In a nut shell, this article focuses on the point of time when tourism reaches it peak season and why businesses should be playing close attention to data security and confidentiality. It is important that they ensure where customer personal information is being stored as well as maintain in a controlled/organized manner. Also, it's time that we go beyond the basic firewall system and have an actual intrusion detection system implemented. This can help to detect security and system breaches which can help prevent extensive damage and the lost of customers information. To close, the industry must make to cross train all staff so that they are knowledgeable beyond their daily job duties and understand the important of security and privacy. And of course, for situations that occur because its bound to do so, their needs to be a reaction plan set in place to alleviate any damages that were done.

In this article, it discussed statistics and a few facts as to why investing into hotel technology contributes the guest experience as well as the success of the hotel. It referred to the point of hotels that are turning to technology to provide guest with the "best' experience possible. As a result, this will increase the consumer turnover rate as well ensuring the gains of loyal returning customers. There were three categories listed in the article which were, Leaders (companies who are succeeding all aorund), Strivers (those who are lacking in some areas), and then the Laggards (the bottom 20 percent). The leaders associated their success with the presence of digital technology within the company. They believe that it enhanced interactions internally and externally while posing new forms of revenue to be generated. On the contrary, not all of the strivers nor laggards seemed to agree with that statement 100%. But it's not quite that simple. Hotels have to make sure they know what demographics they'll be targeting and how to leave a positive impact on them. For example, it mentioned how having automatic temperature and light settings that will be remembered for each guest. This feature can allow with adjusting the temperature accordingly to the guests liking as well as lighting settings. Overall, this integration of digital technology can add a personalized and memorable for the guests making them want to return as well as recommend business.

This article basically talked about why accounting is important to the hospitality and tourism industry. As we all know, the industry is on a rise and constantly growing. With that being said, it is important that companies have an accounting system in place. This can help with making predictions that can in turn benefit the company on decision making and implementing new ideas and strategies for the success of the business.

In this article, it basic discussed some of the key points of business switching to a point of sale system and why it would be beneficial. One reason was to prevent shrinkage. With a POS system, sales are automatically recorded during every checkout which help to maintain inventory numbers. Another key point is that POS systems are beneficial to owners who may have more than one store. This allows for business owners to have accurate pricing across all locations and it improves customer service as well. For example, if your store is out of particular product, you can sue the POS system to check which nearby locations have the product that the customer may be looking for. Lastly, POS systems have also been proven to be a great asset for making sure your business is operating effectively and efficiently. While away, POS systems allow for owners to monitor activity such s store performance and sales activity, in addition monitor the performance levels of employees to ensure everyone is staying on task and being productive. So all in all, switching to a Point-Of-Sale system is beneficial and a great move for businesses.

This article discusses the competitiveness among hoteliers in the hospitality industry. Without a doubt, the demand for cloud based PMS systems is on a steady rise. Many hotels seeking improvement are viewing the cloud based PMS as a way to improve performance across the board as well as a method on reducing labor costs. As a result, hotels are now investing into the cloud based PMS and straying away from the traditional PMS. Hotels are believe that making this transition can enhance the guest experience therefore improving upon guest satisfaction. But not to fast, hotels have to make sure they're aware of the fine print in regards to these cloud based PMS. Recent discoveries have shown that all cloud based systems aren't always based in the cloud. This is why it is imperative that hoteliers need to assure whether or not the cloud based PMS is genuine or fake. Also, hoteliers, have to make sure that systems are being updated to prevent performance issues. All in all, hotels need to be precise when selecting a PMS and make sure it's suitable to meet all of their needs including their guests.

Businesses within the hospitality industry are continuously making efforts to strive towards sustainable practices through technology. Being energy efficient is key to most business and has become important. For example, the utilization of automation features in the guest room such as automatic lights on a timer or even automatic climate control systems can contribute to those costs. Also, having a system where changes to reservations or updates can be done electronically which will eliminate the process of having to reprint pages of paperwork. All in all, hotels are now growing with the technology today allowing them to adapt more and more green practices

Due to the growth and advancement of technology, businesses have been able to grow in ways bigger than ever before. As we all know, e-commerce has become more popular today and is taking over many industries now. In this article, it discusses how this trend of e-commerce is extremely innovative and is proven to be a good alternative to the normal ways of business is usually conducted. Just to name a few things, conducting business via the internet saves tons of money. Customers are now able to shop and add items directly into a virtual cart instead of it been a paper trail of the items that are attempted to be purchased. Also, in addition what was mentioned above, e-commerce has opened up new and better channels for communication that can occur faster. Convenience is another key role that e-commerce plays in this. "No longer do people have to wait for stores to open". Patrons can now shop whenever they want to due to online shopping and have the items shipped directly to their home. Which leads me to say that this also is way that reduces cost and save money, especially for small businesses.Last but not least, without a doubt, it is pretty evident that e-commerce create different and many avenues of ways for money to be made. All in all, e-commerce is relevant in today's industry and many other businesses and these are the advantages that allow for it to thrive as it does.

To summarize this article, it mainly discussed how the layout of digital marketing within the hospitality industry is constantly changing and highly important. This is something that is a challenging task for most hospitality businesses, especially hotels. It was said that there are many factors/questions to consider when approaching digital marketing such as " How much does it cost to acquire a new guest and how do we encourage this new guest to book directly through a brand's website?" Websites are plays a vital role in digital marketing are one of the main starting points. Hotels and other hospitality businesses should be frequently updating websites with useful information that compliments more visuals such as images and videos. In addition to that, it was even mentioned how making sure that the website is easy to navigate and readily accessible to customers is essential. After carefully reading more into article, SEM (Search Engine Marketing) was mentioned. This is more like an assessment in a way and a method to show where a hotel or business stands as a brand. For example, if your were to simply google the word hotel, brands such as Marriott and Hilton would most likely be at the top of the list. That is actually good and will benefit those brands greatly in the aspect that there reputation, which possibly stems from online review sites and social media platforms, is well known. These online review sites are capable of monitoring and responding to customer inquiries/comments. The article also touched basis on how the demand of social media presence is vital and should not be overlooked. Social media proves to be cost effective and efficient. Simply using hashtags with either the brand name or keywords can attract prospective customers which in return will generate more revenue. Overall, the article was clear that as far as the hospitality industry goes, digital marketing is something that has evolved in so many ways and can generate good revenue if the plan

Module 2 Article Summary After reading this article, I found that it was discussing the topic of how hotel PMS technology is on a rise and beginning to take a change. Many hoteliers are looking for innovative ways to operate their hotels while making sure they are getting the needs of customers and providing great service. With that being said, studies have shown how many hoteliers are turning to a cloud based computing system. There were main benefits that discuss the incorporation of using this system such as it being more efficient. They see reverting to this cloud based system as a money saver. This can get rid of many things that are associated with traditional hotel PMS systems such as hardware costs and so forth. Using the cloud based systems, hoteliers are able to be more flexible and mobile. Utilizing the cloud allow for them to access and use the data whenever and wherever. Also, by using the cloud, hoteliers are still able to engage with guests. A lot of guest may have personal and special preferences while staying at a hotel. Having this information stored in the cloud can allow hoteliers to effectively accommodate their guests based on a guests experiences and habits. This form of technology is "easy to use and intuitive at the end user level." It won't take much to train employees on this type of technology and they'll have accessible information readily available for them to use at their fingertips. Overall, converting over to using a cloud based PMS hotel system is cost efficient, extremely manageable, and be able to allow hoteliers to interact with guest on a real time basis.