Group items matching

in title, tags, annotations or url

This article is describing how technology is redefining E commerce. E commerce has been playing a really big part into everyone's everyday lives, but with technology expanding so is E commerce. For example, technology has been helping with online stores since they are able to show exactly what they are selling with detailed descriptions. Paying methods have also been made a lot easier, and are more reliable. Since technology is not done growing that means E commerce will also be expanding!

The following article does a great job outlining different aspects of cyber security within the hospitality industry. Security is one of the main departments that need attention and an additional budget in order meet todays security requirements. After doing some research, it is clear to see that all employees must have the same focus in order to provide the best security for their guest. Hotel security can provide things like: facility protection and control, guest and visitor monitoring and assistance, security command center monitoring (cameras, alarms systems and surveillances), maintain emergency response plan, etc. "Security has a difficult job of enforcing the rules and regulations of the establishment while making the guest feel welcome." The article goes over different security systems and what differentiates them, I thought that it gave a lot of insightful information into various cyber security systems.

In a nut shell, this article focuses on the point of time when tourism reaches it peak season and why businesses should be playing close attention to data security and confidentiality. It is important that they ensure where customer personal information is being stored as well as maintain in a controlled/organized manner. Also, it's time that we go beyond the basic firewall system and have an actual intrusion detection system implemented. This can help to detect security and system breaches which can help prevent extensive damage and the lost of customers information. To close, the industry must make to cross train all staff so that they are knowledgeable beyond their daily job duties and understand the important of security and privacy. And of course, for situations that occur because its bound to do so, their needs to be a reaction plan set in place to alleviate any damages that were done.

According to this article, HVAC systems are responsible for more than 40 percent of total energy use. Having proper HVAC maintenance services allows for companies to save cost and prevent them from losing revenue due to damages. As stated in this article, "reactive maintenance is most costly way to maintain building HVAC systems". HVAC systems are the least noticed by organization because its not visible unlike other visible things such as lighting systems, carpet ect. Documentation is key, if facility executives want to level the playing field, they should consider investing money in HVAC maintenance that will provide the organization a rate of return that is equal or even greater than what others are promoting. There's up to 15 to 20 percent less energy used than when those systems are left to deteriorate. Therefore, regular inspection, testing, and maintenance of the damper will keep it operating properly minimizing energy use.

This article makes several points as to how the industry could benefit service from the use of artificial intelligence. By this point we understand that the hospitality industry has an incredible number of guests' data at their disposal and technology today have the capability to completely transform the industry. The travel industry's customer records include guests likes/dislikes, purchases, frequented destinations, and various interests. On top of this, hotels frequently make deals with other tourism-related businesses such as airlines and restaurants, combining even more data to take advantage of. The article continues to list five major ways the hospitality could use AI to improve services: offering the right services to the right customers, enhancing booking engine performance, utilizing an AI-powered concierge, providing in-room chatbots, and utilizing AI to eliminate various service issues. One of the most impact ways this data can be used is in marketing, as knowing what guest is most likely to spend on a particular service/product is invaluable; personalization is key. Booking engines can play a large part in a customer's experience as ease of booking a vacation via combinations of hotel, airline, and rental car service can heftily drive sales. AI is already used in hotels in the form of virtual concierges, essentially an AI that can answer basic questions one may have about a hotel or area. With improvements, this tech can drastically reduce workloads of staff to focus on more personal, service oriented tasks. Voice-activated chatbots are already taking off with Apple's Siri or Amazon's Alexa, imagine these technologies in hotel rooms; being able to utilize this AI could provide guests with a whole new level of service. Lastly, the article closes with how AI can one day create the "ideal customer experience." AI processing/automation can help hospitality businesses to understand the issues of their property better and aim to remedy the issue

The article titled "Deciphering ROI from tech investment can be complicated", explores how technology can be challenging within the hotel industry. It is important to note that hotels need to understand what components they need to include, and which are simply a waste of money. According to the author, "Some technology trends are elements that hotels need to survive, while some technology is simply a fad". It is important to keep an eye on consumer trends to filter out what will actually enhance guest experience. Nowadays, guests and staff need mobile needs to optimize their work processes. For some processes and technologies, the ROI may be almost immediate, but for others, they still require more time to see the investment. In terms of investing in technology, do you think room automation is always necessary? In my personal opinion, the more perks a room has, the more it may enhance the customer experience. Ultimately, it all depends on the hotel, its size and its investment opportunities.

This article discussed how to pick the best technology for your company thus maximizing your ROI. Some technologies are necessary while others are just a fad and it is important to determine what your company needs. Guests are also demanding more tech advancements from hotels, the personal touch is not as important anymore. Mobile and digital payment tech is becoming more and more important. Lastly it is important to note that technology will not always fix a problem, it is up to the company to determine what the issue is and then learn how to implement technology that will assist, not just expect it to resolve on its own.

Very interesting article that makes us question whether specific technological add-ons are must haves versus nice to haves to separate us from our neighbours. It also shows us that we cant often times quantify from an ROI perspective. It begs the question, does technology really set a hotel apart and how.

I liked this article because it actually discusses something I thought about for the discussion board. POS systems, can create ways for guests to easily access what they want, quickly get it and have the opportunity to receive loyalty perks and promotions via APPs. Fast casual restaurants such as Little Caesars just introduced a self service and mobile order pickup stationed called the "pizza portal" which i think is effectively reaching their target market. The usage of POS is restaurant brands are having a major positive effect and creating stronger brand loyalty, especially with the generation CX taret.

Global Distribution System (GDS) is a system operated by an organization that empowers automated exchanges between travel specialist organizations for mainly airlines, lodgings and vehicle rental organizations and travel agencies. Travel agencies generally depended on GDS for administrations, products and rates so as to provision travel related administrations to the end consumers. A GDS can connect services, rates and bookings uniting items and services over every one of the three travel segments: i.e., aircraft reservations, hotel reservations, vehicle rentals. The biggest global distribution framework is Amadeus. GDS is not the same as a PC reservations framework, which is a reservation framework utilized by the specialist organizations also known as vendors. Essential clients of GDS are travel specialists both online and office-based to reserve spot on different reservation frameworks kept running by the sellers. GDS holds no inventory; the inventory is hung on the merchant's reservation framework itself. A GDS framework will have constant connect to the merchant's database. For instance, when a travel office asks for a reservation on the administration of a specific carrier organization, the GDS framework courses the demand to the proper aircraft's PC reservations framework. This empowers a travel specialist with an association with a solitary GDS to pick and book different flights, lodgings, exercises and related administrations on every one of the merchants working in a similar course who are part of that GDS network. There's no uncertainty that global distribution frameworks will have an imperative influence in the travel landscape for a long time to come, yet their conventional job is changing and being tested by every one of the progressions occurring in the travel business. While such changes will affect the future development open doors for global distribution frameworks, there will keep on being a job for them as they advance to address the issue

This particular article on hospitality and tourism accounting states that the global travel industry is expanding at an accelerated rate. Although there are high demands in corporate travel and high level of satisfaction in the economy, the ever growing industry is vulnerable to many risks given by its consumers. Just as much as the guests utilizing these hospitality services are becoming more pressing towards great prices and expressing concern in the quality of service they receive, hotel businesses are adamant about increasing awareness in cost and profit. To balance all these exclusive challenges, hotels are insisting on being educated and equipped with the most up-to-date technological advances to keep up with the ever demanding industry. With this in mind, the article states three methods to conquer the challenges faced today. The first method is to utilize a cloud based system to keep track of all the innumerous activities present to keep the business running. Due to the fact that a hotel is run by an overflowing amount of employees, all with different jobs and tasks, all using different systems respective to their departments, and require several types of pay (part-time, full-time, tipped employees) methods, it is a challenge to keep things efficient without a proper system. This is the reason why the article recommends using a cloud based system to keep track of the daily labor costs, overtime management, daily payroll transactions, and incorporate easy accessibility to reporting functions. The cloud based system will be beneficial in keeping everything in record beginning from the moment an employees clocks in to the end where they receive their paycheck, as well as, the ability to manage transactions. The second method is to centralize all the various sources of data. Hotels have a countless amount of data being stored. That can range from guest satisfaction satisfaction survey and comment reports, PMS data, to financial reports. With all these busy ac

The article discusses how hotels can overcome accounting obstacles. Firstly managing payroll is cumbersome, so a cloud-based reporting system can provide an easy way to monitor labour and manage overtime, and daily payroll transactions. Secondly, hotels have a difficult time to read data as data can come from a huge variety of sources: STR reports, PMS data, satisfaction surveys, comments. Hotels need a centralized dashboard which combines all critical accounting and performance data to assist hotels in making better decisions. Lastly, the article talks about hotels needing a back-up accounting team in case of disasters. In-house accounting teams may not be able to tackle on one-time event disasters and there must be a back-up team in place in times of urgency. The author, Scott Watson, executive vice president of sales and marketing at a cloud-based financial platform, sees that hotels are becoming more "cost and profit conscious" and I agree with him. Technology solutions are what hotels are craving right now to increase revenue, minimize costs, and maximize profits without sacrificing service quality.

This article helps guides hotels in how to overcome challenges when it comes to the accounting department in any situation that deals with staff tracking, how to decipher intricate data, and what to do in emergencies. The article details the usefulness of the Cloud and keeping track of staff members that are FOH and BOH that are both hourly and salary. That the accounting department could simply look them up in the cloud rather than searching through paperwork to understand exactly what their role is in the hotel and pay them accordingly. The article also goes over how having multiple centralized data sources can help accountants understand information from reports, guest satisfaction questionnaires, and other forms of reporting to pinpoint exactly what needs to be changed to become more efficient in the company. Lastly, the article covers how having back up accounting teams could be a definite positive just in case of emergencies (i.e. weather) so accounting can still be in progress no matter what situation occurs and the hotel can run smoothly.

The Caesars Entertainment company is seeking to make up for lost time with a new IT investment. The company manages 55 hotels and is seeking to advance their hotel technology capabilities. Certain innovations include automated food delivery anywhere in the hotel, order tracking (status of cooking, packaging, on the way, etc.), a text message concierge, and follow-up tools. Caesars is also trying to improve their data storage, by migrating to cloud solutions. The front desk and CRM systems will be upgraded to the cloud.

CRM (Customer Relationship Management) Software must change and adapt to fit the needs of hotels & guests alike. If these systems do not change it is likely that they will no longer be useful therefore making them obsolete. New systems must not focus on the sales & marketing potion, but allowing for smooth customer experiences.

Cloud computing has created a very hacking prone storage system because companies have not been paying as much attention to security as they should. Thus, by not taking the logical measures such as not uploading credentials to cloud storage systems, they are becoming prone to hacker raids. However, with the turning of the tide, new methods of security have presented themselves in the form of online tools such as HashiCorp's Vault Microsoft's Azure Key Vault, and Amazon's AWS Secrets Manager, which stores sensitive credentials in very limited access windows, as well as UpGaurd's BreachSight which detects online data leaks containing exposed and volatile client data, and Amazon's Amazon Macie, which learns the access patterns of your cloud storage,

Artificial intelligence may sound like a topic for the future but this article helps to enlighten just how much we are using AI's and shows how they are the "now". The benefits that come from integrating artificial intelligence are incomparable. Examples of the limitless things an AI can do can include, controlling reward programs, detail occupancy patterns and adjust price accordingly, control chat rooms, create personalized experiences, organize marketing and social media, and so much more. It is so powerful that it can practically control and accomplish any task in any hospitality department.

I find this to be an incredibly fascinating story, and borderline embarrassing for the company involved. However, it highlights just how something as simple as a connected thermostat within a casino fish tank left an organization vulnerable to a data breach. Additionally, I see this foreshadowing the immense importance IT infrastructure security will play within organizations in our time.

I hope this company had that Cybersecurity insurance. As the previous student noted, it is amazing how creative data breaches can be. Hospitality companies will be at a crossroads soon, as new technology is constantly introduced and implemented on the daily. It will be important to have a strong system in place to protect data from hackers in general. Moving forward, perhaps companies will have to do thorough research on technological products they use and how they can be a potential threat. So the company can strengthen their data security measures to avoid additional attacks in the future.

In this article, the author selected different hospitality technology trends for 2018 based on their practicality and ROI, and always focusing on improving the guest experience. He mentions CRM as an essential tool to personalize the experience; also smart TV's as well as smart thermostat, digital door signage, or any other device that might integrate to the TV. Also casting technology in the rooms, facilitating the guest's phone connection to their TV's. Another important trend is the use of training hardware and software for the employees so the guest satisfaction will never be compromised. The inclusion of tech within the hospitality industry has numerous benefits including cost savings as well as employee morale. For example, the Novility software teaches SOPs and corrective exercises. Employees will be happier and feel more motivated. At the same time, identifying technology trends of customers, such as finding the connection between technology and wellness will surely appeal to guests. A significant trend is to create a connection in which technology can play a role with regards to wellness. These different technology trends are efficient, practical, and cost effective.

This article discusses the way sport stadiums are enhancing the experience of fans to draw them from their couches to the stadium through the use of networks that allow them to enjoy the experience from before they arrive at the stadium until after the event is over. The networked technology allows guests to get upgraded seats, help with parking, order food or merchandise from their seats, and even watch replays of a play from multiple angles. They can even connect to one of the many apps that are now available for sport events. The proper system and strong networking is needed to provide and enjoyable experience to the guest from the time of leaving for the event until after the event is over.