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In this era of technology I think the hotel industry should of accommodated their customers with an excellent mobile site experience. As read in the article, "In 2011, mobile was responsible for $2.6 billion in travel bookings," and the numbers are increasing exponentially by year. Mobile devices are becoming so popular to book travel because todays customer lives a high-paced life and is always on the go. So I think it is extremely important that travel industries understand the customer and targets them accordingly in order to form that customer loyalty. With the popularity of tablets, the smartphone is gaining harsh competition because a tablet user has a smartphone and when it comes to booking travel they would most likely use their tablet because it is more accessible and the screen is bigger and easier to read. The smartphone and tablet experience is completely different because in essence you are targeting different audiences. The tablet user wants to see bigger icons and more visibility on the bigger screen, while the smartphone user wants to have a quick information session where she/he can view everything on the go. I think the travel industry should focus on execution in order to give the tablet and smartphone user the best mobile experience. With that said, the only way to ensure that positive feedback is through "regular testing and monitoring of your mobile site…"

Advanced technologies have always been tested or applied in large airports for operational effciency and better travel experience. This is an interesting article about the latest technology that will be used in major airports. The Transportation Security Administration gave reasons that why they want to relocate backscatter advance imaging technology units to smaller airports. Firstly, it allows the use of advance imaging technology units in some smaller airports. Secondly the newly introduced millimeter wave units can work faster in saving time and perform better in protecting the privacy of travelers since it just shows the outline of the passenger's body, while not a specific one. Thirdly under the economical consideration, it is better to use one type of machine in the same airport so they don't need different training and maintenance.  So larger airports can just use the latest technology for their large amount of work while smaller airports can benefit from the one with backscatter technology because of the smaller workload. Both sides will be satisfied if this transfer can be done successfully. 

This article introduces the different functions of the hotel accounting software. In hotel financial management, the financial accounting, cost accounting, tax accounting, auditing and managerial accounting that has different purpose to help the hotel effective manage the financial data. Financial accounting records and reports the financial transactions of the hotel. Cost counting records and reports the hotel's expenses. Tax accounting records the data related to the taxes transactions. Auditing checks all the financial data and information. Managerial accounting analyses the financial data and information to make decision. All these accounting is necessary for the hotel. With the hotel accounting software, the manager of the hotel can manage the hotel easily and more convenience.

This article gives us a glance at six different technological trends being used and "revolutionizing" the hospitality industry. The six trends are cloud/software services, mobility, social media, personalized systems, integration, and globalization. The trends are all seen across the board in hospitality nowadays and are making huge changes in the industry. We have been talking about cloud computing and the pros and cons of using a cloud to store information and even with all the controversy, companies are investing and using the cloud. The use of tablets and smartphones has changed the way we interact with technology and the hospitality field is not staying behind. They are developing mobile sites and apps to help customers look at pictures and reviews about a place, check in and check out or make other arrangements. Social media is also revolutionizing hospitality by creating a reputation for businesses whether they be positive or negative. People can freely post about whether they enjoyed their stay at a certain hotel and helps build the online reputation of the company. In addition, more and more companies are looking to become more personalized experience. When I think about this part, I think mostly of the new systems rolling out at Disney World that scream personalization, guests can select their Fastpasses ahead of time, can use MagicBands to purchase things, get into their hotel, get into the park as well as to utilize the Fastpass system and every time a MagicBand is scanned at a touchpoint, the cast members know the person's name and whether they are celebrating something. With integration, customers and staff can access information from different departments all on one system and with globalization companies are trying to use systems that are global and used worldwide. 

Technological developments continue to have a great effect on all aspects of our lives, the hospitality industry not being an exception. Calum McIndoe in his article "Six Technology Trends Revolutionising the hospitality industry" outlines areas of technology that managers within the industry need to take advantage of. Cloud technology, though this concept is fairly new it can provide great financial benefits to companies as it cuts cost greatly due to the fact that it eliminates the heavy hardware requirements traditional technology offered. Mobility, the fact that portable devices can add a competitive edge to the service offered. Think traditional services being provided on the go away from a fixed station. Social; the popularity of social networking sites have changed the face of hospitality and tourism marketing completely. Properties are now forced to monitor social networking sites to learn about customer demands and to also learn about the image their company has out there and how they can improve it. According to Mr. "for any hotel to not at least monitor social medis is tantamount to willingly flying blind." Personalized systems; value for customers within this industry has to do greatly with the personal touch added to the service delivered. These merged systems allows properites to use data to ensure that guest needs are met. Integration; the joining of isolated systems used in all areas of operations on the property. The use of integrated systems allows for the pulling of data from the different departments thus ensuring proper management of services delivered and revenue management. Globalisation; It is important that hospitality companies adapt to changes and trends brought about by globalisation. Whether the current global outlook is taken into consideration when considering how a company operates can greatly impact the final product.

((NOTE: The author already highlighted the article in yellow when I found it, my personal highlighting is in PINK. Sections 5 and 6 are not highlighted in pink because I agree with the parts that the author highlighted yellow in those sections; Diigo toolbar will not let you highlight over something that has already been highlighted.)) This article mainly focuses on the technological changes in the hotel industry in pertinence with storing hotel information versus the traditional method(s) used by hotels that involved little to no technology at all. The article lists six different points or examples and states that businesses, especially small or upcoming businesses, need to follow by these six trends. The part of the article that stood out to me the most when reflecting on the lectures and power points for this week is the first trend. The first trend speaks about a "cloud" software (which I am not really familiar with so excuse me if my explanation is not 100% sound) and announces that "around 85% of the queries we see from hospitality companies and hotels include a serious look at cloud computing". The author lists a few reasons why such a high percentage of hotels are doing it this way. He basically says that you do not need special staff or special training to maintain the system; the system maintains itself so you can have more time to focus on your guests and trends in their patterns. Also, as far as the cost is concerned, "upfront investment is lower with the cloud as there are no initial hardware costs or associated expense…". Even though I am not very familiar with this service just yet, I like the idea of freeing up employee time to go and interact more with the customers; attending to the customers' needs is the most important thing in my eyes. The article goes on to list mobility, social media, personalized systems, integration, and globalization as all equally important parts to this revolution of technology pertaining to the hospitality industr

The article, Impact of Individual Differences and Consumers' Readiness on Likelihood of Using Self Service Technologies at Hospitality Settings states that the use of self-service technology is a rising trend across the board. Major hotel chains, resorts, casinos are implementing software that can remember customers, their information, and go beyond current human levels of service performance. However, not everyone is ready for this new age of self-service technology. In their study, the authors explored influential factors related to individual Differences and customer readiness on the likelihood of using self-service technologies. Findings supported technologies such as pay-at-the-pump, online travel purchase, ATMS, and other services that have been around for years were highly accepted. On the contrary, new services such as ordering food over the phone and Internet kiosks in bars were preferred by less than thirty percent of respondents. Within the hospitality industry, customers may perceive new self-service technologies as positive but may choose not to use them if they do not understand it or see no clear benefit from it.  To summarize the results, people may just not be ready for the self-service take over. Especially in the early stages, hospitality companies would need to have an employee standing by the new self-service technology to assist customers with their needs. Although a well used self-service system could generate a new revenue stream, particularly when concerning the younger generation, it is essential that managers take into mind the overall level of consumer motivation and readiness to embrace it,

this article introduces the two mainly cloud computing platform, one is Windows Server 2012 from Microsoft, the other is VMworld 2012. As an industry giant, Microsoft wants to provide a platform for companies to be able to manage between different data centers. As a NO 1 OS provider, Microsoft can ensure the consistency between its products. On the other hand, VMware would like to provide multivendor clouds where customers wish to move across environments with different workloads. 

This article talks about the many different roles of being a hotel accountant. As the article stated, every hotel has its own financial department that has their own criteria. It is impossible to get a specific detail on how or what is it that you will be doing at your job. Each hotel and hotel chain chooses to employ their finance team's talents, since many hotels utilize their financial employees in different ways and hotels of various sizes have differing department structures. According to the article, the three major broad categories that you may fall into working as a financial accountant for a hotel are; accounts receivables, guest service, audits training, and month end reports. Work done in accounts receivables is basically retrieving debts that are owed to the hotel by different companies who hold a credit to the hotel. Guest services includes dealing any financial guest service issues. Last but not least, auditors include counting inventory, reviewing financial paperwork and investigating discrepancies found in the expense ledger.

I don't understand the title of this post. Specifically "BUsing." Please clarify.

I am also confused with the title, but I really interested in this article. It is true that it is impossible to give a detailed description of how each hotel or hotel chain chooses to employ their finance team's talents. Nowadays, many hotels utilize their financial employees in different kinds of ways.

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

In this article we discuss the issues that airlines are having with the GDS system. They give an example of someone attempting to purchase a ticket through an airline website, and then through a travel agency. The direct airline method was only cheaper, if the guest provided information to a direct bank account. The cost for airlines to sell is a bit less than 10%, and they are sold mostly through indirect channels, like travel agencies. The main reason this can happen, is the integrated GDS system. A GDS system is a data facility that shares inventory information for various airlines to different 3rd party channels. The issue with this, is that the total in fees for the use of the GDS system was around $7billion, which is twice the amount of net profit they are receiving. People state that the airline system cannot survive without the GDS, but is that statement really true? Airlines like Air Asia or Ryanair have really attempted to focus on selling tickets directly, and really expand on their profit. How can this be achieved? Well, airlines are making the booking process easier for guests to manage, which gives them more of a reason to book through there. Also, they are offering greater loyalty rewards for directly booking through the site. Different incentives need to be created to attract guests to book directly. Lastly, they would like to create another distribution system, to put GDS out of business. This new system will work to allow guests to handle meal and baggage fees. Concepts that the GDS cannot handle. With that said, will this new system reduce costs for airlines? I guess they will have to wait and see.

This article breaks down a few different types of cloud computing. A public cloud is multi-tenant, which we discussed in class. A private cloud would serve a single organization, while a hybrid cloud would keep the most sensitive data private while secondary information could be on a public cloud. A community cloud includes multi users with the shared goals and contributions.

Many HRIS choices are available at different price points providing different levels of functionality. Given the importance of the choice the employer is making, the package selected should meet its current needs and have the flexibility to grow and expand with the organization into the foreseeable future. However, constraints from budgets, hardware and time will affect the choice made.

Ok so this article is lengthy but comprehensive. And the general consensus is the GDSs are never going away. They will likely change with new technologies, but they won't be replaced completely by something new. Heck, even though air travel is dominant among travel options, we still have trains, right? Overall this article takes the reader through the birth of the GDSs, their evolution to today and thoughts about what to expect in the future. One part of the article of particular interest is the talk about New Distribution Capability for airlines that uses XML coding language to allow airlines to sell ancillary products like seat upgrades. This layers directly into revenue increases through revenue management of seats on flights. There are already price differences between cabin classes. But instead of all seats being one price in the main cabin, seats closer to the front of the plane could be sold for a slight premium. There could be a different fare for window or aisle or exit row. There are 3 levels of this certification for an airline and although some airlines like American Airlines has been certified as level 3, full capability, most airlines have not gone beyond level 1. None of the GDS companies offer level 3 for New Distribution Capability which means you need to go a company's site directly to be able to purchase the specific desired attributes of your seat. By not having that capability, the GDSs disadvantage themselves as a distribution channel.

This article gives examples of the various types of cloud computing and their advantages and disadvantages. It shows that there are cloud-based options that can be appropriate for every business.

The pros of using the mobile apps for meeting are a lot. It could provide the location-based services and push messaging. Using the mobile apps is not wholly dependent on a Wi-Fi connection. It makes possible to obtain a large delegate list and content without downloading because those are already on the app. Additionally, security and privacy are also much better with an app. On the contrary, mobile websites can be advantageous because they need fewer resources to develop that differs from mobile apps. The mobile websites are easier because there's no writing code for different operating systems such as iOS, Android and Win- dows Phone. For a website, the coding is done once, and users don't have to wait and download it; it just happens automatically. For smaller properties,having a mobile app wouldn't be as useful as trying to communicate with a large group of people. It could benefits more on the large size of groups.

This article explains what a POS system is and it goes into details about what to expect and what you can use a POS for when at work. POS systems ultimately make our jobs far easier both from an employee and a managerial position because all data can be stored and processed through the same system. Different POS systems can be used for different properties as well as for different styles of businesses, you select the system that fits best for what your business consists of.

In this Article it talks about the POS Systems, to help you understand the point of sales software in a small business.

This article is a guide for business beginners to choose a POS. It firstly explains the basic definitions of a POS system and made explanations for its usage. A top-tier point of sale system can do everything from inventory management to providing detailed reports and analytics. It can even help with online sales with eCommerce integrations - and many come with built-in card processor services as well. Different kinds of POS includes cloud-based ones and locally-installed ones. Also, there are POS that are compatible with Android. iOS, or both. POS can sync with many hardware such as scale, card reader, and code scanner. This article also explains on how to select a POS system. It finally encouraged the readers to get a POS for their own businesses.

This article introduce what the difference between a PMS and a POS and it specific illustrate what benefits the PMS-POS system can brings to the hotels. This article give us a deepen understanding of PMS and POS systems.

Generally, PMS and POS are quite different systems. A PMS is used in front desk operations and a POS is used in processing transactions. However, they can be integrated and reduce errors in data transfer, comparing to manual systems. PMS-POS integration can provide much more than simply managing transactions. The additional benefits include intelligence on customer behavior and the occupancy-revenue relationship, along with helping in identifying the most contributing marketing segment.

This article discusses a study performed at various diving locations in the Philippines to determine whether or not measures taken by Green Fin diving guides were effective in reducing contact with coral reef systems. The study also recorded the average number of contacts with the reef during a dive, as well as the equipment or body part which came into contact with the reef most often, and which actions resulted in the most damage. The study finds that adherence to Green Fin standards or other policies may significantly impact diver behaviors and reduce the level of contact with sensitive coral reefs during SCUBA dives.

This article explains all the advantages of having a POS system, especially for a small business. It emphasizes the different benefits from constant software updates, and the ability for the hardware to be transposed into different electronics for easy access wherever you go! It also highlights the increase in market value within the last few years, and the continued growth it'll attract.

Item Information Costs/Expenses Payment Methods Stock/Inventory Purchase/Transaction Records Employee Time Clocking Tax/Discount Calculation Are the main functions that this article highlight about having the POS system. This system would have all the information in one centralized area that may be accessed by many coworkers. This keeps track of the inventory, transactions and much more. There may be times where manual labor would still be the primary go to but this system will make things easier.

the articles gives a detailed definition of the HRIS and the benefits it presents to companies . it also touches on different platforms that companies decide to choose to work on the HRIS.

This article talks about the different technology cruise lines have implemented and the future technology they plan to include as they move for a more touchless approach to certain things.