This article said facilities management company using information technology to ensure smooth running of the business. The ensure the property and business are being run very smoothly. The facilities management firm is much similar to property management and it costs less than property management. It usually divides their given work into soft services and hard services. The soft service generally includes over all monitoring and perfect cleaning. The hard services commonly included fixing all kinds of utilities and smoothly make sure they are running safely plus remodeling of the rooms. It brings better positive changes and major success in all area of your business. It generally includes customer care service, technology department, construction utilities and housekeeping. They provide facilities management onsite, switch board help, reception room management, health and safety management, catering, grounds oversight, conference room management, security, project research and management, IT management and cleaning.

http://www.capetown.travel/blog/entry/real-world_e-marketing_implementation_insights_from_global_agencies/ This article is a summary of a roundtable meeting between four top online agency leaders. It introduced their thoughts and insights about e-marketing. These marketing, communications and creative agencies help build brands, find customers, manage reputations and convert awareness into profitable purchases. They discussed the key advantages of online media, difference in marketing tourism products and services compared to those in other industries, how it is different to market to a travel consumer as opposed to other consumers, the primary challenge facing in creating online experiences in tourism, whether branded company websites are on longer the most valuable online presence or not, the relation between video and conversion rates and the ways companies monitor and track their brand appearing in cutting-edge social media.

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.

POS can energize the hotel service cycle. POS system offers an ideal opportunity to move from a manual system to technology that stores customer data, which can be mined for business intelligence and thus facilitates improvement and efficiency at customer touch points. POS system can be fully integrated with room service and front office to ensure accurate and faster billing. It is fairly easy to use, getting staff acquainted with the application and interface will help to ensure faster ROI on installation. Using POS software, hotel staff can spend less time on formalities and more on delivering better customer service. It is integral for both order generation and tracking inventory shrinkage. Proper implementation of POS functions increases business profitability by providing management with details on fast moving products, time of sale and profitability. Now apps with Android market enhanced the use of POS. In the future, POS systems are going to get smarter, faster and better.

This article showed more foreign brands like Adidas and Gap are expanding their reach into China's market by tapping the user base of the country's largest online retailer Taobao.com for e-commerce. A majority of domestic and well-known international brands have set up their own online stores on Taobao Mall for brand expanding and sales. Presence on Taobao Mall is complementary to their own e-commerce site, which is doing well, along with their stores. Through Taobao, international brands can reach millions of customers in a very direct way and Chinese customers are increasingly turning to the internet to do their shopping. But there are challenges with opportunities. They have to fight with counterfeit goods. Counterfeit goods are low price in Chinese e-commerce market. Taobao also launched actions to penalize selling counterfeit goods. In a word, e-commerce in China is not mature, it has a long way to be improved.

This article includes standards and suggestions to operate green hotels. The 40 ways include electricity saving, water saving, recycling systems and other environmental friendly usage method. For example, it mentioned to use digital control to HVAC systems, key card to control lights in guest rooms, using CFL bulbs to save electricity. It mentioned as possible as you can to paperless or recycle paper. Use ozone laundry system to reduce cost, water energy and chemicals use. Give leftover food and amenities to charities. An interesting thing, it also mentioned plant a garden and harvest organically-grown vegetables for your restaurant, a best way to save cost and treat food debris. The highlight ways are what interesting in my mind.

The American Hotel & Lodging Association's Green Assessment Survey results reveal the top 10 green initiatives hotels are enacting, the top 10 motivations for implementing green lodging practices, the top 10 green things hotels are doing well and top 10 green things hotels can improve on. In the challenges and barriers part, the biggest one facing in implementing green lodging practices is having enough capital to invest; in addition the whole world is in financial crisis now. Money is a big problem. As we know, before implement green practices, hotels need large amount money to buy equipment and need a lot of time to train employees to use it. In high season, they are busy to serve guests, to earn money. In low season, they may have time but no money. In the motivation part, environmental benefits and building guest loyalty rates to first place. But I think most hotels deciding to implement green practices are because financial savings. In addition, implement green practices can preempt government regulations and improve hotel reputation. It is also a good way to advertise. To do and not to do lists, hotels should keep and improve their recycling and reuse program and pay more attention to the power save program.

Mobile Key by OpenWays is the hospitality industry's first and only ubiquitous mobile phone-based guest front-desk bypass solution that is truly deployable today and enables guests to use cell phones worldwide as a room key. OpenWays, inventor of Mobile Key announces new apps and makes it possible for ALL smartphone operating systems, including Apple iOS, Android, Blackberry, Windows Mobile, Windows Phone 7, J2ME, Symbian OS, Brew, MeeGo, Bada and more, to run the Mobile Key App. This generation Mobile Key app is much simpler than ever before in deployment, maintenance and updating. New features include: tutorial for new user; messaging function between guests and property; customizable brand information; 3D secured set up and security PIN code management. Hotel chains with existing mobile applications also can enable Mobile Key as a value-added service to mobile guests. In a word, it is fully interoperable, carrier independent and highly secure. This self-service option is meeting guests' demands for more service and it's reducing hotels' operating costs while building competitive advantages.