An HRIS system can eliminate paper and turn all of your employee records into easy to access online data. These can be retrieved simply by anyone with authorization and are backed up remotely to ensure safety.

When you can automate payroll by integrating it with your HRIS, you take hours of work off your HR team’s shoulders. You can also automate tasks such as immediate approval or denial of time off requests based on set rules, shift change alerts, and other time-consuming jobs.

With biometric timekeeping, your HR team knows in real time where employees are in case they are needed. This can be especially helpful in situations where deliveries need to be made or customers need in-person help.

Employee self service tools allow your employees to clock in and out with their personal smart device, making it easy for them to work from remote offices or from home. They can also use the HRIS platform to efficiently check their schedules and make any changes necessary without having to come into the home office.

An HRIS system provides one simple mode of communication that is easy to use and organize. This not only allows employees to talk with colleagues about ongoing projects, but also request shift changes, explain absences, and put in for annual leave or vacation.

Another eco-friendly way to streamline your facilities management operations and reduce energy costs is to connect the thermostats in guest rooms to the property management system that tracks guest reservations, check-ins/check-outs and housekeeping. When a guest checks out, the system will automatically set their room’s thermostat to “standby” status so you aren’t paying to unnecessarily heat or cool a vacant room.

Investing in a fast, reliable wireless network can mean fewer complaints from guests and less time your facilities management staff will have to spend responding.

One surefire way to streamline operations, lighten the load on staff – and the environment – is to reduce the amount of waste generated by your property.

Switching from offering paper copies of newspapers to digital access passes. Using refillable containers for toiletries and other products rather than offering small plastic bottles. Collecting and re-using materials leftover from conferences and events Donating food and beverage leftovers to local food pantries or shelters, or toiletries and linens to area shelters.

Every email you send is an opportunity to promote your social media channels and encourage guests to interact with them

Pre-arrival emails also present another opportunity: to increase your incremental revenue through upselling and cross-selling.

An estimated 77% of consumers prefer to receive marketing messages through email campaigns. So there’s your chance to collect valuable feedback for your hotel—with post-stay email marketing.

Sending emails to your customers after they’ve checked out does more than help you discover what they thought about their experience. These emails are also a chance for you to thank your guests for staying with you and invite them to subscribe to your loyalty programs. They’re a chance for you to build on the guest-hotelier rapport you established with your pre-arrival email. And when guests subscribe to your mailing list, you can reach out to them in the future with special deals and exclusive offers.

If guests enjoyed their stay, you can also use this email to remind them about your social media channels and encourage them to share their experience online. If, on the other hand, they had a bad stay, sending them an email opens the door for you to mend the relationship and offer a win-back incentive. Both types of exchanges create loyal guests, which can lead to repeat business and referrals.

How can I contact my delegates? Did you want to just send an email to those that are going to day one, workshop four? Easy! Through the email marketing section of the software, you can segregate who you want to send email marketing to, and design it however you like

What other benefits do you gain from this?

Having event marketing software means that you can pull reports

All of your information is in one place.

Collect your payments through a secure device

However, with more countries migrating to chip cards and EMV-compliant POS systems, attackers have shifted their focus to card-not-present fraud and are targeting industries where consumers are making their payments and reservations over the phone—such as hotel contact centers.

If guests aren’t convinced that the hotel is keeping their personal and financial data secure, they will take their business elsewhere. In order to protect their brand reputation and their business, hotels need to create a culture of security throughout their entire organization that focuses on protecting guests’ digital property in addition to their physical property. One of the best places to start is their contact center.

In an era of increasing cyberattacks, hotels can make themselves less of a target by adopting technology to ensure that payment card data and other personally identifiable information is kept secure and segregated from the contact center.

With such an approach, customers calling to make a reservation or order additional services discreetly type their card numbers into the telephone keypad, rather than reading them out loud to the agent on the phone line. The data is securely routed to the payment gateway or a more secure server so it is never shared with the agent and is not held in the contact center infrastructure. This ensures that there is no possible spillover of the data to the unsecured or unmonitored areas of the business. It also reduces the number of individuals with access to the sensitive data, and makes the hotel contact center a less attractive target for cybercriminals. As an added benefit, this approach makes it easier for the hotel to comply with Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards by reducing the scope of compliance. By keeping payment card data out of the contact center, hotels can significantly reduce the high costs and extensive time associated with maintaining PCI DSS compliance.  

With stronger security practices for handling guests’ sensitive data, the hotel industry as a whole can transform itself from being one of the most likely targets for data breaches to becoming a model for data security, thereby ensuring that fewer customers ever have to go through the experience

Guests can sleep peacefully knowing that their data is secure, and the hotel can rest assured that its name won’t be making headlines as victim of a costly data breach.

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

The common theme is control. Hotel guests are leaning toward more independence as opposed to the traditional hotel experience where staff are very visible throughout the entire stay. Guest preference is for staff to maintain a constant digital presence, where they can be conveniently contacted if needed or serve as virtual concierge with suggestions and information to help guests make the most of their time at a destination.

More than 60 percent of guests currently go to sources other than a hotel concierge for suggestions about how to improve the guest experience, but surveys such as these reveal that hotels could reach and serve more hotel guests if they expanded to include a virtual concierge and digital guest services for better communication and messaging with guests.

Management must maintain effective internal control over financial reporting to protect owners and other relevant stakeholders. A number of standards related to a company’s control activities are listed by GAAP, and auditors are charged with evaluating internal control on engagements with publicly traded clients. Because cash transactions are prevalent throughout the hospitality industry, segregation of duties is a critical part of efforts to prevent liquid assets from misappropriation

Not all cash inflows are recorded as revenue and some are actually carried as current liabilities on the balance sheet.

Staying at a hotel or buying a timeshare unit requires some form of upfront payment by consumers and a potential refund when criteria are met. Tips are sometimes aggregated by restaurants and similar establishments and then distributed to employees. Whether transactions are completed by cash, check or credit, hospitality companies must record revenue only when it is appropriate.

Vacation ownership interests, contract receivables and resort construction projects are among the line items that require special accounting treatment for timeshare companies.

Most timeshare companies sell their units or points via financing agreements, and accounting for mortgages requires a record of accrued interest, advance payments and other related events

Timeshare transactions are among the most complicated among all of the recordable events in the hospitality industry.

A POS normally consists of all necessary modules integrated into one system, with real-time data processing. The transaction can be of any kind, be it hotel booking, inventory related or online purchase.

Online POS software  also helps in enhancing the guest satisfaction levels. During the peak season, when hotels receive a large chunk of guests, owning to the extreme work pressure, many guests are not well taken care of. This may result in guest dissatisfaction. With the help of POS, hoteliers can keep track of their guests orders and services which directly get billed to their folios. Guest details, history and purchase patterns are maintained in the system which can later on be used for business purposes.

Guest satisfaction is given the topmost priority in the hospitality industry and the POS is strategically built to provide the best of experience to both guest and hotelier.

Real-time Access to Information With a cloud-based property management software, you can access all the information and data in real-time.

With all the important data and information collated in a single place available at your fingertips, this software rightly simplifies data management and its accessibility.

Time Saving A property management software automates all complex processes, tasks and duties, which would otherwise need time and manpower. From issuing notifications, sending reminder mails to creation of reports and documents,

Security An advanced property management software ensures that all your important and confidential data is kept secure. A software development company, which develops one such software solution, also builds a comprehensively secured environment, including firewall, encryption and backup/recovery modules.

Scalability No matter you own a small or big property, an advanced property management software can look after all types and sizes of properties with ease. A modern software solution is always available for further expansion, enhancement and latest upgrades. Being scalable, a property management software can easily grow with your growing needs and requirements.

Money Saving

You can either buy a complete software package or can opt from various subscription options. When compared to the investments made in manpower and employee wages, both in short and long-term, a property management software is a cost-effective solution.

A data centre is a facility used to house computer systems and their components, and it can be far and away the biggest contributor to an organisation’s carbon footprint. A data centre’s life expectancy is relatively long so it is imperative it is built to the highest standards in terms of efficiency as any excess energy use will lead to significant cost implications over the years.

1. Build the most energy-efficient data centre possible. This will save energy and costs over its lifespan. 2. Only get the data storage capacity that is currently required and forecast for the lifespan. Many data centres have excess capacity that burns energy (and therefore costs) unnecessarily. Don’t have servers or equipment that will not be used. 3. Cooling data centres. Traditionally cooling has been done by air circulation, which is very inefficient. Larger data centres already use other technologies to cool more efficiently, such as water cooling. 4. Virtualisation technology. Improve your system’s resource utilisation through virtualisation technology. Virtualisation is the creation of a virtual (rather than actual) version of something, such as an operating system, server, network, etc. and allows a single user to access several physical devices on one terminal. A computing device dedicated to an individual member of staff or allocated for one software application is highly inefficient and expensive. Virtualisation consolidates resources, requiring less power and cooling. 5. Consider cloud computing. This is a location-independent IT service, typically available over the internet, where shared servers provide resources, software and data to computers and other devices on demand, increasing IT capacity and capabilities without an organisation having to invest in new infrastructure. Keeping data virtually, or “in the clouds”, means less information stored on IT systems and therefore less energy being used to run the systems. Systems such as BT’s Virtual Data Centre, a hosted data centre that enables businesses to create, deploy, monitor and manage their own service through a self-service portal, claim to offer savings of up to 40% of the total cost of running one’s own data centre as well as reducing the space required, the level of emissions produced and the power consumed.

1. Upgrade. Before buying new, investigate options to upgrade with the latest energy-efficient components to extend appliances’ working life and efficiency. 2. Green labels. Look out for the certification labels denoting more energy-efficient equipment, from Blue Angel in Germany to TCO in Sweden and Energy Star in the US (see below). 3. Screens. Opt for flat screen monitors, which reduce energy use by over two-thirds. 4. Get the right equipment. Consider your information technology needs against the tasks required. For example, laptops may be a better option in some circumstances because they have been developed to be energy-efficient and generally match the computer to the task required. Remember: not all staff have the same needs. 5. Consider running costs. Look at the life cycle costs, not just the purchase cost. Take note of running and standby costs of equipment. These can vary enormously.

6. Measure and monitor power usage. Once you know what’s using the power, focus on why and whether it’s possible to reduce consumption.

Top 10 Tips to reduce running costs of office equipment (source: Carbon Trust) 1. Computers. Activate energy-saving features. In fact, most office equipment will have these features, so make sure they’re activated. 2. Standby features. Introduce a policy to activate standby features, don’t assume employees will do it. 3. Turn it off. Buy seven-day timers. These can save up to 70% on energy costs. 4. Monitor and manage the equipment that is peripheral to computers, such as speakers, printers, etc. and consider installing intelligent switch-off solutions. Printers can consume 30%-40% of their peak power demand when idling between printing and standby modes, so minimising this can produce cost savings, reduce heat output and increase its operating life. 5. Educate your staff. Consider a screen saver with an energy-saving message. 6. Rationalise your equipment via networking to reduce the number of printers (for example) in any office area. 7. Printers Use only black and white for internal documents and colour only when absolutely necessary. Consider the benefits of inkjet printers v laser printers. Inkjet energy use is much lower than that of a laser printer. Encourage staff to use print preview functions. Set default printing mode to double-sided. Use lower-specification printers, such as inkjets, for internal documents and encourage staff to use these for day-to-day use.

8. Photocopiers High volume copiers use more energy so should be used sparingly. Use low melting point inks (available from stationery suppliers). Encourage staff to copy in batches to increase standby time. Stick to black and white copiers and only use colour when absolutely necessary. Set default copying to double-sided. 9. Invest to save and purchase only what you need. 10. Don’t forget to motivate staff. Keep repeating the message of the importance of energy saving in ways that they can understand (for example, a computer monitor switched off overnight saves enough energy to microwave six dinners).

WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment), or e-waste, is the term used for old or disposed electronic equipment. It covers both the toxic and valuable materials found in appliances. The most important lesson is to reuse, not recycle. With so much e-waste, and electrical devices such as computers and flat screens often being replaced well before the end of their shelf life and ending up in landfill, it’s imperative that the most is made of these materials by reusing them productively.

Options to investigate when trying to reduce e-waste are: 1. Can you upgrade your equipment with new energy efficient components? 2. Can it be used by someone else in the company? 3. Can it be given to a charity? (Note: charities must be registered to take WEEE.) 4. Will the manufacturer take back the old equipment and reuse parts in new products?

Developments on the horizon include: 1. Smaller, more efficient processors. The continuing development of microprocessors means a mobile phone can have around the same computational power as the average desktop computer back in 2000. 2. Memristors. Electronics giant HP is in the process of developing “memristors” (see photo above), which have greater memory storage capacity while requiring less energy and space. They are due to be on the shelf in about three years. 3. Specialist data centre design. Siemens recently launched its transformational Data Centre Solution, a groundbreaking strategy in data centre energy-efficient design and operation. It claims the system, which uses virtualization and efficient power and cooling, offers many benefits for businesses, including up to 50% energy savings through ground water cooling and IT costs reduced by 30%. 4. Outsourcing. Hotels of all sizes are starting to view IT outsourcing as a viable option to gain flexibility and reduce short-term costs and increase transparency of cost structures and processes. 5. Optimisation of resources. This will become a necessity either through virtualisation, networking or cloud computing. 6. Water cooling. IBM is currently working on a supercomputer that is cooled by water (a given volume of water can hold 4,000 times more waste than air), which claims to be 50% more energy efficient than the world’s leading systems. The Aquasar stacks many computer processors on top of each other with cooling water flowing between each one. IBM’s Dr Bruno Michel told the BBC in November 2010: “We plan that 10 to 15 years from now, we can collapse such a system into one sugar cube — we’re going to have a supercomputer in a sugar cube.”

The power of personalization also plays a hugely important role in improving user experience. In a study conducted by Infosys, 86% of consumers stated that personalization impacts the purchases they end up making.

One of the biggest things that hotel e-commerce managers can learn from OTAs is their mastery of conversion triggers, which are powerful tools used at pivotal points in the booking process that convince travelers to hit the “Book” button.

increasing the desirability of a product and making it appear limited in supply is a powerful conversion tactic that helps drive more bookings.

Consumer confidence and behavior is also heavily influenced by social persuasion. According to Econsultancy, 88% of customers look at reviews before they make a purchase.

From the homepage through to the booking page, reviews are clearly visible and strategically used to boost conversion rates at every stage.

Direct bookings are the most profitable revenue source for hotels, so having a healthy direct distribution channel through your website is an important part of any revenue management strategy.

Why is hotel e-commerce so important today? # It accelerates Internet usage worldwide. # The Internet is the lowest cost hotel-booking channel. # Most travelers research hotel reservations on the Internet. # Social media and online hotel reviews are an increasingly important decision factor.