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This article announces that the Regal Hotels Group, a Hong Kong based company, now has seamless connnectivity with hundreds of online travel agents from its custom-built Miro PMS and RDX, Room Distribution Exchange. According to the article, RDX allows hotel groups to build a custom PMS and connect it the world's leading booking sites through RDX. The process saves staff hundreds of hours in manual reservations processing and allows hotels to receive thousands of bookings every day. Room Distribution Exchange is a technology powered by SiteMinder. What I didn't know was that RDX is the only real time hotel room exhange platform. It appears to be very beneficial and efficient because it allows busineses to connect directly to their partners. The system also reduces the amount of time hotel staff have to spend manually making reservations, and allows customers all around the world to book reservations. In a time where consumers are becoming more demanding and internet savvy, having an effective PMS is imperative.

Proximity Marketing is the trend of the marketing sector of the hospitality industry. Based on the statistics, there is a great increase in using proximity marketing recent years. And there are some reasons why hotels choose to use this technology. First, it enables the hotel to reach potential customers and providing electronic forms of advertising. By notifying guests of exclusive promotions hotels have to offer through their mobile phones, hotels and advertisers have a greater chance of customers responding to their advertisements, and therefore a greater ROI on their marketing spend. Second, from the perspective of the hotel, it decrease the advertising cost in terms of decreasing labor cost. It is said that proximity marketing has a tremendous revenue-production potential, and more hotels are engaging in using proximity marketing.

Proximity marketing is the localized wireless distribution of advertising content associated with a particular place. It is now becoming one of the most popular marketing tools in any industry especially in hospitality. Marketing people from hotel industry were looking for new marketing tools past few years. Instead of sending out promotion mails or emails, they need to have better ideas. What they realized is that wish an increase in the use of mobile devices, hotels can communicate and provide better service with guest cell phone. They also realized guests usually watch TV, while they are waiting to be C/I. So hotel is now providing offers while guests are in line. It is a Win-Win situation. The way to find communication is now the key of marketing. Proximity Marketing is a type of eMarketing that will help to communicate with guests with low cost.

According to this article, it said that by the end of 2011, 91% of Americans  owned mobile phones, and Smartphone penetration have been doubled. Obviously, it becomes a trend in hospitality industry nowadays that more and more people use smart phones and tablets. Based on wireless such as bluetooth, it allows hoteliers to interact with customers much easier and more convenient. Proximity marketing is one kind of eMarketing which is very popular in daily life. It is well known that better marketing brings better sales which of course increases revenues of companies. By sending guests nearby informations about promotions and discounts, hotels attract more guests than before. However, too much informations sent to guests will make them sucks and they have no choice to select what they really want. So in my opinion, I think it should be improved.

This article is about a new application: Monscierge that launched in December for the iOS (apple) and Connect for the Android in January. The software allows all of the amenities of a hotel to be available to guests via smartphones. The app is completely customizable for each of a brand's specific hotels. This is an excellent idea for both hotels and guests with the recent rise in smartphone and tablet technology. Guests who may not be as comfortable requesting things in person or over the phone would now have the option to do so digitally. Research of 1,000+ hotels and resorts worldwide was conducted over 3 years and found that the majority of questions to the front desk, bellmen, etc. were related to: services, local information, and recommendations. This app seeks to improve that by making those inquiries easily searchable on a smartphone or tablet, also allowing guests to input their own comments. With this finding it should be expected this kind of technology would be very well accepted, which it was. In respect to benefits for the hotel the app is completely customizable down to specific hotels to suit their image needs. With the use of this application it would also allow staff to be more effective, negating redundant questions. By allowing guests the ability to send digital postcards bearing the hotels brand it gives the company more exposure. These benefits are significant for a company looking for new technologies to give them an edge The benefits of this application are numerous for both the customer and hotel. Hotels may also see benefits moving into future years with easier training due to familiarity with this type of technology and customers with easy-to-use technology. For hotels and consumers attempting to plan completely customized experiences, trip-planning functionality is built into the app providing many possible uses. This app to me seemed to be very logical in the current progression of technology. The majority of people today

From lodging to foodservice, the point of service is the premiere place for customers to get their first - and hopefully not last - impression of an establishment. Streamlining and fine-tuning the service that occurs at the POS is of utmost important and operators are always seeking out the latest technologies to make this possible. The move to mobile payment is always top-of-mind as well, but lingering confusion and trepidation still remains for many customers. Owners and operators must seek out ways to implement the technology without intimidating customers. Last month's POS headlines proved this as stories ranged from a study tracking the public perception of mobile payment to improving drive-thru functionality and reducing maintenance costs with cloud-based systems. Study Shows Interest and Confusion Over Mobile Payments At Mobile World Congress, MasterCard in partnership with Prime Research, has released the first global Mobile Payments Social Media Study tracking 85,000 related social media comments across Twitter, Facebook, Online Blogs and Forums from around the world. The study shows a high volume of conversation and consumer interest in adopting mobile payments but cites security, customer support and confusion over the array of options available today as barriers to entry. Taco Bell Streamlines Drive-Thru Experience Across Franchises Desert de Oro Foods' Taco Bell locations had a range of drive-thru communications systems that were deployed over the last five years. However, restaurants were experiencing poor sound quality due to a limited range of wireless capabilities with the current systems. Poor audio quality led to increased wait times for customers as a result of miscommunications and mistakes. In addition, Desert de Oro Foods knew it needed to move to a digital system as the analog bandwidth of its current systems would be ruled out by the FCC at the end of 2012. Panasonic's Attune® drive-thru communications system offered the o

Advancements are growing enormously throughout every field of the working industry. Hotels have now adapted to using cloud computing in many hotels and it's really shaping how data and analysis are being kept and processed on day to day basis. Some pros of this idea are that companies save money because they only pay for the amount of cloud they use, they save money on training, and it's safe from any physical damage. I feel this is a very good investment for any company because what company doesn't like saving money in many areas? A weakness in the hotel industry is, companies don't know how to give, customers that are on a budget, the same amount of attention and personal service that they do for a high priced customers. The cloud can solve this and many other problems by knowing what the people like and giving it to them by not spending more money. Cloud computing can even kept customer happy when they are not even checked in the hotel, which is a plus on both ends. All in all, cloud computing expands any company, whether it be with other companies for networking or just helping inside of their own company by saving, it's definitely the way to go.

Sabre, one of the three largest Global Distribution System signs a long-term agreement with United Airlines. This agreement would allow customers to provide ancillary products and services to customers through the Sabre market place. With United airlines and Sabre joining forces they will use the latest technology allowing both companies to provide more personalize products and services to customers. Sabre will market United Airline ancillary products including air fares and economy plus seats to passengers that buy products and services from Sabre in a way that would differentiate United Airlines products from that of its competitors. Other Global Distribution systems such as Amadeus and Travelport are presently making it a standard policy, mandating airlines to provide ancillary products and services to GDS. American airline one of the major airline who for a long time was reluctant to market its ancillary products through GDS is now one of the many airlines that are presently jumping aboard the GDS wagon. The airlines are beginning to see the benefit of expanding their brand globally through GDS and reaping substantial revenue beyond the sale of air fares.

The article highlights the benefits that companies around the world are deriving through the use of web 2.0. This was done through a survey from a range of industries that has used web2.0 and has seen tremendous value of the technology in dealing with both internal and external customers. According to the report 69 percent of respondents report that web 2.0 has impacted their businesses in a positive way. They are able to market products more effectively, reduce the cost of doing business and better able to communicate with customers, suppliers and of course the ability to collaborate with business partners and experts in a dynamic way; something that was not possible using the static web pages of web 1.0 The article was written four years ago and this goes to show that the technological capabilities of web 2.0, one that revolutionizes the way business has been conducted online, has been around for quite a long time and has been creating tremendous benefits for many businesses such as increase revenues. As the technology continues to increase and expand, and the public's acceptance continues to grow, going beyond web 2.0 is what we are presently experiencing using tools such as semantic web and augmented reality with the launch of web 3.0. The report uses exhibits to highlights areas that companies have gain measurable benefits using web 2.0, how companies have tie other technologies into web 2.0 and regions of the world such as North American and China that have experience tremendous benefits from web 2.0 interaction with both customers and business partners.

Restaurants and hotels were among the first businesses to offer mobile-friendly websites as a way to improve the customer experience. Now, the hospitality industry is looking for new ways to reach consumers who have come to see technology as an integral part of the customer experience.

The ecommerce will face a big chenge in the future, compony want do ecommerce business and some existing ecommerce business need to fit the markting chenge. In the past, the ecommrce can help company extending volume growth and buring a lot of new cuntomer, that is the traditional cannot mach,but now the market is changing step by step. More and more companies using ecomerce and people can compare them easily. The customer requirement is chenged from the needs of the product to looking for a good experience. For the future, company need to build impeccable ecommerce and focus on service sucj as after sales support.

TouchBistro is the best POS system for restaurants. It focuses solely on features that restaurants need and it is a perfect solution for a small business. From a management perspective it has a a lot of positive time-saving features. -mobility, it can be taken anywhere -table or bar, easy to open tabs -lock in register -bill splitting, easy to split entire bill -custom orders -automatic pricing -send orders directly to kitchen -reports, help to identify trend and boost sales -anytime support -personalized training program As for disadvantages: -it relies on a Apple-based infrastructure, if you are looking for an Android POS system, it's not for you -it is not cloud-based POS system, it's work depends on the device and local network.

This article talks about the new tool for the hotels to reach out to their customers, an interaction with their guests only through mobile phones. and this shows that the future of hotel marketing is going to evolve even further. One of the reasons why this would be helpful is because of the way everyone communicates today. of all the mobile phones used today, 95% of them have bluetooth, and another interesting statistics is that 98% of guests switch on the television within five minutes of entering their room. hotels customers are primed for information and offers. Proximity marketing enables guest engagement, it offers what the guests want the most. This type of marketing has a tremendous potential of generating revenue, by establishing stronger roots of connection with their customers. So basically it provides instant connection, manage campaigns and transactions in real time, advertise smarter, no delivery fee and no privacy issues. all this along with growing customer acceptance of location based services will open new opportunities for the for proximity marketing, not only for hospitality but for others too.

Changing technologies provide a new way for hotels to interact with guests. Increased interaction engages the customer in a hotels promotion. Exclusivity generates interest and repeat business, and instant measurement gives hoteliers capabilities traditional advertising never could alone - instant customization and measurable reaction at no cost. With technology that allows digital signs to 'talk and interact' with nearby mobile devices, providing mobile users with information and incentives at exactly the time they need them, hotels and advertisers can transform their in-room TV and digital signage into interactive consumer touchpoints. The result is a true consumer interaction, which evolves in real-time. Hotels can deliver branded content to guests within a certain location. Proximity marketing has tremendous revenue-producing potential, allowing hotels to deepen their connection with guests, encourage more loyalty and greatly improve the customer experience: all of these factors combine to make proximity marketing a very effective tool to generate higher ROI for both hotels and their advertisers.

The Nation 2010 report mentioned that 41% of UK hospitality business do not have capability to trade online, but the chance of internet cannot be overlooked in the future. Website: a website can provide your customers a good place to visit ,they can see the plenty of food quality and high resolution images of your hotel Google: google is a well known tools which can help your business cannot be overlooked. If you put your hospitality address on google map ,customers will find you when they use google maps. That is an effective way to do your online marketing business. Social networking: company can use twitter ,facebook of youtube as social networking tools to maximize marketing. Youtube： when put a simple video clip about the location of your company, or you use the video show your products to customers, the method can attract a lot of potential guests . Offer vouchers online: online voucher sites are a good way to enhance your presence online and reach new customers. Broadening your reach: over 60% of UK dinner go online to research restaurants and more and more customers choose to search hotels through internet ,it is convenient for them to visit these information at home or abroad. Online orders: software form companies like supercontrol can be integrated on to our site to provide real time booking information. Some tools may not be so appropriate to some age groups but do not rule anything out. You can conduct a survey to figure out which one is your customers most often visit.

Too many companies do not realize how important it is for them to have a representable website. A company that has a webiste shows people it is more likely a legitimate company. A company with a nice website tells people its employees take whatever they do seriously, in which make it easier for potential customers to consider using its service. How many times have people nevigate away from a website only because how pathetic it looks not even caring how good the company is? All the money a company spends on advertisement and marketing can go to waste after just one click.

Two former restaurant servers have developed software that provides an end-to-end point-of-sale (POS) system that allows taking and submitting orders, printing kitchen slips, customer receipts and processing payments-all using an iPhone, iPod touch or iPad. Ambur does not require a computer on the back end. Instead the hand-held device is the hub. The program can be loaded up by any iOS device and run on a wireless network. Waiters can easily fulfill customer requests right at the table. One drawback is that some customers have complained because they thought the waiter was texting on their iPhone.

The arising topic of biometrics in the class in combination with Disney Amusements Parks has lead me to further explore details regards the topic. Disney is the first theme park using biometrics for their operations, prior to entrance in the Disney Parks; a digital fingertip is copied of the pointer finger of their customers. The justification for Disney implementation of the biometrics is in order to reduce or eliminate fraudulent and ticketing crimes. The Department of Defense (DOD) is working in cohesion with Disney in a focus to collect information, through the Freedom of Information Act, after Disney provides the excessive quality and quality of information to the DOD, which is after property of the United States' government able to use the information in their discretion. As well, Disney has implemented facial recognition technology in their cruise lines and private island, Casteway Cay, which is tied to a digital voucher card in the event that the customer would like to purchase photographs of their vacation, with or without permission the pictures are property of Disney.

Point of sale systems are utilized in many industries, however, it is prevalent in the hospitality industry. Point of Sale Systems is also referred to as Point of Service. A POS system encompasses various hardware and software such as touch screen display, barcode scanners, cash registers, scales, and receipt printers. Improvements in technology such as POS have made cash registers, paper tapes and journal tapes almost obsolete. During the late 80's and 90's credit card processing was implemented making it easier for customers to easily transact business with operations. Today hospitality POS systems are among the most sophisticated, powerful and user friendly networks. Many POS systems are fully integrated so managers can track inventory, sales, rental services, accounting and customer relation management. Depending on the size of the hospitality facility, management may be primarily concerned with implementing POS systems. Some o f the questions pertaining to POS that managers may have include: a) How many POS terminals do I need? b) Should I run credit cards through my POS system? c) Which style of computer is best for my facility? d) Do I need pole displays or customer displays? e) Should I have a back office computer?

In today's society, online booking is definitely a major form of reservation in the hospitality industry. Thus I think it will be profitable for the companies to understand why some customers booked and others just visited their website and left without booking. These kinds of information can be achieved with the aid of software, as shown in the article. This article is related to software utilization in monitoring the user journey on websites. Hotel chain Villa Plus decided to increase its properties by 40%, and because of this, Villa Plus began to implement IBM's sophisticated analytics software, instead of Google Analytics they had used. With the IBM's software, Villa Plus can track and understand customer needs and behavior across its website. These understandings help the company to advertise the right properties to the right people on the websites. Villa Plus is expecting this to result in high occupancy rates as well as a great return on investment.

I like this Villa Plus, I think it can help customers as much as possible to get what they want and filter what they don't want, it can save time for valuable customers because they can get what they want at one time instead of searching from different websites or even leave without reservation. I also use online booking every time, I think this Villa Plus also can help me a lot next time when I book online again.

Nowadays, online booking is very popular. But hotels still face with low occupancy rate. I think this IBM software is good. It can help solve this kind of problem. Advertising the right properties to the right people on the websites and result in high occupancy rates as well as a great return on investment.

The article above describes a new innovative system for the typical small business owner. If you are in need of some simple, easy to use technology then this might be the article for you. It's called NCR Silver, a new POS system capable of performing all the necessary function of operating a business all with one solution. It has the ability to track sales, manage inventory and records, and review key data. With all these features at the disposal of a small business owner, it could do a great deal in helping them increase their businesses profitability. The software is a cloud-based system and has the ability to be used on all portable Apple products. It is like having your business in the palm of your hand, literally! NCR Silver is already being used in Georgia throughout the Atlanta area and is slowly gaining popularity. As the cloud-computing idea takes hold, I believe this software will be found nation wide. Below is a link that demonstrates the software in use. ENJOY! www.youtube.com/user/NCRSilver

I like the mobile being discussed here, can these be expanded into tracking devices I wonder. I don' t like the rather vague description being provided on there customer service polic. It makes me weary of using the software if I don't see any benefits listed under customer service or troubleshooting. Would someone be there to assist if I was trouble using there system or if goes down. What assurances are provided? Warranty, Insurance, etc. It should be more than just we provide customer service.

From this article,I think it is amazing to have such revolution of POS system. First of all, POS system itself is wonderful for the hoteliers all these years. The latest i-trends and NFC put it much further step to not only free the employees,but also bring efficiency to the customers. It is said that "the point of sale on the move" which free the employee to use the mobile device to control everything it matters of the business. It makes hoteliers more flexiable and at the meanwhile, it provides quantity information. The other innovation here is that there is one IPAD POS kiosk which allows self-service card swiping system so the customers can complete their own transaction. Though this technology is the only IPad enclosure, it help eliminate theft and tampering. Then ,when the growing trend of Near Field Communication comes, it free the customers another further step to eliminate the necessity to carry money/credit cards to pay their bills. This technology is also come with the smartphone by just swiping the mobile device across a special kiosk at the counter, and the payment is done quickly. This technology also developed another growing technology "RFID" card readers. Another name for the NFC is the digital wallet means that a customer's device can store all their bank account details and credit card information with no need for a real wallet. That's amazing for the people who are not good at financing. This technology can really impact the hotel market and bring the competitive advantages for the hotels. It's a new trend for the hotel to update themselves to level-up. This trend is also fit the market nowadays, the consumer is more and more younger, they curious about the high-tech things, the success of Apple proves this trend. In order to meet with the customer needs in current hotel industry, this technology is worth to have a try.

This article talks about the importance of POS systems in the hospitality industry and the new technological trends that are affecting it. POS systems are extremely important to hoteliers primarily to keep track of sales and bookings. With recent technological developments though, POS systems have revolutionized that hospitality industry by increase efficiency and production. The newest trend in these accounting and POS systems are cloud-based technologies. I believe this type of technology will allow for busy hotel managers to track all accounting information through either a smart phone, PC, or even tablet. This type of technology, as stated in the article, would allow for managers to keep track of sales data and profits even when they are away from the office. All in all, I believe this is a very helpful technology for hotel operations and will benefit the industry in the long run.

Allow the customers to to use smartphone across a special kiosk at the counter to pay may benefit restaurants a lot. It may reduce the stress of the servers in the peak time. customers no longer waiting a long time for the servers to get their bill, they can pay by themselves through mobile devices. Moreover, the customers do not need to bring their wallets to the restaurants which may improve the security of the restaurant environment.

This article shows the importance of guest reviews in a hotel through online websites like TripAdvisor. Before purchasing the antique St. Ermin's Hotel in Central park, management decided to take a look of what customers thought about the property. People said the location was fantastic and it had beautiful physical assets but it needed a major renovation. TripAdivisor played a huge role for the hotel to recover and maintain high level of guest satisfaction raking their property from 480 to number 25 in TripAdvisor's Central London rankings and later jumped to number 18. Websites like TripAdvisor enables management to be informed and up-to-date of what customers are looking for before they travel. At the end, customers are they reason why we are still in business.

This article shows the importance of guest reviews in a hotel through online websites like TripAdvisor. Before purchasing the antique St. Ermin's Hotel in Central park, management decided to take a look of what customers thought about the property. People said the location was fantastic and it had beautiful physical assets but it needed a major renovation. TripAdivisor played a huge role for the hotel to recover and maintain high level of guest satisfaction raking their property from 480 to number 25 in TripAdvisor's Central London rankings and later jumped to number 18. Websites like TripAdvisor enables management to be informed and up-to-date of what customers are looking for before they travel. At the end, customers are they reason why we are still in business.

This article introduces a profitable e-commerce for hotel. A mobile app which can help customer makes reservation of same-day hotel room on their mobile rather than on the internet. This app helps customer book same-day hotel with the deep discounts, and it also helps hotels sell their unsold room at the end of the day. Compare with book hotel room on the internet customer can book wherever and whenever through this app. This mobile app also bring more new customers to hotel, about 91% of the customers who use the mobile book hotel rooms had never stay in the hotel before. Customer should first conforms his location when he uses the Hotel Tonight app. After select the city the mobile will show a list of hotels can be chosen with the price and one-word description. Customer can choose the hotel he wants and uses his Facebook account to complete the reservation. Those hotels list on the mobile app are three-star rating or higher rating hotels with good reviews on popular travel web site. The hotel discount will not appear in the app until noon in order to make sure the hotel manager can sell their rooms at higher rate.