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Second Life is a website that provides companies to use a virtual world to benefit their companies. It hasn't worked that great in small stores and traveling ideas such a cruise lines but education is one idea that has used the virtual world to a great advantage. "The Second Life Educators (SLED) community has an e-mail list that included more than 4,700 working in or interested in education in Second Life." Many universities have made exact replicas of their campus so that students couldn't feel as if they really traveled to get to class. I feel this is the best perk for students because they won't have to spend money on gas when they could just wake up and communicate through a microphone to their instructors. One thing that is surprising is, Second Life is free to join for students and teachers. Its important to keep up with the fast growing technology and this is the perfect way.

Hotels going green! Why not care about the environment? This article discusses the benefits as well as the common sense to go green in our industry hotels. Not only does going green help to save hotels money, it also helps to make a more environmentally sound universe.

HFTP, stands for Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals, the global association wants to create hospitality financial and technology supports to stakeholders and help to compile accounts, compare regional differences and define the value of daily operations. Also HFTP is working with lots of organization includes associations universities and volunteers to collect information to participate and assist the sponsor.

M3 Accounting Services, the national leader in hotel accounting software, is providing hands-on training to several universities across the United States, thanks in part to a partnership with the University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee. This software is designed to simulate a 100-room hotel and offer differet scenarios to provide training exercises for hospitality students. I think this is a great idea since application of exercises is what really drives the information home.

This article talks about one of the negative impacts of the current state of e-commerce: the detrimental impact on the environment. The article discusses how consumers have a need for their goods to be delivered quickly and conveniently. E-commerce ventures such as Amazon, Google Express, and Postmates provide customers with goods and services at the click of a button that can be delivered in as little as 10 minutes. However, these businesses have a heavy environmental cost, with an increasing use of cardboard being used in shipments and an increase in personalized freight services, which can lead to more greenhouse gas emissions. While some argue that these e-commerce services might lead to less consumers going out and shopping in physical stores, research shows that this is not the case, with consumers still going out and shopping even if they also shop online through these e-commerce businesses. Although much of the cardboard that is being used in these services is recyclable, recycling comes with its own downsides, as the process of taking things to the recycling centers uses a lot of water and energy. Overall, the new wave of e-commerce has spurred questions about its environmental impact.

Changes are coming for New York City hotel workers. A proposal between the Hotel Association of New York and the New York Hotel Trades Council would equip hotel staffers with personal panic alarms. Employees like house keepers are calling for the extra safety measures for fear of being assaulted in a guest room. Concern is also circulating outside New York in places like Sacramento, California. The personal security devices were tested on students at California State University at San Marcos last year. I believe hotels will begin to implement more measures like this in large cities like New York. Similar to airports and large department stores, safety is a major concern. I believe the personal panic button is a great idea for any hospitality space that accommodates a large number of people.

I think this new proposal may draw people's attention to employees' safety issues within the hospitality industry. It is also important for hotels and restaurants to make sure that their employees work in an environment that is danger free and threats free. The panic button can provide the instant location of the staff and once if something goes wrong, the time for rescue will be shorten. It is really a beneficial proposal for the entire hospitality industry.

Pending approval, personal panic alarms would be carried by staff members in all New York City hotels. These panic buttons would be carried by the staff member during their shift so that they are easily and quickly accessible should something happen. Fox News in Sacramento, CA reported that house keepers voiced their desire for more saftey measures to be put in place. Assaults on house keepers may be more common than people think. House keepers tend more often to be women and they tend to work alone or with only one other person. Hotels host many events in which guests may be drinking which in turn creates the potential for violent or inappropriate actions. Not only is the safety of guests important to the hospitality industry but safety of employees is paramount as well. Having personal panic buttons would give house keepers and workers alike more peace of mind should they encounter any uncomfortable or unsafe situation.

Web users voluntarily compromise their privacy by typing more personal information into online forms than is strictly needed, a study has found. Researchers at the University of Cambridge and University College London invited a group of 1,500 US participants to enter information into an online form.

Because of increasing demand, China has been one of the fastest developing markets for Meru--an American wireless network provider. The company expects that its revenues in the Asia-Pacific region will double in the next two to three years. The company thinks that China's education industry could be a safe place to find profits and the rapid-growing hospitality industry in China is likely to become another gold mine. It is estimated that China's five-star hotels could exceed 1000 by 2015. However, China has a habit of adopting its own communication standards so that overseas communication network providers seem to have trouble adapting to the different industry standards. Therefore, Meru has reached a decision to cooperate with China's telecom carriers to better develop the market.

This Article based on an Apple iPhone App for Swiss hotel Students is about how some 80 international students from IMI University Centre in Luzern collected data to create the world's first crowd-sourced student guide. The iPhone app is connected with Luzern Tourism, which contains its own tourism guide of the city. The app itself also collects many insider tips for the students who currently live in Switzerland. This Iphone App is free and is categorized in 7 different ways one is "Top Info" which is essential for all international students, "Top Rumors", "Why Luzern?" which explains the ten top reasons for why Luzern is the best place to study, "Do's and Don't's" explaining the things that are important to know about Swiss culture, "Education", "Food", and "Student Gems" which are special tips and selections of all students who participate at version 1.0.

To create a global resource for the hospitality finance industry, Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals has begun development on a global hospitality accounting system users guide. HFTP is the only global association dedicated to hospitality finance and technology and our Global Board is investing heavily to create a benchmark that stakeholders can use to compile accounts, compare regional differences and define the value of a hospitality operation.

This article was pretty brief, but it stated that Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals has begun development on a global hospitality accounting system users guide. This would create a global resource for the finance industry. Frank Wolfe, HFTP's CEO, says that the company is the only global association dedicated to hospitality finance and technology. They are hoping to create a benchmark that stakeholders can use to compile accounts, compare regional differences and define the value of a hospitality operation. What I found interesting about this article was that it greatly involved final year bachelor students at Ecole Hôtelière De Lausanne in Switzerland performing research for this project. I also think that a global hospitality accounting system users guide would be beneficial, especially since many managers/employees do not have the strongest training or skills in a financial or technical area.

HFTP (Hospitality financial & technology professionals) begins developing a global hospitality accounting system users guide. This kind of users guide is totally new to the hospitality industry and currently there is no global resource like this. The global guide will provide the hospitality industry with a glossary of inventory terminology, accounting charts and other accounting-related information. This project is developed using technology that can provide users with a benchmark that stakeholders can use to compare regional differences and define the value of hospitality operation. This project is a three-step process. First, bachelor degree students from all over the world who are interested in this project will work as data collector. Second, the assembled and analyzed data will be processed into professionals in different regions all over the world to create new sample charts. Finally, the initial guide will be published in multiple languages and distributed globally. This new accounting system technology is predicted to help the hospitality industry increase the ability in financial management, accounting, cost control and the sharing of global accounting data sources.

This article talks about how the Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals (HFTP) are in the process of making a user guide for the global hospitality accounting system. This guide will include a glossary of inventory terminology and have charts that are allocated for specific regions of the world. The article also breaks down the process into three parts. First they are gathering data by surveying hotel operations and terms of reference. Next the data will be sent to regional teams of industry consultants. Then to finalize the project they will author a discussion on issues of allocations. I belive that this would be a definite benefit to some people that have to work with these systems. It allows them to really understand the information rather than just trying to figure it out.

The company Revel has outfitted the Alabama State University stadium with and iPad-based point-of-sales system. This system is very functional because it does not require and internet connection and it has a faster processor to complete transactions versus the traditional systems. In the stadium setting it can help to move the line faster leading to happier customers who do not have to wait long in line.

Although this is just a briefing of what is included in the full report, it is clear that event planning is a growth industry. With the growth in smart devices and nearly universal internet coverage, hotels that have their own venues or are affiliated with a venue can almost not afford to have a piece of the event industry. By automating their processes, hotels and their event planners can increase efficiency and their bottom line.

SocialTables is one of the latest and most successful hospitality start-ups. It is essentially a hospitality SaaS. It was founded by Dan Berger, an event-planner turned programmer. Founded in 2012 and based in Washington D.C., one of the premier corporate hospitality locations in the US, the start-up has recently raised $8 million in Series A funding. The round was led by Bessemer Venture Partners, and followed by Thayer Ventures. This funding adds to the previous $1.6 million the company raised, which helped them streamline their event planning tools. According to its website, SocialTables is a cloud-based solution that offers event diagramming, seating, and check-in tools for event planners. The software can make room layouts that event planners can use to show clients, compose detailed seating charts and arrangements, and it offers a fast check-in app. All of this is done on a colorful, intuitive, cloud-based site with mobile integration. In two years, SocialTables has grown considerably. It has over 2,500 customers and 30,000 users. Additionally, two-thirds of its customer base is actually composed of venue-owners, including major corporations like Hyatt Hotels and Caesar's Entertainment. Academic institutions like Harvard Business School and The Ohio State University also subscribe to SocialTables. Additionally, one-third of its customers are private party planners. SocialTables is becoming an affordable, customizable, tech-progressive solution for event planners of all levels. Industry leaders like Hyatt and Caesar's already subscribe to its services. In the future, I think that the start-up should focus on increasing its ability to provide affordable and capable solutions for private event planners, particularly in the wedding category. While that is an extremely competitive and saturated market, SocialTables could provide an industry-leading software solution and use its credibility to entice private planners into its cloud-based ecosystem.

A recent study by the top-ranked School of Hotel Administration at Cornell University has found that certification by the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, also known as LEED certification, actually provides a boost in revenue for hotels. The Council takes various factors into account prior to certifying a hotel, including "water efficiency, energy use, and indoor environmental quality. When compared to 514 non-certified hotels, the 93 hotels afforded LEED certification excelled in their gross income based on the average daily rate (ADR) standard. Over a time of two years, the LEED-certified hotels outperformed their non-certified competitors. In fact, LEED-certified hotels were able to match the levels of occupancy of non-certified hotels in a single year. Since LEED certification in the hospitality industry is fairly new, there is little empirical evidence to further back the conclusions of this particular study. Though LEED certification of hotels has actually declined since 2010, I believe that the more hotel controllers start to understand its benefits, the quicker we will see it adopted as an industry standard. It is worth noting that this study specifically focused on 93 upscale and luxury properties, but compared them to nearly five times as many hotels without certification. I think a more accurate study will divide up hotels based on their pricing category (budget, midscale, upscale, luxury, extended stay, etc.) and compare the benefits of LEED certification with that in mind. Lastly, it is unclear if the study found any higher level of consumer preference for LEED certified hotels. Instead, the benefits seem to come with the standards that LEED certified hotels must meet, in turn resulting in lower expenditures. Perhaps more sophisticated customers at luxury properties are more keen to environmental protection and stewardship, and thus take LEED certification into account. However, I believe that most of

This article is about how technology can reduce the cost using sustainability. Although that some people believe that green operation is more expensive and that guests are not interested in hospitality. According to Cornell University for hospitality research, the reverse is true for both. Recent advances in technology related to renewable sources of energy are beneficial and have cut the costs for energy. Not only that investment in environmental technology reduce the costs but also has a positive impact in our guest experience.

This article is about how technology can reduce the cost using sustainability. Although that some people believe that green operation is more expensive and that guests are not interested in hospitality. According to Cornell University for hospitality research, the reverse is true for both. Recent advances in technology related to renewable sources of energy are beneficial and have cut the costs for energy. Not only that investment in environmental technology reduce the costs but also has a positive impact in our guest experience.

This article explains the various sustainability efforts of hoteliers in effort to limit their negative impact on the environment. Although, going green is beneficial to the world around us, hoteliers have also realized its benefits within the industry. One important factor has been its cost savings and economic incentives. Going green also enhances the brand image of hoteliers which in turn creates a market for a specific type of traveller, whom deems it necessary for a hotel to maintain sustainability efforts.

This short article from Harvard University discusses ways in which conservation and recycling of old products can help minimize wasteful practices of corporations' extraction of precious minerals in the production of technological hardware.

This article talks about "green tourism" and its impact in today's hospitality and tourism industry. Professors from Stanford University, Northwestern, and Hsiuping University of Science and technology in Taiwan speak about the growing demand for modern and sustainable practices from consumers in the 21st century. This is due largely to the harsh impacts felt by global warming, which have began to cause long term damages to tourist areas around the world. These areas include the great barrier reef, the amazon rainforest, and more. In this article green tourism is explained as the new driving force in the hospitality and tourism sector. This new direction is led by the eager demands made by consumers for greener practices and advocacy for environmental awareness. Green tourism includes concepts in every aspect of the industry from hotel sustainability practices, to the efforts of tourists and tourist managers alike, as well as those of tour operators which must all make an equalized effort in conserving local environments and advocate for sustainable measures and solutions.

Every HR department needs to utilize software which meets the specific requirements of a company without overspending. Every organization is unique in nature, so there is no universal "best HR software" on the market.

This article covers the research behind and design of software implemented in the Czech Republic to monitor visitor activity in protected areas. The software is designed to act as a "tour guide" and keeps track of visitors through satellite positioning. The article discusses the process by which this software would be developed, rationale for its implementation, and consumer data that may be collected through this process that would benefit National Parks and other protected areas. Theoretical questions in regard to human interaction, privacy concerns, and effectiveness of the application in low-service areas are discussed. Though the application requires more research and strict attention to variables, its implementation worldwide could change how sustainable tourism is managed and would provide important information on consumer habits in protected areas.