otherwise, many will find themselves out of business.

Information Technology tools have allowed travel intermediaries to expand their role in the industry by presenting opportunities to venture into other markets on a geographical level.

Not only should hoteliers focus on the business traveler, but they should also consider whether there are other types of potential target customers as we may find that both young and older generations were sitting in the Internet shops utilizing online services during their vacation as well.

Organizations have to invest in the expertise and equipment (Hardware, Software) for building a strong IT base at first.

Internet security has been a major issue surrounding the Internet community.

Governments are currently addressing Internet based global commerce by considering rules of conduct, guiding principles, laws and taxation. [*30]

Today, hotels are distributing their product via more and more channels. How they keep control of availability and price, maintain a consistent level of customer service, in addition to keep their distribution partners up to date at the same time has becomes a complicated and expensive process.

The core transactions of our business involve intimate face-to-face interactions, which have certain limitations in regard to the use of e-commerce in the hospitality industry compared with other enterprises

It is important to take a look at how Internet technology will affect the future of the tourism industry. Most IT tools are being utilized

The hospitality & tourism internet future suggests a universal system where property management systems will eliminate the need for expensive on-site computer hardware/software.

Future success for hospitality & tourism companies depends upon their abilities to identify a target market and the strategic opportunities available for survival and growth.

It is crucial for hospitality & tourism organizations to stay on top of the roles of the major online players that are posing a serious threat to the industry such as Travelocity, Priceline, Expedia, Yahoo, etc. Their role in the future of hospitality & tourism marketing is crucial to the survival of Hoteliers.

are rapidly changing the workplace

expected to erase or greatly change half of all jobs within the next 20 years,

This,

may lead to a worsening of social and economic tensions

Some of the robotic changes are already in plain view worldwid

automated cooking pots have replaced chefs

robots have replaced bartenders and waiters

Those who will be particularly affected by changes in the way we work

are low-skilled, part-timers in the gig-economy or the young

tremendous impact machines have had on job loss.

The OECD Employment Outlook does not envisage a jobless future. But it does foresee major challenges for the future of work

An antidote to this, suggests the OECD, is more training and governments increasing worker protections

Despite being one of the largest and most dynamic segments of the US and global economy, penetration of cloud-based technologies in the segment remains incredibly low, and the vendor landscape remains tremendously fragmented on a global basis,” says Matt Melymuka, co-founder and partner at PeakSpan Capital.

Hotels use Zingle’s messaging tools to deliver five-star service at scale; Medallia’s investment in Zingle gives hotels the opportunity to provide frictionless guest service and streamline time-consuming interactions, such as check-in.

Life House, a tech-first hotel experience, shows proof-of-concept: that hotels that invest in technology drive higher revenue, better guest reviews, and a higher star-rating.

Hotels are catching on, adding convenience through streaming, voice activation, guest-room tablets, and food ordering tech.

White labeling is a practice in which a product – in this case, hotel software – is manufactured by a third party and uses branding by the purchaser, or marketer, so that the end product appears to have been produced by the purchaser.

Oaky, one of the industry’s leading upselling tools, raised a Series A funding round of $9.5 million led by PeakScan Capital. Oaky’s appeal to investors stems from the app’s data-driven approach to driving incremental revenue. Their deep understanding of customer behavior makes Oaky one of the top-rated upselling tools on the market today.

For instance, feeding data from your PMS into a business intelligence tool leads to real, operational data to analyze trends and provide recommendations for better marketing campaigns, smarter staffing decisions, seasonal trends, and market competition. Hotels that are comfortable using APIs can automate tasks that take up much of their employee’s time with manual data entry.

On-demand convenience dominates our lives, and guests expect this level of ease from their hotel experience as well.

An API, application programming interface, is simply a messenger of data between applications. APIs allow your various hotel technology tools and programs to work together, connecting your RMS to a PMS, or your PMS to your upsell software, or your business intelligence software to your PMS. An API makes your technology user-friendly and efficient; when your tools work together, you capture each platform’s full capabilities.

Hilton is taking a different approach, partnering with Netflix to allow guests to control their streaming straight from the Hilton Honors mobile app.

As far as voice-activation, Volara is leading the way in providing a thoughtful, Alexa-esque guest-room solution. Volara integrates with the most popular work order management systems so that guests can make requests and get confirmation when the item or service they need will be delivered.

And for savvy marketing managers, tablets provide a new channel through which to send targeted, automated messages generating $5,000 per month in additional revenue.

2nd Kitchen is a godsend for hotels without a kitchen on-site: guests can order room service from restaurants near your hotel, taking care of care of orders, menus, payment, fulfillment, and customer support for your property.

Hotels are a prime target for hackers. “Only about 25% of all U.S. businesses, including hotel operators, are fully compliant with current data security best practices. That means that three out of four are not and are potential disasters waiting to happen,” reported one cybersecurity expert.

Numerous high-profile malware attacks on the hotel industry have led to hundreds of millions of guests’ data being compromised and millions of dollars in damage. Just this February, MGM Resorts revealed they were the target of a massive data breach that compromised personal information for more than 10.6 million guests. Files leaked in the MGM attack included information on celebrities, chief executives of technology companies, reporters and government officials, according to Skift.

Expedia and Booking have taken some pretty big hits in recent months.

Why the dive in stock price? There are two factors outside Coronavirus that are impacting OTAs. First, hotels are getting better at capturing direct bookings. Hotel tech like direct booking platforms, metasearch ad managers, and messaging integrations help properties draw more visitors to their site and convert more direct bookings, circumventing the high OTA commissions in the process.

Secondly, Google has entered the travel market in a big way. Google has expanded from traditional AdWords to include hotels everywhere via its Hotel Ads product.

5G may be getting all the buzz, but for property owners, WiFi 6 is much more relevant. WiFi 6 is the term used to describe the next iteration of Wifi, a faster, more efficient connection enabled through new technologies. WiFi 6 is about 30% faster than our current WiFi.

With WiFi 6, your property can leverage in-room technology to provide better service, driving positive guest reviews and repeat business. Smart thermostats, smart speakers, and smart locks will all perform better with the adoption of WiFi 6 over the next five years.

Investors in Oaky already recognize this next insight: data has become the world’s most valuable resource. The sooner you start to mine guest data for better customer insights, the better positioned your property will be against your competition.

Data can fuel smarter marketing campaigns, inform your pricing, and help you capture a higher market share than your competitors by knowing your guests on a deeper level.

Earlier this year, Revinate launched the hotel industry's first Guest Data Platform to aggregate, clean and deliver rich guest profiles for hotels and property groups of all sizes. The platform combines data from multiple sources to provide a complete picture of a hotel’s guests, delivering the information needed to increase guest satisfaction scores, direct bookings, and ultimately, profit.

Brands in the alternative lodging sector include Stay Alfred, Sonder, The Guild Hotels and to some extent groups such as Selina and OYO. 

The biggest distraction or barrier these next-gen hotels face is that they’re taking the wrong approach to tech. The companies that win will be the ones who stop acting like tech companies – using buzzwords like AI and virtual concierge – and focus on being more innovative and agile real estate businesses than traditional market players today. Those that succeed will be tech-enabled businesses; not tech businesses.

Smart hotel rooms use technology to allow guests to personalize their stay experiences.

Technology is becoming more important to hotel operations because it can deliver increasingly high value for hoteliers and guests.

The most important software in the hotel industry is the property management system, which acts as “mission control” for hotel operations. Hoteliers use a PMS to manage reservations, check guests in and out, and handle billing.

While exciting technologies present new options for hoteliers to enhance their offerings, these new innovations also mean hoteliers must focus on data security and continued training when implementing the technology that guests expect.

A bill put forth by Virginia Senator Mark Warner in March would push the government to set up minimum security requirements for smart devices used by federal agencies; such requirements could eventually become standard for the industry at large.

All the automated attentiveness will come with a high price tag: consumers will spend $123 billion on IoT gear by 2021, according to advisory firm ABI Research, a number that’s likely to rise thereafter.

One company noted they are working on “normal business projects plus the addition of sterilization equipment, PPE face shields, and portable lighting for temporary hospital units.”

only 22.43% of the responding companies had not cut staff.

In terms of receiving some form of government support to make up for business and revenue losses, 45% reported getting PPP loans, 30% got unemployment insurance, 18% received other forms of help (such as EIDL and/or SBA loans or credit), and 30% reported getting no help.

To get back to 100% pre-COVID-19 levels, the majority is looking at 2023 (36.45%) or 2024 (29.91% of companies), while 25.23% companies are looking at 2022, and less than 9% expect to reach 100% during 2021.

the remaining 25.23% not hopeful until 2023

almost half of the companies (48.60% of them) indicated it could happen in 2022

the industry is not expected to bounce back to pre-COVID-19 levels at a rapid pace.

developing new products for next year,

massive domino effect

Another impact on the success of the live events business is the lack of the live events, such as tradeshows and conferences that support the industry.

While some of these events have pivoted to virtual and digital solutions, they do not solve the issues of unemployment and lack of personal contact with clients which is so essential for business success.

In addition, Live Nation, the world’s largest concert producer, has announced that their revenue plunged by 98% in the last financial quarter, after COVID-19 devastated the live music sector. The company reportedly only presented 24 concerts in North America, while the second quarter of 2019 saw over 7,000 events.

hopefully looks forward to enjoying in the future as the economy and the industry come back.

An industry fighting for its life, but hopefully one with the resources required to survive.

First, you should know that GDS services are only available for authorized users who are licensed and registered and not accessible for use by the general public.

For the widest visibility and revenue-earning potential, consider connecting your PMS to a GDS distribution platform that will allow you to connect to several big-name hotel GDS providers and manage your account on one system.

In terms of hotel GDS providers, there are three main giants that dominate the market:

Cloudbeds’ simple solution connects you to a system that connects to the big three GDSs mentioned above, allowing you to manage all your GDS accounts from one platform.

Still, GDSs also have the power and functionality to send their inventory to OTAs.

A global distribution system (GDS) is one of the best ways for hoteliers to promote their hotel in the global corporate travel market. It’s a critical component of a well-rounded distribution strategy and helps hotel management increase occupancy within the lucrative corporate travel segment.

A global distribution system is an online system that delivers real-time hotel, airline, train, and car rental inventory, room rates, discounts, and more to travel agents and other businesses.

As part of a GDS hotel booking system, your property will be exposed to a more targeted,

GDS hotel booking system allows companies, such as travel agencies and corporate bookers, to book travel on behalf of others.

Public rates are visible and bookable to all agencies in a GDS and are subject to commissions paid to the booking agency. Common public rates are the Best Available Rate (BAR), Corporate (COR), and Government (GOV). Negotiated rates are only visible to companies with which you have a special agreement. The authorized agencies that can book these rates must enter an agreed-upon GDS hotel code called a Rate Access Code. Since negotiated rates are based on net rates, they are not subject to commissions.

Amadeus has been connecting travel providers to travel sellers since 1987. They serve over 770,000 hotels in 190+ countries worldwide and have a global team of 19,000 employees. Aside from hotels, Amadeus also services airlines, airport operators, rail operators, ground handlers, car rental companies & transfer providers, insurance provider groups, and cruise lines & ferries

Sabre has been part of the birth of airline automation since the 1960s. Today, they have almost 400,000 travel agents in their global travel marketplace. Their technology products include travel-focused mobile apps, check-in kiosks, airline and hotel reservation networks, ticket agent terminals, aircraft & crew scheduling systems, revenue management solutions, and more.

(Galileo, Worldspan, Apollo) – With origins leading back to 1971, Travelport encompasses the Galileo, Worldspan, and Apollo GDS systems. Their worldwide travel retail platform services travel agencies and suppliers with distribution, technology, and payment solutions, among others. They have partnerships with hotel chains and boutique hotels to develop targeted promotions and flexible rate models to gain greater visibility in their markets. 

The GDS system will likely evolve in the coming years rather than become obsolete, so it’s worthwhile connecting to one if you want to attract more business travelers and make gains in the corporate travel industry.