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This article was very interesting because it shows how the maintenance of the hospitality facilities can really impact a business. We learned in this article that insufficient maintenance can render a lower profit for an investor or the owner regardless whether they want to sell the hotel or not later. We learned that proper upkeep reduces the expense of improvement projects. What can help run a sustained well-run hospitality operation is a preventative program. The only thing that can help you control your maintenance budget is a preventative maintenance program that can help you calculate when to replace carpeting, air conditioner, etc. Meeting up with the hotel supervisors repeatedly allows facility managers to really have a good evaluation on maintenance issues.

Its from the company Lowe's perspective of the maintenance of hospitality facilities

Great article! A preventive maintenance plan or program is definitely a must in order to reduce costs in the long run. It is important that the staff be trained to properly implement the plan and make sure that things are being done properly.

A great Article interview regarding cloudbased solution for PMS and how hotel should invest and in whihc tech there is a possible futur for the hotel industry.

Throughout this article it is being discussed as to why IT investors should move into hotels and the benefits of getting involved in such a large industry. Explaining how this business takes a log period of time to progress because of how costly and large these businesses tend to be. The benefits of investing technology overall in the hotel industry is a huge investment with a large expected profit.

This articles is an eye opener on how lightly we take hotel security. There are several new technologies designed to prevent security issues and we do not consider them, simply because they are too expensive and we feel a false sense of security since our country is not located in the middle east. The reality is that deep inside we all remember 911 and we see news every day of how much hate some people have againts us. Security should be taken much more seriously.

New York Fiesah is an online marketplace that connect NYC event planners and all kinds of vendors in a much easier manner. The event planner signs into Fiestah"s dashboard, they input the items they need and then vendors place bids to fill in those needs. Fiestah generates revenue by taking a 10 percent cut of each transaction. Another thing Fiestah provides for both parties is that the payment is held in escrow until the vendor completesits task, meaning both sides need to get what they want first. This will make sure both parties can get what they want. Testah team has been hard at work building out the marketplace, introducing themselves to lots of NYC business, and trying to get traction. The next thins on the company's long to -do list is to create full merchant profiles with the ability to rate vendors some time in the next few months. Also Fiestah plans to bring its market place to a next city - San Francisco.

The article talks about an online company in New York that was designed by Nurul Yahya called Feistah. It's an online event planning that allow all kind of vendors in a much easier manner then what's described above. The event planner simply signs into Feistah dash board input what "item" they need for event and then vendors place bids to fill in those needs. The company generates revenue by 10 percent cut of each transaction. In the next thing on the company's long to-do list is to create full merchant profiles with the ability to rate vendors sometime in the next few months. Fiesta next expansion is to startup in San Francisco.

Hoteliers don't give security a high enough priority Security is not as high on the hotel agenda as it should be according to Michael Hartmann, Senior Vice President for Hospitality Solutions with Siemens Building Technologies . Here he looks at the reluctance to invest in the latest security systems, the different levels of security typically employed and the benefits of an integrated approach.

No industry has a bigger stake in protecting the environment and local communities than the travel industry. Like the article states, if coral reefs are destroyed, there will be no more snorkeling. And if the communities are not able to profit from the travelers coming to the area, their displeasure will show. In order to help green travelers decide if their trip is hurting the environment or harming local communities, or actually doing some good Sustainable Travel Leadership Network has started TravelWell. This project will also encourage the governments in the destination areas to improve sustainability practices, help travel companies decide where to do business.This initiative will score destinations based on the practices of piloted destinations, letting them know what areas they need to improve in. The problem is that while most governments are willing to create a plan, they do not actually follow through with the plans they've made. With TravelWell being implemented, destinations could lose out on the growing market of green travelers and this will affect their bottom line more in the long run. Because TravelWell will also give this information to potential investors, destinations also run the risk of losing potential investors. The main purpose of this tool is to keep the conversation of sustainability alive with governments. It would continually create a standard to measure the effectiveness of sustainability efforts as well as creating new ideas.

Venture capital firms ask themselves tough questions these days. Among them: how can they dig out of the dot-com collapse? How should they invest going forward? How should the leader of a firm strike the right note for the future? And is it a field that graduating MBAs should aspire to enter? According to experts at the conference session titled "From Bubble to Recession: The Current State of the Venture Capital Industry," none of the answers are simple, but a sense of perspective remains one highly valuable commodity. According to Walter Kuemmerle, a Harvard Business School professor who served as panel moderator, the money flow in venture capital may have been down 51 percent in 2001 compared to 2000, but the sum total was still greater than the previous eighteen or so years combined.

The company Aptech Financial Solutions software has been recently chosen by eight different hotel companies. The software is back end accounting software which its investors believe to be the best in the business. The company has brought along over 120 plus new hotels in their recent acquirement including Summit Hotel Properties who has over 80 hotels. The company offers three different solutions to all your back end hospitality industry needs; Profitvue, Targetvue, and Execuvue.

This article summarize "An investment with a few". In 2009 during the great recession the hospitality industry suffered the most the saw revenues go downhill as many people spent their vacations at home while companies cut back travel. Eight years later the hotel occupancy rates are where they were pre-recession about 65%full versus 55% In 2009 the cash flow is coming back in. Many investors who survived those bad years are now being rewarded by the Bloomberg REIT hotels index is up 10.7% year to date. Now that the economy is improving there are still more gains to be had.

According the article $290 million will be invested into hotels in the Middle East in 2011. This means that hotel investors need to really pay attention and invest in the right technology for their hotels to keep them competitive. It also goes into the way to create the new guest-centric environment is to have the right new technology.

"Today's guests arrive at a hotel with a high level of expectations - a hotel room needs to be their home away from home, and offer new services, experiences and conveniences."

The article is a good one that simply shows the benefits of technology even though the economies around the world are down. The article is about the spending on IT even though their is an economic downturn. It starts by saying that even though their is a downturn, businesses are still investing in technology. Technology has become the way to give hotels a competitive advantage. The article states that guests expect the best and they look for new services that they would like. They feel that they best way to serve the guest is having the best technology that also works at making the business more efficient and able to work with guest services and hotel operations. So the improvements in technology has definitely helped the industry and businesses must keep up with the latest in order to keep up business.

With sustainability at the forefront of hotel operators and investors hotels are becoming conscious of the guests needs as more and more travelers are requiring and are staying at properties that are serious about environmental conservation. The article highlighted the fact hotels are big consumers of energy, therefore have construction that are LEED certified will not only benefit the environment but also the bottom line of investors.

Travel Weekly takes a look at hotels taking real initiatives to their commitment to going green, especially in Sin City. Hotel groups are looking not to save money through transparent initiatives asking guests to simply reuse their towels, rather the article looks at "hotel owner-developers to invest in systems that cut energy usage, save water, and reduce waste". It seems in addition to other environmentally conscious west coast cities, Vegas has set a standard by setting goals for increased recycling, decreased energy consumption, switching over to LED bulbs, composting food waste, reducing overall carbon footprint and emissions. In light of continuing green development, Sabre Holdings has launched an Eco-Certified Hotel Program taking the lead out of the other four major GDS's to tip their hat to eco-friendly hotels. As travelers, GDS's, hotels, travel websites, and developers alike place greater emphasis on the preference for environmentally conscious lodgings, the more likely the industry is going to continue adopting these measures.

Hotels are becoming more green world wide. MGM hotels is on board with a green initiative. Hotels electricity and water add up because they have to cool a building , clean and maintain the hotel. IT costs about 800 per room annually in electricity and water costs. MGM hotels reduced the electrivity they use which can help power 12, 000 houses. HOtels are also trying to reduce its carbon emissions. Although as the article states " its very difficult fot hotels to be trully green by their nature" every little bit helps.

The Caribbean Tourism Organization presented this event to communicate investment opportunities in the Caribbean. The choice of New York as a venue was a very strategic choice as this is an international investors mecca to the West. Forums featured private equity firms, renewable energy firms, and assorted tourism representatives from many of the island nations throughout the Caribbean. "If you are a private equity investor, investment banker, financier, real estate developer, hotel chain executive, lawyers, architect or entrepreneur, looking to grow your money and do business in an emerging market that is on the up and up, then this is a can't miss event," said Felicia Persaud, convener of Invest Caribbean Now and CEO of Hard Beat." Also offered is a Trade Show and Educational Seminar for Travel Agents, and government representatives were available to provide in-depth information for journalists and tourism professionals. This event is the perfect type of forum of destination based tourism agencies to market their locations not only for further investment and development, but to showcase a variety of features and benefits. As an aspiring meeting professional, such a seminar is the perfect example of showing a prospective client that while brochures, marketing advertising, and other forms of media can tell a lot about a place, nothing beats having some of the actual people, food, music, clothing, sounds and smells that can all be recreated at full-scale events to provide the perception of a full sensory experience. This experience will create a desire to go and be a part of that destination unmatched by any other form of marketing.

As some small size hotel, inn, or resort, they also need some convenient technology to manage their business operations. The online bookings, marketing sales and the housekeeping, all of them are important for a hotelier. They could choose the cheaper and more flexible property management system. This article shows some advantages of the Hotelogix web-based PMS. It has five outstanding feature. Because the investment is very low and it will spend less time in installing, the return on investment could receive quickly. And the Hotelogix not only provides increased freedom to hotel operators but is also reliable. It is very simple to use even for the first-time users. The investors could not worry about the hidden costs or infrastructure requirements. Moreover, the pivotal point is low pricing. In addition, its most valuable feature is no required investment on training because using and accessing the system is easy and having 24-hour support. This is a smart hotel operational system in the modern cities.

A leader provider of outsourced staffing solutions for the hospitality industry, Hospitality Staffing Solutions, announced that it has completed the sale of its assets to HS Solutions Corporation. HS Solutions Corporation is an entity formed by LJC Investments 1, LLC and a group of investors including Littlejohn Opportunities Master Fund,LP, Caymus Equity Partners and Management. This transaction allows HSS to reduce its outstanding debt and responsibilities. It also gives the opportunity to emerge with strong financial backing of a new owner.

I found this article very interesting. It deals with the development of a new website that incorporates all facets of event planning into one central hub. The website was coined "honey book" a conjunction between honeymoon and booking. It's creator Naama Alom, got the idea when she, herself, was planning her own wedding. She realized that there was not one place where she could store all of her event, vendor, and decor information. "Honey book" is also a medium to share your event highlights with family and friends. Naama decided that Facebook was not sufficient enough and when investors expressed interest, Naama and her husband packed up and moved from Israel to the United States. The US housed the billion-dollar target market that "honey book" was developed for.

Call it Silicon Valley, U.K. British technology companies received over $795 million in investment from American investors in 2014, with financial technology leading the way, according to London & Partners, the official London promotion firm of Mayor Boris Johnson, who is on a trade mission in the United States this week.

In the business world, as well as in many other fields, accounting is used to report (account for) an organization's money and other valuable property. Accounting is utilized by all managers in business and especially by those in the hospitality industry. In fact, in almost every hospitality job, accounting is important. Accounting in the hospitality industry is utilized every time a guest purchases food, beverages, or a hotel guest room. Accounting in business occurs even before a hospitality facility ever opens. This is so because business persons estimate their costs before they decide to build their facilities and often seek loans from banks to help them. Those banks will assuredly want to know about the proposed business's estimated financial performance before they decide to lend it money. Accurate accounting is important to many other individuals in the hospitality industry. The owners of a restaurant or hotel will certainly want to monitor their business's financial condition. These owners may be one or more individuals, partnerships, or small or very large corporations, but they all care about the performance of their investments. Investors in the hospitality industry generally want to put their money in businesses that will conserve or increase their wealth. To monitor whether or not their investments are good ones, investors will always seek out and rely upon accurate financial information. When it is properly done, accounting is simply the process of providing that information.