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I found this article incredibly interesting, as it is an interview with the co-founder of eMenu, Alexandru. He speaks about how he thought up the idea of eMenu, when he was at a restaurant trying to pay the bill, but after five minutes of trying to call the server and being ignored, he got annoyed; and believed there was a way to fix this. Additionally, he makes great points about why the eMenu is so efficient, such as it being technology based, it is very popular amongst Millennials. He also makes the great point of it being on a tech system, it allows restaurants to have the menu in several language options more conveniently. As well as, it being flexible enough to make changes, such as newly added plates, without needing to reprint several new menus. He then goes on to say, he now looks forward to bringing this technology into the hotel industry, where room service menus can now be available from the TV, rather than in a "small wasted paper menu." All in all, I believe Alexandru makes some very valid points as to why the eMenu should be considered in many aspects of the hospitality industry. 

With the success of having mobile locks for our homes and even our cars, it's no wonder hotels are adopting the technology as well. Technology advances quickly, and like any business hotels must do the same, they're constantly refurbishing rooms and implementing new things to better serve their guests and a mobile lock would be no different. Having keys on a guest's phone would improve efficiency for hotel management because they wouldn't need to replace a lost key, and guests would no longer need to wait in a line to check in, just head up to their room as soon as they get there. This allows hotel staff to use that extra time to ensure guests get even better customer service. Mobile keys do possess a few problems in that, unless a guest is loyal to a particular hotel chain or unless they travel a lot, they might be unwilling to download an app just to be able to get into their room. This can be circumvented by designing an app that can do more than just open their room door such as making/changing reservations, making spa appointments, allowing gym/pool access, and being able to call for a bellboy, and getting help from the concierge. While not quite there yet, mobile door locks will let hotels know more about their guests and how to "better manage assets and the workforce with predictive analytics" that could be used to make guests experiences better and more likely to turn them into repeat guests.

This article talks about how important software is in the hospitality management industry and the different types of software that particularly businesses may use to best serve their needs. Property Management Systems provide a whole host of functions for hotels, including keeping track of guests checking in and out, monitoring room charges, and supervising the housekeeping of rooms. Because this software is so vital to the hospitality industry, there has been an upsurge by software companies trying to make their mark in the industry, which has led to a market fragmentation due to the numerous options available. This also puts a strain on managers, as there is much confusion about which software is best and the most cost-effective. There is a system to determining which management software best suits any particular company. Two key features in this process are the ROI, Return on Investment, and TCO, Total Cost of Ownership. ROI provides a cost-benefit analysis of a particular software with regards to the speed with which a company will make the money back that they invested in it, as well as the numerous features that a company would need from the software. TCO is an analysis that companies use to accurately ascertain the costs of the software. Companies should seek a lower TCO and a higher ROI when making any software purchase decisions. Because the technology market is ever changing, companies must stay up-to-date with the newest software in order to provide the best service for, and to keep up with the demands of, their guests. This can be exemplified with the recent trend in cloud-based PMS.

This article talks about the growing need for customers to have certain in-technology. It also talks about what hotel industry is doing and investing keep it's ahead of the curve and what current are guest expectations when arriving at a Hotel in 21 century.

In this article, it explains that technology is the ruler of today's world. It creates an "easy life" and raises the expectations of customers by the minute, essentially making anything possible. To meet these expectations in the hospitality industry, hotels are incorporating more technological accommodations. This is a must to stay ahead of the competition and attract new customers. A report showed the hospitality industry as the 5th highest investor in sensors to ensure a positive customer experience. From simple technology such as online booking to things such as automated check in/ out are changing the game for the customers overall experience. These things have become normalized for a better guest experience along with keyless hotel room entrance making a shift to app's that act as the bedroom key. Another growing trend is having robots complete simple tasks such as room service as well as more sustainable practices such as adjustable lighting. In order to properly track the success rate of these new technologies, many hospitality related companies are hiring data scientists to assure they are meeting their guest's expectations. All of these advances make life easier for the company and the guests but none of these things can replace the art of human interaction. Although this art is dwindling away, it is something that most still yearn for, regardless of the technology involved in their experience.

This article highlights three hardware trends that is shaping the modern hospitality industry globally by focusing on the advances experienced in POS technology. The writer emphasizes that since the hospitality industry has been more focused on services than on retail, restaurant, bars, hotel and pub owners should pay keen interest on the technological developments. This technology is beneficial to the hospitality industry, as it will help the operators improve on customer experience. Hardware plays a critical role in improving the services offered in the hospitality industry. The three emerging trends in hospitality mentioned in the article relate to the trends in EPOS hardware in the industry. The first trend mentioned in the article is mobile EPOS (M-POS), which helps in taking orders, inputting them into the EPOS system, have the order forwarded to the kitchen and processing for the order payment by using wireless broadband. The second trend is kiosks that are self-service points in the hospitality industry. Kiosks have several uses like checking availability, making reservations when the patrons arrive in restaurants and allowing guests to order room service in hotel rooms. The last trend is the use of scanners, which is modern EPOS software for setting up a loyalty scheme for businesses. Scanners have not been a necessary part of the hospitality EPOS but their demand has grown due to the increase in popularity for loyalty schemes among businesses.

This article talks about the three hardware systems that are trending now in the hospitality industry. The Mobile EPOS, Kioks, and Scanners are all meant to make the job of the company run smoother and more efficiently. The EPOS makes it easier to get everything done in one place, for example placing an order, paying and receiving a receipt. Kiosks allow customers to place their own order and have the food delivered to them. Lastly, scanners are a great help when it come tp updating records.

Retail operators are now understanding that point of sale systems can also be used to not only assist in processing the final phase of the checkout but also throughout the entire process to increase the service aspect. The advancement in POS technology is the driving force behind this initiative. Operators of restaurants, bars, pubs, hotels, etc., are using POS technology to improve the customer service experience. The main focus of this is placed on modern specialised EPOS software and hardware systems and how they can help to integrate operations across an entire business. There are three emerging trends in hospitality EPOS hardware that are used to run the software. They are mobile Epos (M-Pos), Kiosks and Scanners. Mobile EPOS (M-POS) use single devices at the table to take orders, input into the EPOS system, forwarded to the kitchen and process the order for payment. Kiosks, on the other hand are self-service points that allow users to process orders and payments separate from collection they can also allow users to check availability and making reservations, allowing them to perform tasks like choosing tables and dining times themselves. Kiosks could play a similar role in hotel rooms, allowing guests to order room service or offering a smart concierge option. The final hardware option mentioned was the use of scanners. Scanners are used in conjunction with the loyalty schemes which are growing in popularity as a way to incentivise repeat business and for updating records.

This article talks about both the pros and cons of eCommerce in the hospitality industry. It talks about how it has changed and helped the industry but also the side effects that it may have.

This articles discusses the top 6 benefits of having PMS in your business and their importance.

Everything in life and business today is about how you can make big bigger, fast faster and everything more personalized. This article is giving suggestion about how GDS may evolve in the future to make it more personalized to the buying customer as well as making it more GDS more secure. GDS are starting to price compare with competing sites and businesses are offering incentive of not having service fees if you book directly through them. Where is this leading the GDS systems? Perhaps into the Blockchian technology, where a customer can purchase a token and essentially cash it in when they exchange it for the service being done. This is allowing for more secure transactions of moneys. GDS will never go out of business, but there is always a way someone is looking to make it better, Blockchains may be something of the future trend.

In this article, it basic discussed some of the key points of business switching to a point of sale system and why it would be beneficial. One reason was to prevent shrinkage. With a POS system, sales are automatically recorded during every checkout which help to maintain inventory numbers. Another key point is that POS systems are beneficial to owners who may have more than one store. This allows for business owners to have accurate pricing across all locations and it improves customer service as well. For example, if your store is out of particular product, you can sue the POS system to check which nearby locations have the product that the customer may be looking for. Lastly, POS systems have also been proven to be a great asset for making sure your business is operating effectively and efficiently. While away, POS systems allow for owners to monitor activity such s store performance and sales activity, in addition monitor the performance levels of employees to ensure everyone is staying on task and being productive. So all in all, switching to a Point-Of-Sale system is beneficial and a great move for businesses.

The author of this article targets entrepreneurs and explains the need to implement point-of-sale systems in businesses. The author explains that POS systems help businesses to track promotions more successfully and improve customer service, and thus, enhancing customer satisfaction. Besides, the system improves employee management.

Luis, I like this read. It makes some great points of how the investment of a POS is profitable for the establishment. One thing I did not realize that it is great for is to better track sales and promotions. This is an area that could really assist on driving sales with an establishment. If they analyze the data collected, the owner can know if the promotion was worth their wild OR a waste of time. Did it drive business and bring in new and repeat guests? Did it attract loyal customers? Did it help make new customers loyal? This is all information that is collected and can be very useful when using the POS. Thank you for your share.

Week 4 Article Summary 15 Benefits of Having Digital Menu Boards in Your Restaurant. This article discusses the positive ways in having a digital menus and explains the benefit it has on the restaurant. The focus of the restaurant should be more on the quality of food being served. Even though there are a lot of restaurant that give you an experience like no other but if the food is not top quality it will be hard to bring customers back. Having this type of digital menus could enhance the guest experience while helping the restaurant increase revenues. Here are ten of the top fifteen positives reasons of having a digital menu boards. 1) Digital menu displays will make communication easier. This starts form the customer directly to the kitchen. It will also allow the establishment to display videos and animations that will catch the eyes of the customers and could highlight specific menu items. 2) Saves time by easy updates on display. The software will allow the restaurant to update the menu very easy. You could add and take away dishes without having to print all new menus. It will also allow you 86 items that are sold out at any time during the shift. 3) Sound Investment of saving money. With the system allowing you to change menus, it will save money because you won't have to pay to print new menus every time you want revise it. 4) Digital displays create a more memorable experience. With having a digital screen, it will allow the customer to stay entertained by having a right mix of graphic videos and allowing them to keep them occupied during down times. 5) Better Visibility of menu. The display on the tablet will allow the guest to see a nice HD screen with colors that will make it easy to see and read. 6) 24/7 support. No matter what time of day, there will be support for mangers to trouble shoot any issues that might be happing at time. 7) Boost sales up to 21-23%. It has been said that having an emenu will increase revenues by allowing the establ

This article highlights the importance of event registration stage. According to the survey, registration produces up to 48% of total event revenue. Thus, it is crucial for the event planners to make this stage easy and effective. As internet gives an opportunity to easily submit registration information online the event planners need to make sure that they make the whole process simple and convenient. First, mobile integration is very important. Since more and more people access internet from their smartphones and tablets rather than from their desktops, a great attention should be paid to the mobile compatibility of the service. The prefilled fields could be automatically offered to save registrants' time. Mobile integration could also imply automatic check-in with RFID badges at a conference or surveys that are pushed to the attendees' phones after they are checked in. To increase registration numbers some easy steps could be undertaken. The form could contain easy links to share the event on social media. The "no" registrants may be offered "regret surveys" and asked to reference those who might be interested to attend. Electronic event registration provides the event planners with plenty of structured personal information. It could be used for personalization and customization of services and further engagement of the attendees. So in my opinion, event registration software gives the event planners a powerful tool to engage the people coming to the event and make their experience unique by the means of customization and personalization. It also helps to keep the track of all registrants for further marketing.

This article is a result of qualitative research that was conducted in the hospitality industry properties in Ghana. The authors interviewed several hotel HR managers to analyze how HRIS influenced the manpower activities in the company. Among the rationales of using HRIS in the hotels, the following were mentioned: HRIS gives general and holistic knowledge about operations (this information could be shared with other departments); gathers data to improve decision-making process; provides a variety of reports to boost organizational and administrative functions. One of the opportunities that were mentioned was identifying strategically important key staff and preparing successors for them. HRIS also finds the unfilled positions and selects the most appropriate candidacy who is later trained and waits his turn to succeed. Talent management within the company was named the most important part of the system. The advantages of the HRIS include a possibility to fill a position fast with promoting the right trained person to the team. The research identified the challenges of the HRIS in the hospitality field such as forecasting demand and supply of labor, access to information, cost of recruitment and workforce shortage. However, HRIS is extremely important for maintaining the functional waiting list for training programs so that the pipeline of new employees could be implemented and appropriate training for the right persons in the right time would be made. The holistic nature of the HRIS was outlined in the article making it crucial for management and no-management personnel to understand the new working realities.

The article tells us 7 ways to make hotel smarter. 1. Enhanced Connectivity to Guest Services and Staff Members. Hotel should pay attention to online visitor reviews on websites. Many smart hotel systems have adopted bespoke technology to provide faster and more targeted guest selection capabilities without sacrificing quality. 2. Intelligent Environmental and Entertainment Controls. Guests will often rate their experiences in direct relation to the amenities that they are provided with. It therefore makes a great deal of sense that many hotels have adopted the same smart systems that can be found within homes. 3. The Inclusion of Voice-Ready Technology. Voice-controlled technology provides guests with a convenient means to control basic aspects within their rooms. Voice commands can control options. Voice-ready technology has made great progress in recent years. 4. Smart and Interactive Maps. The real-time interactive mapping not only can these items be used to orientate the guests themselves, but such maps are just as capable of displaying important information, like nearby attractions and places of interest to visit. 5. Personalised Forms of Entertainment. Many hotels are now beginning to provide guests with even more intuitive ways to access personal entertainment accounts, like voice control, access to audio books and customized music playlists. 6. The Concept of Sustainability. Guests are now appreciating their relationship with the natural environment. And a smart hotel room is known for its energy-saving qualities. Therefore, smart hotel systems also can improve sustainability. 7. Adopting Smart and Targeted Forms of Data Collection. In smart hotel, data can be collected without violating the privacy of patrons to make important policy changes as well as to cater to the needs of a certain demographic.

This article talks about the 5 technologies hotels should be investing into for 2020 in order to stay competitive. The technologies are website simplicity, upselling tech to boost profitability, secure payment systems to increase consumer confidence & credibility, self service and automated check-in, and an omni platform which centralises operations.

Hotels are taking new major steps into tech integration as more and more developments are constantly being requested by guest and made by property owners. These I.T investments can help these properties majorly and help increase guest satisfaction. One advantage that many companies can use is it up selling aspect to help push sales. Investing in secure payment options helps with data security and gives the hotel credibility.

-Website simplicity -Upselling technology to boost profitability -Secure payment systems to increase consumer confidence and credibility -Self service and automated check in -An omni platform which centralizes operations -In a 2,000 people study, a quarter of people take into high consideration the quality and detail of a hotel's website before making a direct booking online. -Website simplicity acquires traffic, increases conversion rates and drives more people to book direct. -Upselling can happen subsequently through nudge marketing via emails, push notifications of even on arrival at the hotel. -Investment in secure payment gateways protects the data of hotel guests and the hotels credibility. -Also checks in advance whether the credit card exists and is covered which could reduce chargebacks. -In a survey of 2,654 consumers, 78% of respondents said they would like to see self-service kiosks more widely available for check in. -Self check in is faster service, more privacy, and waiting time/lines are much shorter. -Omni channel platforms enable you to centralize operational systems, take back control of your revenue flow and transparency of guest data, so hotel management can focus on creating the best experience for customers.

Going green is one thing to consider if a hotel wants to save money and conserve the environment. This article discusses 5 tech ways to make some green changes in your hotel. Some points were to change the lighting to energy saving lighting. Using sensor lighting saves you money and shows guests that you care to conserve. Laundry technology and asking guests to only give towels that are unwanted instead of changing towels everyday. A system monitoring the heat and cooling system can regulate temperatures reducing the cost of unnecessary use of the system.

This article is about ways for hotels to use green tech to be more responsible.

"The latest innovative technology solutions can work to increase energy efficiency, cut down on material waste and even increase profits for your hotel". I remember while working in San Antonio Texas as a hotel AGM, the hotel had an agreement with the city water company for us to send them each week the readings of how much water we had used up to that point from last week, and they would give us rebates if our consumption wouldn't fluctuate certain parameters. We were being environmentally friendly, saving money by not overpaying and receiving rebates for our eco-responsibility.

This article jumps into some challenges facing the hotel industry with respects to accounting. It touches on various topics we have gone through as a course, and ends with an emphasis on technology.

This article talks about the need for hoteliers to be up to date with technology. By having systems that have all the data in one place, helps owners make better decisions. Also having an accounting system that helps with making decisions and offer the proper tools is imperative. When it comes to accounting it is important to be prepared for the worst case scenario.

Although I'm not a 100 percent fan on the cloud base systems, technology is ever changing and i somewhat believe that we should keep up with it providing that it is in out best benefit personally or from a business security point of view. We see how this article reveal to us challenges and how technology helps alleviate some of them.

The Hospitality industry have been greatly impacted over the years by the advancements made in technology. Customers have everything assessable by the click of a button or utilization of an app. Various software is being created to provide for quick and easy service but in turn takes away from the personal experiences.

This article is about the new advances in technology and investing whether it has been taken too far. It analyzes the new advancements such as apps where reservations are made. These new technologies have been made to enhance experience but not replace the warm feeling that hospitality gives you. The article concludes that we haven't taken it too far, instead it has made guest experience better. Especially when it comes to checking in, and not having to wait a huge line when you just want to get to your room.

As we learned this week, technology is impacting the hospitality industry. As the article states- "improving a guest's experience depends on the ability to identify the individual guest's preferences." This reminded me of the Smart Bar video we watched this week. Technology can enhance the quality of experience. However, depending on the businness/ company- most people would be unwilling to put a an investment into tech unless they see a significant uptake from the technology. Even though technology plays a major role in the industry, it has not completely took over human interaction.

The eMenu has many potential to improve your business. This device you can create unique banding to highlight what makes you outstanding, grow social media and have opportunities to run ad's on specialties.

This article focuses on ways that eMenus can be beneficial to restaurants. With so much competition in the restaurant business, restaurant owners must constantly find ways to improve and make it more notable. An eMenu is a way to keep things fresh. For starters, it offers a sense of personal branding in a way that one is able to personalize the menu with a branding that sets apart from competitors. In addition, social media integration also helps with the branding by enhancing reach to possible customers. Finally, advertisement is a big part of the eMenu. Specialties within the restaurant may be advertised which will feel personal to the guest.

This article is in essence about the broken tipping system within American culture today. The title in my opinion is a bit exaggerated but is truthful nonetheless. People within the service industry are being horribly mistreated by being underpaid and forced to rely upon tips for wages. The issue with this is that specifically women are being forced to dress skimpy and act a certain way (possibly flirtatiously) In order to possibly get better tips. With their salary being on average around $2 an hour, without tips they are being forced to live far below the poverty line. So, it's not tipping that makes you inadvertently sexist, it's that tips contribute to woman acting in a more appealing way to male customers in order to pull the standard tip percentage (20% to 25%).

This article emphasizes how imperative it is for hospitality businesses to stay on the cutting edge of technology as a part of their business design and strategy if they want to survive in today's competitive market and remain in it, in the near future. The author expresses that today's hospitality market is being driven by Millennials' "the largest generation in the country's history" who patronize businesses that are socially and environmentally responsible. Armed with this information to capture their targeted market, more and more hotels are now incorporating from inception within their physical blueprint infrastructure that is environmentally sustainable and cost-effective. As well as obtaining Green certifications and implementing sustainable software to reduce waste and minimize leakages. This concept has also been adopted by cruise ship operators to reduce environmental impact through the use of technology.