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Retail model This is the traditional model, ie. how you would work with a retail or traditional travel agent.

Merchant model This model applies to third party service providers that connect you to retail travel agents (by integrating with a GDS) and online travel agents.

Opaque model In this model, your guests don’t know they’re staying at your specific property until after they’ve made the booking.

Small accommodation providers can benefit greatly from using a GDS to connect to retail travel agents and corporate buyers. However, we highly recommend that you steer clear of the merchant model, because you would be paying commission to both the third party service provider and the OTA.

Option 2: Channel Manager

On average, small hotels can cut the commissions they pay in half by using an all-in-one solution

In this kind of business relationship, it’s much better to retain full control of your rates and inventory

In the distribution landscape, Global Distribution Systems (GDS) are just one of the many players involved in selling your rooms to a world of travelers. They are one of the oldest kinds of distributors in the industry, so it’s important that you understand how you can work with them effectively.

A GDS doesn’t work exclusively for accommodation providers – it does the same for airlines, activities, and car rental companies.

Your rooms are sold through all channels connected through the GDS e.g. traditional travel agents. Whoever sells your room earns a standard commission. Your guest pays you, then you pay your agent. An easy way to understand this model is if you think about how you would work with your local brick and mortar travel agency, that caters to walk-in customers. This is the default model used upon connecting with a GDS.

In this model, you would work with online travel agents (OTAs) like Booking.com via the third party service provider. An OTA sells rooms on your behalf, allowing your guests to find and select your hotel, check your availability, and make a booking.

However, this is very costly. As they are a third party provider of GDS services, you would not only pay commission to the OTA (a percentage of each booking), but you would also be paying the third party service provider a commission for use of the system (usually $10-$12 per reservation).

The only difference is, they won’t guarantee it (there is less of an incentive to sell you because there is no additional commission for them), and they will de-emphasise your listing (by placing it at the end of the list, hiding images, hiding room rate, and other strategies).

You set up several rates (usually 25%-45% less than retail rate), selling your rooms based on bids that guests make based on location, star rating, and other attributes. For example, Priceline uses a bidding system, and Hotwire allows guests to make bookings based on discounted rates.

GDSes are great for tapping into the corporate travel market – however, it is being used more for other types of travel than for accommodation.

designers must become leaders in finding creative, hygiene-driven solutions with attractive, budget-conscious, non-porous, non-transmitting and sustainable materials for future crises

the guest could experience a physical cleansing with UV-C light (400–470 nanometers (nm), an antimicrobial against numerous bacteria) as well as a metaphoric one, an abstracted feeling of rebirth and joy due to the use of art, music, lighting, and planting.

The UV-C light fixtures that can be programmed to activate when a guestroom, elevator, cab or corridor is unoccupied may soon become standard design practice

As hotel operators navigate the new normal, expect to see innovations in hotel welcome packages. Especially with limited staff, hotels will need to rely on visual cues that indicate and reassure cleanliness.

A brightly-colored seal on the room’s exterior door or towels wrapped in clear wrap to show items have been cleaned and hygienically packaged

next phase of guestroom should integrate separately-zoned HVAC supply and return HVAC systems, which have the ability to immediately evacuate air from infected rooms. To make the guestroom bathrooms ideal for privacy and infection control, restroom exhaust systems should be inspected and made to filter out air continuously.

Guestrooms worldwide are shrinking because space is expensive, which presents a challenge to designers looking to optimize already small spaces in line with social distancing guidelines.

Technological improvements to touchless entry doors, smart HVAC systems, and room lighting will occur, as information will now be imparted to the guest via phone or touchless television system. Smart spaces are not a new trend. In fact, a MarketsandMarkets™ report reveals the global smart home market size is expected to grow from $78.3 billion in 2020 to $135.3 billion by 2025. As more and more consumers rely on smart devices and sensors like Alexa and Google Nest, hotel businesses will need to adapt the same contactless technology solutions to their guestrooms and common spaces.

Elevated experiences to increase joy might include innovations in higher-end materiality, comfort, spa-quality guest baths, interactive workout systems, in-room workout equipment, and elaborate mood lighting systems. In the manner of the guest experience, the hotel needs to remain a peaceful, calm, and safe alternative to the more urgent, chaotic world outside.

The PCI Security Standards Council claims that since March, malicious virus-related reports are up 475%. The reason for the uptick is that cybercriminals are trying to take advantage of rapid changes to the payment-card data environment. In addition, 41% of small businesses have said they’ve suffered breaches costing more than $50,000 to fix.

Contactless payment is one of the big changes within the payment data environment. Several restaurant companies – from chains to independents – are offering it because it reduces customers' physical interaction with the restaurant's POS system. As part of this move, some businesses have eliminated credit-card PIN numbers.

Eliot says malicious email is usually the easiest way for cybercriminals to access your networks. The emails typically show up as urgent requests for sensitive information, often pretending to be from the Small Business Administration or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. When the intended victim types in his or her credentials and clicks on a specific link or downloads an attachment, criminals are in.

Anyone looking for easy-to-implement security tips can try these six to start. Reduce areas where payment-card data is stored. The best way to protect against a data breach is to avoid storing any card information at all. With many small operators offering curbside pickup and accepting payment over the phone instead of through face-to-face transactions, it’s important they train employees not to write down payment card details. Instead, have them enter numbers directly into a secure terminal. Use strong passwords. Using weak and default passwords is one of the leading causes of payment data breaches among businesses. Effective passwords must be strong and updated regularly. The most recent guidance is: the longer, the better. Think of it almost as a “passphrase” rather than a password. Use it in the form of a sentence, but mix in different characters within the phrase. It’s much harder to break a long passphrase than it is a short, complex password. Weak and vendor default passwords often result in small business data breaches. Also, don’t repeat your passwords. Update your software often. Criminals look for outdated software to exploit flaws in unpatched systems. Timely installations of security patches are crucial to minimizing the risk of a breach. Whenever updates are available, use them. They will improve performance and close out some of the vulnerabilities cybercriminals are searching for. Enable two-factor authentication. It's so important for restaurateurs, especially where their POS systems or any of their sensitive databases are concerned, to have two-factor or multi-factor authentication enabled. If an instance where credentials are stolen occurs, there will be a second layer of verification the operator can rely on to potentially reduce the chances that information will be breached. Segment your networks. If you are going to store payment data, make sure your POS system has its own separate, secure network. Do not store sensitive documents on public cloud services such as Google Docs or DropBox. If you’re going to store sensitive documents, house them in an encrypted, locked down location.   Be hyper-vigilant. Criminals are going to try to take advantage of this pandemic situation as much as possible. You can protect yourself by not giving out sensitive information, especially within unsolicited emails. Don’t click on links you’re not expecting and do everything in your power to protect all sensitive information.

One of the biggest challenges for operations managers and housekeepers alike is in implementing the new cleaning protocols. Extra time needs to be planned per hotel room to make sure that the right processes are followed, and the correct manpower needs to be available to execute the new protocols adequately for the number of rooms in service.

Some hotels are also deploying cleaning techniques that require rooms to be left for three hours after spraying, others have a policy of allocating 24 hours per room before another guest can be checked in to ensure there is time to fulfill the new procedures.

We found that the average guest departure room cleaning time has increased by around 11% overall. In fact, over half of the hotels we spoke to report an increase in minutes spent cleaning each room of at least 15% or more. Ivaylo Ivanov, senior vice president of hotel operations for Okada Manila, estimates that at his 5-star resort, an additional 25% to 30% time is required to clean each room.

Expense control pressures are increasing as the costs of these operations continue to spiral with hotels having to outlay hundreds of thousands of dollars on new cleaning products and protective equipment.

With supplementary costs like these to balance against occupancy rates of 20% on average, hotels have to find sophisticated ways to save on costs that won’t compromise the all‐important guest experience.

We expected hotels to turn to a reduction in stayover cleans as a key way to balance out the additional time spent cleaning check-out stays. However, our survey found that only 12% of the hotels we have spoken to have actually gone down this route.

As a five‐star resort where guests know to expect exemplary service, Ivaylo at the Okada resort just simply does not feel this option is open to them as standard (although, if guests request it, that would of course be accommodated). Indeed, where guests do want stayover cleans, the hotels we surveyed found that cleaning time significantly increases by around 35%.

When all the strings of the current environment for operations staff are pulled together, it is easy to see that not only have their jobs fundamentally shifted but that there is a huge amount expected of them. Technology has played a vital role in helping teams to communicate and operate during the lockdown, and it will be even more essential to equip teams with the right tools in this next stage so that hotel operations can be optimized to the maximum and these key members of the team are properly supported.Now is the time to assess each process to gain a full picture of exactly what labor and time is needed to continue to operate at the level guests expect whilst adapting to the regulations of the new normal. Any investment made now to support this essential part of any hotel will pay dividends in terms of lowering staff turnover and increasing guest satisfaction as well as realizing business-critical cost savings.

touchscreen and

s

detect what items you’re placing inside

checks you out digitally

the Dash Cart

Whole Food

Amazon Go

Instead, this is your standard, everyday grocery store, only it has smart Amazon-made grocery carts for you to use

There’s also the privacy question, and whether the Go format’s tracking and surveillance approach is maybe not as palatable as a smart shopping cart a consumer must opt in to use.

So the device can handle up to about two bags of items, but it can’t do a full cart quite yet.

despite resistance from many properties to invest in new technology, we see an increasing amount of guest journey applications coming to the market, from digital check-in/check-out to marketing/upselling solutions.

it was very difficult to really produce an ROI as it related to travel and hospitality. 

Augmented reality requires a “wearable”, which is a major barrier to adoption, even after Facebook's acquisition of Oculus and significant price drops. 

Did the industry want a technology that further distances them from the customer? While that today may be needed during COVID, at what point does “hospitality” and personal communication become relegated to the technology? 

Here in Las Vegas, the footprint of integrated resorts ensures that wayfinding is a very important facility to move the guest from location to location. The volume and frequency of entertainment and dining options also mean that static wayfinding even when well thought out does leave room for improvement. 

In another thoughtful application, property in Las Vegas is combining art and augmented reality to provide a guest room with a 'view' where the physical realities of the actual room may not provide such a facility. In this case, an artistic overlay is applied against a static art piece. The outcome is focused on guest engagement, entertainment, and a point of difference. Although it is the same technology used that could provide reference information.

The pandemic propels the hospitality industry to innovate and offer new and exciting ways for guests' experience. As the industry seeks to upsell, enhance their guest experience and service offerings to stimulate demands, AR becomes an extremely valuable hotel technology during this recovery period. Augmented Reality technology can help solve the hotel industry's challenge in enhancing the physical environment and guest experiences without the costly and physical disruptions to their operations and facilities. With digital transformation and improving operational standards being the go-to recovery plan for the industry, AR could easily disrupt and transform the hotel industry around the world.

Others go belly up, leaving behind millions of pounds of old gadgets piled in mountainous heaps atop land which has lead levels many times normal.

You’re probably not screaming into a paper bag about the $20 billion or so of gold that’s trashed in electronics every year worldwide. Precious metals come and go. But if you care about the soil that comprises the land of the brave, you should start thinking about what happened to last year’s smartphone (even if it’s just sitting in the garage).

This list of reasons isn’t exhaustive, but serves as a solid starting point for understanding the United States’ e-waste dilemma and what can be done.

U.S. e-waste recycling laws are often outdated or nonexistent

Only 25 states (plus Washington, D.C.) have legislation that addresses e-waste recycling. The other 25 don’t have comprehensive programs, and don’t report what happens to the electronics beyond occasional voluntary numbers, says Jason Linnell, head of the National Center for Electronics Recycling (NCER). Federal laws don’t explicitly address e-waste recycling.

The U.S. isn’t good at recycling

The current level and effectiveness of e-waste recycling depends on which state you live in and whether or not you trust locals to “do the right thing.” The hope for improvement sits with congressional reps, state lawmakers, manufacturers, and gadget freaks (yes, you).

Single-stream recycling hasn’t helped

Between 2005 and 2014, single stream recycling programs increased from 29 to 80 percent in American towns and cities. During that same time period, material contamination rates increased from 7 to 25 percent.

E-waste legislation regularly disappears in Congress

This is not the first Congressional session in which similar bills have been introduced and allowed to die like a first grade classroom goldfish on summer break. SEERA currently sits with the house’s Foreign Affairs Committee. Why is it so tough to pass e-waste legislation?

The U.S. is an environmental rogue

As of late 2018, 186 states and the European Union have ratified it and follow its legal framework. The United States has signed the Basel Convention, indicating an intent to ratify, but is the only developed nation that hasn’t actually done so, which

After the initial Basel Convention was adopted in 1989, many organizations said the treaty didn’t do enough to address the disposal of waste from first world countries into the developing world, and pressed for an update, which eventually became 1995’s Basel Ban Amendment. The tweak — which was attacked by many industrial powers, including the U.S., Canada, and Japan — needed three decades before it was accepted by enough countries to go into effect. In August 2019, Croatia became the 97th country to ratify it, which transformed the updated stipulations into international law in December 2019.

EPA regulations are incomplete

Federal attempts at regulation have stalled, been killed

U.S. pushes back against international efforts

As a part of the 2003 Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive (WEEE Directive), the public was guaranteed free recycling services, and conveniently located collection centers. Around the same time, the EU also passed the Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive (RoHS), aka the “lead-free directive,” which restricts the use of several toxic materials in the manufacture of circuitry and electronic products.

In Japan, the Association for Electric Home Appliances requires consumers to help pay for the processing of their goods and manufacturers to set up recycling programs. Electronics recycling has been promoted as such a point of national pride — because Japan is both a huge consumer of gadgets and the country has few indigenous precious metals — that there’s serious talk of making the 2020 Tokyo Olympic metals out of recycled materials. An estimated 80,000 cell phones need to be pulled apart and picked over to complete the plan.

State-level e-cycling programs are uneven

Certified e-cycling programs are important, but also confusing

If you’re the compliance officer who has to make sure the company’s used servers don’t wind up getting tossed in an Indonesian landfill, and you won’t have to nervously answer questions in a “60 Minutes” exposé, you probably want to get that e-waste removed by a disposal team with one of these

That all sounds great until you listen to Puckett, who helped create the e-Stewards protocols. He’s one of several people who took part in the development of R2 for over two years and then refused to continue when the proposed guidelines seemed to be too tainted by lobbyists, including ones at the Institute of Scrap Recycling (ISRI), an organization that favors a free market approach over regulation. Puckett and 13 recyclers created e-Stewards, which describes itself as the “the cleanest, most globally responsible standard for e-waste recycling.” He points out that the R2 certification still allows recyclers to export to developing countries. E-Stewards’ doesn’t. R2 recyclers can drop toxic e-waste in landfills or incinerators in the event of “circumstances beyond their

Scrap recycling lobby doesn’t like regulations

The announcer proudly explains e-cycling is a vibrant industry that adds 20.6 billion to the U.S. economy and supports 45,000 jobs domestically, “safeguarding our environment,” along the way.

Can anything be done? Possibly

Recycling isn’t the only answer for fewer landfills filled with decaying circuits. Chris Wellise, Chief Sustainability Officer for Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), which installs and recovers tech, emphasizes the importance of designing products for longevity, disassembly, and reuse.

“On average, 85 percent of the environmental impacts can be addressed in the design phase,” estimates Wellise.

Similar challenges exist for smartphones. Review IFixit’s guide for repairability and you can expect the phones that are easy to disassemble are also easier to refurbish or scrap. In an unusual display of transparency, eco-minded electronics company Fairphone sells spare parts on its site and has visual cues printed on the pieces to help novices figure out where everything goes. In case you’re wondering, it’s possible to make a Fairphone work in America, but most of the company’s sales are in Europe.

In 2018, Apple gave birth to Daisy, a robot that can disassemble 200 of the company’s phones in an hour — 1.2 million a year. The company has an installation of the machine in Austin, Texas, and another in the Netherlands. Daisy’s supply chain of used products comes from the company’s in-store trade-in program and a partnership with Best Buy.

Pretty awe-inspiring, right? Keep in mind that Apple sold over 217 million phones just in 2018 and has moved 2.2 billion iPhone units since the product line launched in 2007. The two Daisy divisions aren’t even working at capacity. Apple is willing to license the robot technology so any company can use it to disassemble phones, but none have approached them yet.

If your connection isn't password protected, anyone can access the system.

And even with a password, computer-savvy network users can gain access to another user's data.

Hospitality workers don't have any special legal authority, so they can't physically restrain a customer. Instead, they should call the police if they suspect criminal activity.

Your company's confidentiality policy can educate customers about the amount of privacy they can expect.

If you promise a customer a specific amount of confidentiality and then break that agreement, you've broken your contract and can be sued.

No one can contract to engage in illegal behavior, and if someone is in immediate danger, it's your duty to take steps to protect him.

It also establishes guidelines for employees to follow, and a clear policy can even protect you against lawsuits.

The U.S. Supreme Court has established that hotel customers have a "reasonable expectation of privacy" in hotel rooms.

You can't enter or search a guest's room without her explicit consent, but guests are not entitled to any special privacy

As a business owner, you value the privacy of company secrets and procedures, which is why you expect your employees to maintain some standard of confidentiality

confidentiality in employment is implicit, regardless of whether employees have signed an agreement.

If a member of your staff violates this explicit or implicit agreement, the penalty for breach of confidentiality can be severe and long-lasting.

an employee who signs this type of agreement agrees that a violation of confidentiality is also a violation of the employment contract. The penalty for breach of confidentiality isn’t restricted to employees who have signed confidentiality agreements,

if you own a computer security company and an employee’s laptop is stolen, and that employee didn’t encrypt sensitive data on that computer per company policy, it could constitute a breach of confidentiality.

Healthcare privacy is essential, not only to protect a patient’s right to decide who has access to sensitive information but also to protect doctors and other healthcare professionals from malpractice claims.

Theft is a violation of criminal law that in some instances can be punishable by a stiff fine or imprisonment.

As a business owner, you would report the theft to law enforcement, and the state or federal government would charge your employee with the crime.

Employers will not look favorably on any prospective employees who were terminated due to a confidentiality breach, or convicted of a crime related to that type of violation.

a fancy name for computerised-reservations

services.

Most flights booked through a physical or online travel agent go through a GDS, which charges the airline a fee of about $12 per round trip, passing a few dollars of that to the travel agent.

he loss of direct commission from airlines made travel agents more beholden to the GDSs, which not only slip them a share of fees but also provide their back-office computing

Despite airlines’ efforts to make travellers bypass agents and come to their own websites, less than half of flights are booked this way.

In recent years the main hope for restoring airline profitability has been ancillaries: all those extra charges for meals, checked bags, less-cramped seats and the like.

“new distribution capability”

One of its main elements will be a common technical standard for direct-connect services

t would be hugely expensive for any new entrant to replicate the existing GDSs’ heavy spending on technology: the need for such investment makes flight distribution a business that naturally tends towards an oligopoly, he reckons.

two of America’s big carriers have taken GDSs to court over the tactics they use to

maintain their hold over travel agents.

Both sides can claim to be the consumer’s champion. The airlines argue that the cost of the middlemen adds to the price of tickets (though the superficial evidence suggests that it is airline shareholders who suffer). They say they want to reform the distribution system to offer flyers a wider choice and a more individually tailored service. The GDSs argue that they provide travellers, through their agents, with impartial comparisons of all available flights, allowing them to get the best value.

hoteliers and vacation destination economies invested in virtual reality offerings to extend their experiences beyond the travel restrictions, offering travelers a temporary at-home substitute.

many travel and hospitality professionals are investing in VR-based marketing to spike interest in their offerings.

VR tours are being offered all around the world to spike interest in sights and tourist destinations, making people want to see the sights for themselves

VR marketing will soon emerge as the smartest strategy for connecting with consumers; high-budget commercial spend and other digital marketing tactics will be rendered obsolete when any prospective traveler could put on a headset and instantly be transported to the shore of a beach.

, virtual ID verifications can be built into booking platforms, integrated apps can grant access to digital room keys and enhanced biometric technologies have the power to supplement (or eventually replace) the traditionally awful pre-flight screening process.

It will diminish both consumer wait times and consumer-staff interactions, allowing professionals to reserve their time and focus for more complex guest and traveler needs.

investments into biotech need to be paired with cybersecurity and infrastructure that protects a guest’s identit

Today, guests and travelers understand quality in terms of fast response times, consistency across channels, and intuitive, self-directed use.

eople show a preference to manage smaller tasks on their own; a study by Zebra Global Hospitality showed 70% of guests preferred a smartphone check-in for efficiency and speed.

Airline safety once meant extensive processes at TSA, but consumers and professionals are quickly coming to trust the powers of biotechnology, changing the way we think about screening.

looking for that service in different ways—on their phones, at their fingertips, and behind the scenes.

In a 2017 study published in the Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, researchers demonstrated that touch screens create "experiential and effective feelings" in customers — and, moreover, a greater sense of privacy. In short, customers are happier and more self-assured when using self-serve kiosks, and are therefore more likely to spend more.

Using a self-service kiosk can be a joyful experience, but one that comes at a cost if you're not careful.

Whether through ignorance or malice, employees are often at the heart of data breaches.

Another way companies can protect against human error or insider threats is through strong data protection policies.

limiting access to sensitive data only to those employees who need it to perform their job functions and restricting the use of personal mobile phones or portable storage devices in the work place.

3. Look into compliance

hospitality companies must ensure that they have a high level of data protection in place.

Companies must therefore look into where their customers come from and what data protection laws are in place in their countries of origin and ensure they can protect their sensitive data accordingly.

Abiding by these standards should ensure that hospitality companies are protected from most potential data breaches and can thus stay clear of any penalties that would otherwise come their way.

EVENT INDUSTRY CORONAVIRUS RECOVERY STATISTICS

66.5% of eventprofs plan to use hybrid as their go-to format once in-person events resume.

Almost three quarters of planners (71%) plan to continue to employ a digital strategy to maintain their virtual audience once they return to physical events

57% of attendees believe that they can conduct the majority of their event objectives online.

As of March 2020, the exhibition and events industry had lost 14.4 billion euros (16.5 billion USD).

only 5% were minimally impacted.

Almost three fourths of planners, or 73.6 %, have become more proficient or much more proficient in tech as a result of the pandemic, which will be important as the industry transitions further to virtual and eventually hybrid events in the coming months.

39% of planners expected to be able to recoup at least 25 percent of their revenue by pivoting to virtual events in 2020.

Event planners listed social media as the most effective tool for event marketing (74%), followed by email marketing (66%), their website (60%) and event registration site (26%).

37% of event planners report that social media exposure is a key metric of event success.

58% of marketers use social media for marketing before, during and after their events.

52% of events engage on social media several times a day.

92% of marketers consider influencer marketing is an effective form of marketing, and  82% believe that the quality of customers from influencer marketing campaigns is better than from other forms of marketing

The most-used event app feature is agenda/sessions, used by 98.3% of eventprofs, followed by the sponsors/exhibitors listing (93%) and the speakers listing (89.3%).

57% of app providers include recommendations of nearby places, events, and experiences to attendees, while 65% include personalized session or content recommendations

The average maximum price of an event app is $15,000, which is up substantially from average maximum price in 2019 of $9,600. (EventMB, 2020)

Most app companies (41%) charge according to features — the number of companies charging by number of attendees decreased by 9 percentage points in 2020, from 30% in 2019 to about 21% in 2020.

The most important consideration in event management software is support (79%), followed by the features (78%) and analytics (69%). Value for money is listed by 67% of event planners and for 58% it is important that they are not limited in terms of the number of events or attendees. (EventMB, 2018) Graph available. 18.8% of event planners used different event technology providers rather than an all-in-one solution in 2019, though the pivot to virtual events in 2020 has likely radically changed this.

In terms of sponsorship opportunities, the top three features offered by virtual event tech providers are sponsor/exhibitor profiles (78%), analytics/reporting (77%), and banners in high traffic areas (70%).

Only 14.5 percent of event planning companies experienced no impact from the pandemic.

Networking is the most effective strategy for event planners to find new clients (66%), followed by social media (45%).

37% of planners value safety standards above all else when it comes to choosing a destination for their next event. The same criterion for venues ranked as most important for 56% of planners. This suggests planners expect venues to carry more weight than destinations when it comes to safeguarding their attendees.

Influencer marketing is one of the fastest-growing strategies in the marketing arena at the moment.

By doing so, you get access to a broader audience while establishing credibility and trust. It has been associated with an increase in direct bookings

Remarketing basically involves focusing your advertising efforts on users who show interest in your business. You can do this by collecting statistics on users visiting your website or engaging with your content on YouTube or social media.

At the moment, remarketing ads have a 400% larger click-through rate and nearly 150% higher website conversion rate

The trick is to re-engage the users who’ve visited your website but didn’t go all the way booking.

Chatbots are becoming an almost standard component of business websites. They apply more so in the hospitality industry, where users need rapid responses to queries they make online, regardless of whether there is staff available to give answers.

With a VR headset, you can catch a glimpse of a remote location and feel like you are actually there.

Due to the impact of COVID-19, revenues in most hospitality-based industries are a fraction of what they were in 2019.

Online reputation scores are basically a measure of the rate that people like and trust your brand. There are tons of paid and free tools which you can use to run automatic assessments for your company. It takes into account positive, negative, and neutral critics made about your business, which is then rated from 0-1000.

Perhaps the most fundamental trend in the hospitality industry in the wake of the COVID-19 virus is showcasing your facility’s abilities to guarantee the safety of your customers.

The way you advertise your service, be it food or massage and gyms, should be done so they appeal more to the local residents and the popular cultural ideals.

Keep in mind that any company’s primary aim in the hospitality industry is to enhance the customer experience and create a more lasting relationship. Therefore, as you try out these techniques, your strategies should ultimately achieve that goal.

The hotel industry attracts cybercriminals because it handles so many financial transactions in so many countries.

The top threat to hotels is phishing, a scam in which hotel guests may receive fake phone calls claiming to be from the front desk. The caller could claim that there is an issue with the credit card on file and that they need to re-verify the payment method. 

DarkHotel hacks are another significant threat. These target travelers via hotel Wi-Fi. Digital certificates are sent to guests, like a familiar adobe update, which will retrieve sensitive information. Hotel chains are combating these hacks by suggesting that guests use a virtual private network.

Malware (malicious software) is something criminals email employees, under the guise of the attachment or link looking innocent or legitimate. But when the user opens the file or clicks on the link, their system (and more) can be hacked into by the criminal.

IT department should routinely update operating systems and back up data and files, and every employee should double-check sources when asked for software administrative permissions. Also, strong firewalls can limit bad traffic and provide security. 

Software and hardware can help prevent breaches, but employee training is also an essential part of any hotel’s cybersecurity.

only around 35% of airlines and 30% of airports are prepared for cyberattacks.

“Guests can enroll in a service called WebWatcher, which monitors the sites where personal information may be shared and alerts guests if evidence of their personal data is found,”

Hotels are not alone in being targeted by cybercriminals: The airline industry has faced serious cyberattacks as well, and many airlines still aren’t equipped to handle them.

In 2018, a Marriott reservation system was hacked. More than 500 million customer records, including credit card information and passport numbers, were stolen. The company said the hack went back four years prior to the discovery and, when it was noticed, the company started using computer and mobile device monitoring software.

"The proliferated effect of the attack on SITA is yet another example of how vulnerable organizations can be solely on the basis of their connections to third-party vendors,"

The aviation industry faces dangers such as ransomware and distributed-denial-of-service attacks. Following the SITA attack, HackerOne solutions architect Shlomie Liberow stressed that airlines need to prepare for the worst. 

traditional enterprises like airlines have always been an attractive target since few are digital-first businesses, and therefore have relied on legacy software, which is more likely to be out-of-date or have existing vulnerabilities that can be exploited."

The airline industry needs to keep third-party vendors in check when it comes to protecting information. Given the high stakes involved, experts suggest that blind trust is not an option. 

“You simply cannot know whether your third parties meet your company’s security controls and risk appetite until you’ve completed a full vendor security assessment on them,

It’s important to note that the best practice is not a ‘one-and-done’ activity, but through real-time, continuous monitoring.”

In 2015, hackers targeted Polish airline LOT’s ground operations system, affecting 1,400 passengers. The hackers made it impossible to create flight plans and flights. It was the first attack of its kind, and it caused concern about cyberattacks one day remotely taking control of planes.

To address the threat, the standard advice is to back up and store data in multiple places, including off your physical premises, and have one copy of it be offline

Multifactor authentication and long, complicated passwords will take longer to crack. Updating and patching systems regularly helps companies avoid being victimized when a new exploit is discovered.

Treating cybersecurity as a companywide concern, not an IT concern, encourages each employee to take ownership of their actions and knowledge and to seek help proactively instead of making an “innocent” mistake that costs the company millions of dollars.

Finally, companies should avoid simply throwing money at the problem: Not all cybersecurity solutions work together, which wastes money and increases the risk of a breach.

As the industry looks to rebound, hotel owners, in particular, are introducing new solutions and services to entice guests, including embracing automation, a once taboo term in an industry used to thinking of service in a very human-centric way. From robot concierges to new marketing strategies, hotel owners are changing the norm to address social distancing measures and lingering travel concerns.

Property automation system companies are catering specifically to the accommodations industry to

the industry must completely re-evaluate and adjust operations to reduce potential touchpoints, and automation is a crucial component at this time.

The entire check-in process can now be done through a smartphone, minimizing staff interactions and reducing exposure to a crowded lobby. Guests can check-in with a single touch and enter their room in minutes without even requiring a physical key card.

centric

make the integration of smart locks and devices easily accessible.

For an industry that has long since relied on its (human) staff to deliver customer service, this is

drastic

experience

shift to a tech-first experience. However, for hotels struggling to open with a skeleton staff to reduce overhead, an automated management system can improve efficiency and the overall guest experience.

experience

branded apps are a one-stop portal for everything from reservations to room service. Used c

orrectly, a branded app can help streamline operations and establish a direct channel of communication between hotels and guests.

Smart technology is a key investment for hotels as they look to reduce high touchpoints in rooms. Voice assistants can control nearly everything in a room, including temperature, lighting, alarm clocks, televisions an

d to order room service. It also creates an opportunity for hotels to learn guest patterns and personalize the experience even further.

And based on the past few months, the industry is rising to the challenge.

the pandemic accelerated the need to embrace smart technology and automation urgently, putting more pressure on an industry with slim profit margins to cover the costs of implementing the infrastructure to accommodate these changes. The industry has its back against the wall, forcing change and innovative new thinking to adapt and entice guests back as travel resume

undergoing an upgrade with better room, rate and rules details as a result of enhanced connectivity with Hilton.

Travelport’s desktop tool, Smartpoint, can access a suite of features aimed at simplifying everyday tasks. Enhancements include more customized itinerary quotes in Trip Quote as well as faster Assisted Ticketing capabilities that streamline complex ticketing and exchange tasks for advisors.

Travelport+ tools and agency capabilities continues with simplified access to enriched travel content from multiple sources, including NDC (New Distribution Capability) standard content. Travelport says it is the first and only global distribution system (GDS) to sign NDC content distribution deals with three major European airline groups (Air France-KLM, International Airlines Group (IAG) and Lufthansa Group).

self-service option for travelers using the new portal allows agencies to preserve resources while offering travelers an improved experience with the ability to easily add extras to their trip, such as adding meals, bags, selecting seats and automatically checking into their flight.

Enhanced APIs make it easier for advisors to understand offers and compare brands with similar attributes on a like-for-like basis. Travelport customers will also be able to easily identify upsell offers with NDC and ATPCO fares for a simpler, more modern browsing and shopping experience.

Agencies can better manage the hotel bookings they sell with Content Optimizer, a simple self-service rules engine.

so agencies can easily create and customize their own content rules.