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Switching to the cloud from a client server platform pays off with a big drop in both the initial capital outlay and the ongoing operating costs for the property management and other systems.

pects of a franchisee’s business, from guest check-ins and housekeeping services to billing and finances. Over time new features have been rolled into the software platform making it more robust and useful for hotel owners—it’s currently distributed in eight countries and available in four languages. And while plenty of cloud-based PMS packages are now available from third-party vendors like Micros, Maestro, and RoomKey, Choice’s internal solution has garnered its fair share of attention. “We had been getting knocks on the door from IT vendors at other hotel companies and individual Choice franchisees that own other brands, saying they were interested in our product,” says Pacious, “So we set up a new division so we could take a look at other opportunities we could develop.” This led the company to launch SkyTouch last year, a new division that develops and markets cloud-based software solutions to hotels inside and outside the Choice system. Pages: 1 2 3 4 2013-06-18 Sean Downey !function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs"); (function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js#xfbml=1"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); }(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk')); (function() { var po = document.createElement('script'); po.type = 'text/javascript'; po.async = true; po.src = 'https://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(po, s); })(); (function() { var li = document.createElement('script'); li.type = 'text/javascript'; li.async = true; li.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https:' : 'http:') + '//platform.stumbleupon.com/1/widgets.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(li, s); })(); inShare0 Related Articles attachment-3

his led the company to launch SkyTouch last year, a new division that develops and markets cloud-based software solutions to hotels inside and outside the Choice system. Pages: 1 2 3 4 2013-06-18 Sean Downey !function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs"); (function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js#xfbml=1"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); }(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk')); (function() { var po = document.createElement('script'); po.type = 'text/javascript'; po.async = true; po.src = 'https://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(po, s); })(); (function() { var li = document.createElement('script'); li.type = 'text/javascript'; li.async = true; li.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https:' : 'http:') + '//platform.stumbleupon.com/1/widgets.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(li, s); })(); inShare0 Related Articles Hotel Market Insight: Cleveland a

This led the company to launch SkyTouch last year, a new division that develops and markets cloud-based software solutions to hotels inside and outside the Choice system.

With service automation, both customer-facing and customer-centric activities are automated, freeing staff to provide more meaningful guest experiences or enabling locations to work at peak efficiency even with a reduced headcount.

One recent study noted 56 percent of millennials and 50 percent of Gen Xers prefer to use a loyalty app over a plastic loyalty card.[

In creating a guest experience that addresses the needs of “workcationers” and “bleisure travelers”, hotels and other hospitality sites must provide technologies that will help travelers get their work done in the most efficient and impactful way possible

Keeping guests happy from check-in to check-out—and anytime in between—is one of the main tenets of hospitality technology. Location-based services are a perfect example, and one technology that also serves to help the hotel, conference center and other hospitality Locations increase their efficiency.

In embracing the next generation of technologies, hotels, conference centers and other hospitality locations first must prepare their networks to certify they are able to handle the increase in traffic and demand for bandwidth.

The role of dive supervision was assessed by recording dive guide interventions underwater, and how this was affected by dive group size.

Over recent decades, tourism activities benefiting from the pleasing aesthetics and biodiversity of coral reefs, primarily SCUBA diving and snorkelling, have experienced rapidly increasing numbers of participants globally

We found evidence that the ability of dive guides to intervene and correct diver behaviour in the event of a reef contact decreases with larger diver group sizes. Divers from operators with high levels of compliance with the Green Fins programme exhibited significantly lower reef contact rates than those from dive operators with low levels of compliance.

Damage to corals on dived reefs often occurs as a result of skeletal breakage, particularly in branching species (Guzner et al. 2010;H a s l e ra n dO t t 2008). Tissue abrasion can also result from diver contact (Hawkins et al. 1999), and a recent study reported a higher incidence of coral disease in areas heavily used for recreational diving

It is possible that other diver characteristics such as qualification level or dive experience may affect the ability to respond to dive briefings, although several studies have failed to find a correlation between divers’ reef contact rates and experience

Due to the difficulties of effectively addressing global stressors, an emerging recommendation is the focus of coral reef management on local scales (e.g. Anthony et al. 2014). A frequent challenge facing managers and policy makers at local levels relates to the maximisation of tourism benefits whilst simultaneously reducing its environmental impacts

Alternatively, previous experience and possible affinity and attachment to a specific dive site may influence how closely divers follow pre-dive briefings and affect their behaviour underwater, as suggested by place attachment theory

The methodologies which have been developed to minimise the environmental impact of SCUBA diving on coral reefs can be summarised as follows: (1) managing or restricting diver numbers, (2) regulating the locations in which SCUBA diving activities occur, (3) regulating the types of equipment used, and 4) implementing programmes which seek to manage the methods used by the dive industry in providing their services. Restricting diver numbers is based on the concept of a reef dive site’s ‘carrying capacity’; a level beyond which diving impacts become readily apparent.

Restriction of SCUBA diving equipment has focused on banning the use of accessories believed to increase reef contacts within marine protected areas such as gloves, muck sticks, or underwater cameras; however, such regulations are often unpopular within the SCUBA diving community

Governments and reef managers seek evidence that the effort expended in implementing programmes translates into measurable benefits; however, research into the effectiveness of such programmes at influencing diver behaviour and reducing diving impacts is limited.

In this study, we focused on dive operators participating in the Green Fins diving programme at three major dive locations within the Philippines.

Nonetheless, levels of dive supervision underwater would intuitively appear to be linked to rates of reef contact, and when examined, the willingness of dive guides to intervene in correcting diver behaviour underwater has been found to significantly reduce diver contact rates

Malapascua Island, Moalboal, and Puerto Galera.

divers may have been aware that a Green Fins compliance assessment was taking place, but they were unaware that diver contacts with the reef were being specifically recorded. Green Fins environmental assessments and diver observations were conducted simultaneously.

Dive guides and guest divers from 44 dive operators participating in the Green Fins programme were followed

Diver characteristics with potential to influence underwater behaviour were categorised as the following factors: diver qualification level (three levels), dive experience (five levels), and previous number of dives at site (three levels).

Divers were assigned a unique diver number, and then followed and observed underwater for the entire duration of their dive.

If the overall group was very large such that the dive guide could not be seen from the rear of the group, the pair immediately behind the dive guide was selected.

Compliance with the Green Fins approach was determined by utilising diver contact rates and dive guide intervention rates as at the dependent variables of interest, and by defining dive operators according to those who had received a high score (above the median score) versus those with a low score (below the median score) on the most recent conducted Green Fins assessment

The part of the body or item of equipment making contact with the reef was recorded as follows: hand, fin, knee, camera, muck stick (a handheld stainless steel or aluminium rod approximately 30 cm in length) and equipment (e.g. tank, submersible pressure gauges, octopus regulator), and multiple (parts of the body and equipment simultaneously). The time during the dive at which the contact occurred was also recorded.

If observable damage (i.e. breakage, obvious physical damage, or injury) occurred as a result of the contact this was recorded, together with the apparent awareness of the diver to the contact, regardless of damage caused.

Interventions were defined as an event in which the dive guide intervened in diver behaviour through signalling or demonstrating correct behaviour in order to minimise or prevent contact with the reef.

A total of 100 SCUBA divers were observed at three diving locations within the Philippines (Table 1). The majority (72 %) of these divers were male, and diving experience ranged from those completing diving training to those who were instructors elsewhere with experience of hundreds of dives.

Following dive completion, divers that had been observed underwater were asked to complete a survey to determine diver characteristics.

Most contacts were made with fins (45.5 %, n = 261); however, hands (19.5 %, n = 112) and dive equipment (15.9 %, n = 91) were also major contributors to the total number of contacts

Contacts made with a camera (77.7 %) accounted for the highest proportion of contacts which resulted in damage, followed by contacts made with the knee (43.3 %), multiple body and equipment parts (38.2 %), equipment (30.7 %), fins (29.8 %), hands (24.7 %), and muck sticks (23.5 %).

A total of 81 interventions were observed (in comparison to 573 reef contacts—see Fig. 4 for the distribution of contacts and interventions);

Camera systems were carried by 55 % of divers; camera-wielding divers accounted for 52.7 % of the total contacts made with the reef. Of divers who utilised a camera, 35 % carried a non-specialist compact type and 20 % carried an SLR type within a specialist underwater housing.

Mean (±SE) dive time was 49.3 ± 0.42 min. A total of 573 diver contacts with the reef were recorded during all assessed dives.

The difference in the frequency of interventions was statistically significant (ANOVA, f = 4.81, P = 0.03)

although a significant portion (36 %) appeared unaware of the contact they made with the reef.

In addition to overall contact levels, some studies have also quantified reef contacts either as the mean number of contacts per diver over the duration of a dive or the diver contact rate per minute of dive time. The mean contact rates of 5.7 contacts per dive, or 0.12 contacts per min, which we observed at dive sites in the Philippines are lower than those previously reported

All divers observed within the present study were diving with operators participating to various degrees in the Green Fins environmentally responsible diving programme.

Identifying factors and policy measures which influence SCUBA diver behaviour underwater can help coral reef managers determine where to most effectively focus effort and funding with respect to dive management. In this study, we found that 88 % of the divers observed made at least one contact with the reef at some point

Divers who are more conservation aware and who contact the reef less may preferentially choose to dive with environmentally ‘accredited’ dive operators; indeed, this assumption partially drives dive operator participation in such programmes.

Underwater interventions by dive guides have been suggested to be the most successful deterrent to diver contact with reefs (Barker and Roberts 2004). In this study, there was no significant difference in the intervention rates between dive centres of high and low Green Fins compliance. Therefore, we cannot attribute the observed difference in diver reef contact rates to differences in intervention rates between these two groups.

Studies examining the effect of carrying camera equipment on the frequency of diver contacts with the reef have produced conflicting results.

Additionally, the administration of a pre-dive briefing can influence diver contact rates underwater (Medio et al. 1997). The Green Fins programme incorporates the use of a pre-dive briefing that emphasises the importance of refraining from contacting the reef, which would be expected to result in lower diver contact rates.

A concern amongst representatives of the diving industry is the use of muck sticks to manipulate animals unnecessarily—pushing animals out of holes for better viewing, stressing animals to show customers their stress behaviour (e.g. an octopus changing colour), and physically breaking hard coral to be used in photographs.

When examining the part of the body or dive equipment which made contact with the reef, we found that the majority of contacts were made with fins, in agreement with Krieger and Chadwick (2013) and Rouphael and Inglis (1998).

It has previously been noted that dive guides customarily perform different roles at dive locations globally; at some locations, they act primarily to lead the dive group around the reef, whilst at others, pairing with and closely supervising individual divers throughout the course of a dive

this suggests that dive guides carry out the closest supervision during the initial phase of the dive and then switch to a ‘dive leader’ role at the front of a dive group.

This study provides evidence that the effective implementation of environmentally responsible practices, via programmes designed to reduce diving impacts, may translate to reduced diver reef contacts.

Many diver characteristics which might intuitively be expected to impact reef contact rates, such as level of qualification and overall experience, were not significant influencing factors in this study, and high versus low levels of Green Fins compliance did not influence the number of interventions made by dive guides underwater.

For continued economic benefit and conservation of Philippine reef dive locations, we recommend that management measures facilitate high levels of compliance with environmentally responsible diving programmes to reduce the impact of diving on coral reefs.

Relevancy:

It needs to be obvious why users would want to share their location with you and how it will benefit them.

users may feel as if you want to spy on them

Inaccuracies may be due to an unreliable method of pulling data, moving devices, poor interpretation of data, high urban density, or outdated data

They are often concerned that businesses will share their data with other services or send them annoying ad

Privacy Concerns

When too many services request location data, users can be overwhelmed with notifications and other types of content

Accuracy

Grabbing Attention

Offer Useful Content

This allows you to build relationships and develop loyalty.

Higher Conversion Rate

By using ads correctly, you significantly increase your chance of conversions.

Geofencing creates a radius or boundary where ads are posted, whereas geo-targeting regards a more general location.

Electronic word-of-mouth communication refers to any positive or negative statement made by potential, actual or former customers about a product or company which is made available to multiples of people and/or institutions and is spread over the internet (Cheung et al, 2010).

understanding their guests on a more granular level (Cheung et al, 2010).

“Hotels can no longer take a blanketed approach towards their consumers; they must understand where guests are coming from and the impact of a hotel’s digital footprint.”

Hotels prioritizing direct business capture approximately 95% more revenue versus the 80% revenue from indirect channels (Revenue-Hub.com).

According to Stratosjets.com, “72% of mobile bookings happen within 48 hours of last-minute Google searches that include the words ‘tonight’ and ‘today,’ and 70% of all customers conduct their research on a smartphone” (Steve Deane, 2021).

How does a hotel measure the success of geo-targeting? Simply put, revenue. 

. According to SmartBugMedia, 71% of consumers prefer a personalized ad experience, and three of four consumers complete an action after receiving a message when approaching a specific location (Amber Kemmis, SmartBugMedia, Jan 2020).

VPN allows the user to locate the device in a location other than the actual one. Thus, it could prevent appropriately targeting a user.

Existing and past guests are “far more precious” to a property (Starkov) since the CAC (customer acquisition cost) is far less than acquiring new guests.

Where are the hotel guests coming from? Are the incoming guests here for leisure, business, or are they group travelers?

Use of CRM technology such as Cendyn, Revinate, and SHR, allows the property to create 360-degree guest profiles.

Denny’s implemented a geo-targeting strategy that sent specific promotions to existing customers that were within a location which resulted in an 11.6% increase to in-store visits.

geo-targeting is an asset for hoteliers to stay relevant.

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.

By taking the burden of IT off hotel staff, the front desk can focus more of their energy and attention where it really counts: the guest, Choice’s Davis said.

This beats traditional advertising, which connects to consumers before they’re in a store — while they’re sitting on the couch at home watching television, for instance — and relies on them to remember the message later.

By using proximity marketing technology, stores can catch up by providing some of the perks of online shopping in person, like easy access to discounts, saved shopping lists and personalized recommendations.

Lastly, proximity marketing tools allow companies to gather behavioral data about their customers, including how often they visit a store and when, how long they stay and what areas of the store they gravitate toward.

Proximity marketing — location-based direct marketing in which a business or other organization sends offers, promotions, alerts or other messages to a person's smartphone based on the device’s location — is annoying, creepy and downright invasive in this story. But it doesn’t have to be. When implemented ethically, proximity marketing can provide worthwhile benefits to marketers and consumers alike.

But completely opting-out of proximity marketing — agreeing to all or nothing — should not be the only way consumers can protect themselves.

Their recommendations include displaying in-store signage notifying shoppers that their location data is being collected, letting consumers opt-out of analytics services, limiting how data is used and never selling personally identifiable data to a third party.

If retailers want their customers to shed the “malicious” connotation that comes with data tracking, they need to be upfront about how they are using that data, including location.

Target’s privacy notice is currently 4,359 words and the top of the page reads, “We may change or add to this privacy policy, so we encourage you to review it periodically.” How many customers read the whole statement and check back periodically for updates?

So let’s reimagine our scene in the department store: Again, you download its app. This time, the user agreement is a few clear bullet points. The app walks you through a quick Q&A to find out if it can access your location to make your shopping experience easier. It asks if it can share your information with its partners — other stores, whose names the user agreement lists out explicitly — and gives you an option to opt out.

NFC lets a nearby phone securely communicate with an RFID (radio frequency identification) chip, so the chip can send customized information to the phone.

Beacons operate similarly to geofencing, but they work using Bluetooth technology instead of satellites and cell towers. A beacon is a device around half the size of a smartphone, and can send a Bluetooth signal within a 50–150 yard radius.

focused on customers who are already near your place of business, proximity marketing appeals to those most likely to purchase from you.

Last but not the least, proximity marketing is absolutely useful for the ones in the travel business. Business owners in the travel industry display information and details about nearby events rewards related to specific destinations, deals, best accommodation options, most attractive local tourist spots, transport hire farms, etc. to people.

Proximity marketing can be beneficial for you in lots of ways. For starters, this is a type of marketing that can help you customize the way you interact with your customers and the types of content that you present in front of them.

If you are the owner of a mobile application, then you can use proximity marketing strategies and increase your customers’ engagement with your mobile app. By using geo-tracking you can send push notifications according to the location. 

Proximity marketing is really cost-effective, considering the fact that here. In this case, you don’t have to advertise your business to all of your customers. 

To build the best interactive app which helps the customers more. Moreover,  that improves more engagement and retains a good number of customers.

Improving the app engagement proximity marketing advertising aid to give you the certain convection. Through proximity marketing, you can make proper and accurate camping set up according to the situation so that the audience wants to purchase from the particular brand. Retailers can promote and give more enticing offers and discounts via push notifications. 

The key aspect of proximity marketing is better customer experience in one to one. The business app sends personalized messages with better offers to the customer.

The average CTR can be high on your app more than 80% if the push notification can be set in a perfect way. The more people say on the app the change is more to improve the selling ratio as well. Moreover, the push notification works better than the Google ads and Facebook to improve the CTR. 

Incorporating technology into day-to-day operations is essential to minimize human error, maximize service efficiency and improve the guest experience.

Companies must move quickly to meet evolving demands or risk missing the boat.

24/7 digital concierge.

Gamification of travel planning

As people contemplate their next getaway, hospitality companies can leverage gamification — using game design elements in non-game contexts — to turn travel planning from a chore into a guilty pleasure.

companies can capitalize on human motivation.

Beyond novelty, using gamification for online advertising is proven to boost data driving, customer loyalty, brand awareness, user-generated content, online engagement and revenue.

Virtual reality tours

Through the use of VR (virtual reality), companies can now give first-person digital tours of their space to future guests.

VR increases the elaboration of mental imagery and presence, leading to better brand experience,

Going contactless

The adoption of contactless technology like self-check-in, in-room technology, mobile keys and digital payments, increased by 66 percent during the pandemic

many hospitality companies transitioned to contactless check-in/out to reduce staff dependency.

Chatbot as a digital concierge

Hoteliers are scrambling to meet 24/7 guest demands. With fewer staff, chatbots are shifting from luxury to necessity.

This means a 24/7 ability to engage users, answer their questions and fulfill their requests.

IoT for room control and customization

Location-based services

IoT technology allows guests to personalize room settings like room temperature and lighting.

By seeing a guest's location via their smartphone, hospitality companies can offer more intuitive local recommendations. Without needing staff assistance, guests can instantly access local information, such as the nearest grocery store or the best pub in town.

Hospitality tech revolution predictions

he hospitality industry cannot expect a return to normal.

They also are looking for deals on hotels' social networks. According to a Google/Shopper Sciences study released in December, 48% of social network users follow travel brands to learn about promotions and sales.