Throughout this article Mohamed Derouiche, discussed how there are six main sections/ "e-actions" to a successful e-marketing strategy. 1. Search Engine Marketing (SEM): "SEO attempt to improve a website's organic (i.e. non-sponsored) search rankings in Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) by increasing the content's relevance to search terms." 2. Sponsored search: "Sponsored search corresponds to search ads that allow a hotel /chain to be included in the sponsored results of a search for selected keywords." I am sure everyone has noticed a sponsored or an ad link once you search something on Google. 3. Social Media Marketing: "Social Media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube,… possess the advantage that they can spread any information or update posted rapidly to a very wide audience. " 4. Mobile Advertising with this you can- "Study of people's behavior: This aims at the examination of "when", "where" and "why" people use Smartphones and tablets to better understand their booking trend, needs and expectations." 5. Email Advertising: "Email advertising, also known as email marketing, is considered as a powerful e-marketing tool for hoteliers since it creates direct revenue opportunities for past, present and future guests." I'd consider this one of the most effective ways to advertise because everyone has an email that they check often and with an email online a text message you can include a lot more information and pictures on popular destinations. 6. Display advertising: "Display advertising conveys its advertising message visually using text, logos, animations, videos, photographs or other graphics." This is another popular method in my opinion because people like to see things not just read about it. Nothing makes you want to go on a trip more than seeing a picture of a beautiful beach while you are in the cold weather or rainy season.

This article mentions 3 key signs on when you should consider upgrading to a full event management software. I found this article to be relevant as this weeks discussion post was about the pros and cons for event registration systems. The 3 signs mentioned in the article are; "1. You need more complex event marketing, 2. Your event planning process is overwhelming, 3. Your events have grown big enough to require housing and travel management." After reading the first sign, I believe that now a days event planners need to have a full event management software if they are going to do a big event. The article stated that full services have social promotion tools, email marketing, and the ability to create an event within an event. These are all such important parts of an event. You have to have someone to send out email reminders and you might have an event that is more like a huge production where you have events within and event. And there's so many events that could fit in your head before you forget something. The other sign which I found very important was the third one. If your event requires traveling or housing then you are definitely going to be overwhelmed and you are going to need the extra help, event if its to track someones flight details.

This article mentioned how hotels do not have as many transactions as popular stores have but their transactions are typically more than grocery transactions. Hotels have a lot of personal information for many people and that information should not be leaked, never. It was mentioned that hotels need security as it is a cultural norm, you have to think beyond the credit card, be smart about responses, and don't sleep on insider threats. "Hotels are vulnerable to cybercrimes through a variety of avenues that break with the traditional physical security measures deployed across the hospitality industry. Keeping guests and their assets - both physical and digital - safe is paramount to preserving both the image and financial security of hotels."

This article is about how guests prefer the use of technology when they stay at a hotel. According to the article, 64% of guests say that investing in hotel technology is important. Everyone uses mobile devices each and every day and they expect to continue using them while on vacation. "A third of guests are interested in using a complimentary hotel tablet provided in guest rooms. Forty-one percent of guests want a message to their smartphone when their guest room is ready. About 21 percent of guests want the ability to stream content onto the in-room TV." Although excessively using technology has decreased human interactions, while on vacation travelers rather have the information given to them on a device rather than having to go to the front desk for everything. Smart phones have made trips more convenient from start to finish.

This article mentions way to overcome hotel accounting challenges. The article mentioned that technology has been helping the industry increase revenue, minimize cost, and maximize profit without affecting the quality of the service. One of the ways the author mentioned was to use cloud-based reporting for labor. Hotels have many employees working at all different times of the day and their pay rate varies, therefore it is much easier to monitor labor cost, have employees clock in electronically, and complete payroll having an electronic accounting system. Another way is to centralize multiple data sources. "Hoteliers may have a difficult time deciphering what story the data is telling and which levers to pull to remedy an issue or to replicate success. Business intelligence and analytics tool can point to where efficiencies can be improved and how to best reduce expenses." As a manager, its easier to monitor all your reports on one page making it easier to point out the areas that need improvement. Lately, having back-up accounting teams is a smart idea. Hotels are 24/7 hour establishments that host rooms for the needs of many people. In case of a natural disaster, the hotel must have a team ready to tackle the challenges on making room for those guests in need. "The global travel industry shows no signs of slowing down any time soon, so hotels must incorporate cutting-edge technology to streamline operations, optimize labor management, and access critical data while preparing for the next unexpected event."

This article was about how technology has had a great influence on point of sale systems within the hospitality industry. According to a senior director of product manager at Agilysys, Mike Hinojosa, he states that technology has transformed point of sale into point of experience. I personally agree with this because lately I expect hotels to have the latest in technology when it comes to POS and when I encounter a poor POS I automatically think they lack in providing the best for their guests. This article talks a lot about how mobile POS provide benefits for both parties and how it has increased guest satisfaction. "With mobile POS, the speed of service is dramatically increased because the staff can bring mobile ordering directly to guests, anywhere on property." According to this article, POS systems help boost F&B spending growth and they have become more secure throughout the years. "The hotel F&B space continues to show growth, with overall consumer spending increasing 4.9 percent in 2017 and showing a robust 5.5-percent annual growth since 2011, according to Technomic". It's said that mobile POS has helped F&B growth because it gives users the ability to into quicker sales and in different areas throughout the properties. For example, a waiter walking around a pool taking orders instead of having the guests walk to the poolside bar to place an order. Collecting payment has also become safer and easier with POS systems because of the PCI standards.

I found this article interesting for this week because it is about Property Management Systems being on the cloud. The author states that many hotels chose to use internal servers because of the convenience, security and the economy. "Cloud-based property management systems know that a major security breach would be fatal to their business, so they have to invest constantly in security upgrades." As a future manager, this is comforting to know because at least these companies know the amount of hackers out there and how important security is for hotels. Another important concern mentioned on the article, is the maintenance and updates. Whenever, the internet goes away and you are on a cloud system, there goes your system. "Investing in a PMS before you invest in rock solid data infrastructure is therefore not the best decision." In conclusion, the cloud based systems are slowly increasing but they have a lot of pros and cons, especially due to the hacking and chaos it may cause a hotel if the internet goes down.

"Green Hospitality and moving toward increased sustainability practices has become a large industry focus." This article is mainly about using technology instead of using of paper to facilitate the guests by using hotel room tablets. These tablets could replace all printed materials saving a lot of money on paper. "The hospitality industry spent over $400 million on printing property directories and marketing collateral for guests in 2015." Having tablets allows guests to have everything on their finger tips and it's even easier for the company to change or modify any guest information.

This article was mainly on why GDS is crucial and will continue to be for many years. "GDS bookings increased by 11.6 percent year over year from 2015 to 2016 in a sample of over 6,000 hotels worldwide." As mentioned in the article, GDS bookings have increased throughout the years. However, the author also mentioned that its inevitable that there might be a shift over time but it's important for hotel distributors to consider all the channels in order to find what works best for the particular hotel and market. "Successful inventory and distribution management strategies also require the right technology platform - one that's not only scalable and agile, but easy to use."

This article is all about Global Distribution Systems (GDS) in the hotel industry. The author defines GDS as an "advanced network of travel agents who specialize in selling and booking travel products, including hotel rooms and packages." The purpose of GDS in hotels is to broadcast their rates, availability and packages onto the network that way everyone is viewing the same thing, it is smart of the GDS operator is within the industry that way they have a better understanding on how to manage different properties. The article mentioned a few reasons why a hotel needs a GDS, some are to help increase revenue and to market other markets. In my opinion as a manager it is very important to know your audience and what your target market is. Many hotels outsource marketing teams and you need to be sure that you are proving them with the correct marketing and you have to be open to branching out to another market if you are not doing well with sales. When selecting a GDS, the article recommends that it have the following requirements: pooled inventory, commission-free structure, integration capabilities, comprehensive reporting, and the ability to target specific markets. I believe these are all very important especially being able to access booking data reports and having the ability to target specific markets. As a manager, you know always know how your occupancy rate of the hotel is and why it is suffering. Could it be because of different crowds that are coming in? Is it a new hotel in the area that is cheaper? You must know all of this in other to compete and be successful in this industry. The benefits of partnering with a hotel GDS are "your exposure will increase significantly, connecting to agents if quick and affordable, you no longer have to deal with manual booking entries, you can make better decisions for your hotel, and you will be able to discover interested travelers from every location around the world." I believe this is very important because a

As technology is advancing, the hospitality industry must also stay on top with the latest trends. Hotels and theme parks using RFID wristbands have gone in the last few years. "RFID Systems are advancing, and more companies than ever are offering these solutions to the leisure industry. This helps drive prices down for operators looking to take the plunge into RFID." The article mentioned 8 benefits of using RFID Wristbands in the hospitality industry. The 8 benefits are: improve guest check- in and entry, go cashless, a hands-free experience, family freedom, security and control, make a social splash, one wristband to rule them all, and lastly, data and insight. As mentioned in the article, Disney World released their wristbands, MagicBand, in 2013 and they have been a hit ever since. I personally worked at the main entrance of Disney's Magic Kingdom and it was much easier and quicker for the guest to enter the theme park with their band rather than an actual ticket. Those guests with wristbands already had them out and were ready to tap the band and touch their finger on the glass. Versus other folks where the parents had the ticket cards for their whole party and once they got to the entrance they had to look for the tickets, pass them out to their kids, and then collect them from everyone once they entered the park. Not to mention, they would have to pass the tickets back out o everyone if they are going to use a FastPass for one of the rides. RFID systems are not new to the industry, as they have actually been used for hotel key cards for many years, however, now they have given them a better use. RFID wristband users may use their band to enter theme parks, hotel rooms, and music festivals, and they can use them as a credit card to pay for things on the property. It's a huge advantage to use these wristbands because it is much easier to wear a band than having to carry around a room card, ticket and a credit card, especially at theme parks o