Group items matching

in title, tags, annotations or url

The hospitality industry began to develop the mobile point-of-sale (POS) technology. Technology vendors brought POS capabilities to consumers' own devices. Hospitality Technology has scanned many of the latest releases in point-of-sale technology to help restaurants keep up-to-date on mobile solutions. For example, Tabbedout, a secure mobile payment solution, allows patrons to open, view and pay their tabs, for free, with an iPhone or Android smartphone. Another example is Micros Makes Memorable Menus. An interactive restaurant menu and marketing portal built for the Apple iPad that enables restaurants to showcase upcoming events, programs, food and beverage menus, and daily specials; as well as to facilitate tabletop ordering and payment processing.

This article gave me a different perspective as to how the GDS system has affected the airline industry.  According to The Economist, the airlines chronic unprofitability is due to two strategic errors of their own doing. One was to stop paying direct commission to travel agents and the other was to set the reservations systems free. Despite their best efforts airlines are now having very hard time getting travelers to bypass GDS agents and come to their websites. A majority of the profit margins in the travel business are seen by the GDS systems and airlines are left footing the bill. In hopes of resolving this problem, the airlines international association is working what is called "new distribution capability." Through use of this service it would become easier for travel agents to utilize computer systems that would deal directly with the airlines. However, ambitious IT projects have failed hundreds of different times across hundred of different industries and getting the airlines to agree to make such a dramatic change in IT would be a daunting task. Both the airlines and GDSs argue they hold the true consumer advantage.  On one hand, airlines are able to provide flyers with personally tailored service, while on the other, the GDSs allow customers to compare flights for the best value. Whether it be the airlines or the GDSs that prevail, the future of travel is now online. 

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.

Summary of the article Contactless payment is a new technology being used in the UK. Compare to the previous quarter, in the last month of 2011, cardholders using this system to pay for food has been increased. The contactless system allow customers to make a payment over 15 Europe dollar by scanning their credit card over the machine, it can reduce waiting time, especially in some popular branches. Although this machine has been available in the UK for 2 years, Visa card still limits its acceptance level to prevent those who may become a every-day habit. However, according to Mark Austin, he believes, especially in London, the Olympics could bring more people in using contactless payment as long as they get a chance to use it once, they will know how the convenience is. Based on the Visa card research, experts believe that contactless payment technology will become wildly used in the coming year than cash. For example, more and more retailers such as Subway, Burger King offer this system currently and Starbucks will offer the service soon.

Expedia hopes bloggers can serve as an important plank in its effort to re-engineer the way people shop for hotel and airplane tickets by incorporating those transactions into a marketplace driven by social networks. A senior director for travel research firm PhoCusWright, believes Expedia's plan is a viable one. Expedia's goal is to make planning the entire trip - from flights to hotel to transportation, with even restaurant selections and amusement park tickets - an integrated shopping experience. For example: your family is planning a spring break trip to Orlando. After booking flights, your hotel search would incorporate friends' views on particular properties. There's already some evidence that social networks spur sales in the travel industry. Expedia's plan could pose a threat to the largest source of online hotel reviews, TripAdvisor. Both company and bloggers say they aren't concerned that readers may be turned off by commercial relationships between the travel agent and writers.

Of course the company and the bloggers aren't concerned about what the readers think. The company wants to increase business any way that it can and the bloggers want free trips. Personally, I would be turned off by knowing that the blogger was compensated for their trip review. I recently watched a special on Aulani in Hawaii run by SamanthaBrown who works for the travel channel. I was very irrritated to hear her clearly non-objective opinions of the resort. I am far more interested in what other non-paid travellers think. I think that companies should be concerned about the perception of them paying for the reviews. I can understand the bloggers wanting to be paid for access to their followers, I just personally don't find any validity in these types of opinions. I think Expedia should keep looking for ways to tap into the social network as a business strategy, but I will trust the opinions of my actual friends over paid bloggers. I appreciate that Expedia would allow for negative reviews, but if a resort is paying Expedia for a review and Expedia is paying the blogger, then in my opinion precious objectivity is lost.

This is an interesting article about Google, who is quickly becoming a big name player in just about every business segment out there. The article addresses Googles new search tool called Hotel Finder, which is still in testing phases. This tool is designed to make it easier for users to find, compare, and book hotels, by drawing on a map around an area they want to stay in a certain location or city and it lists the hotels in the search area, with prices, availability, star rating's and reviews. In addition it lets you filter the results by price, price compared to usual, Hotel class, and user reviews, and allows the user to book directly through the hotel or through an intermediary site with a click of a button. This article also talks about a possible downside to Googles new service in the online travel agency segment. The article explains how some are concerned, because Google is placing comparison ads in premium space on top of the Google search results for hotels, which when clicked by a user takes the them to the full Google site and pushes OTA sites like Expedia, Hotels.com, and Orbitz and hotel websites farther down the search results list, which is making them pay more for premium Comparison Ads. Also the OTA's are concerned about how the Price Per Click may go up, making the OTA's pay more to Google. I went on and played around with Hotel Finder, and I have to say it is very easy to use, and allows you to really customize your experience and pick exactly where you want to stay. http://www.google.com/hotelfinder/#search;l=miami+florida;d=2012-01-22;n=1;v=l;r=0;s=m;fv=

I love the part of the Google Hotel Finder about the comparison ads that help me know how much I would pay if I book the same hotel from other websites by only visiting one Google Hotel Finder website. I hate to search the same hotel on different websites to choose the best price. It costs me much time to make a plan of travel. The page of Hotel Finder is clear and easy to understand how to use it. All results of hotels would be sorted by price and I could get best price fast. Yesterday was my first time to use Hotel Finder and I used it just like I already knew how to use. I don't need to spend much time to study the search website and the page has several recommended words to help me get what I want.

This article, posted on the Visa website discusses how McDonald's UK plans to implement a new type of payment method for customers. This "cash free" payment methods allows for customers to use only debit or credit cards and pay up to 15 euros. Visa states that it is a quick and easy way for customers to purchase a coffee or lunch at a fast food establishment. As stated in the article, this form of payment helps companies save money with regards to operating costs and improves risk management because less cash is available at the restaurant. In my opinion, I believe this is a quick and convenient way for customers to get in and out of the restaurant - which is essentially what a fast food establishment caters to do. The down side of this new hardware addition to McDonald's is that it may reduce the amount of jobs in each store because the computers will be able to do the work, humans once did.

To me this is just a given. Of course contactless payments are going to increase. They already are especially in big cities where everyone is always on the go. I know that I barely ever have cash on me. I end up having to run to an ATM. paying with cards is the easiest and an fastest way of paying for things.

I agree with both comments. I just wonder why they cap the amount to £15, which converts to $19.25. Is that to encourage individual transactions? To clarify, the only thing I can think of is they are trying to discourage people from purchasing for others. But that doesn't really make sense since the purpose of contactless payments is increasing convenience for the customer who wants to make on-the-go purchases and thus increasing profit for the business. Just something I was wondering.

This article is about how network works for the hotel. TravelClick is a leading provider that designs and produces websites for hotels. Each hotel can have its own unique hyper-local online storefront with information. The Red Lion Hotel is one of the cooperators with the TravelClick. TravelClick designed a special web and mobile platform for the hotel. The guests of the hotel can find the information such as where to have the best breakfast and where is the good place to go. The hotel will excite them to go out and enjoy and encounter. This can give the guests special experience and let them have much fun. The hotel aims to use this way to make a differentiation from other hotels. In my opinion, the competition of the hotels likes the battle, the hotel must differentiates itself from others and let the customers to remember it. The network can help the hotel a lot. It not only has the traditional function of making introduction and reservation, it also can be used for marketing. For instance, TravelClick will serve as Red Lion's agency of record in all matters impacting search engine optimization (SEO), pay-per-click (PPC) and display marketing. The resulting online experience will fuse mobile, social media and interactive map technologies. Make a good use of network can help the hotel manage itself well and attract more guests.

This article is about how network works for the hotel. TravelClick is a leading provider that designs and produces websites for hotels. Each hotel can have its own unique hyper-local online storefront with information. The Red Lion Hotel is one of the cooperators with the TravelClick. TravelClick designed a special web and mobile platform for the hotel. The guests of the hotel can find the information such as where to have the best breakfast and where is the good place to go. The hotel will excite them to go out and enjoy and encounter. This can give the guests special experience and let them have much fun. The hotel aims to use this way to make a differentiation from other hotels. In my opinion, the competition of the hotels likes the battle, the hotel must differentiates itself from others and let the customers to remember it. The network can help the hotel a lot. It not only has the traditional function of making introduction and reservation, it also can be used for marketing. For instance, TravelClick will serve as Red Lion's agency of record in all matters impacting search engine optimization (SEO), pay-per-click (PPC) and display marketing. The resulting online experience will fuse mobile, social media and interactive map technologies. Make a good use of network can help the hotel manage itself well and attract more guests.

I agree with you. Hotels need to differentiate themselves among competitiors in order to attract more business. This online experience made by TravelClick could work as a competitive advantage for some hotels that need to make their name known in new markets.

One of the biggest complains received from travelers or hotel guests in New York is paying for Wi-Fi and not being able to get cellular data service. While wired and wireless service was available, the lack of cell phone signal for downloads and data service caused travelers to become frustrated. To help out, the Mandarin Oriental, New York decided to deploy a converged IP network and install the Ruckus Wi-Fi wall switches in every room to help with cellular and wireless capacity and coverage. Since installing the Ruckus Smart Wi-Fi system, Mandarin Oriental, New York has seen user capacity more than triple and wireless traffic eclipse traffic on the wired network, while customer wireless complaints have dropped by more than 85%.(But the benefit isn't just for the guests. According to the hotel, the new wall-switch Wi-Fi "dramatically reduces the cost and complexity of installing and managing wired and wireless network services."

This is awesome, especially in New York where the wi-fi traffic is crazy busy all the time. It is true that most guests do complain about having to pay for the wi-fi. I work at a hotel and that is one of the most complaints that I get. Even though in the article they say that the guests still have to pay for the wifi, it does allow the guest to have the confidence that they will receive a strong signal and that the internet will work.

This article introduces the role of IT in tourism industry and then talks about how IT investments might pay in tourism industry. There are some roles of IT in tourism industry such as reduce costs of information handling, increase speed of information transfer and retrieval and increase customer involvement in the control of transactions. And the most important role is the development of competitive advantages by both reducing cost and enhancing differentiation. It's important to invest in IT since IT could really increasing the tourism economic growth. 

Highlight: IHG (InterContinental Hotels Group) is inviting preferred business accounts across Asia Pacific to move to a dynamic pricing model, guaranteeing corporate travellers to always pay less than best unrestricted rates at its InterContinental® Hotels & Resorts, Hotel Indigo®, Crowne Plaza® Hotels & Resorts, Holiday Inn® Hotels and Resorts, Holiday Inn Express in the region. My Description: InterContinental Hotels Group is making efforts to turn its original accounting and pricing system into a more dynamic and flexible one, which can make more market-sensitive hotel rates according to the demand situation. Currently , IHG is trying to increase the scale of market-sensitive rates to the traditional contract rates. Therefore Corporate travel managers should feel confident they have access to the best possible rates in hotels of IHG. This model guarantees they will pay less than any other unrestricted rates. One advantage of this market-sensitive accounting and pricing system to annualized rates is to respond to unexpected market condition. This dynamic pricing system will not only help corporate managers to reduce related costs but also bring more convenience to corporate travelers as the increase of booking channels. The application of IHG's dynamic pricing system bring many positive feedbacks, especially as these corporate customers usually end up paying less than their RFP-contracted counterparts

This is an interesting article that teaches us eleven useful methods to be energy efficient in running hotels. According to authors' experience, it is not unusual for hotels to save $10,000 to above $30,000 per year, per property, by employing the right measures. For me, I like the lights saving part which can be simple and effective. For instance if we install a motion sensor in the bathroom per suit, it can help to keep the lights off when no one uses it and this can save at least $50 per room per year. For the decorative using lights, like the night pool lights, if we turn it off, we can save at least $250 per year. We can also install motion or occupancy sensors to light hallways and stairwells. Besides we can control the parking lot lights to a saving of $250 per year.  Energy saving methods can be everywhere and if we pay much attention to details of energy usage, it puts money in hotels' pockets.

This is an awesome article. I think that if people would just think a little more when they are using electricity it can save money but when people are staying in hotels the mind set is that they are not the ones paying for the electricity so who cares -- leave lights on all day and leave the TV on all day. There are so many ways to help save money in hotels by putting up lights with sensors in so many locations that really will help the planet as well as help the property save money. Great article!!

This article is an interview with Leigh Tymms from Green Edge Environmental on the marketing benefits of going green. The most beneficial is generating a positive reputation with customers looking to go green. These customers are increasing everyday. According to the article, a report by Travelocity stated that 80% of travelers are willing to pay extra to visit an eco-friendly destination. Basically, more and more guests are taking into consideration the size of a hotels carbon footprint. Although it may be costly originally, in the long run it is also economically beneficial for hotels to go green. Tymms warns that hotels ignoring the green trend in hospitality risk losing customers. And he also suggest that hoteliers make sure they are actually taking steps to go green and not just marketing false claims for revenue gain. 

This article gives a good short look at the pros and cons of the Aloha POS system. The system is one of the most popular POS systems used in the industry. Aloha is currently used by small independent restaurants, local franchises, and national chains. The system is said to be a blend of many systems. NCR recently purchases Radiant Systems the developer of Aloha. The system includes both hardware and software. Some of the benefits of the system include the large number of training modules. Operationally the system has a "intelligent tracking system including on-screen dashboards that update in real-time to assist in management decisions in both FOH and BOH areas". In addition, the system can "personalized service by identifying repeat customers, remembering their preferences and keeping track of VIP guests". Back office features that are included with the system are labor assignments and work schedules. The systems also can keep track of maintenance, cleaning schedules, and daily duties. On the management side the system is said to provide "complete system control". Some critics of the system say the disadvantages are that the costs are too high and that restaurants pay for every upgrade. The quality of service depends on the quality of the local vender. Hardware may need to be changed with new upgrades is software adding to the high costs than expected by customers. After reading this article my feeling is that for an small independent restaurant the Aloha system might not seem like a good choice after considering the total cost of the system. Smaller, less complex systems seems like the way to go.

This article discusses how red lion hotels secured a $45 million loan the 15 year amortization maturing in June 2018 proceeds were used to refinance maturing debt and pay expenses in connection with the transaction. The transaction is being done with Wells Fargo. Red lion hotels Corporation is a hospitality company that is engaged in ownership franchising and operation hotels in 10 states is of May 29 they had 53 hotels system wide

According to this article, the IRS is considering changing the way Automatic gratuities are processed in restaurants. Often when gratuity is included, more than one issue arises. Parties tend to not leave additional tips and there is also an issue with what if a customer wants to leave less than the automatic 15 or 18 percent tip? Bennet Ackerman, owner of a Melting Pot in Indianapolis, says that "some servers tend to get a little lazy when they know they already have that automatic gratuity." If a large party is given a check of $200, some parties will tip $20. If gratuity was included, they would receive anywhere from 30-40. After tip out to the bartender, hosts and other support staff, the server is actually making about a 6% tip off of that table. I agree that with large parties, the reward sometimes does not pay off, no pun intended. More money can be made off of smaller parties, and the turn over rate is faster. Some restaurants are doing away with automatic gratuity, and instead, they are adding suggested tip amounts at the bottom of the check. This, will at the very least, give the guests dining, a reference guide. The issue at hand here is whether or not to consider the automatic gratuity as a tip for a server, or as a service charge. This will greatly affect taxes at the end of the year and budgeting for the employees. With the economy the way it is, servers and other tipped workers are seeing less tips. The issue is of great concern for restaurants and come January 1st, there may be some very unhappy employees as well as restaurant owners.

This article summarizes how a particular advance in IT, specifically cloud technology, has made it easier for hotels to actually provide hospitality. By democratizing the industry-leading technology solutions, the cloud provides independent hoteliers with the ability to compete with their larger counterparts by increasing efficiencies. While the article identifies many of the general benefits of cloud technology that we have been discussing in class previously, such as uninterrupted access to business solutions and much lower hardware costs, it goes on to provide specific examples of how hotels can actually integrate software within the cloud to power their business. For example, revenue management solutions on the cloud often work on a pay-as-you-go model, not a subscription. This increases the number of connections that hotel revenue managers can make with OTAs, in turn driving conversion to actual bookings. Moreover, cloud-based revenue management solutions provide integrated software that decreases the need for a large revenue management staff. The article also cites the prevalence of mobile bookings, which are growing at 20% versus 2% for desktop bookings. More than a fifth of bookings are actually done using a mobile device. With all of this new consumer data, hotels can actually personalize their offerings for their guests. This will decrease generic advertising costs over time. The reason why it is important to take these mobile bookings into account is that mobile consumers are already connected to the cloud as they make these arrangements. With that in mind, hotels need to turn around and continue to push storage, advertising, and booking solutions on the cloud to meet this demand.

Apple has created momentum for POS enhanced technology with it's announcement of the new Apple Pay platform. No longer will customers need to search wallets or purses for cash or credit cards to buy products, no longer will customers wait for and sign receipts. This new e-wallet tech will allow users to make fast transactions using their Apple smart phone. Major retail establishments such as McDonalds have signed on to promote and provide the necessary catalyst to make this technology mainstream. The benefits are very clear, with the increased transactional speeds promoting better customer service and also increased throughput at the retail counter. And this will also enable smaller companies enhance their profitability by utilizing such an easy purchase platform. How does this new tech work? Very simply, it users "near-field communication technology or NFC, which allows for the transfer of small amounts of data between two devices held closely to one another." Just tap your iPhone to the terminal and the transaction is complete. The concern for data security still exists, however "Industry experts will be watching as customers road-test Apple Pay." Apple Pay and similar products from Apple's competitors are the future. Businesses that embrace this technology will be in the enviable position to cater to tech-savvy customers and will see increased revenue as a result.

It is hard to forget how thousands of Target customers financial information was compromised last year due to a breach in security of the company's POS. Target is not the only company that has been infected with this program that steals credit and debit card information. Actually, there have been more than a thousand businesses affected by this malware that has come to be called "Backoff." The malware targets POS systems and has stolen millions of credit card numbers as well as personal information on millions of customers. A large majority of cybercrime is focused on attacking business's POS systems. The malware attacks systems by going through a list of common passwords until it is able to hack the system. "Backoff" then disguises itself as a compatible Java component and collects credit card information. However, Apple has recently announced Apple Pay and many believe this can diminish a lot of cybercrime.

It is hard to forget how thousands of Target customers financial information was compromised last year due to a breach in security of the company's POS. Target is not the only company that has been infected with this program that steals credit and debit card information. Actually, there have been more than a thousand businesses affected by this malware that has come to be called "Backoff." The malware targets POS systems and has stolen millions of credit card numbers as well as personal information on millions of customers. A large majority of cybercrime is focused on attacking business's POS systems. The malware attacks systems by going through a list of common passwords until it is able to hack the system. "Backoff" then disguises itself as a compatible Java component and collects credit card information. However, Apple has recently announced Apple Pay and many believe this can diminish a lot of cybercrime.

Freeman AVT, a provider of integrated event marketing services, has created a fully customizable app that is available for free to any planner who uses Freeman's other services. The app is functional with the ability to add or remove session topis, speakers, multimedia material and includes technical support. This is a great benefit to any meeting planner who does not have the budget to pay a separate company to develop an app for a one-time event. It also allows planners earlier access to their attendees so they can increase revenues and attendance through marketing products within the app.

Freeman AVT, a provider of integrated event marketing services, has created a fully customizable app that is available for free to any planner who uses Freeman's other services. The app is functional with the ability to add or remove session topis, speakers, multimedia material and includes technical support. This is a great benefit to any meeting planner who does not have the budget to pay a separate company to develop an app for a one-time event. It also allows planners earlier access to their attendees so they can increase revenues and attendance through marketing products within the app.