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The article describes the new IT feature installed in a flagship hotel of Mandarin Oriental Group of hotels - that is a WIFI feature installed into the walls of every guest room. Mandarin oriental New York is known as technologically savvy hotel, which adopts all new technology features, that appear in the market. Capacity, coverage and user density were major problems for the hotel before, but the time to change has come when iPhones and iPads hit the market and the need of new technologies has appeared.

ALPHARETTA, Ga., Jun 26, 2013 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Agilysys, Inc. , a leading provider of innovative information technology and hospitality software solutions and services, today announced that Apache Casino Hotel in Lawton, Okla., has selected the Lodging Management System(R) (LMS) property management solution and the InfoGenesis(TM) POS system to streamline operations at its casino and new 132-room hotel.

The Apache Casino hotel recently expanded their property, putting them in a position of need for a technology system that would work for all aspects of the property. It would appear that they did their research before deciding on LMS and InfoGenesis to integrate with some of their currently used applications. Not only was it beneficial that they chose a company that works well with current programs, but they lked the partnership approach that Agilsys gave them. It would appear that their technology works hand in hand with multiple variations of outlets at a facility both as an individual unit, and for a property as a whole. Having a system with these kinds of capabilities proves to be very beneficial in being able to properly account for all accounting aspects in a way that can specifically identify profits and losses for the various aspects. It can be a challenge to sort through these details when there are such a large quantity of outlets, such as the room revenues,.food and beverage, meeting space, casino, etc. I wouldn't want to have to break down every department manually to determine if there is a huge profit margin somewhere that we can capitalize on or if there is a huge loss appearing from an aspect that we need to track to correct. Sounds to me like they made a good decision!

Starbucks invested $25 million to develop movie payment system with partnership with Square. The mobile payment integration with the point of sale solution will be available in November. The point of sale solution mobile app will make customers purchase using their phones through a digital Starbucks card and square will processing all of the Starbuck's credit card - based payments. Meanwhile, Starbucks also revealed its IOS app's integration with Passbook. When you approach a Starbucks location, a Passbook notification will appear on the screen of iPhone and you can then select the starbucks card and swipe your phone to make the purchase. Later Starbucks will integrate Squar's GPS- based point of sale system which should make purchases a breeze and speed up the lines during coffee rush hours. This allow you to select the item with Square app and simply say you name to the cashier to confirm the payment.  An image of your face will present from the profile photo to prevent theft or misuse. Since January 2011 starbucks first mobile payment app has host over 70 million transactions and the partnership with Square has been a mutually beneficial on for both sides. Starbucks will significantly expand Square's scale and accelerate the benefits to business on the platform in the future.

From this article, I can get some information that the new technology bring convenience both hotel and customers. The customers just press the simple button to control everyting in the hotel room that is a good experience difference from home. And the hotel can utilize the high technology to satisfied the customers and thus improving the competitiveness in the industry. However, high technology means high cost. The hotel that adopt the high technoloty should has the ability to maintain and update which will become a huge cost. So keeping up with the development of technology is the biggest difficulty problem in the hotel industry.

The latest technology gives hotels an opportunity to provide new products and services to guests but also the challenges . The biggest difficulty is the speed at which technology is evolving which makes it impossible for hotels to keep up with the latest developments. On the other hand there are many hotels are embracing the new technologies. Such as guest's smartphone, which will allow for interactive channel guides to appear on the handheld and can store guest preferences that travelers can take from one hotel to another. And the Plaza provide iPads in every guest room. which provide an easy way for customers to make reservation checking airline schedules and printing boarding passes.

This article reaches out and speaks to revenue managers within the hospitality industry. It first introduces the purpose of GDS systems and the factors you should consider when selecting a particular GDS to advertise with. From the information included in this article, it discusses exactly how beneficial advertising can be by including features of the GDS, stating how useful this tool is for the hospitality industry and travel agents, and the large opportunity to build product awareness in order to maximize revenue. Revenue managers can then learn how to purchase advertising and a suggestion of "teaser lines" -text that appears on the travel agents' shopping screen is given. This article ends by providing a description of a standard campaign operates and the criteria it goes by such as the display period, promotional period, city code/airport code, GDS outlet, and other options that may be targeted within searching for travel.

Air Canada's new platform, NDC Exchange, which works outside of the GDSes, allows the airline to manage the way its bookings appear on travel agency registration systems. The system was created by ATPCO (Airline Tariff Publishing Co.) and SITA, the latter of which transforms the data while the former provides the data services that make it have the ability to run,. Recently, several GDSes, such as Sabre, Amadeus, along with other entities like Verteil Technologies, Serko, and more, have also began to utilize their own NDC Exchange program.

This article lists of some common security breaches that hoteliers need to be aware of and prepare the hotel system for.

This article talks about how cybersecurity can critically affect hospitality businesses if they are not careful about what ways could attack their business.

As the article states, "Protecting the identity and information of a customer is paramount to the success of any business and hotels are no exceptions." Quite unfortunately, cybersecurity issues are some of the biggest obstacles that hotels are experiencing nowadays. With hacking attacks such as phishing and ransomware, hotels need to invest in increasing their cybersecurity as any breach can lead to a downfall in business loyalty and brand.

This article analyzes how user-generated ratings have a positive impact on hotels revenue growth. It looks at this through three different methods: one, ratings that the uses provide, two at how those ratings are "distributed over the scale," and three, the number of reviews that hotel receives. The article observes 240 small to mid scale hotels in Italy. Some issues we see come up revolve around the subjectivity of user-generated reviews and how that can positively and negatively affect hotel occupancy and interest. Ultimately, it appears that hotels that already have a high star rating will benefit most from these user-generated ratings because they have a stronger bargaining tool. The other benefactor are small, niche hotels whose increase viability and unique qualities help it in encouraging new tourism and high level experiences.

Could computing is the most productivity and advanced toll for collect the information and data analysis. Hospitality industry is based on the information of the guest and data of the operation to improve the their management, so the could computing technology is very needful for hoteliers. Though the article, we can learn something form the Protel hotel software company, that we need to know what are our customer need, so we can get to it and make them satisfaction. How can we know that, data base and information collecting can show us about the experience of the guests lived in hotel, and via this resource we can find the problem and solution more easier, so using the advanced software in hotel operation is very necessary.

IT Investments are on the rise in this world. The thought of savings money and appearing to be environmentally conciscious catches the eye of many big companies and industries. In the case of this article, United States health care providers are now demanding that hospitals make the switch from traditional paper systems to an all electronic system. This investment will cost health providers billions of dollars for the time being, however the return on investment could be a $40 billion savings for the industry in savings alone. The return on investment regarding this switch from paper to computer will require proper training and management skills in order to be successful.

M3 made its first appearance at the Hospitality Industry Technology Exposition & Conference (HITEC) event. M3 is a hotel accounting software. M3 works with industry leaders and is highly certified. M3 software can be integrated into any hotel. M3 software eliminates expensive servers, training, staff, setup, and maintain costs. I think M3 is expanding its arena by attending trade shows that will also give them more exposure in the industry. 

Infogensis POS continues to grow in usage. Next month they will appear at the ICE Totally Gaming Conference to promote their usage for gaming hotels and resorts. Earlier this year, the company solidified a new contract with The Mark Hotel in New York City. Imran Raja, the Director of Technology for The Mark Hotel said, "with Infogensis we have the best of both worlds- a combination of fixed and mobile point-of-sale solutions that deliver comprehensive functionality and maximum flexibility." This new luxury NYC hotel features traditional hotel rooms and residences, a full service salon, and multiple dining options. Infogensis Flex is one of the many reasons why this POS is growing in popularity. It offers hotels the use of a tablet touchscreen in which there are multiple language and menu options to help streamline F&B operations. The property I currently work for utilizes Infogensis POS. It is easy to edit menu options and prices, switch to different outlet menus, and easy for new employees to learn.

http://www.capetown.travel/blog/entry/real-world_e-marketing_implementation_insights_from_global_agencies/ This article is a summary of a roundtable meeting between four top online agency leaders. It introduced their thoughts and insights about e-marketing. These marketing, communications and creative agencies help build brands, find customers, manage reputations and convert awareness into profitable purchases. They discussed the key advantages of online media, difference in marketing tourism products and services compared to those in other industries, how it is different to market to a travel consumer as opposed to other consumers, the primary challenge facing in creating online experiences in tourism, whether branded company websites are on longer the most valuable online presence or not, the relation between video and conversion rates and the ways companies monitor and track their brand appearing in cutting-edge social media.

Starwood has made a significant investment in IT with their new SPG mobile app. What really diferentiates this app from competitors is its visuals which change depending on the guests status. If they are exploring hotels to book, the app will appear one way, once they have made a reservation, more options become available for guests to plan their stay and be more interactive. Upon check out, the app again changes as Starwood highly values guests' feedback. This revolutionary app is somewhat complex, but Starwood is definetly on the right track!!

The goal of any business is increasing and exceeding the bottom line; in other words, profit. Those companies especially within the hospitality industry that have the ability to seek and implement new/ innovative methods to cut costs tend to be the most successful. One way hoteliers, restaurant owners, cruise lines, and other 24/7 operations within the hospitality industry will be able to cut costs is a simple new advancement created by Phillips- The 7 W master GU10 LED lamp with DimTone. This article discusses the the DimTone light, its features and the potential amount of savings it offers users in the hospitality industry. Many hotels, bars, restaurants, cruise lines and other hospitality businesses incur a huge expense from energy use due to the volume and demand of business. The article points out that this new lighting feature will save those within the hospitality industry a large percentage of money each month while still providing an inviting ambiance. The life span of the DimTone light is twenty times more than traditional halogen lights. One hotel that completed a full replacement of all lighting with the new DimTone light has seen costs reduced by 82% and an investment payback of making this change within only two years. If this is true for all hotels that have the ability to invest in this cost efficient change, the only question I have to ask is why aren't we seeing this more frequently? The opportunities for an increase in profit from year to year appear to surpass the amount it would costs to enhance all hospitality businesses and help the environment as well.

Mr. Watt, a customer who was spending his weekend at the Courtyard Marriott in Midtown Manhattan was browsing the website. He realized that there was a strange drawing appeared on the top of the web page, which did not exist before. At first, he did not pay too much attention to it, but he still determined to check source codes to see if there was anything wrong with the computer or the Internet. After checking the source codes, he found lines of code which include references to"EXG". He thought it was a hacker attack, but his IT background enabled him quickly figured out that lines of code that include EXG had nothing to do with a hacker attack, but was a service named Revenue Extraction Gateway used by RG Nets company to inject advertisement secretly without the knowledge of the users, which aims at generating revenue from the Internet access points. Mr. Matt claimed that although this service will not bring harm to the users, but the principle of the thing that upset the users most. The hotel then apologized to Mr. Watt, and promised not to use this service anymore. What I feel interesting is that I also had such problems before, and after I interviewed some of my classmates and friends, I realized that this is a pervasive problem. However, what surprised me the most is the truth that most of the hotels do not know that their hotels' internets are exposed to secret ads injection because this kind of secret service is not on the contracts that the hotels signed with the internet company. In my opinion, it is an unethical service. Customers who use the internet feels that he/she is being spied on, and for the web content creators, they could not get a cut of the revenue from this.

This article talks about the changes happening in the restaurant and retail industry regarding POS systems. Since the appearance of the cheap tablet business owners have been asking why do we have to spend $600 on a POS station if a simple tablet cost $100 and has the same computing power. Imagine a restaurant where you come in sit down and order your food and drinks on a tablet that is on the table, a food runner brings you your order, and whenever you are ready you can swipe your credit card on the tablet and get a receipt send to your email. This reduces payroll for the business owner, and also makes the industry a less capital intensive one. All that is left is for a company to write the programs, sell the tablets, and give the same kind of support you would get with any other system.  

The article informs people about the hotel data issue maintenance of GDS, which was developed to transfer availability changes from hotel CRSs to the GDSs. However, the next challenge was to automate the processes for rate maintenance in the GDSs, a task much more complex than it might appear. Many hotel companies have seen increases in GDS reservations during the past years, which is a major and growing component in the hotel marketing and reservation process.

"While the online marketplace is gaining ground in channel mix for hotels, especially for established hotel companies, the Global Distribution System (GDS) still contributes significantly to hotel distribution revenue-approximately 27 percent, according to TRAVELCLICK's latest eTRAK report. Also, GDS hotel promotions-appearing when agents search the air, car and hotel availability screens within their GDS-continue to have a growing influence on bookings, particularly in today's unsettled economy." The above paragraph is from the very beginning of the linked article. I believe it is a good summary of the topic that follows throughout the article. Global Distribution Systems have always been a must in the industry and have continuously provided hotels with direct revenues. One of the major and most important benefits to using GDS is that it builds reservations through influence. This influence, with the help of marketing, ads, promotions, and special packages, can differentiate your specific hotel and pull customers away from competing markets.