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"We are the only global association dedicated to hospitality finance and technology

To create a global resource for the hospitality finance industry, Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals (HFTP®) has begun development on a global hospitality accounting system users guide.

The global guide will provide the industry with a comprehensive glossary of inventory terminology, charts of accounts and will benchmark common allocation for specific regions of the world. The project is planned as a three step process:

LBA Hospitality Partners with M3 Accounting + Analytics to Enhance Accounting Processes and Increase Efficiencies July, 31 2013 M3 Accounting + Analytics Seeking to update and streamline accounting processes for its 70-plus Southeast properties, Dothan, Ala.-based Larry Blumberg & Associates, Inc. (LBA Hospitality) recently announced an expanded partnership with M3 Accounting + Analytics, the national leader in hotel-specific accounting software, operations reporting, and business analytics. “If we are to continue to be an industry leader, we must have the ability to meet the requirements of our stakeholders and provide accurate, real-time and relevant information for our management team and owners,” said LBA President Beau Benton.  LBA sought the ability to swiftly handle budgets, forecasts, and reports, and to dissect business data, all while insuring that the back-office accounting platform functionality was state-of-the-art and industry-specific.  In choosing M3, Benton cited how the company integrates accounting, business intelligence, and reporting, while eliminating most redundancy, software investment and annual hardware/software maintenance. In addition, Benton and LBA were looking for continual and automatic upgrades, backup and disaster protection, and minimized downtime.  LBA is implementing the full suite of M3 products: accounting through the AccKnowledge platform, time, attendance and labor management through the newly released RightTime solution and LaborWatch, and payroll services through RightPay. The company will also continue to use M3 Link business intelligence reporting, as LBA will be expanding it to bring financial data, operating stats, Smith Travel feeds and guest satisfaction data (including verbatim responses) into one completely customizable dashboard. LBA, which launched its business by developing a Sheraton Inn in 1973, is rapidly growing its management business and securing more and more agreements from sophisticated owners and investors.   Scott Watson, M3 Vice President of Sales & Marketing, said, “While our core product remains our accounting solution, we’ve continued to evolve and offer new products and services that meet the current and future needs of the hospitality industry. It is truly exciting that our product platform will help Beau and LBA achieve the aggressive growth they are anticipating over the next five years.”  The implementation and training process for all LBA properties is expected to be complete by December 1.  About LBA Hospitality Based in Dothan, Ala., LBA Hospitality is a hospitality management company focused on maximizing return, safeguarding assets and enhancing value. Founded in 1973, the company now manages 70 properties throughout the Southeast, from Texas to Virginia. More information is available at http://www.LBAHospitality.com.  About M3 Accounting + Analytics M3 is the national leader in hotel-specific accounting software, operations reporting, business intelligence and analytics, processing more than $8 billion in financial transactions for more than 3,000 properties. M3’s integrated suite of hospitality accounting products includes: AccKnowledge, Link, payroll and labor management services, and document imaging and retrieval – all designed to help provide hotel operators, owners and managers unsurpassed access to the information they need in the most integrated and cost-effective manner. The company was founded in Gainesville, Ga. in 1998, and also has a base of operations in Tampa, Fla. More information is available at www.M3AS.com. 

“If we are to continue to be an industry leader, we must have the ability to meet the requirements of our stakeholders and provide accurate, real-time and relevant information for our management team and owners,” said LBA President Beau Benton.  

continue to be an industry leader, we must have the ability to meet the requirements of our stakeholders and provide accurate, real-time and relevant information for our management team and owners,” said LBA President Beau Benton.  

“POS” is an abbreviation for “point-of-sale-” the most basic POS systems calculate payment amounts and process customer payments, similar to a cash register. However, they aren’t just calculators. Most hospitality-based systems use POS systems in order to track inventory and labor costs, forecast business volumes and spot problems quickly.

You can also use them to plan schedules and communicate to other areas of the business.

Better transaction processing: Business POS systems process transactions much more quickly and with fewer errors than lower-tech methods.

Fresh off its acquisitions of Buuteeq, Hotel Ninjas, and OpenTable this year, the Priceline Group is in the process of integrating Hotel Ninjas’ property management system with hotel digital marketing company Buuteeq, according to a report,  Google’s Travel Plans in a Post-Atomic Era [embedded below], written by Ken Sena of Evercore. googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display("div-gpt-ad-1390432568424-0"); }); With the integration of the two cloud-based systems for hotels, the Priceline Group “has the ability to handle property management, channel and rate management, and CRM, all of key consideration to hotelier,” the Evercore report states. “In return, Priceline receives subscription revenues on some of the services provided in addition to keeping these hoteliers’ semi-tethered to its Priceline traffic channel from the standpoint of ease an efficiency, given Priceline’s leading scale as an OTA.”

behind the curve when it comes to the latest technology, but hoteliers are also faced with trying to decipher what tech investments will provide the greatest return.

behind the curve when it comes to the latest technology, but hoteliers are also faced with trying to decipher what tech investments will provide the greatest return.

Some brand companies see the value of investing in guest-facing technology.

Airlines used to employ fleets of operators just to process reservations. They sat around circular tables with scores of index cards — one for each flight — housed on a rotating shelf

The process would take 90 minutes for each reservation.

After CRS systems became commonplace, travel agents became the airline industry’s bottleneck.

Human Resource Information Systems (HRIS), are essential for driving fundamental HR management and payroll functions

a robust, up-to-date HR system of record can significantly jumpstart your Talent Management implementation

A HRIS provides the core system of record that enables entry, validation, maintenance, presentation, and reporting of data required for effective HR management

To alleviate the issues that come with this process, Somi Data has developed software that allows restaurant employees to easily enter a customer’s order directly from the table to the POS system with just a push of a button; SuiteServertm (from their SuiteOrderstm division).

Full POS synchronization with automatic updates for menu item availability and pricing, eliminating a time-consuming and tedious uploading/transferring process. A list of modifiers that can be added to a specific food item, to accommodate to a customer’s exact preferences. A table-side payment option; employees can swipe a customer’s payment method using the tablet/mobile device, saving time from having to return the POS terminal. A ‘Quick Order’ option, giving employees the ability to search the name of a food item, which then brings up a list of food items that match what is typed. The employee can then select it from the list of suggested items, eliminating the process of sifting through different sections of the menu to find the correct item. Instead of typing the order, an employee can also ‘write’ the order on the device with a stylus, and the SuiteServer software will interpret the writing and bring up a list of menu options that match what was written.

When you smile for the camera next time you’re at an event you might get more than a souvenir photo – you could even be handed your favourite tipple without having to ask for it.

facial recognition technology is making it possible to personalise the event experience more than ever before.

A little further off is the ability to measure the emotions of crowds, but when it does become possible, it means organisers will be able to understand how much attendees enjoyed their event or individual keynotes, without having to survey them.

Siemens

Greening the Hotel IT environmentThere are many different aspects to address when looking at the energy efficiency of data centers and server rooms.

Our expertise encompasses:Power monitoringApplication harmonization and consolidationActive Energy ManagementVirtualization

When Tetherow, a now 700-acre resort in Bend, Oregon, first opened as a golf course and clubhouse in 2008, we were a small business with big ambitions.

Today, Tetherow is made up of twenty individual entities rolled into one wholly owned subsidiary, including a 50-room boutique hotel, a pool, two restaurants, vacation rental homes, an events pavilion, a recreation center, a golf academy, and various residential neighborhoods, as well as the 18-course golf course that started it all. In addition to our leadership team, our rapid growth has been led by our financial team’s investment in a technology that allows us to grow fast, under pressure, and with limited risk.

We came to realize that the technology and accounting systems that we had added piecemeal over the years to support our burgeoning business, a combination of Jonas restaurant software, QuickBooks, and Excel, didn’t allow us to scale and sustain growth.

However, many companies make the mistake of getting wrapped up in the potential benefits and failing to properly address the challenges that come with HRIS implementation. Understanding what some of the top challenges to HRIS implementation are and how to address them can ensure greater implementation success.

Managing change is different from training, but can be addressed during HRIS training meetings. Additional support should also be available after training to help employees adapt to using the new system on a daily basis. Managers should clearly express how and when employees can reach out to discuss issues with the new changes, as with emails or specific office hours.

The world of HR has greatly been enhanced by technology. With new systems available to enhance productivity and streamline operations, those in human resources can achieve greater success with the benefits of human resource information system choices.

Depending on the type of system you choose, your company could see benefits ranging from cost and time savings to increased employee engagement and better adherence to compliance and regulations.

An HRIS can make the onboarding process an efficient and consistent one. By providing easy access to training materials and handbooks for new employees and storing all new employee information in one convenient place

US restaurants’ sales totaled roughly $500 billion in 2018.

Restaurant solutions are meant to automate the business processes involved in running such organizations. However, many processes require specific software

Latest restaurant management solutions have far more features than the ones mentioned above, they are: Table management Cashflow management Accounting Employee Scheduling Order monitoring Payroll processing Analytics

With 57% of all hotel bookings made online and 97% of all travelers searching for a place to stay using the Internet, the importance for hotels to adapt best ecommerce practices is more important today more than ever.

1. Use High Res Photos

No guest in his or her right mind would book a hotel without seeing photos of the property first. Beautiful photos is a deal breaker when it comes to almost all hotel bookings. Make sure that you use high res photos on your hotel website and make sure that you upload new ones regularly.

To many consumers, the future of being able to walk into a store, pull something off of a shelf and leave without the hassle of the checkout process sounds like Jetsons-futuristic-type stuff

For example, Uber lets consumers get a ride to wherever they want to go without ever having to pull out their wallet to pay.

Because customers enrolled in your loyalty program may permit you to acquire data about their purchases, you can personalize your customer's shopping experiences even more while they’re right there in the store with specific offers that complement their buying preferences.

Here is a summary of the trends in three online distribution channels used in the hospitality industry: websites, Global Distribution Systems (GDS), and online travel agents (OTAs).

The Internet has made marketing more measurable and accountable with different metrics and analytics that show the contribution of marketing to the bottom line. The most critical measures of marketing are the customer acquisition cost (CAC) and the customer lifetime value (CLV), which at times can be difficult to understand and quantify.

The CAC is the price a hotel pays to acquire a new customer, which can have a significant impact on RevPAR performance and asset value growth. The CLV is a prediction of the value a business will derive from its entire relationship with a customer.