CBS Sports debuted their improved technology during their recent Masters telecast with the help of high-speed wireless radio frequency (RF) cameras. The cameras followed the leaders on the ground to provide viewers more access to the 365-acre golf course. This enhanced technology has never been used before at the Masters, a traditional venue that is notorious for its cell phone ban. In this day-and-age spending a day without a cell phone is unfathomable to some. However thousands of patrons attending abide by the rules for the love of the game. The Masters is comparable to the Super Bowl in terms of media coverage and hype. The event also generates higher room rates and occupancy levels due to increased demand.

This article comments on the perceived effectiveness of daily "flash" deals distributed through the internet to provoke the usage of services of a hospitality enterprise. It also addresses current industry challenges hotels face with regards to sustainability and corporate social responsibility. The first Cornell study surveyed approximately two hundred international hotels. The results showed half of the hotels have used the e-Marketing "flash" deals technique while the other half abstain siting concerns of brand reputation. However the issue of dissatisfaction from those hotels who use daily deals is also prevalent. The conductors of the study recommend those who use the deals to "start small," clearly define the reason for the deal and examine every aspect of the deal, including limitations, to increase ROI and satisfaction. If the deals are tailored to fit both the hotel and guests' needs they should attract and retain customers. The roundtable discussion then dives into an important branding issue of CSR. It highlights common misconceptions related to sustainability such as going "green" being being costly, guests not appreciating sustainable efforts, and the "wait and see" approach being smart for implementation. With education and communication the hospitality industry can inform their internal and external customers of their sustainable business practices and increase customer acquisition. Rather than being reactive, businesses should be proactive and concentrate on their "long-term brand focus."

This article in USATODAY published in 2011 talks about the cost benefit analysis of RFID tags and hotel linens. Hotels are using this technology to keep an accurate count of all their linens: bathrobes, bed sheets, towels, bathmats, pool towels, etc. The benefit of having an accurate count is especially significant today with the rising price of oil which in turn raises everything including cotton. By investing an additional dollar per towel the Hotel can cut down on labor costs and improve housekeeping productivity. The initial investment is high which is why many hotels cannot afford the technology. I would recommend that high-end luxury hotels invest in the RFID tags however because of the higher prices of luxury linens. By preventing asset pilfering the Hotel will retain their initial investment in linens.

Since the RFID tags are being added to hotel property there are no privacy concerns as well making this technology more user acceptable.

I saw that and I enjoyed your cruise ship article very much. However I am glad that cruise ships are still making RFID wrist bands optional because of privacy concerns, the last thing you want to worry about while on vacation.

It was recently brought to my attention that Donald Trump has expanded his portfolio with the $150 million dollar purchase of Miami's Doral Hotel & Country Club. I was casually watching the coverage of the 2012 World Golf Cadillac Championship on NBC and saw Ivanka and Donald on the screen but just brushed it off because of their well known passion for golf. To be honest, it was more exciting for me to see Watson fall to Rose after missing a birdie putt in the playoff round. Anyways, after searching Market Watch for 'IT Investment' and 'RFP' I stumbled upon this article and it all made sense. I am now pleased to summarize the exciting $200 million dollar investment Mr. Trump made with intentions to "reposition all aspects of the resort" resulting in a "greatly enhanced guest experience." Although not explicitly stated, I assume this investment will also include a 'renovation' of the current IT structure of the hotel and country club to increase productivity, revenue and ultimately ROI. Linda Robertson, from the Miami Herald, reported on March 8th that Mr. Trump stated, "to have 800 acres in a city like Miami -that opportunity will never arise again." It will be interesting to see how The Trump Organization follows through on their investment and achieves their goal of making Doral a "world-class facility benefiting of the resort." This article also mentions that The Trump Hotel Collection had been selected by GSA as the preferred developer for Washington D.C.'s The Old Post Office after an "exhaustive" Request For Proposal review. After researching the topic I could not find for what exact reasons he won, besides money. I will take a further look into the news. A lot of exciting new developments for The Trump Organization in the recent few months.

The termination of South Carolina Hospitality Association's director of accounting and membership, Rachel Duncan, is the latest development in the Tom Sponseller suicide investigation. CEO Tom Sponseller, leader of the South Carolina Hospitality Association for the past twenty years, was found dead last Tuesday in the company's parking garage after a suicide note was found in his office desk. Although the Feds have been conducting an ongoing investigation into the agency's finances, Sponseller was not their person of interest. The hundreds of thousands of dollars missing from the South Carolina Hospitality Association is tied instead to Rachel Duncan, the agency's former director of accounting. An outside audit of the association's finances is still being conducted however there are several sources of money embezzling being brought forth. Who is to say this tragedy may have been avoided if the Hospitality Association had outside parties conducting internal audits on a regular basis, but it would most definitely have shed light on the situation sooner.

When you think of where point of sales systems are typically used you think of a restaurant, hotel, stadium, retail store, etc. A medicinal marijuana store is the last place that would come to mind, at least for me personally. I think this article really shows how common and wide spread POS systems have become. MJ Freeway software tracks the sales and inventory of medical cannabis dispensaries. Their tagline is encouraging better business practices because their software is "guaranteed to always be state compliant." I love the literal naming of their software. GrowTracker and GramTracker are the inventory tracking tools that address discrepancies due to issues such as spillage or even evaporation. The incorporation of WeedTracker, WeedMaps, and Quickbooks also makes life a little easier for their clients and patients. Having a product specific point of sales which tracks patients names, status and transactions is very important in the medicinal cannabis industry and MJ Freeway delivers. The one thing I don't quite understand is how the POS allows for flexibility at POS for "buds that weigh heavy." However if that is an issue it is good that this advance system already has a solution. I found it refreshing to read about a POS in a completely different environment then a hotel yet with very similar capabilities.

I used Maestro in my first position in the hospitality industry as a front desk agent in a Boutique Hotel. We also used Micros for the POS system for the in-house restaurant but they were two separate entities at the time. I am happy to see the advancements that have been made to this now highly efficient system. After reading this article and doing some research on Maestro's website I feel Maestro outshines its competitors by providing excellent 'Diamond Plus' service to its clients. Compared to the Webrezpro system that I just analyzed for our Discussion assignment, Maestro provides several free tools and resources twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. An impressively North American based Help Desk is available 24/7 to ensure smooth operations of the system and optimal staff training. In addition Maestro provides install, staff training, transition assistance, refresher training, online tutorials, webinars, productivity audits, upgrades, enhancements and much more. Maestro management strategies collaborates with Hotel Executives and staff to increase performance, deliver high quality guest services and increase profits. Their professional team also addresses issues such as under-utilization of the system and ways to get the most value for your investment. Since Maestro supports platform and database independence updates occur instantaneously. To help Hotels save time, increase efficiency and have higher levels of staff productivity Maestro is the chosen tool for the job. Maestro clearly puts their clients' needs first and is therefore trusted by several Hotels worldwide.

Hotel de Paris in opulent Monte Carlo, Monaco pleasantly surprises as a forerunner in the hospitality industry's green revolution. Prince Albert II leads by example after having a 'sustainably' lavish wedding using local and fair-trade products. Even though "mullet carpaccio" does not sound delectable to me; I am sure world renowned Chef Alain Ducasse knows how to transform the ordinary into extraordinary. Prince Albert II went so far to even have his cows supply the milk for his ice cream dessert, I call that dedication. With such excellent leadership and funding in the green initiative the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation addresses three major environmental issues: climate change, biodiversity and water consumption. Because of the Foundation visitors to Monaco participate in the green initiative with or without their knowledge. The casino, four hotels, several restaurants and spas all educate their staff on how to "be green." Hybrid shuttles, organic farming, reclaimed watering, on-site herb gardens and the banning of bluefin tuna are all examples of how the hospitality industry in Monaco has gone green. Monaco's will and initiative in the green revolution is inspiring. I hope that every hotel worldwide can try to adopt some of these practices and look to Monaco as a role model.

This article discusses what travel agents think about the enhanced ability of both corporate and leisure based travel agencies to sell airline ancillaries because of improved Global Distribution Systems' technologies. Ancillaries are products and services that airlines sell to gain additional revenue on top of your ticket price. Ancillaries have become increasingly popular in the airline industry because of the sky rocketing price of jet fuel. To keep ticket prices down airlines are "unbundling" items from the overall experience. This presents them with an opportunity to turn a profit by charging fees for bags (carry on, checked, additional), on board food and drink, credit card purchases, headphones. It seems like everything you encounter from when you arrive at the airport to when you disembark the plane has a fee. This phenomenon is especially present in Low cost carriers such as Spirit, Air Tran, Jet Blue, etc. However there are consumers who disagree with this additional costs as is apparent in Southwest's continuous marketing campaign. I'm sure everyone has seen the commercials with Southwest representatives 'flagging' down unnecessary fees in order to promote their 'bags fly free' campaign. Anyhow the reason I am explaining ancillary revenue is because travel agents are now starting to sell more ancillary products such as hotel accommodations, travel insurance, rental cars because of GDS technologies. They can track the sale of fees through EMD (Electronic miscellaneous Documents) which is the current industry standard. In the article some agents state that the EMDs are hard to understand and use. I believe until the EMDs become "seamless and easy to use" there will exist some hesitation to sell airline ancillaries. However on the other hand the article states that Travelport is working towards a simple and uniform platform called Travelport Universal API/Desktop. Once this comeplete perhaps more agents will feel comfortable selling ancillaries. This is a goo

Diigo keeps cutting off my descriptions... This is a good start to acknowledge the opinions of travel agents using GDS to sell airline ancillaries but the arguments were confusing and hard to follow. From reading the article I would address ethical concerns that airline agents may have in selling ancillary revenue for commission since 44% of those polled did not impose fees for attaining the additional products and services. I understand the airlines need to stay in business with the increase of jet fuel prices but there must be some way to avoid imposing the fees besides raising ticket prices and laying off employees (American Airlines announcing 13,000 layoffs).

I too miss the days of free sodas and peanuts. "Sigh-" sometimes its the little things in life that bring the most joy. I agree I think the new Travelport Universal Desktop will be a valuable tool if utilized correctly.

The Availpro organization is the hospitality industry leader in online distribution. Its mission is to provide hotel owners with the most effective online sales platform. Using the tagline, 'The World is your hotel Marketplace,' Availpro has helped thousands of hotels worldwide sell over ten million rooms by utilizing a highly developed extranet channel. Availpro's extranet channels provide two-way connectivity to over one hundred distribution websites. With a larger scope of distribution the hotels using Availpro increase their sales and become more efficient. In addition, Availpro's management of these extranet channels saves hotels valuable time. However the reason Availpro is the leader in online distribution is not just its booking capabilities but rather its recent developments that together provide their clients an online distribution extranet solution. The booking engines that made Availpro successful expanded to include mobile applications and social booking with Facebook. Availpro also introduced important decision-making tools such as the Smart Channel Manager, Rate Screener and Guest Satisfaction. I was curious about the 'Rate Screener' so I read Availpro's article "Availpro rate screener allows Hotel owners to sell their rooms at best rate," published on October 17th 2011 (http://www.hospitalitynet.org/news//4053349.html). This tool was developed with user input and tested in real life rate decision scenarios. The all-in-one solution allows managers to see their rates, inventory and competitor rates on a central distribution schedule. By analyzing their competition in real time managers are able to optimize their rates. Long gone are the days when managers used to call the local competition and pretend to be walk-in guests to find out fire sale rates. This most recent article, published on the third of January 2012, discusses Availpro's growing partnership with Premier Hotels of the World™. By incorporating Availpro's ex

I thought this may be nice to share with everyone, even though we have known this for a while.

The August Group NYC's selection of Agilysys Guest 360™ property management system and Agilysys InfoGenesis™ point of sales system for their Hotel Modern New Orleans was a service driven decision made with confidence. Although the systems premiered at another property the August Group NYC is excited to reveal these advancements at their newest property in the Warehouse-Arts district of New Orleans. The August Group NYC remained loyal to Agilysys because they trust the management information system representatives who performed their job functions of installation and support flawlessly in the previous property. The powerful, yet easy to use applications are designed to increase productivity and hence the ability to generate more business. Specifically, the unique service orientated architecture of Agilysys' PMS system includes a Guest Hub that records and stores a history of guest activity. The article does not specify whether the data is collected while staying at the hotel or dining in the restaurant but I can assume both sources would be valuable. By using data mining the Hotel Modern New Orleans can review the guest's history and make specific recommendations the next time they visit their property. I do however foresee possible user acceptance issues with these advanced technology systems and the environment it is housed. The Hotel Modern New Orleans prides itself on its historical location and precious antiques. How will guests who wish to experience 'Old World charm' receive this 'New World' technology? Will guests see the recommendations as thoughtful and helpful or scary and an invasion of privacy? Can technology be put in the same category as diversity?

I had trouble posting this for some reason; I was not given the option to share with a group when creating my original bookmark-so here is my original highlight from the article. "The combined power of our Agilysys property management and point-of-sale systems will give The Hotel Modern New Orleans the tools it needs to operate at peak efficiency, deliver highly personalized guest service and realize a competitive advantage."