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This article talked about Hilton New York installs a new green roof system and cogeneration system. Those two IT investments are designed to reduce the hotel's overall carbon footprint. The green roof system represents a major investment by Hilton New York to benefit efforts in carbon capture, energy conversation, and reduction of Urban Heat Island effect. And the high-efficient, environmentally-friendly cogeneration system will provide in excess of 50 percent of hotel's electrical power and over 40 percent of its steam consumption for heating and hot water requirements.

This article talked about Hilton New York installs a new green roof system and cogeneration system. Those two IT investments are designed to reduce the hotel's overall carbon footprint. The green roof system represents a major investment by Hilton New York to benefit efforts in carbon capture, energy conversation, and reduction of Urban Heat Island effect. And the high-efficient, environmentally-friendly cogeneration system will provide in excess of 50 percent of hotel's electrical power and over 40 percent of its steam consumption for heating and hot water requirements.

This article discusses some current trends in property management systems and how Maestro by NORTHWIND is ready to deliver. Maestro by NORTHWIND is a PMS used by many independent hotels and resorts and offers 20 integrated modules. One of the top trends for 2012 is mobile optimization for management and guests. More and more people are turning to mobile apps for personalized services, and express check-in and check-outs. Maestro Xpress Check-In App allows properties to use iPads and other tablets to do this anywhere there is WIFI. Maestro's App will also allow managers access to reports, and real-time activity from anywhere allowing managers more control over their business. Another growing trend is cloud PMS. Maestro has a cloud based system that claims it can increase productivity at the same time reducing costs. Managers can manage multiple hotels from a single location and reduce costs because they won't have to maintain an in-house PMS. There is also a steady increase in direct online booking from mobile apps and social media sites. Maestro Web Connection reduces the commissions paid to online travel agencies and 3rd parties by allowing guests to book reservations directly. Another way Maestro helps independent hotel chains is by offering them a guest loyalty system to help them offer some of the same incentive and reward programs offered by larger hotel chains.

Northwind Maestro leads the innovations of industry. Cloud system platforms are not just for the large chains. Small, independent operators also can use web-enabled platform with lower cost. Mobile is another trend of PMS innovations. Customers can check in and checkout on iPad by using Maestro Mobile Apps. In addition, direct-booking online from Mobile is the third top trend in 2012 PMS technology. Maestro's Guest Loyalty System with online capabilities is the first application to offer independents the same benefits as major chains to recognize, reward, and retain guests.

Seeing the rapid development of mobile devices and social media, hoteliers are connecting PMS with mobile devices and social media. NORTHWIND Maestro™ is a kind of software which satisfies hoteliers' current requirement. NORTHWIND Maestro™ is an Internet-based PMS. It brings plenty of benefits to hotels. To illustrate, Maestro can reduce cost, create operating efficiencies, secure cardholder information, and to have instant remote access to their property or hotel group's data. Furthermore, since more and more people are using mobile devices to book rooms, make dining reservations or some other services, Maestro also develops mobile apps. "The Maestro Mobile App enables operators to wirelessly connect to their Maestro centralized system and provides access to management reports, real-time activity and other features found in Maestro." Maestro also thinks of customer loyalty by tracking customers and establish database.

Atrio® is an app based PMS system that is completely hosted on the cloud. The program is built for the way most of us approach new technology. Many of us, especially those entering the hospitality business as young professionals, learn technology by simply looking at it. By this I mean that we expect technology and applications to be self-explanatory. It is an "I want to do X so I will click on X" mindset. Atrio® is set up so that a new user can use this approach to learn the basic functions of the system. Par Springer-Miller, the parent company, states that an individual will be able to check a guest in to a hotel room with zero training and should be able to make a reservation after only being shown one time! This significantly reduces training costs and time. In addition, the completely cloud based system minimizes on-site technology and therefore reducing implementation costs and hardware/software investments as well as allowing for seamless updates. After reading the article, I viewed a YouTube video posted by Par Springer-Miller here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtqtxN2SBJY. I must say, I wish my property would look into Atrio®!

This article details the up and coming new trend of restaurants offering customers the ability to be able to pay at their table. The article details the various pros and cons associated with the type of service and how it can benefit the customer as well as the employees of a restaurant establishment. While not perfect, there are many pros associated with a pay-at-the-table service that are hard to ignore, and it is my humble opinion that this kind of service will continue to catch on into the near future. Customers are increasingly looking for new ways to utilize technology to their advantage to be able to get in and out of a restaurant and pay-at-the-table technology definitely allows that. The companies that adopt this kind of technology will increasingly see their profits grow as well as their table turn increase.

In this article it discussed the main green technologies used for hotel chains and independent hotel owners. In a bid to reduce carbon emissions ahead of possible future legislation, many hotels are adopting strategies to comply with stringent energy guidelines. Large hotel chais are making sure they go extra miles to ensure their green credentials are noticed. Green consultants and architects are employed and eco-friendly strategy for sustainable technologies are rolled out at the entire hotel groups.  Hotel architecture transform to more new green hotel developments which more fit in  with the local landscape as well as energy reducing technology apply for the roofing and building materials. Bio fuel heating replace for diesel and recycled water being used to irrigate hotel grounds. Some hotels are using ozone instead of chlorine in the pools. Other green energy management systems has become increasingly common. Green gadgets are proving a cost effective choice and can also reduce the impact of heavy guest usage on resources.Many Chins are minimizing waste by avoiding over-paced products and asking to deliver minimal wrapping.  Further cost effective measures can be applied to guest activities. They promote local restaurants and attractions within walking distance or only a short care journey away. Bicycles are offered for guests or endorse local tour firms which save on multiple car journeys.  Eco-friendly measures and green technology as part of hotel's general philosophy are well accepted. It also helps to ensure future goodwill and increase occupancy rates. It worth adopting a green technology policy to suit a hotel budget.

Through the article, I found that more and more companies and customers concern about green technology and it has became a heated issue for hotel chains and independent hotel owners. Then why do we need green technology in hotel industry? The answers varies: the general one could be that we need a green world and we should reduce the burden of our environment; for customers, I think we should try to protect the place that provides us beautiful view and nice mood and to make it more comfortable to live in; for hoteliers, building and operating hotels means more saving on energy, more profit,and higher reputation. Even through we have different points of view, we can work on the same theme. Then the problem came in: how to build and operate a green hotel. The author of this article gave me some ideas and I am sure green technology can be everywhere. For instance, large hotel chains can employ green consultants and architect and even launch test sites where they can assess the effectiveness of their green strategy. Professional architects can customize their design to fit the local landscape. From the beginning we can have the green roofing and building materials which can benefit us a lot later. The facilities and operation system can be energy saving by focusing on every detail such as the recycled water and bio fuel heating.  Besides in room technology can be green too. Hoteliers can also try to plan some actives that are environmental friendly for their guests.  Green technology can be applied to every step of building and operating hotels.It is meaningful for hoteliers to focus on the green theme. 

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 explains what green computing is and how it is impacting businesses in order to reduce energy consumption. Provides us the evolution of green computing and how the Environment Protection Agency decided to promote and recognize energy consumption.

A plan developed by the U.S Travel Association and a panel of travel and security experts aims to improve security at America's airports and reduce the burden on travelers. Among the most notable recommendations are the creation of a trusted traveler program and a requirement that travelers be allowed to check at least one bag at no additional cost to the ticket price as a means to reduce the amount of luggage going through the security checkpoint. There are recommendations about this plan: Reduce duplicative TSA screening for international arrivals.  Expand trusted traveler programs to qualified international passengers. Give TSA authority over the entire checkpoint area.  Develop a comprehensive technology procurement strategy.  Implement well-defined risk management processes. 

This article discusses a couple of ways in which hotels are extending themselves to go green. Specifically the article lists three ways in which these hotels are initiating themselves into going green, which are through low water consumption Power saving, and solid waste disposal. The article also discusses energy efficient lighting.  Along with discussing these processes, the article explains that its not easy to be green in this sector, but the hotel industry now has a new environmental conscience. This being great for hotels. its one step in opening a new way to help get our environment back to where it needs to be and with there being such a large scale of hotels why not get them in the best order that we can get them. 

As the article states"The hotel industry has long been associated with excessive waste: using powerful chemicals for cleaning and wasting energy for maintenance rather than being environmentally friendly. Moreover and as result of tourism industry growth, the demand for resources from the hospitality sector has exponentially increased. However, the new popularity of Eco Tourism has encouraged hotels to adopt new green practices that allow them to reduce their negative impact on the environment" The hospitality industry can help improve the environmental problems we are going through at the moment by simply adding: low water consumption, power saving, energy-efficient lighting and solid waste disposal. Furthermore, the guest are starting to become more aware and loyal to brands that are making changes to become green and there is where eco tourism starts and its getting bigger. In the future, all hotels will have to follow the LEED requirements which makes them follow certain rules to help reduce energy and go green. This will help the hotel managers and industry save money and at the same time help the environment.

The article gives a relative brief intorduction of how BlackLine's accounting software worke well in many brands hotels and casinoes.The Account Reconciliations and Transaction enables lots  of hotels such as Four Seasons, Royal Carriebean, Venetian Casino Resort and so forth can streamline the financial close and process the immense bolume of transactions they receive on a daily basis in a timely manner-especially credit cards, which will reduce more risk of credit cards frauds and maintian security  of cusotmers' consideration. One of good applications is SaaS delivery model. BlackLine enhances the application with a more unify  and complete structure and segregation, which prevents others from seeing its data. Another good example is Kempinski has greatly reduce their excess paper and simplified their account reconciliation process via BlackLine's tehcnology. The web-based application enhable hoteliers access to all stakeholders anywhere at any time, which makes hoteliers gain more valuable effiencies reducing time with audits.

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."

This article talks about a conference that took place in Las Vegas concerning how hospitality organizations should automate accounting processes. Representatives from BlackLine Systems, a financial software developer, alongside panelists from MGM Resorts Intl and Caesers Entertainment will be discussing how hospitality organizations should utilize technology to automate accounting processes. Technology and software can reduce the often frustrating feelings associated with spreadsheet accounting. Additionally these tools will help organizations run more efficiently especially for hotels that operate on a global level. These automated systems can increase productivity and reduce costs with the ultimate goal of achieving balance sheet integrity.

As Americans tries to go paper less in many areas, the process is taking longer than expected. A survey conducted by TNS Global Market asks Americans if they would be willing to go paperless. Here are the results: 48% would be willing to reduce their use of newspapers, 45.9 % would reduce their use of magazines, 37.6 % are happy to reduce their use of forms, contracts, documents, 31.6% are willing to reduce their use of books and 6.1% would be willing to reduce their use of toilet paper. What do you think of that 6.1% that is willing to reduce the use of toilet paper?

This article introduces the role of IT in tourism industry and then talks about how IT investments might pay in tourism industry. There are some roles of IT in tourism industry such as reduce costs of information handling, increase speed of information transfer and retrieval and increase customer involvement in the control of transactions. And the most important role is the development of competitive advantages by both reducing cost and enhancing differentiation. It's important to invest in IT since IT could really increasing the tourism economic growth. 

This article shows us that Hilton New York installs a green roof system which installed with a Cogeneration (Combined Heat & Power) System. The whole system was designed to reduce the hotel's overall carbon usage so that to promote the hotel's sustainable development. This kind of green roof system was located on the hotel's fifth floor rooftop and it represents a major investment by Hilton New York. They want to benefit from the carbon capture, energy conservation, and reduction the Urban Heat Island effect. According to the article, this green roof will support the local farming industries by using the locally grown plants come from an upstate farm in New York. These plants are well able to absorb airborne pollutants, and then to prevent lots of CO2 releasing. In addition, the solar radiation and the thermal load have been deflected and the energy previously expended in cooling the property would be reduced. These effects will be resulted in reducing the Urban Heat Island effect. The hotel also will install a highly-efficient, environmentally-friendly Cogeneration system that will provide more electrical power by using less resource. It will use clean and efficient natural gas as the new energy. All of these system are environmental friendly and doing well in sustainable development of hospitality industry.

This article describes the advantage of Voice-Over-IP Telephone (VoIP). By using VoIP, hoteliers can increase guest telephone revenue, reduce the expense of the hotel's own telephone service costs, enhance guest service portfolio and add a differentiation factor against competition. The reason why VoIP can reduce the cost of international calls is using the public Internet instead of dedicated telephone operator facilities. With the technology of VoIP, hotelier can even give guests free limited or unlimited international calls, which may attract more guests.

This article touches upon why it is so imperative for sustainability practices to be taught in the hospitality industry. It talks about how the next generation to come will not be able to tolerate today's world's insensitivity to the environment. Sustainability has shifted from a want to a must. Many big name hotels, like Marriott, have set high goals to reduce their environmental impact. They have key performance indicators like reducing energy use and the level of CO2 emissions to help aid the Earth's environment. The goal should be to have zero CO2 emissions and zero landfill waste, but this is a goal that will take time to reach. Profits should not be the only thing businesses are interested in. Sustainability should be included in the training process of employees within the business whether they be in customer service, kitchen or marketing...everyone can help save somewhere. Sustainability has become the new management dimension, right along with providing memorable experiences and providing good service. It has been shown that companies who practice sustainability in the workplace have a lower turnover rate because the employees know they are working towards a greater good and are given a sense of purpose.

Security has always been an issue for financial services which led to avoidance of some new technology systems. Due to advancements in cloud systems, I think it is time for financial services arms of hospitality organizations to reap the increasing number of benefits of cloud computing. Also, cloud-based financial Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) helps companies enter new markets, explore new opportunities, and strengthen their business processes. Cloud-based financial ERP has certainly helped Tetherow Resort by reducing costs and allowing their finance department to concentrate on their strategic business matters rather than dealing with IT and infrastructure issues. By switching to a cloud-based system, Tetherow Resort was able to reduce the amount of infrastructure stored onsite, reduce costs of the process and develop new strategic plans. In my view, there is a huge potential in cloud-based financial ERP in for financial and even non-financial companies, because through this system companies' finance departments are able to increase the efficiency of their operations.

In this article we discuss the issues that airlines are having with the GDS system. They give an example of someone attempting to purchase a ticket through an airline website, and then through a travel agency. The direct airline method was only cheaper, if the guest provided information to a direct bank account. The cost for airlines to sell is a bit less than 10%, and they are sold mostly through indirect channels, like travel agencies. The main reason this can happen, is the integrated GDS system. A GDS system is a data facility that shares inventory information for various airlines to different 3rd party channels. The issue with this, is that the total in fees for the use of the GDS system was around $7billion, which is twice the amount of net profit they are receiving. People state that the airline system cannot survive without the GDS, but is that statement really true? Airlines like Air Asia or Ryanair have really attempted to focus on selling tickets directly, and really expand on their profit. How can this be achieved? Well, airlines are making the booking process easier for guests to manage, which gives them more of a reason to book through there. Also, they are offering greater loyalty rewards for directly booking through the site. Different incentives need to be created to attract guests to book directly. Lastly, they would like to create another distribution system, to put GDS out of business. This new system will work to allow guests to handle meal and baggage fees. Concepts that the GDS cannot handle. With that said, will this new system reduce costs for airlines? I guess they will have to wait and see.

This article describes how the Intercontinental Hotel Group is using artificial intelligence to reduce food waste. This technology uses smart scales, meters and cameras during food preparation.