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The article titled "Deciphering ROI from tech investment can be complicated", explores how technology can be challenging within the hotel industry. It is important to note that hotels need to understand what components they need to include, and which are simply a waste of money. According to the author, "Some technology trends are elements that hotels need to survive, while some technology is simply a fad". It is important to keep an eye on consumer trends to filter out what will actually enhance guest experience. Nowadays, guests and staff need mobile needs to optimize their work processes. For some processes and technologies, the ROI may be almost immediate, but for others, they still require more time to see the investment. In terms of investing in technology, do you think room automation is always necessary? In my personal opinion, the more perks a room has, the more it may enhance the customer experience. Ultimately, it all depends on the hotel, its size and its investment opportunities.

This article discussed how to pick the best technology for your company thus maximizing your ROI. Some technologies are necessary while others are just a fad and it is important to determine what your company needs. Guests are also demanding more tech advancements from hotels, the personal touch is not as important anymore. Mobile and digital payment tech is becoming more and more important. Lastly it is important to note that technology will not always fix a problem, it is up to the company to determine what the issue is and then learn how to implement technology that will assist, not just expect it to resolve on its own.

Very interesting article that makes us question whether specific technological add-ons are must haves versus nice to haves to separate us from our neighbours. It also shows us that we cant often times quantify from an ROI perspective. It begs the question, does technology really set a hotel apart and how.

This article is about technology trends in the event industry. It talks about what event planners are doing to implement more technology in their events; it gives examples such as audience using smartphones to interact during the meeting, events, conference, etc. Now event planners use technology to collect information in real time, which helps them to adjust their event at the moment, this is a very smart strategy.

This article contains information about the expected event trends this year that will possibly increase ROI. The list of expected trends all surrounded the technological advancements that are enhancing event planning. The advancements include the increased use of smartphones to conduct business. This technological increase will also reduce company costs. It is also expected to improve company value. I agree with technology improving company value. Technology is advancing majorly throughout the world. It is also making it easier for companies and consumers to interact. Smartphones, alone, are very popular in today's economy and are a great example of technological advancement. Being that people already use their smartphones to check emails, save event dates and contact other people (whether over the phone or by video), conducting business will be somewhat simple to adapt to. Increasing company technology to reduce costs is a good move. However, the companies should keep in mind that losing one cost will only open the door for another one. When dealing with technology, there are always risks (usually malfunction risks). So, companies should keep in mind that there is a possibility that expenses will incur for the technological maintenance that will be needed to keep the technology operating.

The Great Recession has been come to end point; therefore, expected corporate and event spend will begin to rise from 9 to 20 percents in next two years. The author has scooped out 5 major trends that will rapidly increase Return on Investment (ROI) for 2013 and future. 1. Smart Events will take center stage: in 2011, 205 million people attended 1.8 million events cost more than $263 billion in direct spending in the U.S alone. But only 25 percent of organizations see its effective, in 2013 organizations will choose smart event technology to help them operate more effectively 2. Automation will help event planners reduce expenses: Strategic meeting management ( SMM) technology can help event planners adapt to new methods to identify event-related functions and reduce costs. 3. Planners will achieve greater efficiency through solution consolidation: In the future, organizers will lay out their workloads by choosing consolidated solution, saving time and freeing up event planners to focus on making event better and well organized. 4. Event  organizers will engage audiences with smartphones: New all-in one apps will help organizer to provide all the information needed for attendee about the event. 5. Meeting planners will leverage technology to gather in-dept attendee information: focusing on the need of attendee is a crucial part of event planner, to be able to get requirement of attendee in real time will help organizer to adjust their plan, strategies on the fly and increase ROI. Increasing the need for events in 2013 and future requires event planner to be able to get familiarize with new event trend and technology to minimize the cost and maximize the ROI for an organization.

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 covers a study performed on various 5-star hotels in Jakarta on the effectiveness and feasibility of IT investments. The study is performed via a questionnaire distributed to hotels in the area with associated data values for analysis. The study finds that IT investment in 5-star hotels in Jakarta is economically feasible and could provide these businesses with competitive advantage and profit.

According to the results of "2012 Energy Efficiency IT report", based on 760 IT professionals' view, on cutting energy costs, buy greener gear than to get high-ROI green initiatives. Implementing Energy-star-qualifying equipment got more potential ROI. Server consolidation and virtualization also ranked high among already deployed green-tech projects. And the 8 popular green-technology projects are: server/storage virtualization, consolidating servers, implementing hardware with more efficient processors, implementing energy star-qualifying equipment, deploying more energy-efficient networking equipment, employing energy-efficient ups, employing new cooling approaches,  increased use of hosted services.

Property Management System functions are commonly used in the hotel and hospitality management software. These functions are responsible for conserving room inventory, maintaining housekeeping status of rooms, checking out guests, and maintaining guest portfolios. PMS has not only started its new software but has also been establishing great doubt and confusion in the minds of IT managers and the decision makers. In evaluating hotel hospitality software they focus on ROI and Total Cost of Ownership. The ROI provides the cost and motivation for investing into the software and also carries intangible assets associated with such decision. The Total Cost of Ownership is basically used to help businesses assess the direct and indirect costs associated with information technology purchases. Consequently, having a lower TCO and a higher ROI are the true defining criteria for the right software choice, which emphasizes not only the benefits but also the intangible need to be considered before making big IT decisions. With this rapidly changing industry, hoteliers should always look for property management tools that will assist in the operations, automate procedures, reduce the risk of human errors and give hoteliers ample time to attend guests.

This article was about all of the steps hospitality companies have to go through in order to pick the best PMS. Due to the high capacity of Property Management Systems coming from Canada and Europe, decision makers are having a hard time filtering out which ones will be beneficial to the company. Project managers should calculate the ROI and the TCO in order to see how profitable the system will make them.

Operators focus on cost, and this can prohibit the Operator from realizing the advantages and benefit of utilizing an RMS. When looking at an ROI they will often utilize Pacing data from a year over year perspective which is often, as the author puts it, asterisked. A simple explanation is the number of variables that can lead to impractical or flawed comparison such as mis-segmentation, unique events or otherwise. The author proposes instead that Operators should look at ROU, which roughly speaking takes market dynamics and most of the variables out of the equation. An ROU analysis (Revenue Uplift Opportunity) establishes a baseline measurement over a 90 day period that requires the establishment of two models (carbon copies) of the Hotel in question. The first, is a manual model that mimics the manual process of yielding and inventory management and overbooking, while the second utilizes the decision process of the installed or applied RMS. The author states that what Operator realize is the hidden maximization opportunity in both pricing and inventory controls based on manual processes reacting to demand conditions rather than anticipating. The value of this outside of the above application is how a KPI and a different manner of looking at the data can lead to valuable insight on what a real ROI can be. As an RM professional whom utilizes an advanced RMS on a regular basis it is sometimes it is difficult to see outside the box and perceive the value of the technology that is a mainstay in the Branded community. Being able to see the implications it can have for those not using or not having bought into the technology is actually a bit of a back step as it speaks to the value that this solution provides for the company.

This article touches on how it is critical for restaurants to embrace technology in order to maintain a loyal customer base. What I found to be the most important point was the importance of compatible technology. The article recommends having technology that can track inventory, reservations, sell, manage employees. The value of this is measured and 2.1 times the ROI of a traditional onsite POS. The article recommends online ordering, points out that 2/3 of fast casual customers plan to order online this year, and that the average ticket size is 26% over the regular order. I agree with the author that a restaurant owner's choice to embrace technology can make or break their business.

This article gives 5 ways for hoteliers to maximize ROI on technology investments. For hoteliers, being able to maximize ROI is undoubtedly attractive. With the development of technology, technology in the hotel industry is becoming more and more important. So in order to maximize ROI, hoteliers need to invest more in technology. When investing, decisions need to be made based on facts and expert opinions to avoid unnecessary hesitation. In addition, continuous investment in technology is also important. This will ensure that the technology is updated in a timely manner and bring a better experience to customers.

This article provides information about a sustainable renovation that has revamped the Sheraton Suites. The HVAC technology that was constructed in the guest rooms has restored a fan coil unit refurbishment project. AirRevive, according to the article, is the leader in sustainable HVAC refurbishment and re-commissioning services. A 1989 IEC guest room fan coil was restored for the guest room renovation project. It is supposed to add about 1 decade to the lifespan of the units. Doing this renovation adds to guest satisfaction and comfort. These are the some of the most important factors in the hospitality industry. The indoor air quality is no loner compromised and will no longer leave guests susceptible to harmful allergens. The President of AirRevive states that this renovation is a cost efficient way to tune up. It saves energy and reduces operating expenses. There is an attractive ROI associated with the effective and efficient completion of the project.

ROI is not the only consideration for a business when updating technology and software; employee productivity is also a factor. Employees that feel that they have the tools to do their jobs are more likely to be productive during the work day. By increasing employee productivity and happiness, ROI already increases beyond the benefits of having better, quicker technology and software.

This article talks about the advantages of using an event management software and how the tool help managing the event successfully. This software is priority to the modern day event planner with an expert manner. Positively Impact the work flow cutting down on the boring paper work. Software will help time by cutting down all the time you would spend in organizational work reduced workload. Event software will reduce cost by inmanaging you data and task allowing you to have less employees and increasing ROI for the company. Have a good software will allow you to export reports with ease like client reports, analytics, registration, ticketing, scheduling as well as surveys. This will help ease the stress of the company and allow managers to focus on increasing revenues and getting new business.

Event Technology is constantly being innovated in order to keep up with current market trends. AI is now becoming a future trend in event management software but with so many new technologies for events out there it becomes critical to keep up with also considering ROI. User-friendliness for example reflects both the consumer and the event company. When deciding a new product it is important to consider all the strengths and weaknesses of the product.

Proximity Marketing is the trend of the marketing sector of the hospitality industry. Based on the statistics, there is a great increase in using proximity marketing recent years. And there are some reasons why hotels choose to use this technology. First, it enables the hotel to reach potential customers and providing electronic forms of advertising. By notifying guests of exclusive promotions hotels have to offer through their mobile phones, hotels and advertisers have a greater chance of customers responding to their advertisements, and therefore a greater ROI on their marketing spend. Second, from the perspective of the hotel, it decrease the advertising cost in terms of decreasing labor cost. It is said that proximity marketing has a tremendous revenue-production potential, and more hotels are engaging in using proximity marketing.

Proximity marketing is the localized wireless distribution of advertising content associated with a particular place. It is now becoming one of the most popular marketing tools in any industry especially in hospitality. Marketing people from hotel industry were looking for new marketing tools past few years. Instead of sending out promotion mails or emails, they need to have better ideas. What they realized is that wish an increase in the use of mobile devices, hotels can communicate and provide better service with guest cell phone. They also realized guests usually watch TV, while they are waiting to be C/I. So hotel is now providing offers while guests are in line. It is a Win-Win situation. The way to find communication is now the key of marketing. Proximity Marketing is a type of eMarketing that will help to communicate with guests with low cost.

According to this article, it said that by the end of 2011, 91% of Americans  owned mobile phones, and Smartphone penetration have been doubled. Obviously, it becomes a trend in hospitality industry nowadays that more and more people use smart phones and tablets. Based on wireless such as bluetooth, it allows hoteliers to interact with customers much easier and more convenient. Proximity marketing is one kind of eMarketing which is very popular in daily life. It is well known that better marketing brings better sales which of course increases revenues of companies. By sending guests nearby informations about promotions and discounts, hotels attract more guests than before. However, too much informations sent to guests will make them sucks and they have no choice to select what they really want. So in my opinion, I think it should be improved.

This was a very interesting article about how Salvatore's Grand Hotel will be the first to benefit from the integration of Zeno Control, LLC and Verve Living Systems. The hotel will immediately begin installing Verve Keycard Switch, which is controlled wirelessly and uses sensors and control products to control HVAC, lighting, and other electric loads in guestrooms. Verve Keycard Switch doesn't require batteries. When a guest enters their room, they place the card into the Keycard Switch and then have complete control over all the electric devises in the room. Once the card is removed, the electronic devices in the room turn off or go into eco set back mode. The system can not only turn things on and off, but can defect problems in the room and track energy usage. The hotel expects to see a return on investment within two years. I thought this article was right on target with this week's module, and it seems this system would definitely help facilities be more energy efficient. I think it also supports preventative maintenance. Since it tracks problem areas, the facility manager should be able to address them before guests have to point them out. One possible problem I see is if guests forget to remove the card when they leave the room.

Verve Living System by ZENO Controls LLC has a new guest room energy control system. The system concludes guestroom swithches, sensors, thermostats, and lighting control. The system will turn off all electronic facilities when the room is un-occupied. So the system can get immediately financial benefits to hotel from the saving on energy expense, which is a big spender of entire expense.

This article was discussing about the evaluation of information investments of government. It metioned the ROI--the public return on investment (PROI). The Center for Technology in Government defines PROI as a measure of the delivery of specific value to the people and the improvement of the value of government itself as a public asset. PROI gets at the scietal benefits derived from an IT investment including increased efficiency, increased effectiveness, enablement, intrinsic enhancements.When identifying PROI leads to two questions: (1) How does a public-sector IT project generate increased public value, and (2) for whom? The answers are finances, politics, society, strategy, ideology, and stewardship. When considering projects that have benefit to citizens that are more difficult to measure, discussion among government official coupled with traditional ROI measurements may result in more informed and accurate assignment of the public return on the IT investment.

"Stop, look and listen before investing in hotel tech"

This article first reviewed the technology revolution in hotels. From the telephone, TVs, to today's mini bars and electronic door locks. Why hotels install more and more technology into guestrooms? Because the hotels believe the guest wants it, needs it, and it's become a way to stay competitive. However, the high technology gives brings them competitive advantages and also provides convenience for the guests, at the same time, it also carries a high cost with it. How to select the best technology and how to make best use of the technology? The author suggested the hotels should Stop, Look and Listen before investing in hotel technology. First, the hotels should justify the reasons to set the expensive devices. How to make sure the devices is useful and worth that much money? The hoteliers need to see whether the guests really want and need the technology. Consider very carefully the kind of tech you are deploying. Is it because you feel threatened by what your competitors are doing? Remember they may be on the wrong track. It is important for hotels to understand what the guests really want and need and before investing the new technology, the hotels need to stop, look and listen.

When it comes to investing in technology in hotels, a better approach might be to simplify. In a day and age when most people carry around all their technology needs in their pockets (Cellphones, Tablets, Laptops, etc.) There may not be a need to invest so heavily in gizmos to attract customers and keep them happy. We may want to consider that all the guest wants is to be connected, so offering a super fast, reliable and suitably priced internet access is all the technology they really need. Investing in every new technology, with short lifespans, can end up making a real dent in your ROI.

This article analyzed the performance of TripAdvisor PPC activity in detail, and showed the results of an investigation regarding to hotels' commission level, traffic ranking, and conversion rate, then talked about whether it worth to invest by hotels.  That is useful for hoteliers to work on the ROI, and make right decisions.

This article is about whether to invest in Trip advisor's PPC program. It offers some benefits and correlations between the commission fee and Trip advisor's score. It introduces this program through several aspects, like the cost, the prerequisite. And the program do has some limitations, like the limited expenses control and hotel position preference. But it can provide properties social network, customer satisfaction, word of mouth through this new distribution way.

This article throws the popular notion that social media is one of the most important point of contact with customers for a loop. It points out that social media, like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, is only a customer engagement channel not a distribution channel where you can measure important date like return on investment. It is limited to building relationship and engaging guests. This article exposes a channel that can do all of this plus generate sales and measure ROIs as much as $33 for every $1 spent. It is direct marketing. Direct marketing motivates customers to "take action, to pick up the phone or click through your website." It can attract specific target segments with specific, tailored messages to get them to act. The article offered a quiz for hoteliers to measure how good hoteliers' sales strategies are, if they scored low they offered them to take up direct marketing. It is the ideal medium for them to reach consumers and generate direct sales. I did not think that direct marketing was such a strong and motivating factor in reaching consumers and generating sales. I have always had a negative view on it because of its cost and vague way to reach out. But I must agree, it is a more accurate way than Facebook or Twitter in measure the success rate of their investment.