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This article discussed the importance of being ahead of the curve and why the 'wait and see' approach is not beneficial in most cases. If you 'wait and see' you can become irrelevant very quickly as there are many others out there, in many cases other parts of the world, making new inventions and discoveries daily. This article gave a great example where a school system implemented tables and the amount of money they saved was $25k/year. There are many benefits to staying ahead of the curve and as the article states "If you don't do it, someone else will".

A "wait and see" approach has a higher risk than it being avoided. One of the cons is that it can pave the way to a company no longer being relevant. New opportunities for sales and growth may be missed if a company does not begin to evolve quickly.

Chad Kaydo in his article '7 Things Event Planners Want From Technology Now," highlights the results of a recent survey where industry officials noted what tech changes and adaptations they would like to see as it relates to the Event Planning and Management area of the Hospitality Industry. He noted the following items as the urgent needs of event planners: **Lower Prices - many planners steer clear of the technology due to costs and thus would like to see adjustments in costs relating to new technology. **Integration of Planning Tools - Planners want to be able to connect the different tech offerings used instead of using them in isolation. **Next Generation Apps - Event Apps should be of the same sophistication and simple to use as those of popular consumer apps such as Instagram. **Seamless Social Media Integration - Social Media has become and important tool for event planners. Rene Mark stated that they would like to see "any form of technology that creates a more engaging experience for our clients so that they can interact from the audience, share their experiences online and engage actively with other participants." ** Improved Internet Access - one of the major complaints of planners and something they would like to see improvements on is WiFi access at event venues. Mr. Kaydo noted that planners and tech developers said that the lack of robust, reliable, reasonably priced bandwidth and network services at hotels is slowing the pace of technological advancements across meetings and events. ** Attendee Data Tracking -Improved Technology to keep track of attendee participation. **Help to figure it all out - Planners find it difficult to keep up with technology and to constantly learn how a new device or program works. However this attitude is affecting the results gained from the adoption or lack of as it relates to technological advancements in the Event planning field.

This article summarizes the "wait and see" approach and explains why this approach is no longer effective in the business world today. Technology is far too advanced for competitors to not have the ability to hop onto new ideas as soon as possible. Waiting and seeing will put your business incredibly behind since guests will begin to use those companies who have been using the newer approaches first.

Trends in the hospitality industry are changing. Hotels were once considered the place to indulge and splurge a little, but now we are beginning to see hotels change their approach to attracting customers. Properties around the world have begun to make changes that are reducing their carbon footprint, but those changes cannot always be seen by the guest. This means that many guests do not even realize that its happening. Many changes will begin to happen as customers express their concerns more publicly. Surveys are showing that a growing number of guests want to see green initiatives within hotels, and wouldn't mind paying a little more to stay at green hotels. There is work being done to measure a customer's carbon footprint and this knowledge will give hotels some consistency in the way they report their emissions. Although still in its early stages, green initiatives provide great marketing opportunities for hotels, and they are starting to see that they can attract more people through these initiatives. Green Initiatives are will continue to becomes increasingly more popular for guests. As guests continue to become aware of the effects of their carbon footprint they are going to look for ways to help reduce it. One area will be in the hospitality industry. This is a great opportunity for hotels to increase profits, by marketing to this type of traveler.

I believe that the increase in Caribbean hotel's net operating income indicates that more travelers are now traveling to these destinations compare to few years ago. Coming back from the economical downtime, the hospitality is now seeing increases of revenue after the depression since 2008.Caribbean is an unique place for travel, and often required air/ sea transit for travelers all over the world. Thus also encouraged the purchase decision for airline and cruise services. And by adopting technology to being green, the hotel is able to reduce the utility cost. And we are seeing more new hotels under construction in the Caribbean region.

Properties throughout the Caribbean have offered amazing deals for quite some time, but during the economic downturn, a Caribbean vacation was either unfeasible or seemed like an unnecessary extravagance for the average consumer. Despite incentives to visit, the $4/gallon fuel cost has hit us all in the wallet. This is reflected in an enormous increase in airfare and makes having a rental car that much more difficult. I wish the Caribbean hotel and tourism industry all the best, but I don't think we're going to see a full recovery for the next few years.

With the ecological environment changes, the general trend of hotel is going to green, which included hotel sewage treatment, boiler dust emission, waste heat emission, the kitchen for the discharge of atmospheric pollutants. Not only the hoteliers require themselves pursuing green but also hope their guests could see that. Most of hotels have already taken action. Such as, Marriott International stop delivering newspapers to guests' rooms, Starwood has eliminated thin shampoo bottles, instead installing dispensers in showers at its Element and Aloft hotels. We are glad to see the hoteliers dedicated to protecting the natural environment.

When Room Key entered the pantheon of metasearch engines, initial reactions varied. While big chains were seemingly excited for this alternative to third-party search engines, independent hoteliers maintained a reserved skepticism, wondering what place, if any, there will be for them on the site. These independent owners are taking a wait-and-see approach when it comes to Room Key's potential influence on independents and hotel search-engine landscape.

Good example of the wait and see method as discussed last week. Be interesting to see how this one plays out for Room-Key as well as the smaller independent chains...

Hilton has decided to recycle their mattresses in hopes of reducing their waste. Planning to recycle 85% of their mattresses and box springs after purchasing over 50,000 mattresses in just the US alone. Working with DH Hospitality who provides services such as recycling will recycle the mattresses, box springs into tools, construction materials, flooring, oil filters and carpet padding. LightStay is the companies tracking system which will track the process of its donations. Hilton reached their five year goal to reduce their waste by 20% which turned out to be two years ahead of schedule. LightStay is the company's tracking system which tracks their donations to Good360. When I first read this article I thought I was going to read something about Hilton's products going overseas like we watched on 60 minutes. I'm happy to see these mattresses aren't going overseas to harm people. I recently just bought a new mattress and the company that picked up my old mattress and they were going to recycle it. After watching the 60 Minutes I will always inquire about such recycling. I was told they clean the old mattresses and donate them to families in need and shelters. After watching the video clip I wish I would have asked further questions about the donations to be sure. As a consumer I would like to hear more businesses talk about the different programs they offer to go green and recycle. As someone in the multi-family housing industry I think recycling and going green is an area we need to focus on. As a Hilton Diamond Member I'm happy to see the Hilton is trying to go green. This article was from 2012, so I'm looking forward to see what they will be doing in the future.

Hotel du Collectionneur in Paris broke away from the Hilton chain in 2013 and became the largest independent hotel in the city. Without the Hilton brand, the property needed help creating brand loyalty and foot traffic. The property's marketing department teamed up with a company called "Flip.to". This company was to help bring in newer people to their website and target a new group of customers. Flip.to used e-marketing to enhance the hotel's website traffic and create brand awareness on social media. Additionally, by increasing website traffic the property saw an increase in direct bookings. We can see the benefits of using a company like Flip.to to increase profits and create awareness. If we look at this from the perspective of a large chain hotel, they have the resources to market their properties through their corporations. We can see that Hotel du Collectionneur had to go in this direction of hiring a third party company to meet their goals and they can see if paying off today.

Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is a technology that is evolving in the hospitality industry. Trending in 2015 will be the use of hosted PBX services which will take the place of the stand alone on-premise system. By utilizing a hosted service businesses should see a cost savings from the freedom of maintenance on a system that is owned and operated by the hotel to the required staff that is needed to monitor the system on a daily basis. With the use of a hosted PBX the host company will be running analytical data and sharing the results with your company, a hosted setup will also be keeping up with technology without you incurring additional expenses of keeping your software updated in the ever changing technology field. This article goes on to talk about mobile integration which in my opinion, will need some tweaking right out of the starting gate. The trend talks about migrating our mobile phones and tablets as a replacement to the desk phone and room phone. This idea will make front desk staff more mobile, but I do see how it will also cause issues with employee abuse on personal calls acting like they are working and also with customers seeing an employee on the phone and automatically thinking the employee is on a personal call. There are still people out there that have not moved up with technology like the vast majority of the population, and they will be the first to complain loudly at the advances coming.

This article summarizes why we wont be seeing a decline of GDS use in the travel industry anytime soon. As stated in the article "nothing beats a GDS model for booking seats on planes". The article suggests that a good GDS agent can ultimately work more efficiently than someone working with a GUI. Another major positive to using GDS is accessibility. A firm can book both corporate and leisure travel from anywhere, as long as internet access is available. In one study 62% of agents said that air content was the biggest draw of a GDS. One agent said that when booking air the GDS system Amadeus gives her a selection of choices in a fraction of the time it takes her clients to see them online. Clearly, GDS systems such as Amadeus and Sabre are saving agents and customers time and money while booking. Another upside to using GDS is that it allows agents to see routes, departures and arrival times which are important because many clients have preferable airports when they travel. The article also says how GDS is more commonly used for air and car rentals instead of hotels. It also gives a look into why Airlines werent a fan of GDS usage. For example, GDS were changing revenue models for airlines because GDSs paid travel agents and it seemed that they were buying loyalty with money from airline fees.

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.

"The Motorola Solutions 2011 Hospitality Market Barometer reveals that 91 percent of hospitality decision makers realize the increasing importance of mobile and wireless technology, while 78 percent recognize the role mobility plays in ensuring a competitive advantage for their business. As a result, hospitality venues are investing in new technology, as well as powerful wireless networks to handle greater data volumes and increasing demands for high-speed access from the customer and mobile workforce. "

The article analyzed why hotels do investment to It in 2011. It concluded three main reasons, which are elevating the guest experience, empowering the mobile worker, and enabling operational efficiency. It's already 2013 now and things can become different. Hotels should invent carefully according to its specific necessary and customers' necessary.

Dear team! I found an article, very old but to me, very actual and interesting about how the Internet Technology is improving and progressing, and the investment bring benefits only. In 2011 , only 4 years ago, we can see that the companies were having a clear plan to improve the communication system. By introducing wireless, tablets, WLANs , to improve network reliability... Today we have it all on hands. We are using all the devices online , wireless and with no problem to access. No cords on the floor, no telegrams ... Internet technologies is a big progress in our century and is developing and growing, by leaving some of us behind. :)

This article makes me proud to work in the hotel industry. Of course, there's financial motivation for being energy efficient, but hey, we can pretend we also do it because it's the right thing to do. As long as owners and operators see opportunities to continue to reduce energy costs, they won't stop. I have to believe that hotels will continue to look for ways to become even more efficient to the point of eliminating their carbon footprint. The hotel business is one of the few industries that have a strong incentive to dramatically reduce energy costs. The fact that the EPA's ENERGY STAR program is working on a new, hospitality-specific scoring system in response to the industry's specific needs and growing demand is pretty cool. I can see such a system becoming measurements for bonus payouts like market share is with Smith Travel Research and further accelerating the work around sustainability in hotels. A great point is also made regarding the retention of employees. The article argues that employees will feel that management cares about their health and well-being. But I would also say that employees want to work for hotels that do what's good and right for our world. You want to work for the good guys. Individual travelers, companies and meeting planners are more and more looking to stay or do business with hotels that are eco-friendly. Thirty six percent more travelers are expected to choose more eco-friendly travel options than they did in 2016. That statistic should definitely get the attention of owners currently in the process of planning a new hotel. If you want a competitive advantage from the day you open your doors, fill up that building with green initiates and let the green slide right down to the bottom line.

This article is a perfect example of this week`s topic. It`s a good illustration of a "wait and see" approach. The article gives you a lot of numbers to support its point.

This article shows how despite the trend into mobile devices and tablets, the industry growth of fixed POS system is still ahead. it is very interesting to see these findings, since nowadays all one seems to see or read about is this addiction to mobile devices and tablets. The article found growth in all the major regions of the world, which clearly states that this is not a random occurrence.

It appears that American Airline is about to remove itself from the tradition global distribution system and introduce its own distribution system. American Airlines is advocating for distribution companies to utilize AA direct connect which is a direct link into AA's host reservations system. Currently American Airlines fares are no longer available on Expedia or Orbitz sites. This is because no contractual agreement was reached for the distribution of AA products. Travel professionals are waiting to see the result of this bold move by American as this has great implication for the future of airline distribution systems. If American Airlines pulls away from the mainstream GDS, consumers and travel specialist alike will be faced with the inconvenience of going to a separate reservations system to compare fares. Although travel professionals are now urged to use direct connect on a trial basis, the general feeling is that eventually they will be charged to sell American Airline flights. To defend this move American Airline is only saying that direct connect will make it easier for them to tract ancillary fees like priority seating. It was noted in the article that Southwest Airline for the most part is a stand alone reservations system but they do not negotiate with the GDS companies to sell their flights. It is therefore quite evident that this move by American is really to reduce expenditure by eliminating the middle GDS companies while increasing revenue by charging travel partners for utilizing direct connect. American Airlines clearly wants to globally control their distribution system and maximize revenues. Contract renewal for both world span and sabre are due and the experts are waiting to see if American will renew with them. Sabre is owned by American Airlines so its a wait and see game to see how all this will be panned out. The real problem for the consumers and travel specialists are that if other airlines are to follow this move by American the tra

This article explains the distribution route American Airlines is taking to sell their flights. Due to not seeing eye to eye with the two most probably used websites for travel, Expedia and Orbitz, American has now taken their products away from both airline distribution sites. American suggest that all travel agencies and distribution companies begin using Direct Connect, which is a system for only American Airlines flights. If this would happen, travel agencies and companies will then begin having to pay for the system in order to sell Americans flights. At the moment you can still book flights through other distribution sites, but until when will that be? They already stopped Orbitz and Expedia, what's not to stop the others. The future of global distribution systems will be up in the air if all airlines choose to sell their own systems to be able to sell reservations. The only positive that was pointed out in this article was that if this system takes over, then more consumers will have to go back to using travel agents to secure the best reservations for flights and such.

With the contracts for major global systems, Worldspan and Sabre, being up for renewal in the near future, this article analyses the possible outcomes for airlines, and alternatives should they choose not to forgo continuing use of GDS

Great article about the use of Siri, Apple's voice activated virtual assistant, and the use of voice activated travel search. The video demonstrated by the CEO of Bonvoy Group travel demonstrates voice activated flight status searches as well as searching of future flights to which the Bonvoy systems emails you the results based on your search. The potential for voice activated flight is enormous and it will be interesting to see if other travel OTA sites such as Travelocity, Hotels.com, Orbitz etc, adopt similar uses of this technology. I can see the use of this on hotel booking sites either via thrid party as well as direct through the hotel. Also sites like Open Table make use of Siri for voice activated reservation. With Siri still in its "beta" phase, the opportunity for developers and the travel industry to build apps like these is very good.

I posted this article on Scoop.It. This is more evidence of the push towards mobile computing. It begs the question, when will we begin to see this adversely effect PC sales?