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With so much emphasis this week on the negative environmental impact of computers, I found an article that points hoteliers in a direction on how being green can improve your bottom line. The idea is quite simple; you implement energy or resource saving methods, you pay less utilities. Customers recognize that you are being eco-friendly and are more loyal to your brand. Over time your revenue goes up, there are less expenses and thus impacting your net profits in a positive manner. Then you get to repeat the whole process with newer technology again with the increased profits. Sounds easy right...? So what things should you implement? One idea was Portfolio Manager web tool that tracks all of your hotels energy consumption all while taking in consideration of operational and local weather factors. This is one piece of the solution of on going concerns of environmental destruction taking place industry wide. If everyone contributed in some small way, hopefully we can see a large impact.

this article goes in-depth the benefits of using POS systems.. POS systems are being used a lot more than ever before. it is a great and effective tool to follow up on customer engagement and understand more about sale information and profit projections, all while providing excellent customer service

This article discusses five ways to stimulate Ecommerce which includes corresponding with guests, remaining active on social media, not letting your SEO go on leave, devising media budgets and targeting, as well as employing the help of an expert. The author emphasized staying in contact with your customers whether it be through your website, social media, or email. The intention is to stay connected with your guest so that when it is time for them to choose a hotel, they will choose yours. Social media can be used as a tool to entice your future guest and keep them interested in your property. Keeping search traffic up for your website will also ensure people continue to look at your property. Keep in mind the kind of travelers that will come to your property, and tailor your advertisements, messaging, and offers to meet the needs of those travelers. And lastly, if needed, do not be afraid to enlist the help of an expert. This article is meant as a guide for getting one's Ecommerce back on track during these hard pandemic times.

My opinion on this article is that E-commerce has been a huge hit as of lately and it is time for this type of trend to follow in the hospitality world. There is a huge shift from walk-in business to online bookings and the best way to show guests the improvements to the property would be through email and social media presence. This would give properties a competitive advantage when it comes to OTA bookings.

This article goes in depth into GDS. It explains the concept of the GDS is and how eaxctly it works. It also gives examples of some major GDSs. It talks about the benefits of using GDS in hotels.

The global distribution system in the hospitality industry is beyond vital in the act of keeping the ball rolling. GDS provides live products and offers to travelers across the globe. Whats really amazing about GDS is that live availability and rates are transferred through a channel manager directly to online booking sites. This allows guests to acquire the best rates the soonest as opposed to waiting to call a hotel or resort to see what they have and at what price.

This article shows us everything we need to know about Hotel GDS. It includes GDS in the hotel industry, GDS work way in travel, seven major GDS systems, the way to access leading GDSs with GDS software, GDS conditions of use, benefits of connecting hotel to the GDS, and how to use the GDS to capture cruise travel bookings at hotel.

Using the PMS that integrates with different operational processes in the hotel can extremely benefit the managers, as they will have more time to work on improving the guests' experience, rather than supervising the operations related to PMS and other hotel departments' interactions. In this article, the different types of PMS integrations are described, along with the benefits of implementing those integrations.

The author presents the argument that optimum performance of a hotel's wi-fi network is critical to a hote and that the demands of IoT, large conferences and the need to update infrastructure require constant oversight. It is argued that outsourcing the hotel wi-fi network to a managed WiFi provider has many advantages over placing the burden and responsibility on the hotel IT team. In my opinion, the article makes a strong case for engaging a managed WiFi provider. What would have been a useful addition to the article is how hotel's should go about managing and overseeing the provider that they engage.

This article on internet marketing for the tourism industry provides great tips on how businesses operating in this industry can connect with their customers and appeal to them visually to encourage them to visit their properties. Through various sources and mediums (photos, videos, online business listings, blogs and articles, social media, and email marketing) greater exposure can be achieved at a reduced price when compared to the traditional ways of marketing.

It is important to lay down a technology investment strategy that aligns with the specific goals of your organization and avoid investing in "pie in the sky" with no guaranteed returns. It will be easier to identify technologies that can help your business if you have a clear picture of where you're heading and what steps you must take to get there. Once you've set down your business strategy, you should appoint a member of your organization to track IT trends and advancements in the marketplace. Sit down with this person and list the sky technology areas they should be monitoring based on your business needs. Once you have projects in mind, talk to a trusted IT advisor and run a cost analysis. Create a short list of IT investments that you can not only afford, but will also help you achieve your stated business goals. Do a risk analysis of significant project you consider to undertake. Make sure the project is coming in on time and on budget. Finally, continue to update your IT investment plan and monitor new technology developments.

Great article talks about what companies should do if they want to invest the technology. Companies will surfer great risk if the company is blindness in investment. The company should firstly Clearfield their business strategy know what kind of the technology needed by the company. Advisor from professional people and the cost analysis is also important. Base on this analysis hotel can find better technology with less risk.

Nowadays, hotels are make good use of the social media to carry out event planning and attract more potential customers to know about them. Over the past year, thousands of hotels have posted blogs about their event planning on the Internet to get attention and do marketing. In this article, the author introduced ten most interesting and popular event planning topics in 2017. 1. Attracting Sponsors in Innovative Ways 2. Speeding Up Registration With the Right Check-In App 3. Defining Event Goals and Objectives 4. Perfecting Your Product Launch Event 5. Tracking Social Media Performance 6. Overcoming the Top Challenges Facing Event Planners 7. Saving Time with Event Planning Apps 8. Engaging Attendees with Interactive Presentation Ideas 9. Wowing Attendees on a Tight Event Planning Budget 10. Boosting Audience Participation at Your Events

This blog post about event management software highlights how it's use is beneficial to your organization. One of the perks is that the software holds everything in one place, from registration to reporting, to payments and promotions. The payment section is also able to integrate with your invoicing system, and processing payments is also done securely. The software also has e-mail capabilities, in which allow you to send correspondence to your delegates, also with ease of grouping them to your liking. They also are able to provide a selection of reports that you may need. To conclude, EMS is a great tool to organize any and all events.

Module 2: Hardware/Software (Berkley Alessandrini) The following article compares the current top/trendy management software programs within the hospitality industry - specifically within lodging operations. Obviously manually updating your hotel's information is no longer an effective way to do things. The following article breaks down certain software programs like; My Cloud PMS, Oracle, roomMaster, etc, and gives information on each that differentiates them. I can relate to the article because I have experience working with a few different types of software programs and I know first-hand how important it is to have a software that is convenient, organized, and user friendly. Depending on the program, they have the ability to be customised based on needs of the hotel and can even add certain features if necessary. After analysing the article, I believe that it is vital to compare the different programs available to find a PMS that fits best for your specific hotel. In some cases, maybe your property will not benefit from the "top" management software system; therefore you must compare and find one that will work best with your needs, requirements, budget, etc. It is important for the Lodging Industry to take full advantage of the technology that is provided to them and as technology is constantly evolving - you must (as a business) evolve with the changes and update your current technology to lead and stay ahead of the trends. Having a software that provides your hotel with the best features, availability, etc. is a must!

This crisis will not just end and the industry needs to stay on top of this situation by making new standards. In the article it explains how you can use your systems to communicate with guests the cleanliness procedures of your establishment. You can use your CRM's or service optimizers to communicate thoughtful in- room offerings for a safe and meaningful hands-off experience. 

This article talks about how you can improve your restaurant operations and save money using a POS system. The system helps in Sales per Man Hour and Forecasted Revenue.

This article takes you through why your restaurant may want to switch to a Cloud-Based POS. There are many positive attributes associated with making the switch, such as; data accessibility, cheaper operating costs, easier upgrades, less frequent downtimes, increased security, and adaptability. If you are a growing business, the Cloud would grow with you.

Cloud based POS systems can be apprehensive at first, but we are always satisfied once we are able to se the technology work to keep the business safe, effiecient and also more profitable. Cloud based POS systems are speedy and saves a lot of time which frees up staff to do other things in the establishment.

This article discussed the benefits of switching from a localized POS system to a cloud-based restaurant POS. The article touched on how cloud-based systems provide real-time data and how that instant data could provide a management team real-time solutions. You can save so much time and money by identifying issues before they even arrive. I found it very interesting that with cloud-based systems you have the "ability to add on a mobile POS unit that provides a number of benefits." With this option, your servers do not have to run back and forth to a POS station. They simply have the option in the palm of their hands. It also decreases the time spent waiting for a check or credit card to return to the table. This not only increases guest satisfaction, but helps with table turnover. The article also touched on how cloud-based POS systems are "better enabled to grow with you." They are super adaptable and the article mentioned that restaurants can update their menu whenever, launch new loyalty programs, and help with more precise inventory tracking. This article also touched on setup, increased security, staff accountability, and the ability to make better business decisions due to the cloud software being able to provide extensive business insights. Finally, the article touched on POS cost and how " upfront costs are kept to a minimum and monthly subscription fees are lower." It also ended with a case study about Homegrown Hospitality Group and their switch from Aloha to Upserve Cloud-based POS. It was very interesting and I'd recommend everyone read the brief two paragraphs about how the switch changed their business trajectory.

Almost everyone has recently heard of Cody Brocious and his gadget that was implemented and utilized to unlock guest room doors in Onity locking systems. This issue has been recently broadcasted all over the news and has gained the awareness of millions of people, making travelers panic when staying in hotels, and questioning their safety and security. The truth is, behind the issue at hand, travelers have been utilizing hotels and other establishments without being concerned or conscious of their safety, and with some negligence, and lack of attention, they put themselves at risk in numerous different ways. Although Brocious' invention gained the attention of the public, and although he went out of his way to be sure that other hackers out there knew how to replicate the system and how to utilize it to their advantage, enabling hackers to enter guest rooms and steal their personal belongings without their permission, or potentially cause physical harm to a traveler as well. Stated in this article, according to Forbes, the gadget that Brocious invented has proven inconsistent in its effectiveness. That is not to say that it could not eventually be improved, but with the changing in technology, and now the gained awareness, hotels are focusing more intently on ensuring guest security through their technological outlets. Technology affects many aspects of a hotel guest's security - from internet access to credit card information, along with guest room locks and personal identity. The article also suggests numerous ideas for how guests can avoid a lot of problems with their safety in mind, including using secondary security systems on their door, ensuring closure of the room door when leaving he room, as well as never keeping your room number written down with your key. The article also focuses on how utilizing your energy to ensure that your belongings are safe in your room as you would in your own home, is energy more well spent than being concerned about someone

POS is quite widely used in the field, at least in some restaurant chains. But this article points it out that although many restaurants are using POS, they still underestimate how useful this system can be. So this article introduces five features that POS can have if managers integrate these into POS. All of these features introduced in this article can be summarized into one word, that is tracking！POS can help to keep a track customer information and their preference to build a customer loyalty; POS can track inventory without counting every item in storage; POS can track employee's working hours and give managers alarm; POS can even track the menu information to help managers to make judgements if the menu item are profitable.  It is an investment to have a POS and it is also a waste of using only part of POS features. 

This article lists pros and cons of Cloud Computing for Hotels. What is surprising is that Cloud Computing can be costly as opposed to the common belief that Cloud Computing is a great cost saver. According to this article, if your IT resource pool is too big, it is less likely that you'll see any enormous financial advantage in outsourcing to the cloud. In addition, there is a method being used by hackers to increase your Cloud usage significantly and make you end up paying a lot for it. The method is called DDoS(Distributed Denial of Service). Even a low-level of this can keep your server busy and give you an enormous bill. Sure, these problems can be prevented and benefits of Cloud Computing can outweigh them. However, this technology is quite new, you need to think strategically before you pounce on  it.

This article introduced the result of a survey for the adaptation of cloud computing global wise. 68% of the global organizations want to adapt this new tech but 51% have concerns that their old system may not be enough for the adaptation.  Then the article describes the pros and cons with cloud computing and solutions for hoteliers.  The pros are : no need to buy many expensive hardware, lower maintenance expense and software installing and updating fee, Cons: security, which is the biggest concern, redundancy, and other things. 

This article basically talks about the importance of social media in the hospitality industry and gives us other thoughts beyond just applying a social media monitoring tool.  Managing the social media is no longer an option, but a necessity, particularly for those of us working in the hospitality industry. By using a social media monitoring tool, you may be able to know in real or near-real time each time your property or properties are mentioned online on every major social media network. On the other hand, you need to compile competitor data and compare it to your own so that you can analyze your brand in relation to competing brands. More and more social media consulting companies will crop up and your competitors may also have the tools you have. For a long-term success, make sure that the people who are speaking for you have the tools they need to resolve issues as well as represent your organization properly and find out a way that can make a difference with your competitors.

The articles discusses about the eight major function of PMS. The PMS has become on of the key factors for the operations in hotels. The system literally connects all the departments of the hotel under one umbrella. It is easier faster and useful for any hotel organization. The PMS should include these 8 parts: Dashboard: The dashboard should be simple and easily understood by the employees, this will make the check in and check out process quick, even in restaurants the staff would be able to handle orders from the guest quickly. Sales and Cancellation: This will provide a better daily picture about functioning of the hotel rooms. Calendar: This function will help in tracking the booking, noting down occupancy for a particular day. Housekeeping: The housekeeping department would be able to have a proper track of rooms, dirty, clean, dirty vacant and occupied. The housekeeping staff would not have ton call at the front desk all the time to check status of a particular room. Best available rate: The system will give a broader image of rates which needs to be set for the future months, comparing the sales from previous years. Direct booking engine: This what all the hotels wants, to save commission which needs to be provided to the third parties.