The benefits to HRIS is great. When using HRIS, employees have the option to view their pay stubs electronically, request time off and submit time sheets. With this technology companies can cut back on the number of employees they have to hire, therefore maximizing their profits. By having these tools online, companies are able to share and transfer data almost immediately, significantly easing the process. As a "hub" for the organization, HRIS is able to keep everything organized while never losing focus of the tasks at hand.

Hotels are jumping on board the hypo allergenic train. Many hotels are transforming some of their rooms to allergy free rooms. Redesigning the rooms from the ground up is difficult, and quite expensive, but many hotels think it will pay off. The air filtration systems are the first to be replaced. The carpet is removed and mattress casings are put on the beds to remove any chance of bed bugs, dust mites, or any other allergy causing agents. At the Hilton in Chicago, one room renovation is about $12,000, and they charge an extra $25 a night. The cost of being healthy may be worth it. The recycled air and dust affect many people daily especially at hotels. If the pillows can be altered and little steps to increase the air quality, then I believe the payoffs will greatly surpass the initial costs.

In this article, Christine Negroni discusses the future of airline booking and travel. Over the last ten years, there has been a shift from telephone reservations to computer reservations with the birth of the World Wide Web. With new mobile devices and smart phones, customers are now trying to find the newest, easiest way to work a plane ticket or a vacation. Companies have to strategically plan how they will market to thei customers. FOr leisure, companies will want to reach them through Facebook and Twitter. With the internet, airlines today need to focus on their image. The image is just as important as the product you sell, or the plane ticket the customer purchases. With Youtube, anyone can post whatever they'd like, so hospitality companies and airlines especially, need to be weary. Because the aviation industry is so large, the internet give customers and companies a way to interact on a deeper, more personal level.

In this article, Viktor Nagornyy writes about the PlannerTech show. This event was designed in order to bridge the gap between internet technology and event planning. Liz King is a power event planner and is the owener of Liz King events. She is know for "embracing technology and utilizing social media." This PlannerTech event was scheduled to take place in New York City during the NYC Internet Week. The idea behind PlannerTech is to highligt internet technologies that cater to event planning. During the event there was time to socialize and mingle with event planners and discuss the advantages of the internet in their industry.

3VR security Inc launches new technology that can track almost anything that enters hotels. With facial recognition, license plate recognition and motion analysis, guests should have no problems feeling safe. According to the article there are over 7,000 lost items that end up in the hotel's lost and found each year. With this new technology, that number will drastically reduce. There is a 90% accuracy rate attached with this new system. With this system, managers will be able to staff appropriately if they know when vehicles are most active in the parking garages as to avoid accidents or any theft. I think this sounds like a great idea for personal items. It is a little alarming that a system like this can track any guest and see what they are up to in the hotel. Are there any privacy concerns or issues that you think will come along with a system like this?

This article examines the new technology that hotels are investing in. In room concierge, billing ease, on- staff IT team, and virtual business center all make the hotel guests experience more comfortable and easy. Whether traveling for business or pleasure, the new technology is worth investing in for these hotels.

According to this article, the IRS is considering changing the way Automatic gratuities are processed in restaurants. Often when gratuity is included, more than one issue arises. Parties tend to not leave additional tips and there is also an issue with what if a customer wants to leave less than the automatic 15 or 18 percent tip? Bennet Ackerman, owner of a Melting Pot in Indianapolis, says that "some servers tend to get a little lazy when they know they already have that automatic gratuity." If a large party is given a check of $200, some parties will tip $20. If gratuity was included, they would receive anywhere from 30-40. After tip out to the bartender, hosts and other support staff, the server is actually making about a 6% tip off of that table. I agree that with large parties, the reward sometimes does not pay off, no pun intended. More money can be made off of smaller parties, and the turn over rate is faster. Some restaurants are doing away with automatic gratuity, and instead, they are adding suggested tip amounts at the bottom of the check. This, will at the very least, give the guests dining, a reference guide. The issue at hand here is whether or not to consider the automatic gratuity as a tip for a server, or as a service charge. This will greatly affect taxes at the end of the year and budgeting for the employees. With the economy the way it is, servers and other tipped workers are seeing less tips. The issue is of great concern for restaurants and come January 1st, there may be some very unhappy employees as well as restaurant owners.

In this article, mobile POS systems are discussed. Popularity of these devices such as iPad and other tablets are constantly growing. Point of sale computers can cost upwards of $20,000 which is a pretty penny for a restaurant. If restaurants were to switch to tablets and mobile POS systems, the cost wouldn't be the only benefit. With the iPads and tablets, owners and managers can track how many guests enter the restaurant on a daily basis. Inventory is kept up-to-date and is easily accessible for corporations. An interesting point made in the article is "In the same way that some customers continue to write checks in an age of online banking, some merchants will continue to use the older point-of-sale systems out of habit." The times are changing and technology is improving every day. The mobile POS systems allow for small businesses especially to use the money saved for something that can benefit the restaurant- perhaps new equipment for the kitchen. This article describes a program that PayPal recently began to offer. PayPal agreed " to waive transaction fees for the remainder of the year if a business replaces its cash register with an iPad operating PayPal's free mobile-payment technology." The top three tablet POS systems are Groupon, Square and NCR. Each of these have their pros and cons, but over all, they are significantly less expensive than the only bulky POS system.

WebRezPro, Charlestowne Hotels and Stash Hotel Rewards are now working together to develop an automatic system that sends data directly to Stash Rewards upon check out. With this new system, night staff does not need to gather all of this data nightly and send it to Stash points. All information and transferred immediately. Having this software allows these "independent hotel clients to compete head-to-head with chain hotels." This still allows the independent hotels to be smaller and provide personalized interactions with guests.

As I am getting older, I have had the joy of attending many weddings of close friends and family. Currently, I have been helping my best friend plan her wedding and I stumbled upon this. I think this article provides a few interesting pointers for the "big day." The big day doesn't have to use all the electricity in the world, or require you to cut down a bunch of trees. This article highlights ways to make your wedding more eco-friendly. For wedding invitations, use recycled paper. This also goes for thank you notes and name cards. Everything that goes into a wedding is made from something. Try to buy locally- it supports small businesses as well local vendors. When picking a venue, try to think about travel costs for relatives and friends. While having your wedding at the Biltmore may be beautiful, A quiet farm in Homestead or even a small wedding on the beach may be nice. No electricity is needed then. When arriving at your wedding, you may want to think about providing your guests with a shuttle service. This will drastically cut down on the amount of chemical emissions released into the air. Try to use flowers that are in season in order to reduce the amount of chemicals and pesticides used. Fresh flowers smell better and look nicer. Green Weddings: By the Numbers 2.3 million: Number of couples that get married in the US each year. That breaks down to more than 6,300 weddings a day. $20,000: The average budget of a wedding in the U.S.; this number increases to £16,000 ($31,222) in the U.K. and decreases to €12,000 ($15,782) in France. 14.5 tonnes: The amount of CO2 created by the average wedding in the U.K. 80 percent: The percentage of gold minded each year that goes into jewelry, out of 2500 tons. 50 years: Length of time the current amount of already-mined gold could satisfy demand; much of it currently sits in bank vaults and in old, unused jewelry.

With the growth of mobile phones and apps, there is no doubt a boom in online mobile bookings. Apps like Travelocity, Expedia and orbitz, makes it easy to search, compare and book all from your mobile phone. According to the article, online travel booking generate close to six Billion dollars in revenue each year. Out of that, 10 percent of bookings is conducted on mobile devices. Within the next two years, the market is likely to grow to about 30% from According to Amit Somany, companies began "investing on this mobile platform for the past four years but the investments had actually taken off only in the past 12-18 months." Some companies are surprised that people are going out and doing research from their mobile phones before marketing and advertisement plans were in motion. They noticed that more and more people are researching hotels and airfares while they are on the move. While commuting on a train in NY, people can research a possible trip to San Fransisco, without wasting any time at work. On the go, Expedia has simplified their app checkout process in order to "serve our consumers better."

As people travel, they post pictures on Instagram and Facebook in order to show their friends what they've been up to. Hotels are now jumping on board and using these ever growing and popular social media sites to expand themselves. Hotels are trying to see if using these sites does increase their business, since it is hard to measure. As they try to increase their "bookings and customer engagement," marketing teams try to increase their brand awareness among potential customers and travelers. The PR manager for the Four Seasons says that "It's not so much what Pinterest can do for us; it's more what Pinterest is delivering to the people we want to have conversations with and how we can serve them even better." The Four Seasons launched a new program called "Pin. Pack. Go." They are attempting to use Pinterest as an online concierge system. Interested travelers pin pictures of places they would be interested in traveling to on their "board" and from there, fellow travelers can re-pin and start somewhat of a picture- discussion about desirable destinations. Due to the fact that so many travelers research locations these days, all media's are being used. Visual aids grab the attention of so many. It's a great way to get the point across in a short amount of time. To scroll through and see the Four Season in Paris, Tokyo, and Australia, may make the potential guest start thinking about possible destinations. With Instagram, users are able to "check in" to places. Their friends see their enhanced pictures and want to visit as well. From there, the possibilities are endless. The point marketing teams are trying to make is that they aren't necessarily looking for high returns on investments, but rather what is the return on engagement.

http://hospitalitytechnology.edgl.com/top-stories/Keys-to-Mobile-Engagement-Success-87649
There is no denying that Smartphones have taken the market by storm. Consumers are able to make grocery lists, listen to the Beatles and do their holiday shopping all from their mobile smartphones. Smartphones span over countless industries- from entertainment, to law, to culinary and to sports. The amount of "surfing" we do has dramatically increased and we can use a smartphone for pretty much anything these days. I constantly look up menus to restaurants up before dining. I enjoy knowing what my options are before I arrive. At Starbucks, you can show your smartphone when you are logged onto their store App and they will scan the barcode on the screen. From there, the App is directly linked to your credit or debit card.
Smartphones allow you to book hotel rooms and order room service, without ever having to pick up the in room phone. In restaurants, there are applications consumers can download in order to earn points. Apps like Yelp! And Four Square have often advertised promotions which can be redeemed when the consumer "checks in" to the location.
The Four Seasons hotel, as well as Hilton Worldwide, is working to create an App for their reward program. This App will also allow the guest to ask for a wakeup call, and inform the management staff that there is a maintenance issue. According to the article, "the most popular app requests are for room service, wake up calls and having the room serviced, and he believes the future will allow hotels to track guests from when they get off the plane." While I think these applications are useful and innovative, I strongly feel that they are just another way in which customer service, as well as human interaction are slowly becoming nonexistent. "For restaurants, I should be able to drive up, order something, and if I have favorites be able to reorder something, pay through the app and have them bring it to my car in the parking lot." That sounds lazy to me. The need for socializing is diminishing and Smartphones, while highly useful, are causing many issues in social and academic life.