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This article lists of some common security breaches that hoteliers need to be aware of and prepare the hotel system for.

This article talks about how cybersecurity can critically affect hospitality businesses if they are not careful about what ways could attack their business.

As the article states, "Protecting the identity and information of a customer is paramount to the success of any business and hotels are no exceptions." Quite unfortunately, cybersecurity issues are some of the biggest obstacles that hotels are experiencing nowadays. With hacking attacks such as phishing and ransomware, hotels need to invest in increasing their cybersecurity as any breach can lead to a downfall in business loyalty and brand.

In this article, the author discusses many different ways to help a business reduce their risk for cyber attacks. The article touches on a statistic about cybersecurity, stating "During the first half of 2021 alone, over 118 million people were impacted by data breaches". There is quick talk about how the policies that a business implements is the make or break of the cybersecurity for your business. For example, one of the main tips to reduce cyber attacks in your business is to make sure your data is encrypted. "Saving your data in normal-text format only makes it easy for hackers to access. Data encryption, on the other hand, limits data access to parties that have the encryption key". Another tip to prevent cyberattacks highlighted in the article is to keep all your employees educated and informed about malicious emails. Conducting regular employee trainings about the dangers of these types of emails could save your business. These types of emails are known to send links that could hack the system, as well as pretend to be higher-up employees in the company asking for personal data or financial information. The article is extremely educational to every business, as well as just the everyday consumer. Keeping your confidential information as confidential as physically possible is very much doable, as long as you make sure you follow these 10 simple tips.

This article is about a new meeting system that IHG launched for meeting and events booking across 23 of its hotels in Australia and New Zealand.It can be used by any standard web browser or smartphone. It is also equipped to handle various unique business needs including multiple types of events and attendees as well as a wide range of booking methods, payment types, languages and currencies. * Online Hotel Booking: It can help to encourage more delegates to book within the block.  * Live Event Tracking: Meeting organisers can optimise their room block contracts.  * Automated Room Lists: it can secure - eliminating the risk associated with transferring private financial detail across email.  * Increased Pick-up: It will help to maximise event traction through automated email reminders which act as an early warning system for delegates and in turn, maximise block traction.  * Professional email Marketing: hotels are able to leverage GroupMAX's integrated email marketing platform to create new service opportunities which can be communicated to delegates prior to arrival.

There is a new email phishing scam that is currently targeting military members, retirees and civilian employees.  The emails are asking the targeted audience to send copies of their IRS documents and various VA award letters so they can receive additional benefits.  However, this is a scam that identity thieves are using to seal the identity of these individuals and possibly clean out their financials and ruin their credit.  People are being warned and noted that the IRS will never ask for personal information in an email.   

Nowadays, hotels are make good use of the social media to carry out event planning and attract more potential customers to know about them. Over the past year, thousands of hotels have posted blogs about their event planning on the Internet to get attention and do marketing. In this article, the author introduced ten most interesting and popular event planning topics in 2017. 1. Attracting Sponsors in Innovative Ways 2. Speeding Up Registration With the Right Check-In App 3. Defining Event Goals and Objectives 4. Perfecting Your Product Launch Event 5. Tracking Social Media Performance 6. Overcoming the Top Challenges Facing Event Planners 7. Saving Time with Event Planning Apps 8. Engaging Attendees with Interactive Presentation Ideas 9. Wowing Attendees on a Tight Event Planning Budget 10. Boosting Audience Participation at Your Events

With the majority of bookings done through the internet, hotels need to find the best ways to make their websites attractive and engaging for a guest. Here are the ten e-commerce ideas that a hotel should strongly focus on. Number one, high quality images. A guest wants to see your property, and see the amenities that are offered. Provide a clear image of these items to them, so that they are aware of what makes the location great. Two, focus on the location's credibility. and build a reputation of trust for your location. Guests do not like to be fooled, so you must prove that you have integrity to gain business. Three, simplify the booking process. For many people it might not be an issue to navigate through the internet and book a room, but for some people it is. Make sure that the process of booking a room at your sight is very easy, and is comfortable for any guest. Four, integrate customer service channels. If your guests have questions before booking, then try to answer them as fast as possible. This works with the second step of improving credibility. Five, not only should you make the booking process simple, but the navigation process as well. Your layout should be clear, and guests should easily be able to figure out where it is that specific information is found. Six, have only one call to action per page. A call to action is a phrase that when clicked on, creates a certain thing to happen. Like clicking on a button that says "Reserve now", and then being led to a reservation page. It is important to only put one on a page, because several can seem cluttered and confusing. Seven, make the site friendly to cellular devices. Many of the reservations are done last minute, and on a cellular device. Make sure this is easy for your guests to do. Eight, the importance of PCI. There are many threats out there to our finances, and as a place of business it is up to you to secure the financial information of the guests, to avoid any fraud or theft. Nine, optimize o

In today's society it is extremely important for the hotel industry to make use of the e-commerce technology. This article focuses on the ten best e-commerce practices. Best practice number one is to use high resolution photos that are a true representation of your hotel. These photos should be frequently changed and of good quality. Secondly, show your guests that they can trust you and your website, by building credibility. E-commerce is designed to make the process better, thus, thirdly, ensure that it is easy to book a room through your website. The fourth best practice is to ensure that you are clear about ways that your customer can reach out to you for information. show that you are accessible. Next, the author mentioned the importance of making your website user friendly and easy to navigate. Additionally, have one call to action button so that customers are not confused as to where to make their selection or booking. Consumers are now using cellphones more to book hotel accommodations, thus, another best practice is to ensure that your website is mobile friendly. Internet security is a concern for consumers. Best practice number eight is to ensure that your website is secure for financial transactions. The ninth best practice is ensure that you make use of email marketing. Your website should have the ability to collect emails from each user. The final best practiced listed in the article is to use marketing techniques like persuasion elements that go the extra mile to convince guests to book their hotel. The ten best practices outlined were listed for hotel operates to analyze their website and identify ways to improve if necessary.

My company works specifically in the short term rental space, and I wanted to comment on number 9 and offer some insight and results from properly managing your email list. First and foremost, having an email list increases return customers to your platform or rental site by over 300%. Most companies in this space have spent countless hours creating and defining specific messages to potential guests, which begin from the first time they visit the site, all the way until they checkout. Each time these touch points, through email or other communications, increase the likelihood of the guest to use the rental company, condo association, or hotel year in and year out. A new method of communication that is being used industry wide is through text messaging. I believe that this form of e-commerce will enable faster delivery of information to customers and allow managers to personalize experiences at the hotel or property. This follows along the lines of remote locks and other services that are technology based rather than requiring personnel to execute, greatly reducing overhead costs.

Apple announced Monday during their WWDC21 conference privacy-focused features and apps that will be coming for devices that have iOS15 or MacOS Monterey operating systems. These features include no tracking pixels which means the mail app will run images through proxy servers to defeat tracking pixels that tell marketers where and when messages were opened. Another feature will be private relay which hides users IP addresses which are used to infer location. Hide my email is another new privacy feature that will allow iCloud subscribers to create temporary anonymous email accounts to use instead of their real email address. Another new privacy feature is app privacy report which will tell you which servers apps are connected to as well as how often the apps use the microphone and camera.

This article discusses the top seven features of event planning software. This can be applied to any business in the hospitality and tourism industry. If the hospitality or tourism company has the money to invest in event planning and registration software, it would be a very smart move to do so. The first feature the article mentions is that the software can build, for example, the hotel or restaurant its own event website which can help generate publicity for the event. Secondly, the article mentions that with event management software, registration, ticketing and payment methods can all be done online. Thirdly, the article mentions that this software allows companies to upload email lists from past registration and helps to manage email campaigns. This can be an avenue where the hotel or restaurant can advertise their event and also allow guests provide feedback after the event. The fourth feature of event planning software that this article mentions is that some event planning software can allow for mobile check-in for attendees, easily look up event details, and allow for in-app messaging. This feature can also be available in free event planning software. The fifth feature mentioned was that some software can also incorporate awards management into their platform. The sixth feature mentioned was the ability for guests to network and interact with each other through the app before, during and after the event. Lastly, the seventh feature mentioned is that multiple systems (such as emailing tools or CRM tools) can be integrated into event planning software so all of the event planning needs can be in one place. Event management software will help "automate the event management lifecycle" which can be beneficial for both the hospitality and tourism business and their customers.

This is a recent article from Kelly, co-founder of Click mail Marketing, in which she suggests three tips to get started as an eMarketer. She suggests that should add a click to chat link to your email, use cookies to spur email offering and sales, and to create customer loyalty newsletter.

Summary: The variety of gifting options has grown from a simple plastic gift card to virtual cards delivered by email, text, debit/credit cards and more. The prediction for 2013 will exceed a billion dollars of digital gifting for the holiday season and continue to grow. Digital gift cards have made giving easy due to the convenience of redemption. Paper coupons have proven to be successful to draw in consumer activity, but the digital revolution in virtual gifting is expected to explode as people are so connected to their mobile devices. Even with the convenience and growing popularity of digital gifting comes barriers and security issues. Such issues include personal banking security and privacy. Some small to midsize businesses may not be able to participate in digital gifting due to cost barriers or lack of technology. Due to electronic process, paper receipts will be obsolete. Computers aren't perfect so how does one resolve dollar discrepancies. One benefit of virtual giving is the bar codes/QR codes. Companies are able to collect and retain additional information of givers and receivers by scanning the bar code/QR Code. Often people are reluctant to provide contact information, but in this case they aren't being asked, they have no choice. This is a benefit to the companies because they can make other promotional offers to engage and possibly retain both parties, thereby increasing sales. There are a variety of methods of virtual gifting and redemption. One example is Giftly. Giftly adds the value of the gift to the recipient's credit or debit card which can be used anywhere. This is super convenient for many people and they are able to choose whatever they wish rather than receive a gift chosen for them. This is certainly the digital age version of sending a check via mail to a loved one. Other corporate examples that have impacted the transition from plastic gift cards to virtual gifting are Burger King, Dunkin Donuts, Applebee's and Starbu

I believe every business, especially if it is a huge corporation, should protect and control their company's data. A company's data falling into the wrong hands can be a huge drawback for the company, especially if it comes into contact with a competitor. This article explains how IBM have introduced a new security tool with Big Data to identify any suspicious internal and external security threats as well as flag any company secrets from displease employee's emails and their social medias. The new system can alert any frauds and risks from decade worth of emails, financial transactions, and websites. CIOs will be able to conduct a sentiment analysis on employees to see which worker is the most likely to expose company's information. Some can argue that employees have the right to post anything on their social media's accounts but if an employee still is employed by the company then it should be all bets off. The company should have all rights in making sure their information does not get leaked out by an employee who is simply having a bad day.

The Hutton Hotel that is a comparatively new and boutique style implemented new e-mail marketing in order to increase the clientele's awareness about their properties. The hotel developed this new e-mail marketing with the help of Spectrio that is an all-inclusive audio/video/digital marketing company. By using an existed short promotional film video of the hotel, Spectrio and the hotel created new video about hotel properties such as an event space to show the hotel and attract clientele without visiting in advance. This new e-mail campaign not only includes new video content but also still contain photos combined with music and narration and links to the Hutton Hotel's website like previous version of E-mail campaign. This new campaign increased the effectiveness of hotel's e-mail effort as well as enabled the hotel to raise the clientele's awareness .

By creating a video to showcase the hotel's major feature by the use of simple video they were able to create engagement with potential meeting planners that previously weren't aware that such a space existed. The video was not a significant cost since it was footage that already had been used for other purposes. But by using this footage for a new purpose has created a wider audience they previously had not been able to reach. This targeted strategy to meeting planners is much more effective than simply sending out traditional marketing materials. It reached the people the hotel was seeking to target to increase the awareness of the space, to create more potential business. The hotel also plans to send out a targeted email to corporate guests in the hopes of the same success rate.

EMarketing is the ability to market your products or services with Internet capabilities. In other words, it includes emailing, websites, follow-up, and every other marketing approach. Through computer/Internet capabilities, small business owners that embrace eMarketing will save themselves hours of time. With eMarketing, business owners can automate nearly all of their business management functions. That means that eMarketing capabilities are taking care of the day-to-day tasks small business owners and their employees would normally be engaged in. eMarekting also has some other benefits. E-marketing eliminates the printing and postage costs of direct mail and is substantially less expensive than other traditional forms of advertising. Customers opt in to receive your news via email. E-marketing is affordable, so you can advertise more often.

EMarketing is the ability to market your products or services with Internet capabilities. In other words, it includes emailing, websites, follow-up, and every other marketing approach. Through computer/Internet capabilities, small business owners that embrace eMarketing will save themselves hours of time. With eMarketing, business owners can automate nearly all of their business management functions. That means that eMarketing capabilities are taking care of the day-to-day tasks small business owners and their employees would normally be engaged in. eMarekting also has some other benefits. E-marketing eliminates the printing and postage costs of direct mail and is substantially less expensive than other traditional forms of advertising. Customers opt in to receive your news via email. E-marketing is affordable, so you can advertise more often.

WebRezPro recently made the news announcing their integration with constant contact suite of online marketing tools. This integration "automates the flow of guest contact information from WebRezPro PMS into the hotel's constant contact email marketing account." The President of World Web Technologies Inc., Frank Verhagan, explained that "with this interface, our mutual clients no longer have to manually export a spreadsheet of guest information from WebRezPro, filter the data and import the information into their constant contact email marketing account."

In this article marketing software that hotel's can use to send pre-arrival emails to guests is discussed. This type of contact allows hotels to increase revenue by offering additional services or upgrades as well as create detailed profiles about their guests. These profiles can be used to further segment and advertise as well as just improve the guest experience. 

This article talks about effective techniques that hoteliers can use the get positive feedback from their customers. It also coaches on how to use and write effective emails that can aid a business to be more successful.

This article discusses the most effective ways for hotels, both small and large, look to email their prospective clients. The ages of emails spam from companies in order to engrave their name onto their client's eyeballs are over. Personalized emails with relevant information, discounts, and rewards are much more effective and are increasing revenues for hotels everywhere. The article goes into all of these aspects with great detail and allows hoteliers to improve on their own methodology with these tried-and-true techniques.

This article discusses CRMs and how to make use of data to support a strong CRM system. Batchbook for example is a tool that allows businesses to learn about their clients in one place and build relationships with them. Emails on the other hand can be used to maintain awareness and generate bookings and location excitement . It's an important factor for noticing patterns and touch points related to pre-trip, in-stay and post-trip data.