Group items tagged

For this article I want to focus on the room technology aspect. We have become so dependent of our devices at home that sometimes going to hotels is not as pleasant as before. In this article, we can see how hotel chains are changing to cater to our needs so the daily routines are not affected. One example is how Hilton is partnering with Netflix allowing you to sync your Netflix Account with the Hilton Honors app so you can go and use the room tv to keep watching your favorite programs. So no more using your computer or ipad to keep binging on your series while you are in a hotel. The other interesting part is the use of tablets and apps that mimic our regular apps for food ordering within the hotel avoiding the need to call for room service or doing lines at restaurants.

This article discusses not only the future of hospitality technology, but the impact it will have on the industry, All of the technology advancements mentioned will change how hospitality businesses operate. For example, cybersecurity is becoming a really important investment for these businesses to make because hackers have been stealing guest data and information. Tech advancements are being placed around privacy of consumer data, when that never used to be a major issue

This article palms out 8 disruptive hotel technology trends to follow. The explosion of SaaS, APIs going mainstream, room technology innovation, privacy and cybersecurity, the struggles of OTAs, WiFi 6, big data and digital hotel companies. The article illustrates that technology is driving the hospitality industry by explaining new technology trends that enable hoteliers to operate more efficiently and offer guests the opportunity to personalize their experience. But it also means hoteliers must focus on data security and ongoing training when implementing the technology guests expect.

This article shows how important sustainability is in the hotel industry and how innovation and technology can help companies sustainability efforts. Even though technology like the smartphone has a huge footprint on the environment, they can be used to help in sustainability such as hotels using the smartphones that guests already have to perform some functions without having to use paper. Mobile phones can also be adapted to help in running of smartrooms to improve customer experience and also reduce the footprint on the environment.

A quick read but very enlightening statistics about generational feelings and loyalty to green technologies in hotels.

It is becoming more common for hotels to become more sustainable and green in there business practices. Guests are finding these practices to be expected more often that none. Hotels are now becoming more efficient on there sustainability efforts by utilizing technology in order to reduce costs as well.

This article introduces the reason that the hotel needs develop its e-marketing. The author pointed that a successful internet marketing campaign is one that can strike a perfect balance between all these various practices associated with E-marketing. Here are the key reasons why it is important for the hotel. Firstly, advertising on the internet is much cheaper than advertising on TV, radio, or even newspaper. Secondly, e-marketing make it easier to find hotel's target audience. Thirdly, the success and failure of any marketing campaign on the internet can be tracked and analyzed very easily by using Google analytics, and various other means. Through internet marketing brands can establish a regular committed community of their fans and followers, and engage with them in a two way communication. A carefully, and strategically designed hotel website can provide its prospective clients a lot information. In addition, as most of the prospective travelers use the internet to gather information about their destinations, and hotels, hotel properties can ignore internet marketing only at their own peril. Also, the hotel can make use of Internet to show its property to the guests. A good designed web page can attract more customers for the hotel.

The article demonstrates the reasons that Internet marketing is important in recent days. To begin with, the author provides several ways of Internet marketing, such as SEO, SMO, PPC and so on. In order to see the effectiveness of each Internet marketing method, marketing campaign is one good choice. The author then tells us how the Internet marketing is superior among traditional media. The Internet marketing is cheaper, easy to target audiences, easy to track data and it also can establish a regular committed community, which attracts lcustomers. Moreover, Internet marketing benefits the hotel properties. For example, the hotel website can help customers better know the hotel. So we see that Internet marketing is crucial to hotels.

Internet market is super important in the hospitality world. It helps customers answer questions such as charges, tariffs, location, and etc. and they are able to get answers they need fast, and from a reliable source. Another great use for internet marketing is the ability to draw in customers by showing what their property has to offer through pictures and videos.

Here, NCR reviews the how Mobile POS impacts customers, manager/owrners, and the staff beyond the general buzz and excitement of being able to pay for your dining via mobile device. Starting with the benefits to the customer, it is noted that there is added security for the customer because it is no longer required for the server to take the customer's card away from the table to take payment. The customer never loses sight of their card. As a result the guest is not overcharged for their tip, something that can happen often and they can be assured of the amount they are paying. Another added benefit for the guest is faster more attentive service, with expectations immediately set and met. If something is no longer available in the kitchen, it does not show up on the screen. Preventing the customer from setting an expectation for something that is not available. From a manger's perspective, Mobile POS shortens the order-to-service cycle. This shortens the wait time for potential guests and enables the establishment to serve more people more quickly. Also, having the ordering available table side, it will lead to fewer comps. So they are able to generate more money by serving more guests, and keep money because orders are taken and verified tableside. Having Mobile POS available also adds to the reputation of the establshment. It makes them seem more forward thinking and innovative. Finally, the article sites the benefits for the servers. It first helps server-to-customer relations by verifying every detail of the order right in front of the guest. The server is able to get the order right and be more attentive to the guest by having to do less walking. The server is able to have a higher level of productivity. And because they are more productive and able to provide better service, this results in increase tips and stronger attachment to both the customer and the restaurant.

" Quadriga's new Personal Media Network™ has been awarded the prestigious Equip'Innov Award for the most innovative product in the technology category at this year's Equip' Hotel Industry Conference and Exhibition in Paris."

This article shows us Quadriga's new Personal Media Network, which is one of the most innovative products at this year's Equip' Hotel Industry Conference and Exhibition in Paris. PMN™ is a new technology in in-room entertainment environment. This new technology will help the hotel in developing a 360-degree relationship with guests, before, during and after their stay. PMN integrates various forms of and the various forms of content into a single application to create a unified network of services. PMN bases on flexible building blocks, providing a new platform for hotel. With PMN, guests can access and shift content subscriptions from their own mobile device to in-room television for play. Everything from videos, movies, etc. can be get anywhere via hotel Wi-Fi on any device at any time. There are also PMN, FTG can be used in WIFI area. It makes hotels has more opportunities to increase revenue from meetings and event communication. This new technology creates differentiation in marketplace, and meets guests' demanding of WIFI and devices. Quadriga is the single partner to the global hospitality industry, integrating TV and Mobile communications platforms, Internet, Network. The company aims to create the latest technologies and meet every customer needs and guest expectations.

This super tech savvy hotel has a lot of bells and whistles in the room and are revealed starting when you walk in the door. The curtains will open and close a bit so you can see its electronic. And the bathroom glass fogs up so you can't see through. ** also, the micro master send info to the pms in the hotel giving the staff the ability to control temperature and lighting to benefit the sustainability of the hotel and its room. They also have motion detectors to verify when you are and are not in the room... Creepy!

Check out this creeper hotel that know when you're in your room or not! If i were an employee here i'd have fun with some of this technology

E-marketing is not unfamiliar for us and it has become a powerful tool for hotels to promote themselves. Hotels can make profit from it if it is applied in a proper way. This article introduces a successful example that IHG focuses on developing apps and mobil features to engage with guests throughout their journey and the monthly revenue from mobile booking reaches over $20 million. IHG's mobile strategy focuses on connecting with guests at all touch points throughout their travel planning and stay experience not just on the first step of room booking. IHG will continue their mobil strategy with launch of the Priority Club Rewards app for iPad that can help guests easily find and book rooms, check rates and increase flexibility to manage their reservation and view member details. This provides guests great convince and leaves them great feeling about this brand. Some new features, functions and offers will be customized for different category of guests such as corporate guests and leisure guests in IHG's e-marketing plan. So the efficiency in targeting the right market is increased. IHG benefit a lot from e-marketing and is multiplying more methods in this area to keep up with the trend. Success of IHG in e-marketing can be a good example for other hoteliers.

As close to home as this hits, with a security breach at my hotel recently, I'm happy to see that companies are upgrading their systems. The Black Hat cyber security conference in Vegas had a hacker present how easy it was to gain access into a hotel room. He had less than $50 in equipment that he used to infiltrate the locks on the hotel doors. In response to this, Onity, the company whose locks were tested, came out with a plan for a "two-tier" security upgrade. This makes me feel a little bit better but at the same time, it seems like hotels aren't being proactive about protecting their customers, so maybe more hotels needs to be exploited.

I don't see this how it make anyone feel a little better, all the company is doing is giving price discounts and tightening up some locks, make it harder to pick apart. The problem is the avg their or experienced theif can take a part a lock in minuets if not seconds. Chances are you wouldn't even hear it if you were asleep, on the phone, watching TV. The system isn't very good if it can be hacked with up to 50$ of equipment

Of particular interest is the online booking systems, electronic point of sale integration and marketing automation software which all ensure hotels maintain competitive.

This article talks about the new tool for the hotels to reach out to their customers, an interaction with their guests only through mobile phones. and this shows that the future of hotel marketing is going to evolve even further. One of the reasons why this would be helpful is because of the way everyone communicates today. of all the mobile phones used today, 95% of them have bluetooth, and another interesting statistics is that 98% of guests switch on the television within five minutes of entering their room. hotels customers are primed for information and offers. Proximity marketing enables guest engagement, it offers what the guests want the most. This type of marketing has a tremendous potential of generating revenue, by establishing stronger roots of connection with their customers. So basically it provides instant connection, manage campaigns and transactions in real time, advertise smarter, no delivery fee and no privacy issues. all this along with growing customer acceptance of location based services will open new opportunities for the for proximity marketing, not only for hospitality but for others too.

Changing technologies provide a new way for hotels to interact with guests. Increased interaction engages the customer in a hotels promotion. Exclusivity generates interest and repeat business, and instant measurement gives hoteliers capabilities traditional advertising never could alone - instant customization and measurable reaction at no cost. With technology that allows digital signs to 'talk and interact' with nearby mobile devices, providing mobile users with information and incentives at exactly the time they need them, hotels and advertisers can transform their in-room TV and digital signage into interactive consumer touchpoints. The result is a true consumer interaction, which evolves in real-time. Hotels can deliver branded content to guests within a certain location. Proximity marketing has tremendous revenue-producing potential, allowing hotels to deepen their connection with guests, encourage more loyalty and greatly improve the customer experience: all of these factors combine to make proximity marketing a very effective tool to generate higher ROI for both hotels and their advertisers.

The IT staff in the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino prefer to use the Policy Patrol Disclaimers from Red Earth Software in order to solve too goals: to standardize the signature on all outgoing e-mail with a more corporate and consistent feel, and the em-mail signatures had to be flexible enough to accommodate marketing promotions. E-mail is an important tool for team member to communicate with other parts as an entertainment marketing tools to streamline their brand and publicize the events. The reasons for choosing the Policy Patrol are, its close integration with exchange server and active directory. It can immediately applies updates to active directory contact information in the users' e-mail signature to make easy to maintain. Also, the Policy Patrol Disclaimers is very easy to operate and need little to maintain. It is consistent, reliable, and easy to use.

The article is talking about that the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino communicates with vendors, partners, legal teams, and hotel and casino patrons via e-mail. Hard Rock had two goals for the e-mail signature to improve their e-marketing. One is to standardize the signature and the second is to be flexible enough to accommodate marketing promotions. The Hard Rock Hotel and Casino chose the Policy Patrol Disclaimers to help them achieve goals. The Policy Patrol has a close integration with Exchange Server and Active Directory. It allows the hotel to configure one template that is automatically personalized with the sender's contact information. The Policy Patrol also allows to easily updating e-mail marketing information for all e-mail signatures by configuring e-mail signatures from one central template.

This article mentions a marketing tool through e-mails and a specific solution, eSignature Solution, implemented by Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. The employees at the Hard Rock increasingly communicate with co-workers, partners, vendors, and customers via e-mails. The company realized that e-mails could be an important marketing tool which costs less than other tools, such as TV commercials. Thus, the Hard Rock implemented eSignature Solution which allows them to send out e-mails to customers, vendors, and partners with upcoming events, special deals, and so on. In addition, this centralized e-mail signatures program enables the company to configure one template that is automatically personalized with the sender's contact information, and to customize e-mails and its contents (events or special offers) based on customer information. According to Mike Essig, the director at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, the new solution is very easy to operate, update and mostly cost effective. Along with social media marketing, marketing through e-mail could be very effective and potential as the number of use of e-mail is significantly growing and e-mail is widely used in our lives.

The article explains how the new website for New Zealand was based on how it was inspired, New Zealand's marketing was always through TV, but now they were moving into websites and it explains the importance of this one.

This article describe a new smartphone app based on Android system in Samsung phone. At the first, this article introduce the long history about the room key development. It points out that the physical keys always have a problem that key itself can be stolen, and thus used by someone who doesn't have access privileges. Then the article introduce the  new Samsung's system. What amazing me is the phone is not only can be used as a door key but also a control center in guests' hand. "Once inside the room, the same phone can be used to order room and laundry service, book other hotel facilities, and act as an in-room phone extension. " The app has powerful features and I thought it will become a trend in the future.

Jingjia...this is a great article. I agree with you, I am impressed with the functionality of the phone application and how it works. It eliminates the middle man and any room for human error. I wonder how much more we can do with our phones. On this article listed below, it talks about how you can start a car directly from your IPhone (http://www.wired.com/autopia/2009/10/start-your-car-from-your-iphone/). Soon, we will be able to do many things with simply the touch of a button.

This article presents insight into the best technology available right now to put into a new construction or facelift of a hotel.  From the basics like HDTV and internet connection, to facial recognition key locks, this article discusses the trend in the industry.  It also discusses energy management systems, which are clues that the industry is evolving and looking to save cost and the environment at the same time.  These style of systems, I believe will emerge as the most important out of the whole list because they demonstrate the exact way to cut cost.  The article says that an effective energy management system "can reduce a hotel's carbon footprint by 75 percent."  Thats not too shabby...  For more on energy management systems, visit http://ems3.com/.

The technology to rotate the Croatian hotel once every day is absolutely phenomenal. By giving their guests a chance for an ocean view during their stay, they provide the guest with the utmost of service although like the article pointed out, this is not feasible for most hotels. I especially like the energy efficient programs being implemented in hotels across the country. Most guests, including myself, leave hotel rooms with out adjusting the air, leaving lights on, etc. Because we are not at our own home, we seem to lack concern. With energy-efficient air conditioning, water harvesting shower heads and sensors to detect when the room is vacant will all help reduce the hospitality industry's carbon footprint drastically.

echnology director at Quadriga, recommends the top ten bits of technology that every hotel room should have, ranging from the most obvious to the more unusual. They should provide a range of high quality HD channels to reflect the needs of guests and most major suppliers including Samsung and LG, for example, offer a range to suit all requirements and budgets.

The article attached to this link is from HotelNews.com and refers to "The Guestroom of the Future" reported in a trade show in 2010. The author reports ten trends that should be seen in hotel rooms within the next few years. One of the ten trends is the ability to use a mobile device such as an ipad to control the amenities in the room utilizing a software that will connect the room technology to the touchscreen device. By using the ipad, the guest is able to control the room temperature, open and close drapes, set privacy sign light on or off, turn on request for housekeeping service, alarm, wake up call, room service order, view room folio, access concierge services and etc. The advantage of this device is that it concentrates all technology in just one device depending on the capability of the software. I believe more hotels will adhere to this type of software as soon as it is proven to be reliable and accpeted by guests. Reliability is also related to the dependancy of the internet connection for the functionality of this software. I consider one of the concerns to be how would these amenities be delivered or operated in case of failure of internet service or power outage.

In the future, the technology in hotels are developing faster and faster, better and better, it will make guests control more by just touching the button or screen. Nowadays, guests plugged-in the hotels or restaurants by online reservation via the high-tech networks and telecommunications. There are a lot of aspects in the hotels guests using the networks and telecommunications to connect with hotels. For example, before guests come to hotels, they made a reservation online, it needs network; and then, when they get into the hotel, they will check-in by self-service or using the hotel computers, which is convenient to guests. In addition, taking the Aloft Hotels in Hong Kong as an excellent example, guests can use their SPG card to go to their rooms directly without front desk check-in, and then when they go into the room, they can connect their phones and computers whatever they want to the hotel TV. Furthermore, Las Vegas guests can use a touch button to require cleaning services,view room charges, or survey the International Flight Schedule, all of these are related to the high-tech networks, if there is no power or no network, all of these technologies are went out. To sum it up, networks and telecommunications are extraordinary significant to hospitality industry, it represents a kind of luxury and top level of a hotel, it can bring more and more guests for itself.

From what I read about this article, I think this high-tech brings benefits both to hotels and guests. It improves hotel's working efficiency. At the same time, it brings convenience to guests when they check in. As an old saying goes, kill two birds with one stone. This is worthy recommended technology.

SUMMARY OPERA Property Management System is fully integrated with all the OPERA modules and offers the most extensive list of certified interfaces in the industry. FEATURES: Reservation, rate management, profiles, front desk management, back office interface, room management, cashiering, account receivables, commissions, reporting, fully configurable, global perspective, hospitality system interface, opera express, tailored to fit hotel's operational business needs, scalable to suit the size of the hotel, helps operators to become more productive, profitable and professional, and delivers fast, accurate and online information on property

A lot of hotels use OPERA as their property management system. I have never personally worked in a hotel so I am not familiar with PMS's but from everything that I have read and heard from people is that OPERA is very efficient with everything. This system seems as though it can do everything for your property just the way that you would like it to. OPERA is customizable to your company's needs which seems great. This is a great website that you posted as it informs all of us exactly what this PMS is capable of.

IHG (InterContinental Hotels Group) is the first hotel company to launch apps for both Kindle Fire and Google TV. Last year, IHG alos launched apps for Iphone and Ipad. The investment of new technologies will bring over $130 million in revenue for IHG from mobile bookings in 2011. Recent year, more and more travel supplier, such as airline, or hotel, developed direct booking system on website or mobile phone in order to get rid of over dependency of GDS (global distribution systems). As new technology developing, such as wifi, there will be more and more hotels groups lanuch direct booking apps on mobile phone in the future.

Wow, that's a great jump into the Android apps. There are some people who will not buy Apple Products for whatever reason so it's great they are covering all the mobile tablet reader area's.

POSLavu, an outstanding wireless point-of-sale system from LAVU that it's a leading developer for restaurants softwares was featured recently on the Kitchen Nightmares TV show by famous chef Gordon Ramsay. This application can be used through your Ipad or Iphone with one single touch you can customize menus, manage seating, take meal orders, and much more. Most importantly it is easy to install and extremely easy to learn.