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Summary This article is talking about a new software "Monscierge I connect", which launched by the company Monscierge, Dec 6, 2012. Monscierge | Connect is a new tool harness smartphone technology to keep guest constantly connected with hotel service. This is first phase of mobile applications complementing the product line designed to enhance hotels' connections to their guests, which allowing guests access to the full array of a hotel or brand's services in a way that suits the needs of today's tech-savvy consumer. Guests can communicate their needs via chat or voice, quickly putting them in contact with valet, housekeeping, or any department the hotel provides. Monscierge | Connect wraps itself in the approved brand voice for each hotel, and makes that hotel and brand's specific content available at their fingertips.  Monscierge | Connect also allows for a hotel to deliver real-time information to their guests as well. For instance, some hotels have utilized Connect to alert guests of parking availability, discounts in the bar or spa, or when a room is ready for early check-in.        I think it's a great mobile app, it could keep guest constantly connected with hotel service, and it not only provide more convenience for customers and hotels, but also improved service's quality and work efficiency. Forrester Research predicts by 2015 eighty-two million people will rely on mobile devices as a primary reference tool. So I think this new software and other mobile applications will widely used in hospitality industry. 

I must admit, I stand along with Alasdair Chalmers MD of DP&L Travel; I am left confused and have more questions than answers. I do not understand the goal and/or reason of the NDS standard.  The article states that it is not a system, but a standard for airlines to provide more detailed information about flights and products on the GDSs.  Benefitting customers with more search options, choices and lower fares.   It raises the controversy of agents being concerned with data availability and feeling uncomfortable with a centrally controlled information....  I think I am missing a big piece because I do not exactly understand what the concern is. I'll need to think about this and reassess....   please share your comments and clarity!   

This artical is takling about future trends in hotel e-buinsee. In the artical one of the top strategies for hotel e-buiness is evolving from selling to engaging the customer, the way is hoteliers need to fulfill the experience expected by customers. What's more, they can engage the customer through social computing. Then this artical is talking about how to get succeed in hotel e-business, to truly engage digital travelers,hotel e-business must evovle from channel to gateway, from single purpose to all encompassing, and from functional to fulfilling. What's more, this artical show five important trends affecting hotel e-business. They are more demanding consumers; more comples distribution channels; changing business models; emphasis on technology and richer contemt; change in the structure of hotel e-business. Last this artical is talking about we need to think about both globalization and localization in any business.

Mc Donalds is now taking another step towards technology use and providing nutritional information via QR codes. Customers can scan a QR code located on their bag and be directed to a web site that list the nutritional content of their food. This is another way McDonalds is "trying" to be more health conscious with its customers and the meals that they serve. Way to go McD's. I think this technology is beneficial in several ways: 1- the obvious of providing customers with needed nutritional information 2- it is more convenient as it allows the company to make changes to the menu items and update nutritional information without having to reprint all the associated materials 3- possible marketing opportunity to print QR codes to win prizes As a side tip I think other companies should embrace this technology and instead print the QR code on the customer receipt with data corresponding to only items they ordered.

The M/S Viking Grace was launched in January 2013 and is considered the most environmentally friendly large cruise vessel to have been built. The ship travels between Finland and Sweden as a cruise ferry. The ship is powered by a liquefied natural gas (LNG). The shipbuilder says all emissions into the sea have been eliminated and emissions into the air are now lower than any other cruise passenger ship. Besides the lower emission the M/S Viking Grace also has passenger space that minimizes environmental impact and a new machinery configuration, which saves energy. I think this is significant that the M/S Viking Grace has basically eliminated a good percentage of emissions. I believe the cruise industry, from both luxury liners to cruise ferries, has a considerable amount of work to do to become more environmentally friendly. The use of LNG to power a ship is important for other ferries and cruise lines to look at for the future. Cruise vacations are popular worldwide and saving the sea for future generations is incredibly important. Even though this is just one ship that sails in the Baltic Sea, I think the M/S Viking Grace can have a large positive impact on the region.

Changes are coming for New York City hotel workers. A proposal between the Hotel Association of New York and the New York Hotel Trades Council would equip hotel staffers with personal panic alarms. Employees like house keepers are calling for the extra safety measures for fear of being assaulted in a guest room. Concern is also circulating outside New York in places like Sacramento, California. The personal security devices were tested on students at California State University at San Marcos last year. I believe hotels will begin to implement more measures like this in large cities like New York. Similar to airports and large department stores, safety is a major concern. I believe the personal panic button is a great idea for any hospitality space that accommodates a large number of people.

I think this new proposal may draw people's attention to employees' safety issues within the hospitality industry. It is also important for hotels and restaurants to make sure that their employees work in an environment that is danger free and threats free. The panic button can provide the instant location of the staff and once if something goes wrong, the time for rescue will be shorten. It is really a beneficial proposal for the entire hospitality industry.

Pending approval, personal panic alarms would be carried by staff members in all New York City hotels. These panic buttons would be carried by the staff member during their shift so that they are easily and quickly accessible should something happen. Fox News in Sacramento, CA reported that house keepers voiced their desire for more saftey measures to be put in place. Assaults on house keepers may be more common than people think. House keepers tend more often to be women and they tend to work alone or with only one other person. Hotels host many events in which guests may be drinking which in turn creates the potential for violent or inappropriate actions. Not only is the safety of guests important to the hospitality industry but safety of employees is paramount as well. Having personal panic buttons would give house keepers and workers alike more peace of mind should they encounter any uncomfortable or unsafe situation.

This article is all about Aptech and their new software. This is a web based software and able to work with just one company or be linked to multiple building or properties if you would like. They really see this software helping out in the hotel industry. This is a big tihng in the industry and will help out a lot of companies.

Aptech Computer Systems, a provider of hospitality software and enterprise financial accounting, has developed a system that has the ability to help a hotel enterprise or the common Innkeeper. The is system is Web-based and was developed by the company Microsoft. The Company Ap tech has been around for 40 years and have been hotels with their performance management tools. Originally, they started working on interstate motel with their technology and from then on have been a huge success. I am sure people will be very sceptical when using this product because it is Web-based, however it does seem to be much easier to use and if something were to happen you have access to 24/7 customer service. For a business just starting out, this seems like a perfect tool.

An advanced hospitality financial accounting system is launched by Aptech Computer Systems, which is a hospitality software and financial accounting company. The system is based on internet and can be used by both individual and multi-property hotel companies. The president of the company thinks that with the help of internet, hospitality staff can access to the tools more easily. Also, he has positive attitude towards using new technology by more hotels. There is also an example for the technology's expanding role in hospitality industry. Smith Travel sent its research reports from two to three weeks a time to once a day. I think a good accounting system is very important for a hotel. In the globalized world, many hotels expand themselves in the world, and this system can bring convenience to multi-property hotels.

This article deals with the theft that happens on a daily basis in the hospitality field. It happens when credit cards are used to pay for something, like a reservation, and thieves want the information, so they can use your credit card number for whatever intentions they may have. As the article states, "our data is under attack". I can relate to those people that have had credit card numbers stolen, because it has happened to my husband and me, and it is a horrible feeling trying to get your life back on track and recover your money.  I think it would be a great idea, with some research, to get the point to point encryption technology in a field where credit cards are used so often, not only to cover the business (hotel), but also to protect the guest, so they feel at easy when they travel on vacation or business.  The overall point of this technology is to encrypt the information as close to the point of entry, i.e. the swiping of the credit card, as possible. This would in turn "significantly reduce a merchant's card data environment", as the program would encrypt the information so that hackers cannot access the customer's information. As I mentioned earlier, questions should be asked before buying this technology, as there is always something new on the market that may be better. Credit cards are not always swiped, but can also be manually placed in the system, so you want to make sure, that both transactions are protected. Overall, the establishment should always be concerned about the customer and their safety, whether physical or mental and always be prepared for the worse.

Great article! Personally after being a victim of credit card fraud, I'm very apprehensive of where I shop, who handles my card and how long it takes them to return it. I recently cancelled a large purchased after the cashier insisted on rubbing my card number on the reciept after the transactions had be approved. In my mind, I was thinking "If I let you do that, then I've open the door for anyone to charge thousand of dollars. I don't think so." As a manager, who hands credit card numbers for manual input, I'm very cautious of them and want to insure that they don't get into the wrong hand. Aftern each transactions is approved, that number is shredded and the credit card machine is batched out. Companies don't realize how important it is to PCI compliant. The risk in exposing sensitive information of our clients and customers can cost thousand of dolllars in fines and fee, in addition to the lost of that customer/client.

Marilyn, Great Article...as a Front Desk Manager, it is my responsibility to randomly check our computers to ensure employees are not placing USB driver to collect data from our system. Our company has taking this a step further by putting metal locked case around the PC to avoid possible fraudulent activity. If we have to open a PC, we must log it to show proof why a PC became unlock. Companies should adopt similar procedures to protect the consumers/guests. Nelson

In today's society, online booking is definitely a major form of reservation in the hospitality industry. Thus I think it will be profitable for the companies to understand why some customers booked and others just visited their website and left without booking. These kinds of information can be achieved with the aid of software, as shown in the article. This article is related to software utilization in monitoring the user journey on websites. Hotel chain Villa Plus decided to increase its properties by 40%, and because of this, Villa Plus began to implement IBM's sophisticated analytics software, instead of Google Analytics they had used. With the IBM's software, Villa Plus can track and understand customer needs and behavior across its website. These understandings help the company to advertise the right properties to the right people on the websites. Villa Plus is expecting this to result in high occupancy rates as well as a great return on investment.

I like this Villa Plus, I think it can help customers as much as possible to get what they want and filter what they don't want, it can save time for valuable customers because they can get what they want at one time instead of searching from different websites or even leave without reservation. I also use online booking every time, I think this Villa Plus also can help me a lot next time when I book online again.

Nowadays, online booking is very popular. But hotels still face with low occupancy rate. I think this IBM software is good. It can help solve this kind of problem. Advertising the right properties to the right people on the websites and result in high occupancy rates as well as a great return on investment.

Through this article, I learn that the Smart Hotel Software is very useful. It can help you manage the reservations, deposits, check ins, check outs, guest folios, payments, sales, housekeeping, maintenance and yield management, with a strong interface to many popular accounting systems. This software is suitable for independent and boutique hotels, resorts, motels, villas, apartments, hostels, and chartered yachts. For me, I think this software has 3 advantages. First, it will improve the customer service by having guest history at their fingertips, remember guest preferences and improve your guest experience. Second, it can increase the revenue by effectively managing reservations, rooms and rates with powerful Yield Management tools. Third, it will save costs by tying it all together.  Integrated systems: Website Bookings, Central Reservation Systems, Call Accounting Systems, In-room services, Back Office Accounting and more! Nowadays, some software becomes more and more popular in the hospitality industry. I think the manager need choose and use some good software to their hotels. It can make the employees work more efficiently and attract more customers.  

Telecommunication is a kind of trasmission and information. In old times, smoke signal or colorful flags were used as telecommunications. Nowadays, telecommunication involves use of electrical devices such like telephones and videos.  I think there are lots of people among us working in restaurant right now. So I want to ask a question: Does it frequently happen  that the phone rings when you are crazy with customers' orders? I am always struggling in such crazy situation which leads me to bad working mood. In this article, it mentioned telecommunication method that help servers in restaurant handle with phone calls in rush hours. Instead of voice message, Automated Attendant will send voice messages directly to managers' emails, which means not have to pick up the phone to hear voice mails. It really makes sense because sometimes servers even have no time to listen to the voice mails in phones, which will let restaurant miss some important dinner reservations. So as a server in restaurant, I do think telecommunication is helpful and significant.

In this article, Hyatt has launched a global sustainability program. And also Hyatt has green teams and employee volunteers to do efforts on the sustainability.  When talked about the progress of the sustainability program, Hyatt said they had three steps: First, Hyatt Thrive is supported by 80,000 associates in over 450 hotels in the world, which will give a lot to help. Second, this global framework has a singular goal to help thrive. Third and finally, Hyatt is very committed to measuring and tracking the progress. They were very accountable. I think more hotels need to develop a sustainability program like Hyatt to help the world go green.

This is a great article and not to mention an amazing initiative. A program that is fueled by it's associates will certainly have a positive impact on the community and a lasting effect.

Expedia hopes bloggers can serve as an important plank in its effort to re-engineer the way people shop for hotel and airplane tickets by incorporating those transactions into a marketplace driven by social networks. A senior director for travel research firm PhoCusWright, believes Expedia's plan is a viable one. Expedia's goal is to make planning the entire trip - from flights to hotel to transportation, with even restaurant selections and amusement park tickets - an integrated shopping experience. For example: your family is planning a spring break trip to Orlando. After booking flights, your hotel search would incorporate friends' views on particular properties. There's already some evidence that social networks spur sales in the travel industry. Expedia's plan could pose a threat to the largest source of online hotel reviews, TripAdvisor. Both company and bloggers say they aren't concerned that readers may be turned off by commercial relationships between the travel agent and writers.

Of course the company and the bloggers aren't concerned about what the readers think. The company wants to increase business any way that it can and the bloggers want free trips. Personally, I would be turned off by knowing that the blogger was compensated for their trip review. I recently watched a special on Aulani in Hawaii run by SamanthaBrown who works for the travel channel. I was very irrritated to hear her clearly non-objective opinions of the resort. I am far more interested in what other non-paid travellers think. I think that companies should be concerned about the perception of them paying for the reviews. I can understand the bloggers wanting to be paid for access to their followers, I just personally don't find any validity in these types of opinions. I think Expedia should keep looking for ways to tap into the social network as a business strategy, but I will trust the opinions of my actual friends over paid bloggers. I appreciate that Expedia would allow for negative reviews, but if a resort is paying Expedia for a review and Expedia is paying the blogger, then in my opinion precious objectivity is lost.

Ipads changing our life is absolute. In fact, if there is no ipad, something electronic products can also bring revolution in hotel Wi-Fi networks. To tell the truth, free hotel Wi-Fi is too slow.....last year, I had a internship in Holiday Inn Central Plaza Beijing. There had two kinds of Wi-Fi networks. Free network was cover the whole hotel but the speed was slow. The other that must be paid was faster. Some people had video session prefered the faster one. In addtion, hotels should upload their Wi-Fi networks. It can be an attraction of the hotels.

For a hotel the WiFi system is really important because guests prefer the hotel with WiFi system. The guests even willing to pay a small premium to stay at a WiFi equipped lodgings. As the rise of smart phones and ultra-lightweight laptops case the bandwidth problems. I think the hotel can deal with this problems by create various account levels for guests, stuff and visitors. The hotel can allow the visitors to use free WiFi and provide high level account to overnight guests.

I personally prefer to use WIFI in my own room when I visit a hotel because I have more privacy. Some hotels they may offer free/complimentary WIFI in the public area, for example, the lobby, the lounge, etc. At the same time, to limit the overuse of public WIFI, the WIFI in the guests' room are charged by different time period and the length of using the WIFI. It seems to be not fair to those business people who require internet all day long. However, it lowers the expense of the WIFI service and improves the guests' satisfaction of the internet service.

Would you pick your seat based on an app for your next plane ride? Well on KLM you can and Virgin is working on one too. Personally I use that time to relax but if I could use it to avoid an avid stamp collecting chatter box it would be worth it. There may be a small fee and possible sell of personal information to marketers but on a long haul flight sitting next to a like-minded individual might make all the difference in a good vs awkward ride. Very neat! Unfortunately, the fun and celebrations of the Christmas season are often dampened by the stressful experience of holiday air travel. ...

I feel that an app that uses information from social media may be too personal for most. However I do see an opportunity from this idea. Airlines may consider adding an option for their passengers to select if they are travelling for business or pleasure. They could assign seat depending on the purpose of the passengers trip.

To tell the truth, I will try it if it is free to choose people around you. But on the other hand, I think it is hard to implement this system.....

This article focuses on the cost savings a biometric fingerprint scanning POS can have on a restaurant. It eliminates employees from clocking in early and holds everyone accountable for what they do. It makes life easier for management since they can look at all the transaction data and know exactly who to talk to if something doesn't add up.  I think this is pretty cool software. It was less expensive than I would have guessed. The article said the average price for one of these systems is about $2,000. Depending on the restaurant, that can be a small or large amount but I think in the long run that is a small price to pay from a management point of view. 

This article gives pros and cons of mobile apps compared to mobile websites for event planners. Of course each have their positives and negatives. I think the decision of going mobile app or website depends on the people who are attending your event. If it's more of an older business crowd, I think a mobile website would be most appropriate. You can email the web address to all attendees and then they can click into it straight from the email on their smartphone. This can work with any phone that supports a web browser so you don't have to worry about developing an app for iPhones, Androids, and Blackberries. If the attendees are younger and more tech savvy, an app is probably the way to go since that can incorporate parts of their phone like the camera. Younger people are more apt to take pictures and post them to twitter or facebook. With the app they could do that right in the app and connect to more of their peers that way. Younger attendees are more likely to go through the trouble of downloading the app and using all of its features whereas older, more business oriented attendees are more likely to appreciate the ease of use of just clicking on a web link. At any rate it's an interesting choice to make if you are unable to afford both options. 

The article talks about how a business owner was able to reduce the paper used at his restaurant in the back office. While doing this he finds out that it is much easier to control his business, the cloud and technology initiatives provide him with accountability and easier way to expand. This is a lesson in the how to achieve two objectives with one solution. 

I think going green is a must but its not enough. The system of producing-consuming needs to be comletely changed. Actually im happy companies start thinking about bringing less harm to nature.

Going green is such a win for every party. I would argue that there is a big difference between wading through piles of paper and having a clean organized electronic system. The more automated the back office of any company can be, the more efficient and therefore profitable it will be. The popularity of cyber communication, data storage, bookeeping, etc is only going to increase rapidly in the next few years.

I have a key chain full of membership cards, tiny ones. I have Wallgreen Balance rewards card, Salon Centric professional store card, PetSmart PetPerks card, Winn Dixie Grocery store card, my vehical elite member card, and my gym membership card to name a few. I think those business (retails) got me. I can't resist their benefits even though I know they try to get my money. It's nice to get a discount here and there, and it really makes shopping fun and keeps me coming back for more with coupons and stuff. I think having a customer loyalty program within POS systems is a great idea especially when enabled via mobile devices.

3VR security Inc launches new technology that can track almost anything that enters hotels. With facial recognition, license plate recognition and motion analysis, guests should have no problems feeling safe. According to the article there are over 7,000 lost items that end up in the hotel's lost and found each year. With this new technology, that number will drastically reduce. There is a 90% accuracy rate attached with this new system. With this system, managers will be able to staff appropriately if they know when vehicles are most active in the parking garages as to avoid accidents or any theft. I think this sounds like a great idea for personal items. It is a little alarming that a system like this can track any guest and see what they are up to in the hotel. Are there any privacy concerns or issues that you think will come along with a system like this?