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This article talks about 3 stages for the telecommunication development in hotel. Hotel could absolutely use the phone 2 decades ago which is much more convenient to keep in touch with each others because of the lack of the mobile phones. But after the cellphone came out, hotel couldn't make more benefit from the phone calls which were just used for internal communications, morning calls, housekeeping and so on. After 2000, another technology was created which is call VolP( voice over the internet or IP phone) which could do more than a phone, such as Ads on the IP PHone. but it could not be widely used because of the complexity and cost. There is a new technology coming out called cloud which combines all the stuffs-- Telephones, PMS, Internet, and cable plant together and make employees or customers easier to learn. For example,a hosted provider of not only voice, but PMS, Internet access, premises infrastructure. Several hybrid IP systems now support a gateway mode - where the on-premises solution is effectively a gateway controlling all the analog rooms. Centrally managed and controlled - integrated into a multi-tenant web based PMS - backed by a 24-hour help desk and NOC, could be the ticket to get hospitality VoIP.

This article talks about how a POS system is designed to help a business reduce cost and increase profit. As the article states a POS system would 'Enhance Efficiency and Reduce Overheads and help Optimize Inventory." Instead of relying on employees to keep track of what inventory is in stock and what isnt, the POS system would do this automatically and also show which products sell more than others. "Some will perform better than others and you can see this at any time, allowing you to maintain better control over your inventory to maximize sales."

The new iPad POS systems are starting to turn up all over the place in many restaurants and hotels. The iPad FIRMS POS system also can be used with the iPod touch, offers a 90% savings on traditional POS systems and can be optimized to fit restaurants of any level. We all know that POS systems could cost over $20,000 so by getting the iPad system you can put the money you are saving to improve the restaurant or use the money else where.

To ensure customer satisfaction and repeat business, it is very important that the hospitality industry determine what type of telecommunication equipment is going to optimize their guest experience. Our guests want to stay connected, either they are on vacation or in a business trip. Before installing telecommunication equipments in a hotel room, it is a good idea to know what type of customers your business handles. They could be a family on vacation or professionals on a business trip. There are a lot of companies that offer telecomunications equipments for this industry, and base on customer satisfaccion , the hotel industry needs to fit customer needs....

This article definitely explains all of the uses that will benefit the guests in hotels. The first thing that it mentions is choosing a telecommunications equipment that meets all of the needs of the organization and is easy to use. This to me is the most important aspect because if you choose equipment that does not suit all of your companies needs it is not efficient at all to the company because you may then have to end up purchasing other equipment and spending more money in the long run. Choosing telecommunications equipment that is secure and has a reliable messaging system is also important because guests may need to relay messages to someone as well as employees may need to relay messages to one another. If the system is not reliable there is always a chance that messages will not be delivered to the proper person or in the proper time frame causing problems. If you can find a system that has all of these features in one it is definitely the best option for your organization. This is a great article because it talks about all of these issues which we may not realize exist.

Optimize your guests' experience with hotel telecommunications equipment In an ever more global society, many businesses are becoming progressively more dependent on telecommunications equipment. For the hospitality industry, this is an increasingly vital priority. Whether your main focus is family vacations or business trips, your guests want to stay connected.

The Availpro organization is the hospitality industry leader in online distribution. Its mission is to provide hotel owners with the most effective online sales platform. Using the tagline, 'The World is your hotel Marketplace,' Availpro has helped thousands of hotels worldwide sell over ten million rooms by utilizing a highly developed extranet channel. Availpro's extranet channels provide two-way connectivity to over one hundred distribution websites. With a larger scope of distribution the hotels using Availpro increase their sales and become more efficient. In addition, Availpro's management of these extranet channels saves hotels valuable time. However the reason Availpro is the leader in online distribution is not just its booking capabilities but rather its recent developments that together provide their clients an online distribution extranet solution. The booking engines that made Availpro successful expanded to include mobile applications and social booking with Facebook. Availpro also introduced important decision-making tools such as the Smart Channel Manager, Rate Screener and Guest Satisfaction. I was curious about the 'Rate Screener' so I read Availpro's article "Availpro rate screener allows Hotel owners to sell their rooms at best rate," published on October 17th 2011 (http://www.hospitalitynet.org/news//4053349.html). This tool was developed with user input and tested in real life rate decision scenarios. The all-in-one solution allows managers to see their rates, inventory and competitor rates on a central distribution schedule. By analyzing their competition in real time managers are able to optimize their rates. Long gone are the days when managers used to call the local competition and pretend to be walk-in guests to find out fire sale rates. This most recent article, published on the third of January 2012, discusses Availpro's growing partnership with Premier Hotels of the World™. By incorporating Availpro's ex

The article talks about the new technological advancements Red Lion Corporation has made in order to make customers do their reservations on the website of a company, to learn about their destinations, etc. Employing new search optimization engines, mobile platforms and interactive map technologies really advances this company in all the aspects.

What hotel call accounting does is to track, manage, and bill or allocate phone calls made by guests or employees. It has played a critical role in the lodging industry for decades. By the mid-1980s, call accounting was a very profitable source for most of hotels/motels because it generated thousands of dollars each month. However, hotel call accounting has been less important due to the presence of cell phones, decrease in long distance rates. At this point, hoteliers may wonder if they really need call accounting systems. The author emphasizes that hotel call accounting is still important and beneficial for hotels/motels in many ways: billing hotel guests for all phone calls, detecting phone misuse or abuse, decreasing billing errors, etc. Mostly, revenues from call accounting alone can cover the costs for phone equipment and service, so hotels do not take any risk. The author also stresses that call accounting has a bright future. Even though the importance of call accounting has decreased, hotels still need a way to track and bill phone calls to guests and departments as PMS and phone systems get more advanced, as Internet and VoIP are used more and more.

                  This article talks about the importance of call accounting in hotels. Call Accounting is a hotel's ability to track and analyze the phone calls made from its grounds.                   Call Accounting is a software that is still a necessity even though it no longer makes as much money as it used to. Warner says, "Now that cell phones are everywhere and long distance rates have significantly decreased, call accounting does not allow properties to bring in nearly as much revenue as before. For many hotels/motels, call accounting has been forced to take a back seat in their organization."       Call Accounting shouldn't be eliminated simply because the ROI is less. Tracking where a 911 call originated and providing quality customer service is more important than money. If you provide proper customer service, the money will come.          In another article on Ezine articles, Warner said, "Without a call accounting system, hotel managers do not have the information needed to quickly resolve guest concerns and may be confronted with headaches and disgruntled customers. However, by using a call accounting system, managers can have the added security and peace of mind that they have the information needed to help their guests and to understand, manage, improve, and control telephone activities."                  

Summary: This article is about a study done at Ecole Hoteliere de Lausanne on the investment of PMS training and its relationship to a hotels performance. The study resulted in positive correlations between PMS training and revenues. Opinion: Training employees on the PMS seems like common sense but most hotels do not believe it is necessary. This study and its results make perfect sense but I am also a little surprised by the significant increase in revenues that is created from properly training employees on PMS. 

This article is about a current study, in which about 150 mid-scale and up-scale hotels around the world answer the questionnaire. This study analyzes the relationship between PMS training and business performance, and the investment in training in PMS. Although every hotel manager knows the PMS is the key factor for hotels development, not only for getting customer data but also for decision making. The result shows that most of PMS system in hotel have not been made full used, there are many potential abilities can't be exploited. According to the study, most hotels don't have budget on PMS training. And also 32% of hotels don't provide training to all employees on the PMS. Plus, even they have training, it is very short and just in internal, no using the PMS providers. This study also shows us the hotels have a higher level of occupancy when they allocate more budgets on PMS training and have PMS suppliers training. There is also a relationship between PMS training budget and hotel revenues, the more budget on training bring a higher revenues. And the revenues are much higher than budgets. Hotels also need efficient management of PMS training, which means more revenues and full use of PMS.

The property management system is a tool not only is customer data but it can also help strategic and operational decision making. The study undertaken investigates the investments in training in PMS and the relationship between training and business performance. A big majority has no training or offer a very little training. There is a support that underutilization of the PMS is due to the lack of training. There is a higher occupancy level when hotels allocate higher budgets to PMS trainings. There is a significant positive correlation that shows a relationship between PMS budget and the gross operating revenues of hotels.

Vendor offering regarding integration of Electronic Point of Sale System (EpoS) installation allowing supplier reach efficiency through optimization of PMS function through an electronic format. Includes "Cloud" methodologies and technologies such as SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS.

This article is about an innovative system named REX (Room expediter) that is able to improve the efficiency of the hotel and improve guests' satisfaction. With REX, the Fairmont Scottsdale Princess is able to efficiently assign rooms and reduce labor costs associated with the housekeeping department. REX is the only system in its kind that streamlines the entire room assignments and clearing process with mobile devices such as IPOD, IPAD and the like. REX is also using information from the hotel's PMS such as name, bed type preferences to room attendants so that they can optimize guests' satisfaction. Another important feature of REX is the ability to use information from the Property management system such as status changes and others to define the order to which rooms are assigned to rooms attendants. In conclusion, REX is a powerful system that can increase guests' satisfaction, reduce labor costs and in return increase profits for the hotel industry.

Heartland Payment Systems has recently partnered up with ToGo Technologies to offer mobile and online ordering payment solutions for restaurants. The companies are actually focusing on expanding their market reach by targeting smaller franchises that typically could not afford the hardware and software cost of purchasing such technology. QSRs are hopping on the tech bandwagon. The article gives the example of Taziki's Mediterranean Café, which is a fast casual restaurant with 35 locations. Their guests have easily made the transition from manual to digital ordering. Like others in this market space, Heartland Payment Systems is offering a cloud-based product that is highly customizable. The software takes into account a litany of restaurant industry standards and methods, such as "takeout, delivery, curbside pickup, catering, order from the table, and gift and loyalty." By giving restaurants various templates, they can work on optimizing mobile solutions, including pay-ahead options for quick service. Moreover, their system integrates and tracks key metrics and analytics, improving data mining and collection efforts. More and more businesses are turning to data collection as a means of increasing efficiencies and decreasing waste. With the amount of waste it must deal with regularly, the restaurant industry is a great market to target with data-driven technology. Heartland Payment Systems already has a history of working with the hospitality industry, so it a recognized name. By partnering with ToGo Technologies, they will be able to provide a quality, whitelabel mobile solution for restaurants looking to stay ahead of the pack with technological advances. Heartland will actually be demonstrating their software at the Food Service Technology-Next Gen conference next weekend at the Sheraton in New Orleans, Louisiana for those interested in this product.

I found this article to be very interesting because it gives us an example of a specific Property Management System. It is crucial to know the importance of all the "add-ons" and features that different PMS's have to know which one is the best. There might be a numerous amount of options for your company, so it is good to research a few to know which one fits best for your needs. It is interesting to see how there are different PMS programs being tested. This proves that there is a lot of competition.

Bunkhouse Group adopted a mobile PMS to seven of its hotels. Their hotels offer unique experiences that differ from other places. The properties really work together with the communities they are in and include locals, and dogs to come together with their guests. Adopting StayNTouch is a great way for bunkhouse to evolve as a group. With further research done, the hotels really gain attention from millenials whom are always up to date with the newest technology. By installing this new cloud PMS it will allow guests to check in and out easily and quickly. The PMS will also help cut costs in properties owned by Bunkhouse by reducing training and optimizing work done by front desk and housekeeping.

This particular article on hospitality and tourism accounting states that the global travel industry is expanding at an accelerated rate. Although there are high demands in corporate travel and high level of satisfaction in the economy, the ever growing industry is vulnerable to many risks given by its consumers. Just as much as the guests utilizing these hospitality services are becoming more pressing towards great prices and expressing concern in the quality of service they receive, hotel businesses are adamant about increasing awareness in cost and profit. To balance all these exclusive challenges, hotels are insisting on being educated and equipped with the most up-to-date technological advances to keep up with the ever demanding industry. With this in mind, the article states three methods to conquer the challenges faced today. The first method is to utilize a cloud based system to keep track of all the innumerous activities present to keep the business running. Due to the fact that a hotel is run by an overflowing amount of employees, all with different jobs and tasks, all using different systems respective to their departments, and require several types of pay (part-time, full-time, tipped employees) methods, it is a challenge to keep things efficient without a proper system. This is the reason why the article recommends using a cloud based system to keep track of the daily labor costs, overtime management, daily payroll transactions, and incorporate easy accessibility to reporting functions. The cloud based system will be beneficial in keeping everything in record beginning from the moment an employees clocks in to the end where they receive their paycheck, as well as, the ability to manage transactions. The second method is to centralize all the various sources of data. Hotels have a countless amount of data being stored. That can range from guest satisfaction satisfaction survey and comment reports, PMS data, to financial reports. With all these busy ac

The article discusses how hotels can overcome accounting obstacles. Firstly managing payroll is cumbersome, so a cloud-based reporting system can provide an easy way to monitor labour and manage overtime, and daily payroll transactions. Secondly, hotels have a difficult time to read data as data can come from a huge variety of sources: STR reports, PMS data, satisfaction surveys, comments. Hotels need a centralized dashboard which combines all critical accounting and performance data to assist hotels in making better decisions. Lastly, the article talks about hotels needing a back-up accounting team in case of disasters. In-house accounting teams may not be able to tackle on one-time event disasters and there must be a back-up team in place in times of urgency. The author, Scott Watson, executive vice president of sales and marketing at a cloud-based financial platform, sees that hotels are becoming more "cost and profit conscious" and I agree with him. Technology solutions are what hotels are craving right now to increase revenue, minimize costs, and maximize profits without sacrificing service quality.

This article helps guides hotels in how to overcome challenges when it comes to the accounting department in any situation that deals with staff tracking, how to decipher intricate data, and what to do in emergencies. The article details the usefulness of the Cloud and keeping track of staff members that are FOH and BOH that are both hourly and salary. That the accounting department could simply look them up in the cloud rather than searching through paperwork to understand exactly what their role is in the hotel and pay them accordingly. The article also goes over how having multiple centralized data sources can help accountants understand information from reports, guest satisfaction questionnaires, and other forms of reporting to pinpoint exactly what needs to be changed to become more efficient in the company. Lastly, the article covers how having back up accounting teams could be a definite positive just in case of emergencies (i.e. weather) so accounting can still be in progress no matter what situation occurs and the hotel can run smoothly.

Expedia Inc. believes that voice command will be the biggest disrupter in the travel industry in the near future. Due to technology advancements in the industry, which Expedia spends roughly $1.3 billion annually, soon customers will be able to book their whole vacation by simply using their voice. Part of the industry would be shaken because as the services get more convenient, then less travel agents would be necessary. I believe part of the problem is optimizing the actual voice commands to actually work. During demonstrations, they always seem to work, but many people have problems using it. I am not a huge fan of using any voice commands, especially to book an expensive trip; however, I believe we will get to a point where the voice commands will be really accurate. I just thought it is ironic that Expedia thinks voice commands will disrupt the travel market, when the company's own existence already did that a few years ago by allowing customers to book their own trips from computers or mobile devices.

Mercedes-Benz President and CEO Steve Cannon stated, "Customer experience is the new marketing," and his prediction helps explain a new wave of optimism. Nowadays, hotels are judged by whether guest experiences match customer expectations. Individuals desire to be engaged when they want, where they want, with the content they would like to see. It's about people, connection, service quality, engagement and experience. The future will belong to those hotels and hotel brands that create the most memorable customer experiences. Using a cloud PMS for managing a hotel efficiently, is an essential shift to improve operations and increase profitability in the hospitality industry. Also, a cloud-based PMS enables mobile self-service to provide self-check-in options for hotel guests. This hotel experience contributes to guests' comfort and improves their experience as soon as they arrive, which in turn, increases customer satisfaction. Cloud PMS allows hotels to easily keep track of all their guests' personalized preferences and provides a system for delivering individualized services and amenities to meet their needs. Personalized service makes guests not only feel welcome, but also creates an emotional bond between hotels and their customers. This is a win-win situation, which creates guest loyalty in the long run.

This article is meant to show the reader about the importance of accounting in the Hospitality & Tourism industry. The role of an accountant is crucial to the success of a hospitality company. The article also goes onto answer the questions that commonly face accountants.

In this article titled, "Importance of Accounting in Hotel Management", the author stresses that accounting is crucial in numerous industries and processes, including the hospitality industry. Hotel accountants need to create month-end accounts, compare profits to previous periods, analyze forecasts, prepare budgets and business planning, financial statements, balance sheets, cash flows and payroll control. Aspects to take into consideration are the amount of total sales achieved per year, average prices of hotel rooms, and month's profit comparisons. An interesting quote I read in this article was that "it is important to distinguish accounting from management. Accounting is a tool used by good managers". Accounting in hotel management is crucial to keep track of cash flows, forecasts and aforementioned reports. While analyzing how accounting can further add value to managers or how it can be optimized, I believe that real time reports and data analysis can create red flags so changes can be performed on time and systems can be optimized. After all, this allows the business to become more efficient in order for them to focus on their core strengths and direction.

In this article we discuss the five basic principles of accounting in restaurants. Many people do not like the principle of accounting, and do not know much about it. With these basics, people can have a simplified concept of what they need to know for restaurant management. First you would like to have an accounting chart that discusses inflows and outflows, plus the liabilities and assets that your business has. This is a great way to monitor your finances. Next, is the cost of goods sold. These are the costs for the items that were purchased and then sold. You need to monitor this, in order to calculate the cost you are making per dish in compared to profit. Third, other costs that include fixed costs like operation and occupancy, or labor costs of course. You want to monitor this strictly, in order to see the areas where you might be spending a lot when it comes to employees. Then you want to compare it to the profits you are making. Forth, the prime costs. Prime costs are the total variable costs that you have. Variable costs are those that can be controlled, and you want to keep an eye on these in order to see what needs to be cut to optimize profit. Lastly, you have the cost to sales ratio. Larger restaurants might have higher costs, because they are creating larger sales. You really want to create a ratio of costs to your own sales, to see how well you are doing compared to the competition.

This article describes the potential in the airline industry for practicing revenue optimization based on the data they collect from their customers and using it to tailor their prices. The argument is that these companies already have much of the data stored they just are not currently using it to its full potential in this digital age. The benchmark the author uses is Amazon. This is part 1 of a 2 part series. 

With the growth of OTAs there has been an increase in OTA fees. This does not mean however that hotels should not use OTAs to fill rooms. To optimize a healthy channel mix a hotel must look at certain distribution channel as not every guest is loyal to one brand. This is why avoiding OTAs is not a good idea. The optimal percent of OTA business depends on the hotel. One reason for hotels to pay special attention to direct bookings is that third-parties do not share data with hotels. In the lecture we learned that data means nothing but knowledge is everything. Since third-parties do not share information remarketing these guests is difficult. Additionally, guests who book with OTAs tend to be less loyal, travel less, and spend less.