This month, GrandStay Hospitality will begin rolling out ZMail and the ZDirect Dynamic Content Engine to GrandStay Hotels and Crossings by GrandStay properties. The electronic communication tools will enable each property to send electronic guest confirmations, pre-arrival email promotions, post-stay satisfaction surveys and more to establish two-way communication between the hotel and its guests. Engaging guests with personalized dialog will spark onsite spending and result in increased revenues and maximum profits.

GrandStay Hospitality will use ZDirect tools to: Manage custom databases Optimize delivery rates for each message via desktop and mobile Create e-Questionnaires on the fly -- including queries for cancellations, meeting planners, and pre-stay requests -- with the ability to edit existing forms or create new ones as needed Analyze statistical reports driven by interfaces to the hotel's PMS and CRS Personalize campaigns that boost brand loyalty and bottom line revenues Build opt-in subscribers Use purchasing habits and shopping preferences to attract the best customers Modify existing campaigns for last-minute promotions Establish a mobile web portal that is fully integrated with the hotel's PMS Leverage text and SMS to increase customer interaction and communication

The vendors benefit greatly from the direct exposure to potential new client bases, and they can customize their profile pages to ensure that the visitors have all of the most pertinent information to make their decisions.

Visitors to the site are guided directly to the related vendors in their local areas, and placed directly in contact with them through social media.

Make Some Plans Announces Revolutionary Strategy for Event Planning

However, Landman notes, the time spent scanning bar codes, as well as the difficulty in ensuring a strong Bluetooth connection, can often make data collection during these visits time-consuming. The bar codes themselves could be difficult to scan as well—in many cases, a bar code is printed on a crinkled wrapper that can be difficult to scan. What's more, he says, pushing the workstation-on-wheels from one room to another is cumbersome.

Landman's team built a prototype system, using a Nexus 7 tablet, which comes with a built-in NFC RFID reader. They loaded the tablet with the app, and then attached NFC RFID tags to some pharmaceuticals, staff badges and patient wristbands.

Saudi Arabia as one of the most lucrative markets for healthcare IT solutions.

As part of the Starbucks deal, 7,000 Starbucks stores in the U.S. accept Square Wallet, and Square readers are also sold at company-owned Starbucks stores. Square also began selling its readers at Verizon stores a few weeks ago, bringing its total number of retail locations where the payments dongle is sold to 30,000.

Starting with a free credit card reader for the iPhone, iPad, and Android devices, Square Reader allows anyone to accept credit cards anywhere, anytime, for a low transaction rate of 2.75 percent per swipe, with no hidden fees. Square Register serves as a full point-of-sale system for businesses to accept payments, manage items, and share menu and location information.

Most breweries, including Alaskan Brewing Co. until recently, ship this residual grain mash to farms and agricultural operations, that then use the grain as a protein source in feed for livestock.

So they turned to an in-house recycling process. With the help of a nearly half-million dollar grant from the Federal Rural Energy for America Program, Alaskan Brewing Co. set out to create a special boiler system that ran entirely on spent grain for fuel.

The system, which cost $1.8 million and was developed with the help of an industrial furnace company in North Dakota, burns the dried spent grain to create steam. The steam, an often underutilized renewable energy source, then powers their entire facility.

The boiler system, which is expected to save the company $450,000 annually, will offset their energy costs by 70% and pay for itself in under five years.

there are many forms of renewable energy that are still largely untapped.

“I feel like a kid in a candy store with all these choices. It performs better from a click-to-install perspective than anything except incentivized ads. From an efficiency standpoint, it’s on par with everybody else out there today,” Hotel Tonight's director of mobile marketing Adam Grenier has said (quoted in a Facebook case study).

wristbands equipped with radio frequency identification, or RFID, chips

Disney is not the first vacation company to use

MyMagic+ will allow users of a new Web site and app — called My Disney Experience — to preselect three FastPasses before they leave home for rides or V.I.P. seating for parades, fireworks and character meet-and-greets. Orlando-bound guests can also preregister for RFID bracelets. These so-called MagicBands will function as room key, park ticket, FastPass and credit card.

MagicBands can also be encoded with all sorts of personal details, allowing for more personalized interaction with Disney employees