I wanted to give you all a link to an article written about Hotels 2020: Beyond Segmentation. I used 2020 a great bit for strategic management and figuring out the customer of tomorrow. Inside has great information on the technologies that will be used in hotels in the future like augmented reality and personalization of rooms. Imagine picking your own art work or using personal photos in frames and changing wall colors to suite your mood. The future guest is going to be harder to segment. They will demand a tailored high quality experience. Scanning the remote environment and becoming fast innovators will determine the most successful future hotels. You can click on a link to request a full copy of the Amedeus 2020 report.

I found an old article on Physical Plant and preparation for Y2K! The claimed that high tech hotels needed to check their flash light batteries, first floor grounding of elevators, back up generators and fuel tanks. Besides the fact that this is written for doomsday Y2K they have a valid point to have a disaster plan if an earthquake, hurricane or any disaster takes the hotel off line. Loss of power is a real threat especially in hurricane Miami. We need to know that data will be backed up, rooms can be accessed, and that people will not remain stuck in an elevator. Please read below With hotel systems growing ever-more tech-dependent, disaster planning extends well beyond protecting data. Proaction Better Than Reaction Computer Systems Demand Special Attention Just outside California's state capital, the Sheraton Sacramento Rancho Cordova Hotel is a magnet for business travelers in the high-tech and government sectors.

Before Midnight Cilli! No pumpkin carriage here lol. Thanks

Cancun Resort was growing beyond past the ability to hand enter employee data. They needed a HRIS. They needed a system that could scale up with their growth but could not afford the expensive People Soft which based on my search of articles is a problem for most small to midsize companies. Typically companies buy a HRMS like Ascentis, Epicor HCM, People Strategy Inc or Sage Abra HRIS to name a few software companies. Its seems that HRIS systems can cost anywhere from a couple thousand to a couple million. Pricing costs increase with the number of employees. In this case study the Cancun Resort needed a reasonable priced system and Ascentis was their answer for a scalable system that was user friendly, produced automated reports like EEOC, sent employee birthday and anniversary alerts, automatic inputs of time and attendance, handled payroll benefits, and captured absentee trends. On the Ascentis website there are also other case studies and a video of the Mandarin Oriental HR director.

Now this article is about Big Brother and total surveillance. The CIA has laid claims that they would be able to tap into almost all of our daily used devices including our dishwashers. Why I don't know but it is unnerving that they would even bother to see if I separated my darks from my lights. In essence The CIA and the NSA will be able to gain access and control of all devices that are linked to the internet.  The article also reports that anyone who has been arrested in NYC is only released from custody with an iris scan. Probably because of the increased presences of CCTV and facial recognition but they are keeping mum on their reasons.  Oh and for all you email users oh wait that is all of us, the NSA is working on de-encrypting all messages to read, analyze and store. 

I'm not sure but that would be a good guess or perhaps they can bug it for sound?

In class you mentioned the high surveillance and passenger monitoring on cruise ships including the alerts of children going into non parental rooms. I found this intriguing because there are always a slew of people in the media that had the misfortune of going missing while on a cruise. In the last two years 41 people have gone missing and this does not include the Costa Concordia capsizing numbers. While the camera's might be rolling and the identification cards can track if passengers left the boat or stayed on I still wonder what the cruise lines do to cover up crimes. In Hospitality Law we learned that wherever the next docking country is that is where the crime that occurred on the ship will be investigated by. Most of these Caribbean Islands do not want to deal with missing persons or rape that occurred on a cruise ship so the cases get swept away. So despite the fact that cameras are supposedly on for safety here is an article with some interesting cases of missing people from cruise lines. I think a better technology would be to have the RFID enabled wristbands worn by all cruise ship passengers so that they can be located at anytime. This should be mandatory but disguise the tracking part by selling the fact that the wristband allows the passengers to make purchases with it.  Royal Caribbean Oasis of the Seas has this but it is voluntary and mostly requested by families who need to keep tabs on their children. They have only made 1000 wristbands and the article is accessible here : http://www.rfidjournal.com/article/view/7415/1

Despite the fact 50 % of guests use their smart phones to book hotels, recent research reveals they are not ready to pay for their rooms after they stay with the same phones. Near Field Communication (NFC) would allow guests to simply wave their phones at a kiosk to check out instantly paying and updating the hotels accounts. Fear of cellphones being stolen are the general apprehensions of this new technology that would eliminate carrying a credit card. After the smart phone market matures hotels airlines and restaurants will be able to take advantage of the swift mobile payment technology.

Security and POS wrapped up in one tight little bow. Vectron has came out with a new cctv system that integrates to the hotel or bars POS system. Now the security system time stamps all images linked up to transactions. GM's can set up alerts to be sent to their mobiles or emails. Why is this important? Incidents like employee theft, fraudulent credit card use, guest intoxication, credit card disputes and underage service can all be tracked, imaged and time stamped to serve as evidence. This can help in insurance claims, police reports, reporting credit card fraud or dismissal of employees. There are many times where customers dispute there bills after they have received services in Miami and linking the POS to the security system would be a tool in fighting for payments deserved. Too bad this is a Australian Device and not in America.

Just for fun for my fellow Tech group ... Are you dreading Valentines? Wondering why you are single? Well there is an app for that. Wot Went Wrong beta will help you find out why your ex left you. Fill out your name their name and it makes a questionnaire to send to your ex. Once they fill it out using the drop down adjectives and phrases you just might get the answer to the question keeping you up at night. Or you will realize that is why you left the tool in the first place.  Put the chocolate down! Be proactive! Actually, I just thought this was a funny app and wanted to share. ***Not responsible for any restraining order violations, unwanted make ups or horrible self actualizations. 

This weeks module is about learning the green terms for hospitality. Therefore the first link I have provided is the vocabulary of the concept of Cradle to Cradle. Cradle to Cradle is a concept that ends the linear model of resource extraction to product manufacturing to land fill instead it becomes a circular model that eliminates the concept of waste. It follows the Triple Bottom Line of profits, planet, people in the design of products energy resource. Hotels can purchase Cradle to Cradle or C2C certified products from carpet and flooring, building exteriors to laundry detergents that are made to be reabsorbed into the circular model. This website is worth checking out. This link below is a summary of C2C in their own PDF Design for the Future http://www.mbdc.com/images/Design_For_C2C_Future.pdf

Does hospitality technology get your gigabytes moving? Do you enjoy pints of Guiness and a sea of Green? You might want to check out this link. Two companies in Ireland are hiring for research and development positions for international travel software and Internet products and services. Their products and services are used by OTA's airlines and hotels around the world. If this is your niche, apply soon! This is exactly what this class is about. Slainte!

There are many posts about Green hotels. If you are interested in the process for your hotel in Florida please go to the Florida Green Lodging website and click on the designation application link. There are also helpful links to Best Practices, Designated Properties, and Webinars. I was fortunate to sit in on their meeting with the AHLA in Miami with Professor Scanlon and I learned a wealth of information most of which can be accessed on this website. Start your green team today! Angela Before You Apply [PDF - 94KB]Review this document before beginning the application to learn more about the Florida Green Lodging Program. Application Instructions [PDF - 67KB] [DOC - 31KB] Please follow these instructions when completing the Designation Application. Designation Application [PDF - 1,388KB] This application is a comprehensive evaluation tool that details the requirements of the Florida Green Lodging Program.

Mobile marketing is in it's infancy in Africa but better for hotels to be there for its first steps than when it's about to graduate. Accor Hotels has started it's mobile app for online bookings in Africa but has experienced a slow growth in mobile bookings, unlike Kenyan hotel chain Sarova which boosts 10% of all bookings are done through mobile phones. 7 million people carry smart phones in Africa, and Kenya and South Africa are the most m commerce savvy countries with the highest mobile transactions. For optimum exposure as smart phone usage grows start promoting your hotels now with mobile apps.

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. ...

Hate to say it but I would pick either a short quiet bookish seat mate for silent comfort or a hot single well traveled man if I was feeling talkative. You're right Yonghe it would turn into a potential singles app.

Lots of news coming out on New Orleans Hotels this month. New year new new software. The New Orleans Hotel Collection has switched to Target Net a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). This is a cloud based service can be accessed from smart phones, tablets and anywhere one can access the internet. The sales and catering platform keeps employees in the know on the go and making smart productive decisions for group business.

This article provides a brief overview of the emerging trends for hotel management information systems. The trends focus on easy mobile access, unattended point of sale, radio frequency identification and near field communications. An increasing number of hotel are using the the cloud for on the go mobile connectivity to their POS systems and revenue management software SaaS. You can manage your hotel from anywhere and be up to date instantly. This trend and the next eliminates the need for desk or office time. Lilipad has created an I-product that allows guests to perform their own transactions at I-Pad kiosk which eliminates time at the front desk. The other large emerging trend is tracking devices that can be implanted in phones or even loyalty cards that link to bank and credit card accounts replacing the traditional wallet. While other articles say there is no rush to cellphones replacing wallets just yet, hotels like Aloft are using RFID's in there loyalty cards eliminating the issue of room keys. Notice in all these trends that the face to face contact with guests that we hospitality students enjoy and train for is decreasing with every new technology.