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Reservation Nexus is 100% web based and can be accessed at work, at home and on vacation. There are no additional costs for having it on all your inn's computers. There is no software to install or upgrade. Reservation Nexus is a living system, with new innovations every quarter. With Reservation Nexus , you avoid having to buy a new software version every couple of years.

there is a 'Do Not Disturb' button on your wall for ultimate privacy.

Pavillon des Lettres

26-room upscale hotel with a novel idea: guest rooms that are devoted to a letter of the alphabet that corresponds with a famous writer.

Nantucket Island Resorts

Flip Video Camcorders for guests to use at each property, so you can record the sunsets, the hikes, the storms and the endless display of Nantucket baskets that parade around the island every summer.

Andaz 5th Avenue.

Check-in from the elevator on the way to your room. Guests just swipe their credit cards and a room key

According to analysis of Shamoon by computer security firm Symantec, the way the virus gets into networks may vary, but once inside it tries to infect every computer in the local area network before erasing files to render PCs useless.

Yet those sources say such protections could not prevent an attack by an insider with high-level access.

insiders were implicated in just 4 percent of cases last year.

The hackers behind the Shamoon attack siphoned off data from a relatively small number of computers, delivering it to a remote server

Because the virus wiped the hard drives, it is difficult for Saudi Aramco to determine exactly what information the hackers obtained.

The Shamoon virus is designed to attack ordinary business computers

. It does not belong to the category of sophisticated cyber warfare tools

Saudi Aramco has said that only office PCs running Microsoft Windows were damaged. Its oil exploration, production, export, sales and database systems all remained intact as they ran on isolated and heavily protected systems.

It is standard industry practice to shield plant operating networks from hackers by running them on separate operating systems that are protected from the Internet.

Utility computing is a broad concept that encapsulates cloud computing and software as a service (SaaS).

“This time, it’s computing that’s turning into a utility. In the years ahead, more and more of the information-processing tasks that we rely on, at home and at work, will be handled by big data centers located out on the Internet.”

The concept of paying a subscription for a utility has gone online as well. Instead of setting up web servers in our home or office, we purchase a web hosting subscription. While interest in personal tax and finance consultants decreases, use of in-the-cloud-solutions like TurboTax and Mint continues to explode.

The current and future dominance of utility computing is evident, but even so, SaaS can be an intimidating concept for some hoteliers

By purchasing a utility, you own all benefits that come with it. You use it, consume it and master it – it is yours. Renting, on the other hand, demands a return.

When I rent a movie from Blockbuster, I have a limited selection (whatever fits in the store) and when I’m done with the video, I have to return it and rent it again to watch it again.

Netflix, I have open access to hundreds of thousands of videos that took billions to produce, which I can stream as much as I wan

When technology advances, SaaS companies pass those latest advances on to their client

Like Netflix, which delivers video content that took billions to produce, utility computing delivers web design built with an information architecture that took millions to produce.

This means that when you embrace SaaS, you gain million-dollar technology that never grows outdated instead of buying a static website built on thousand-dollar technology that can’t help but grow outdated.

My advice is to put in the tough work and choose a solution that delivers amazing results now and adapts to technology changes later, so you don’t have to go shopping again.

On the go – Fully optimized for mobile devices and tablets.

Access to reviews – Each of the 80-plus property pages feature user generated content direct from Twitter, Facebook and TripAdvisor.

The new fourseasons.com offers an immersive and user-friendly experience, combined with rich global content, impactful design and social media integration.

Extensive research around digital consumption of luxury consumers, both in the travel sector and across other categories, was conducted for the development of the new website. In addition, Four Seasons held focus groups globally to better understand guest and travel partner needs

The inaugural Luxury Trend Report highlights what we have learned about guest expectations in terms of high-tech balanced with high-touch, how they use social media to engage with brands, and other valuable information."

Branding moves to the social sphere. Seventy-eight percent of the affluent participate in social networking sites, with more than half using social media to connect with a brand. Four Seasons brings digital media to the forefront of marketing efforts to suit the ways guests communicate.

E-commerce is king. The luxury consumer is increasingly going online to research and make purchases. Four Seasons online bookings rose 10 percent from 2010 to 2011. The rise of the iPad. One-third of wealthy consumers own a tablet or e-Reader. Four Seasons revenue generated from the iPad and other tablets has grown 200 percent from 2010 to 2011. This number is predicted to grow significantly in 2012.

Consider a computer network security suite

Network computing has enormous implications for marketing to customers on a global basis, as well as hotel operations. Consider the potential for the industry to connect with vendors worldwide for electronic purchasing, potentially achieving economies of scale and leveraging not yet possible. World purchasing functions will allow companies to customize their own catalogs. Virtual channels of distribution using computer networking capabilities will also allow hotel companies to market products and services - some traditional to our industry, others not - to customers whether they are in the hotel, at work, or at home. This will require a migration from today's central reservation systems to tomorrow's customer information systems using network-centric solutions. Development of customer profiles and guest recognition will make it possible for hotel organizations to interact in entirely new ways with customers, regardless of their physical location. Clearly, the large hotel companies will need to be the first to address questions raised by global networking capabilities and what this will mean in terms of technology investment. But for many hospitality companies presently struggling with the high cost of technology and the confusing state of our industry's technology affairs, this will not be an easy task. And the decisions will ultimately become further complicated by the opportunity to outsource certain functions into subscription-based networks. It is unlikely that the hospitality industry will be forced to bear the entire burden for networking infrastructure. Strategic alliances with major technology companies will be the catalysts in building this capability as they become strategic providers of networking capabilities to hospitality and other industries. And as network-centric computing comes of age and a company's proprietary information is stored in cyberspace, security will become an ever-more important issue requiring solutions. Whether it is an e-mail gateway through an internal network or customer access via the Internet, network fire walls and encryption systems will be required to mitigate the concern many will have with system security.

Network computing has enormous implications for marketing to customers on a global basis, as well as hotel operations. Consider the potential for the industry to connect with vendors worldwide for electronic purchasing, potentially achieving economies of scale and leveraging not yet possible. World purchasing functions will allow companies to customize their own catalogs. Virtual channels of distribution using computer networking capabilities will also allow hotel companies to market products and services - some traditional to our industry, others not - to customers whether they are in the hotel, at work, or at home. This will require a migration from today's central reservation systems to tomorrow's customer information systems using network-centric solutions. Development of customer profiles and guest recognition will make it possible for hotel organizations to interact in entirely new ways with customers, regardless of their physical location. Clearly, the large hotel companies will need to be the first to address questions raised by global networking capabilities and what this will mean in terms of technology investment. But for many hospitality companies presently struggling with the high cost of technology and the confusing state of our industry's technology affairs, this will not be an easy task. And the decisions will ultimately become further complicated by the opportunity to outsource certain functions into subscription-based networks. It is unlikely that the hospitality industry will be forced to bear the entire burden for networking infrastructure. Strategic alliances with major technology companies will be the catalysts in building this capability as they become strategic providers of networking capabilities to hospitality and other industries. And as network-centric computing comes of age and a company's proprietary information is stored in cyberspace, security will become an ever-more important issue requiring solutions. Whether it is an e-mail gateway through an internal network or customer access via the Internet, network fire walls and encryption systems will be required to mitigate the concern many will have with system security. In the final analysis, networking solutions will drive down the cost of technology investment "on-property" where hotel real estate and business interests merge. The solutions that hotel organizations will be able to choose from in terms of networking should also be less expensive than the current profile of technology spending. And we can expect that change to occur sooner rather than later, given the present rate of investment in Internet-based technologies.

It’s interesting that much of the pressure to go green is coming from environmentally sensitive guests who are growing in number and favour eco-friendly hotels to energy guzzlers. The hospitality industry is acknowledging the long-term benefits to be reaped in terms of reduced maintenance and energy saving, especially when energy costs are escalating.

The three R’s have an important role to play in the construction of a green building—recycling (of old material), reduction (of wastage) and re-use (of material).

Texas Western"s BI system automatically collects and combines data from its 53 properties with ten flags, performs performance analysis and multi-property roll ups and comparisons, generates daily revenue and flash reports, and emails property specific reports to the appropriate managers.

Aptech offered to host our system at its secure data center in Pittsburgh and this has taken all system responsibility off our hands. They handle our data security, backups, and system maintenance so we can run our hotel company."

Our BI reports are mobile optimized so our executives can monitor performance anywhere." Smith added that some TW managers like to review reports on their iPads and he can track operations from his iPhone as needed.

where to spend their marketing dollars and where not to.”

espective clients will be able to see a complete picture of their online and offline revenue – extremely valuable information that will help them to be more successful.”