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help hotel managers uncover new market segments to promote their products.

GDS Hotel bookings often result in multiple nights stays.

The main purpose of a global distribution system is to help travel agents search for hotel accommodations that fit a set of criteria.

Agent increase in use of GDS systems over the past 2 years:USA- 30%, Latin America- 49% , Europe & Middle East-47%, APAC-64%.

agents have access to live rates and availability

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

GDS is an important mix into larger properties’ distribution channels.

Another option is to have a backup internet service provider (ISP) that can be used when the network running the VOIP phones goes down

A single point of connection could be damaged or inadvertently cut, so having a second point of connection serves as a backup.

Building redundancy into your network and having a network failover plan should help you avoid downtime that could cost your business productivity and money.

Waiters have continuous mobility around the restaurant, while clearly communicating and recording orders. This gives the customers the convenience of table side ordering, whilst also allowing the orders to recorded and distributed seamlessly.

Another great benefit of using a entertianment POS or fun center POS system is that it avoids a lot of human errors in the communication between the waiters and the kitchen or bar staff. The cloud based system means that the orders are clearly recorded for the staff, forgoing any potential penmanship or shorthand issues.

Inventory management is another great feature of the entertianment POS or fun center POS system and it will allow your business to keep up to date with its inventory levels and knowing exactly when to restock their goods.

Through the continuous tracking of your levels of inventory, you’ll be able to identify trends in how each of your individual levels of stock are used in specific times. Not only can this aid in the planning and managing of stock, but it will also identify which products are popular within specific times of the year. This is valuable information and can be effectively utilized through your promotion and marketing, enticing more people to your family entertainment centre.

A entertianment POS or fun center POS system with a modern payment processor can allow your business to stay up to date with the majority of businesses, accepting credit cards and allowing customers to use their tap and go cards or functions like Apple Wallet and Google Pay. A entertianment POS or fun center POS system will also greatly improve the overall speed of the checkout process, making hard copies of orders expendable and recording them digitally in real-time.

Theft control may not seem like a particularly pressing issue, especially if your products are behind the counter and require customers to order and pay for them before accessing them. Regardless, a entertianment POS or fun center POS system will make you aware of any potential issues of theft through tracking what is ordered and what is paid for.

It is important to have set measures for staff to follow in recipes, which allows you to see how much inventory is actually left compared to how much should be left based on the inventory management system.

it can also be utilized in the building of customer relationships. Collecting customer details, namely an email address, will mean that you can communicate with past customers after their visit.

Managing an entertainment business requires a great deal of organization throughout all levels of the business. POS systems offer a great range of benefits aiding in the simplification of many business processes, from inventory management to staff management.

Clearly managing time clocks, scheduling which employees work each shift, keeping payroll up to date are all tasks entertianment POS or fun center POS can potentially assist with.

Another reason why hotel management software can be beneficial is because it can significantly enhance the customer experience you offer. One of the most obvious examples of this is the use of mobile hotel check-in and check-out systems, which allow for much more seamless arrivals and departures.

Finally, one of the single most convincing reasons why you should utilise hotel management software solutions is the potential to gain a competitive advantage over rivals. Many software packages will provide valuable real-time industry insights, allowing you to be more competitive in terms of room rates, or package discounts.

Hotel management software has become widespread within the hotel industry and there are a number of different types of solutions available. Crucially, these systems and applications have the potential to streamline processes, reduce costs, increase revenue, improve the customer experience and provide you with a competitive advantage

It said the lithium-ion batteries in the devices became less capable of supplying peak current demands, as they aged over time.

Apple "committed the crime of deceptive commercial practice by omission" and had agreed to pay the fine.

es. Since Apple confirmed the practice in 2017

"The effects of performance management on these newer models may be less noticeable due to their more advanced hardware and software design," Apple said.

Event management software assimilates multiple event planning tasks in one single place. A major plus, in this case, is the time and money that it saves up for the event planners.

Why Event Management Software? 10 Reasons to Get Started

Why Event Management Software? 10 Reasons to Get Started

event website

payments online.

Event Registration and ticketing– Creation of your event website and event app– Event promotion– Event Networking– Attendee Management– Feedback– Event analytics to track it all

networking platform

Another benefit of digital check-ins is that it helps in ensuring event security.

Every event planner wants his/her event to stand out, to make an impression.

Easy answer: customization.

very element of your event is customizable. You can design your event website and event app and tailor it as per your brand requirements.

Event management software can hand down provide you the value addition of a number of vendors at almost half the cost

event management software was created to make planning speedier and more efficient.

planning in terms of event website, networking platform, event analytics,

Attendees can register on your event website, move on to choose the type of ticket they wish to purchase and pay using the payment portal hosted on your own domain.

A QR code is basically a two-dimensional barcode that can be scanned

Event management software is the collective term for a wide range of software products used in the management of professional and academic conferences, trade exhibitions, conventions, and meetings.”

Making the most of these event analytics can really help you maximize your overall event ROI.

Event promotion is one of the most important aspects of event planning.

event networking platform feature of the software

Event networking platform is a great way to help attendees fulfill their agenda of networking as well as drive engagement throughout the event.

Some event management software work on subscription models. This is a great option for event planners who conduct a lot of events within a year. You can create and manage multiple events from a single platform.

(2) Initially, hotels will be in a period of ‘any deal goes’

(3) Hotels will require more financial security upfront

(4) We’ll face supply and demand issues

(1) Event planners will pay more attention to contracts

(6) Focus on revenue generation from value added se

rvices

(7) We’ll see an increase in hybrid events

(8) There will be an increase in local travel

(9) Future hiring will be impacted by how you act now

Complex Events

by Oxford Economics, around 1.5 billion people participate in business events every year, across more than 180 countries. Global business events generate over $1 trillion in direct spending, and supported 10.3 million direct jobs globally.

2. The value of events

To understand planners’ goals and expectations for the event they’re tasked with creating, let’s start with the basics. Events generally are categorized by size, purpose, and type — all of which are increasingly dependent on a technology footprint and a digital experience.

3. What makes an event: size

Understanding the basic mechanics around an event can help clarify the planner’s approach, and improve communication.

"Simple" Events

Defined as small, repeatable meetings with “simple” requirements such as basic audio/visual facilities, these events are usually limited to 100 or fewer participants.

Midsize Events

Larger meetings rely on technology, and require a robust marketing effort to attract attendees. Planners handling these more complicated events want fully branded websites, advanced registration options, and the ability to send targeted emails to their various attendee segments.

Small Events

The number depends on the area, but as a general rule a small meeting is between 100 and 250 attendees.

Forty-three percent of planners in Cvent’s Planner Sourcing Report cited live music and entertainment as their top strategy for building memorable experiences.

Planners tasked with arranging large-scale events need an array of solutions that help manage cost and risk, optimize the experience, and measure business impact — including ROI. 

4. What makes an event: point and purpose

One can only imagine the chaos of a meeting without a point or purpose!

For venue managers, understanding the purpose of an event is critical in helping planners design the right experience, from registration to conference space needs and room management.

For Profit

The key is in keeping costs as low as possible without sacrificing the experience.

Corporate

Planners arranging a corporate event will likely need help driving attendance to sessions, generating leads, and tracking ROI.

Membership Growth

Associations and consumer groups rely on member events to raise funds and recruit new members. So it makes sense that planners are acutely interested in driving attendance.

5. What makes an event: the experience

The popularity of events is due to the quality of the experience — one that’s a good measure more than a speech and a presentation.

1. Why events matter

Live Entertainment

A Quality Keynote Experience

There’s also an emerging desire for shorter sessions and more interaction with the expert — before and after the keynote. Perhaps most of all, keynote speakers must be able to use real-world examples to support their data.

Food and Beverage

The trends underscore a preference for locally-sourced and creative, exotic cuisine. Consider that more attendees have dietary restrictions, requiring hotels and caterers to be accommodating and flexible.

6. What makes an event: technology that puts everything together

Innovations such as virtual reality grab the headlines, and for good reason: according to a Consumer Technology Association survey in 2017, 77% of U.S. consumers are interested in purchasing VR equipment.

Branded Websites

Websites that promote the brand to attendees also create anticipation for the coming event experience. More practically, these websites help ease registration, check-in, and more.

Room Block Management

Venue managers who expect planners to use spreadsheets to manage room blocks risk losing business.

Digital Check-in Desks

Digital signs, self-service check-in kiosks and on- demand badging are increasingly expected as part of a smooth and easy event registration experience.

Real-Time Surveys

Branded Mobile Event Apps

This technology can expand the influence of the event to at-home registrants, and is effective at showcasing event space to planners.

Data Dashboards

We all prefer our mobile devices, and that doesn't change during an event. Attendees want instant access to agendas, updates, and networking.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Chatbots are popular with planners and hoteliers because they provide answers in real-time, and do so without much staff oversight.

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)

RFID makes it easier for planners to collect data, such as surveys and session attendance.

7. What makes an event: technology in the moment

Today, exceptional experiences also include a healthy amount of technology. From easing a time-consuming process, enhancing a stay or improving the level of interest or interaction with a topic, technology is at the forefront of helping planners create exceptional in-event experiences

To put it simply: if your guests are sitting idle and passively listening, then their energy and engagement is sure to decrease.” The great opportunity is to instill a sense of excitement and enthusiasm in your events through the connective power of technology.

Websites: It’s not just for registration. A good event website can drive engagement before, during, and after the event through interactive content, video and images.

Room Block Management: Helping every participant register quickly and efficiently gets the event off to a great start; it’s also a great way to offer upgrades and package offers to attendees

Virtual Reality (VR):

At-a-glance analytics provide quick insights that can help optimize events and offerings.

Augmented Reality (AR): Digital interaction is the name of the game, and that's exactly what AR does: Have attendees use their phones to transform your venue with visual effects.

Beacons: Few solutions are better at connecting events and mobile devices. Period. At events, Beacons improve communication, push updates, and promote targeted content — all through Bluetooth.  

Planner Expectations Around Technology

Technology has indelibly changed the hospitality industry. Professionals on both sides of the meetings and events ecosystem — planner and supplier — now expect technology to power their events and increase efficiency.

The Value of Technology

That finding reflects an emerging requirement for venue managers to stay abreast of the application of technology in order to provide a best-in-class experience for planners. Some of the significant benefits planners and hoteliers can expect to achieve include improved engagement, increased revenue, an improvement in managing costs, and greater ROI insights.

After the Event: What Attendees and Planners Want

Event attendees are also hotel guests. So, in addition to their expectations for a memorable event, they’re also looking for amenities and options during off-hours.

Doing that takes more than spa services and local tour packages. By keeping the connection alive, there’s an opportunity to build an ongoing relationship. This makes it easier for planners to return to your venue for the next event.

Put your hospitality management professional learnings into practice

With all that goes into an event – the sourcing, logistics, and managing of hundreds of issues – what most planners want is for attendees to walk away satisfied and rewarded for spending time at the event. Post-event special touches, from a relaxing spa treatment to a simple survey and “thank you,” send them on their way with an unforgettable final impression

The PCI Security Standards Council claims that since March, malicious virus-related reports are up 475%. The reason for the uptick is that cybercriminals are trying to take advantage of rapid changes to the payment-card data environment. In addition, 41% of small businesses have said they’ve suffered breaches costing more than $50,000 to fix.

Contactless payment is one of the big changes within the payment data environment. Several restaurant companies – from chains to independents – are offering it because it reduces customers' physical interaction with the restaurant's POS system. As part of this move, some businesses have eliminated credit-card PIN numbers.

Eliot says malicious email is usually the easiest way for cybercriminals to access your networks. The emails typically show up as urgent requests for sensitive information, often pretending to be from the Small Business Administration or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. When the intended victim types in his or her credentials and clicks on a specific link or downloads an attachment, criminals are in.

Anyone looking for easy-to-implement security tips can try these six to start. Reduce areas where payment-card data is stored. The best way to protect against a data breach is to avoid storing any card information at all. With many small operators offering curbside pickup and accepting payment over the phone instead of through face-to-face transactions, it’s important they train employees not to write down payment card details. Instead, have them enter numbers directly into a secure terminal. Use strong passwords. Using weak and default passwords is one of the leading causes of payment data breaches among businesses. Effective passwords must be strong and updated regularly. The most recent guidance is: the longer, the better. Think of it almost as a “passphrase” rather than a password. Use it in the form of a sentence, but mix in different characters within the phrase. It’s much harder to break a long passphrase than it is a short, complex password. Weak and vendor default passwords often result in small business data breaches. Also, don’t repeat your passwords. Update your software often. Criminals look for outdated software to exploit flaws in unpatched systems. Timely installations of security patches are crucial to minimizing the risk of a breach. Whenever updates are available, use them. They will improve performance and close out some of the vulnerabilities cybercriminals are searching for. Enable two-factor authentication. It's so important for restaurateurs, especially where their POS systems or any of their sensitive databases are concerned, to have two-factor or multi-factor authentication enabled. If an instance where credentials are stolen occurs, there will be a second layer of verification the operator can rely on to potentially reduce the chances that information will be breached. Segment your networks. If you are going to store payment data, make sure your POS system has its own separate, secure network. Do not store sensitive documents on public cloud services such as Google Docs or DropBox. If you’re going to store sensitive documents, house them in an encrypted, locked down location.   Be hyper-vigilant. Criminals are going to try to take advantage of this pandemic situation as much as possible. You can protect yourself by not giving out sensitive information, especially within unsolicited emails. Don’t click on links you’re not expecting and do everything in your power to protect all sensitive information.

get sick, 128,000 are hospitalized, and 3,000 die of foodborne diseases.

The idea is to simplify kitchen and inventory tasks while doing away with outdated methods of cooking, which include monitoring cook times via wall clocks or relying on employee experience to know when items are done cooking.

CookRight is an advanced AI platform that incorporates machine learning, sensors, and computer vision to allow cooks to track a food item on a grill and monitor cooking time automatically in order to deliver precision-level cooking.

utilizes AI to optimize ingredient handling and cooking.

In addition to consistency and precision in cooking applications, the platform also leverages powerful analytics to improve food quality, drive efficiency, and save money by closely monitoring for supply chain issues. Robots may be coming for jobs in fast food, but for the time being, human augmentation seems to be the easier sell.

It is high time now for the hospitality industry to consider building gamification apps to engage their customers. You can create games that help customers win discount coupons of the nearby restaurants or theme parks.

Using augmented and mixed reality headsets,  such as Microsoft Hololens, companies can show all this information to the manager and employees in real-time.

Many hoteliers have leveraged augmented reality to make the hotel environment more enjoyable to customers. For example, one of the leading hotel chains,

Augmented reality can help facility managers to increase their engineers’ productivity and decrease costs to keep them safe. Incorporating AR mobile app into EAM and CMMS solutions can help them work more efficiently.

Hoteliers can use this technology to create virtual keys that allow customers to unlock their rooms when they come near one.

The law required that all checked bags be screened, cockpit doors be reinforced, and more federal air marshals be put on flights.

Things that clearly could be wielded as weapons, like the box-cutters used by the 9/11 hijackers, were banned. After “shoe bomber” Richard Reid’s attempt to take down a flight from Paris to Miami in late 2001, footwear started coming off at security checkpoints.

Clear, which recently went public, plans to use PreCheck enrollment to boost membership in its own identity-verification product by bundling the two offerings

The long lines created by post-attack measures gave rise to the PreCheck and Global Entry “trusted-traveler programs” in which people who pay a fee and provide certain information about themselves pass through checkpoints without removing shoes and jackets or taking laptops out of their bag.

, PreCheck asks people about basic information like work history and where they have lived, and they give a fingerprint and agree to a criminal-records check.

Privacy advocates are particularly concerned about ideas that TSA has floated to also examine social media postings (the agency’s top official says that has been dropped), press reports about people, location data and information from data brokers including how applicants spend their money.

Each new requirement seemed to make checkpoint lines longer, forcing passengers to arrive at the airport earlier if they wanted to make their flights.

The TSA is testing the use of kiosks equipped with facial-recognition technology to check photo IDs and boarding passes rather than having an officer do it.

co

“TSA is an effective deterrent against most attacks,”

This summer, an average of nearly 2 million people per day have flowed through TSA checkpoints.

“They are there for my security. They aren’t there to hassle me,” Gathings said of TSA screeners and airport police.

Those incidents highlight a threat that TSA needs to worry about — people who work for airlines or airports and have security clearance that lets them avoid regular screening.

“All those folks that have a (security) badge, you’re right, many do have unescorted access throughout an airport, but they also go through a very rigorous vetting process before they are even hired,”