CWT M&E has created a new website platform to help hotels and other venues streamline the process of booking meetings and small venue events. This is a helpful tool for meeting planners who are able to access over 250,000 meeting rooms easily and be able to book and modify any meeting room reservations directly through this website, instead of going through a variety of different channels in the past. The reason why this website was developed goes to show the first kind of solution for small meeting bookings which represented over 70% of client's budget before the pandemic. My take on this is that once pandemic restrictions are lifted, there is going to be a huge surge in demand for these meeting spaces so it will be crucial for hotel properties to be able to list their availability on this website which would be reducing any additional costs that go into booking meetings.

A new method on how to gather consumer data in hotels or long-term traveling sites in order to capitalize on the amount of consumer spending. There are new loyalty reward offers that are being displayed to those consumers with "specials" and discounts, so that the hotel and store can benefit together off a collaborative marketing effort. This reminds me of the way Uber is able to use VISA in the offers portion to give cash back in Uber credits if its customers were to spend money with the same credit card that is linked to the account. The best of both worlds.

My opinion on this article surrounds my personal experience in the way I have been able to experience third party extranet portals and because of these enhancements that Expedia has developed for hotel partners, I have seen a tremendous amount of return on investment that goes into technology development. Many consumers have been influenced by these third party sites because they offer a type of experience that is different from traditional booking methods and often times consumers are able to snag cheaper rates than they would with booking hotel direct. I would like to see how this trend goes on in future years because I have seen more third party bookings in recent months and it should follow that trend for years to come.

My opinion on this article is that it would be beneficial for franchise hotels that are opening during this time to be able to go with a cloud based PMS system from Oracle because it allows owners to see what type of functions are going to be needed as the hotel generates more revenue. It would be interesting to see the difference in cost because Oracle usually has a $5,500 yearly fee for their PMS system that has been in place at thousands of hotel properties today and if franchise standards allow this cloud system, it could be a good idea to cut down on that cost initially and then upgrading as time goes on.

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.

My opinions on this article are based on my own experience with PMS systems, specifically Oracle Opera. It has been a terrible experience over the years trying to solve any type of issue with Opera and the support is existent but very limited, which makes it difficult for an average front desk agent to even understand what is going on. With Cloud-Based PMS systems, it would definitely need to be crucial to develop excellent customer service that will actually help with things go wrong with the PMS system.

Fintech startup company, Banked, has partnered with British Airways to provide a new and effective form of payment for their airline loyalty members to pay for online purchases using BA Avios. BA Executive Club members can now use their bank account via Banked and merchants will be able to offer the Avios option at a fraction of the cost of credit card processing fees. (2-4% vs 0.1%) This new partnership will lead to increased customer loyalty, conversion rates along with higher average order value. Banked is currently integrated with may of the largest banks in the United Kingdom, including Barclays and HSBC. Banked CEO stated that 78% of consumers in the UK are making purchasing decisions based on loyalty points, which will extremely increase customer loyalty from the British Airways Executive Club members. In my opinion, this is an excellent way for loyalty club members, especially airline and hotel rewards members, to be able to utilize their points or miles that have been of no use due to the pandemic. This has already been integrated in the United States through Chase, American Express, and Citibank where rewards points can be used for purchases online and even on Amazon. This was the correct step for BA because they will be able to retain loyal customers until travel restrictions are lightened.