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The travel industry has evolved over the past years. In the article it talks about how travel was limited in years gone by and you had to physically sit in a travel agent office in order to book your vacation. They were the only one who had all the information about travel. Then came the evolution of the travel industry and now everybody can book their vacation online with or without the help of a travel agent.

The article here explains the evolution of how we used Travel Agents back in the day and how we got to a point where we no longer needed travel agents. Back in the old days if anyone wanted to fly to another country or state, we went thru travel agents so we can get a booked flight and car services etc. Now we do everything ourselves. We find out information on our own and book and print our own tickets. Why? because of the internet. The internet will teach you anything and will give you whatever you are looking for. According to the article , people are overwhelmed in all the information provided by the internet that they cant decided where they want to go or where they want to stay at. So business is coming to travel agents. We feel so busy now and days that we give all the work to someone to do everything for us.

Network File System introduces a room layout software which can help event planner to maximize use of space and get the very best layout. It does not need the planner to draw himself, once you enter the data on a simple form the software requires, it will automatically generates an accurate and professional diagrams for planner. This software is simple to use, and also simple to customize. After it automatically offers the primary layout, planner can use the convenient shape toolbar to change the basic layout. It is just several clicks of the mouse. You do not need to master comprehensive plotting skills. Even thought the physical barriers or your real event rooms are some strange shapes, this software can use its room schematic feature to avoid all such barriers. Also it can automatically change the units of measurement if you plan overseas. And if the layout you want violates the fire regulations, it will warn you.

I think this system is useful for the hotel. I found so many benefit of this system. First, hotel can save a lot of budget by using this system because hotel does not hire professional IT employee to plot. Also this system can use hotel space effectively. Security is important for hotel, hotel should avoid hotel fire. This system can help hotel avoid violation of the fire regulations.

This article provides a new information for me. The room layout software mentioned in this article is really a great and useful software for event planners, which could offering planners an accurate, professional view of the room to present to clients. But I have a question that, the guests may have some special requirements, and after the software gives a suggestion, how to fix it to satisfy the guests. What should the planners do if the suggestion provided by the software is far from the guests' requirements?

To create a global resource for the hospitality finance industry, Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals has begun development on a global hospitality accounting system users guide. HFTP is the only global association dedicated to hospitality finance and technology and our Global Board is investing heavily to create a benchmark that stakeholders can use to compile accounts, compare regional differences and define the value of a hospitality operation.

This article was pretty brief, but it stated that Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals has begun development on a global hospitality accounting system users guide. This would create a global resource for the finance industry. Frank Wolfe, HFTP's CEO, says that the company is the only global association dedicated to hospitality finance and technology. They are hoping to create a benchmark that stakeholders can use to compile accounts, compare regional differences and define the value of a hospitality operation. What I found interesting about this article was that it greatly involved final year bachelor students at Ecole Hôtelière De Lausanne in Switzerland performing research for this project. I also think that a global hospitality accounting system users guide would be beneficial, especially since many managers/employees do not have the strongest training or skills in a financial or technical area.

HFTP (Hospitality financial & technology professionals) begins developing a global hospitality accounting system users guide. This kind of users guide is totally new to the hospitality industry and currently there is no global resource like this. The global guide will provide the hospitality industry with a glossary of inventory terminology, accounting charts and other accounting-related information. This project is developed using technology that can provide users with a benchmark that stakeholders can use to compare regional differences and define the value of hospitality operation. This project is a three-step process. First, bachelor degree students from all over the world who are interested in this project will work as data collector. Second, the assembled and analyzed data will be processed into professionals in different regions all over the world to create new sample charts. Finally, the initial guide will be published in multiple languages and distributed globally. This new accounting system technology is predicted to help the hospitality industry increase the ability in financial management, accounting, cost control and the sharing of global accounting data sources.

There are several ways for small business to track income and expences. At first checking with a business accountant is an important step of choosing right accounting software. Checking business forums also can be a good idea of finding best solutions for owners of small enterprises. If the business owner is into service business he needs accountung software which can track time and billing but if he is the owners skill level must also be considered. Some accounting applications in the internet offer trial runs, so trying them can be a good way of finding whats best for this particular business. Cloud applications can also be very helpful, avaliable and accessible anywhere, anytime and very mobile, because you can use them from phone, pc or a tablet. You don't need to buy servers to host the software hosted in icloud. For sure it has some disadvantages like privacy, security, and fees, if any problems in the system occur the owner will need to wait for vendor to resolve it. Choosing the best solution for accounting of small business enterprise owner will have to weigh all advantages and disadvantages in order to find what is the best solution for its business.

i agree!! choosing the proper accounting system can make operation goes smoothly.

Netiquette is very important in today's industry as it can only improve and enhance our way of communicating and networking. Also, everything is pretty much done by conference calls, audio visuals and over the internet by exchanging emails and web links. I personally believe that Netiquette should only be improve on because that is where the world of today is looking forward to and addressing too.

This article is a great resource for prospective employees to read through. Netiquette is becoming just as important as general etiquette. The web is more and more evident in society every single day. Hoteliers are required to practice and teach proper netiquette to their employees but a hopeful with these skills learned before training will stand out inevitably. It explains the 7 factors: control your own presence, terms and conditions, keep tabs on yourself, emailing in the office, sharing is caring, remember where you are and who you are, and finally be smart. These are all easy ways to keep track of proper netiquette in the hospitality industry.

After the tragic events of September 11th, 2001, the travel business was damaged for many years. Profits became much lower in the hotel business, but were not nearly as bad as airline profits. As a result, many larger hotel chains began innovation on their websites in order to streamline promotions, advertising, reservations and bookings. In the hotel industry, there are individuals who create hotel technology platforms and there are IT professionals that make sure they work properly when needed. Some of these IT professionals, for smaller businesses, work from remote locations. At larger hotels, however, they are often times required to be onsite. Onsite IT professionals are an important part of the hotel's staff. Some hotels, however, assign IT duties to hotel management, as well as other key employees, in order to not have to invest the salary of an IT manager. The author of this article, Christine Cadena, states that it is a better idea to invest in an IT manager with specific education and training, than just assigning duties to hotel management. She also touches on how many hotel chains fail to promote education and certification in IT, resulting in hotel managers learning the IT processes by trial and error or hands on experiences. As the hotel industry continues to recover, there has been an emphasis on improving technology onsite. Many hotel managers, however, are lacking the education necessary to help with technological improvement. When hotels begin to invest more in IT education and certification, they should see an improvement in levels of service, as well as profits.

Great Article Matt- I struggle with not having an IT department on site and not being too techie. Its a great advantage when you ring that extension, someone answers and can quickly identify why the credit card machine is not working or the projector has fuzzy lines right before a big conference. Too many times, we find ourselves being place on hold for countless minutes usually 10 or more for someone from support services to identify the problem. I'm a foodservice manager not the IT manager, so talking technology to me is like talking French. If companies invested in a manager with the proper training and skill level to fullfill the position of running the hotel, then the same should be done for IT.

This article describes the importance of investing in training between front of house personnel, and the IT department. While maintaining the efficiency of both of these departments is half the battle, it is also important to make sure they understand each others roles and needs in challenging situations. Cross training for both of these departments enhances the guest experience, and helps both teams understand the other more.

This article was very interesting and it was about how safety security is very important to the hospitality industry. This article also explained how a study shows the safety and security systems work in the hospitality industry. They also said that it is very important to update the emergency plan because you never know when something going to happen in the hotel and you always have to be ready for anything. This study just showed how an effective information system could prevent and being well prepared can definitely help prevent any emergency.

The article is a study that was conducted in regards to the security management within a hotel and how an effective security system can help in preventing accidents or emergencies from occuring. The main priority of a hotel or any establishment, besides the service provided, is having an effective emergency plan set in place to be able to respond and overcome a crisis. International hospitality being a focus over the recent years, has suffered crises, risks, and disasters causing negative impacts on tourism and the community. Hotels should "issue a check-list concerning a hotel's vulnerability to emergencies caused by natural disasters (hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis) or man-made crises (terrorist attacks, explosions, fires, spill, food poisoning)." Another part of the plan is to focus on the loss prevention aspect of a hotel by implementing information technology to secure or improve security. On technology mentioned was biometric to increase the hotel information system and also to help reduce cost and improve the way we recognize criminal activities. With the hospitality industry being one of the most vulnerable industries to crimes and disasters, it is important to recognize, improve and update the plans set into place to ensure accurate information. While it's impossible to say that these preventions are going to stop these problems from happening, it can help other learn about the proper steps to handling these situations. I personally think that as much as employers suggest different way, it's the job of the loss prevention team in every industry to construct a plan that address as many issues and conduct trainings that would help to prepare us for these occasions. Trainings are going to be the best way to properly analyze a problem and improve on the emergency plan set.

This article provides an overview of the importance for hotels to have a centralized function and not outsourcing the hotel accounting, meaning that hotels should not use a third party provider. Companies are compelled to change, to innovate, and in need to keep up with the competition. It says that some hoteliers are choosing to outsource because is trendy, but not always function in their best interest. This article emphasizes the pros and cons, but mostly all the negative results of outsourcing, using other companies to do the work that should be centralized.

https://www.hospitalitynet.org/opinion/4083889.html My article highlights the cons of outsourcing a hotel's accounting system from a third party provider. The author mentions that in the hotel industry, technology is constantly changing and every hotel is trying to stay on trend and "keep up with Jones'". The main issue with outsourcing is the reduced level of service. "In a full-service hotel, the accounting department provides a long list of services: receivables, payables, payroll, revenue control, cash management, systems oversight, audit, food and beverage controls, purchasing, receiving, general accounting and budget/forecasting to name but a few." When you outsource, there is reduced attention to these details. If a hotel's own accounting department handles these daily operation segments, there is less likelihood for error and they will be able to work with the various departments to correct the issues. It also saves tons of money to handle accounting in-house. Another important issue that was raised is that if accounting is outsourced then there is no room for development for an accounting department; no growth, no promotions. A pro is that outsourcing gives a financial manager the ability to focus on the bigger picture and see where changes can be made. If they are bogged down with little details, they might not be able to be the leader the hotel needs.

The article discussions the pros and cons of whether a Hotel should out source their accounting to a third party. The author of this article strongly agrees that Hotels should not out source their accounting. The author finds it "unintelligent move". Many Hotel owners believe it's "trendy" and necessary to out source their accounting to keep up with their competitors. I agree with the author, that Hotel should do their accounting on site. Management would have better control over functions and departments such as; payroll, auditing, food and beverage management.

The following article explains why many people expected travel agencies to go extinct once Expedia started being used and all the reasons why that did not end up happening. In todays age there are still many people that use travel agents, in fact the article even states that there have been spikes of usage in recent years. It speculates that this might be because of millennials always using the easiest and quickest ways of getting things done. In fact the simplicity of travel agents is one of the main reasons many people use it along with their ability to get package deals, assist with group or complicated trips, their ability to get discounts, and they prevent problems.

Maestro is an Diamond star hospitality software started in 1978. The software has kept up with all the growing trends in the industry and has finally introduced an integrated system support. Some of the features of this new upgrade include direct help on each screen of Maestro's property software and also the ability to perform screen captures. They have real-time help available with 24/7 tech support with chat feature and screen sharing options. The new upgrade also enables users to request support or training online. These features enable Maestro to optimize it's response times for incidents. These new features give users personalized support and makes them more productive since they don't lose time waiting for tech support to show up. This is a great step forward in PMS technology.

Nowadays, we can say each hotel must have the accounting department. Every successful goal needs a perfect financial management to consolidate it. In the hotel, accounting need to budget preparation, need to do the business planning, creating financial statements and payroll. Hotel needs to pay the salaries for employees and reporting sales and analyzing the profits. This is a huge process. A hotel must manage it efficiently. And owners can make decisions and improve their company. When you report the financial activities, you need to do the real report. A report can give you a chance to take the best decisions and make more profit. As a staff, you need to track cash flows and record transactions. If you have some trouble, you can let the expert help you to solve problems. They can help you to control your cash flows and maximize earnings.

For all businesses, including hospitality businesses, it is essential to have a properly organized accounting system. Every business needs solid financial management to achieve growth without which every business withers and dies. Proper accounting is at the heart of solid financial management. Hospitality accounting includes: preparing a precise collection of month end accounts, a trial balance, budget preparation, business planning, creating financial statements and balance sheets, and payroll. Not only does it enable you to track cash flows and record transactions, but it provides deep insights into the financial status of the business enabling owners to make proactive decisions and improve profits. So to excel in the dynamic hospitality industry seek professional help from expert accounting companies to set up proper accounting to have solid financial management. In my opinion, I believe that to have a successful business you need to have an up to date, accurate way to record your accounting transactions so getting professional help from experts would be wise.

The recent cyberattack at Marriott International Inc. has many hoteliers wondering what are the legal and business risks associated with security attacks? The recent breach at Marriott further proves the point that businesses should prepare now or be willing to pay for it later. In November 2018, the Bethesda, MD-based hotel company revealed there had been unauthorized access to the Starwood guest reservation database, which contained guest information relating to reservations at Starwood properties on or before Sept. 10, 2018. Businesses face a multitude of risk when looking at the potential consequences resulting from a cyberattack or breach. As we've seen recently with the Marriott breach, there can be significant impact to brand equity in the marketplace. This impact can be far reaching for publicly traded businesses, resulting in material impacts to businesses and business valuation, and long-term impact to user adoption. In addition to the downside risk from the market, businesses must also mount expensive defenses against litigation that increasingly takes the form of class actions. Reputation is important in every trade but is especially important in the hospitality industry. This, coupled with the fact that consumers are becoming more sensitive to privacy and security related issues, means that businesses in the hospitality industry must manage against these types of risk and allocate appropriate levels of funding toward information security. What should hoteliers learn from the Marriott breach? Pay attention. Marriott was aware that there was a potential issue shortly after it acquired Starwood, but did not, apparently, investigate in detail. Marriott may not have created the problem, but it bought the problem and didn't treat it with the seriousness that was necessary.

HRIS (Human Resource Information Systems) are needed to enable beneficial HR management and payroll functions. This system allows companies to keep track of data pertaining to employees like name, address, phone number, social security number, job title, employment history and education. This article explains how in order for companies to have a strong Talent management system they must first have their HRIS in order. The HRIS should be in order because it can provide the Talent Management Systems with data that can make auto processing easier and faster. Job codes, job titles and job grades are data elements in an HRIS that can help span all Talent Management modules. In result, this can make recruiting, retaining, and rewarding employees a simpler process.

Not all ADP systems are created equal. While the system is advertised as scalable In my experience the options for smaller operations leaves much to be desired. They have become the most prevalent system and can be a valuable experience for anyone entering the job market.

Kronos Inc. announced new enhancements to Workforce Dimensions which will combine advanced labor volume forecasting, predictive scheduling, and task management for a complete enhancement to the workforce. The end goal of these enhancements is to attract, retain, and develop a highly engaged workforce with an employee-first environment.

Face of consumerism through e-commerce has radically changed in the last few years. Buying or selling through Internet and online shops depending on websites, has become an ordinary part of consumer life today. Higher expectations, less tolerance, more demanding and choosy customers are becoming more common. 

With the development of society, economy as well as technology, customers are becoming more powerful, they have higher expectations, less tolerance, more demanding. In this situation, high quality and professional E-Commerce is needed in more fields. E-commerce solutions are varied, which provide the buyers, sellers, providers more opportunities to run business activities efficient. Revolutionary changes have occurred in tourism and hospitality industry by E-Commerce. In recently years, more agents and organization make the applying of E-Commerce as one important choice to be outstanding. It owns many valuable advantages. It facilitates agent access to market and minimizes the financial information leakage. It provides any agents chances to connect market all over the world. When travelers arrival the destinations, they need huge information, service, facilities, market cash and so on, which all can be obtained by internet. And also, for Hospitality industry, it develops economies, improves trade competitiveness, expands scope and arena, and facilitates people to have direct access to the marketing destinations. What is more, it monitors, evaluates, creates faster transactions by the flexible web services. Thus all the process can be created, facilitated, and monitored by E-Commerce. Absolutely, there are also many disadvantages in E-Commerce. Some information in it may be incorrect or unnecessary. People give important information via internet, so the security problems can't be avoided at any time. If over population come to the destinations, customers may not satisfy the service or the local nature may be damaged. Hospitality industry has to be thoroughly aware of its problems.

This article tackles what E-commerce is in relation to businesses all of the world in the modern day but especially what is occurring in the hospitality industry. How now a days many people are looking to book travels online and the specificity's they are looking for can be featured through the internet. Through these websites provided by companies bookings could be made directly without a third party making the plans or making payments from customers. What's most interesting about this article is about is how it is self realizing and it also highlights the negatives e-commerce can have with the consumer (i.e. too much information given about a destination). But, it does tie in the end how it is a very positive step forward for all business alike and can create more revenue than before e-commerce existence.

The travel marketplace is a global arena where millions of buyers (travel agents and the public) and sellers (hotels, airlines, car rental companies, etc.) work together to exchange travel services. Among the "shelves" on which buyers search for travel services are world's global distribution systems and the Internet distribution systems. There are currently four major GDS systems: Amadeus As the youngest of the four GDS companies, Amadeus has done remarkably well during its short tenure. Yet, in many ways, the company remains an anomaly. Amadeus has the greatest number of travel agency locations with the highest productivity per terminal in the world, yet its booking share is Number 3, and its revenues are dwarfed by Sabre and, to a lesser degree, by Galileo. Galileo Galileo's competitive strengths include market share, well-balanced and global presence, relationships with diverse groups of travel vendors, technologically advanced information systems, highly skilled personnel, and a stable product line. Compared to other GDS companies, Galileo is a cautious follower when it comes to technology. Sabre Sabre's competitive strengths include market position, global reach, stable product line, diversification of revenue streams, and intellectual capital. The Sabre business model is a strong one, and continues to make significant progress in advancing both its electronic travel distribution and its information technology solutions businesses. Worldspan Worldspan has a legacy of industry firsts that are not well known. The company therefore has an opportunity to raise the industry's awareness of its accomplishments and more importantly, its future strategy. Worldspan continues to look at benefits of creating its own consumer brand and has been partnering with different companies to expand the services that it can provide to its customer base.

This is a great article for any company that produces large events and is thinking about implementing event software. It helps to analyze both the pros and the cons of software like this as well as what it takes from your company in order for it to work. It points out that without someone who understands programming your company is going to have a very hard time running this software and getting it set up. Overall, I agree with the articles viewpoint on a companies size playing a major deciding factor. A company should only invest in this costly software if they take part in large scale or consistent events that need the software. Before jumping into a software a company can try many of the online simple tools and figure out what they need from a software.

This article talks about how companies use HRIS for implementing employee scheduling and how it provides key labor management tools. Using HRIS for scheduling can be of particular benefit to workplaces in industries such as retail, medical, food service, and hospitality where shifts may vary widely. Labor is the number one expense for most companies, so it is important to manage labor in the most efficient way possible. This can help you to optimize scheduling on a minute to minute basis so that your company is making the best use of every labor dollar spent.This can help you to optimize scheduling on a minute to minute basis so that your company is making the best use of every labor dollar spent. However, having to communicate with each individual employee as they move through varying shifts to relay schedules can be disruptive to work and difficult. Communicating schedules instantly through HRIS can help to reduce headaches and scheduling mishaps. Depending on the available features, employees may be able to submit feedback regarding preferences in regards to scheduling. The article talks about when scheduling is made easy, it is possible to focus on scheduling strategically so that employees can be cross trained through various departments or otherwise receive instruction that helps them to grow within the organization.

I believe the hospitality industry can benefit greatly from the implementation of the HRI Software. This article in particular focus in an important part of the human resource which is scheduling employees. One of the biggest reasons of the high employment turn over in the industry has to do with the scheduling. The hospitality employees work very long shifts and on the days that the rest of the people rest like weekends and holidays. To have a program that will take care of the scheduling is very beneficial because all the employees get a chance to have off to to work on the requested days if possible. It makes it more equal for everybody and make it look less personal so that the employees do not think that the manager has any sort preferences among them. Overall makes thing more easy to handle and optimize the time of the human resources department because they do not need to put time aside for scheduling.

As we all know, the company can't be truly beneficial from using HRIS for scheduling if it operates on a 9-5 schedule. But in the hospitality industry, the company operates over a long period of time, having the different degree of complexity with scheduling. So, HRIS will help the companies to make scheduling easier. In this article, the author introduces several advantages that HRIS offers to the industry. HRIS provides hotels with labor management tools and alerts them to uncovered shifts. Moreover, it makes scheduling communication instantaneous and increase employee contentment. Most importantly, HRIS enables hotels to save time and money for providing a template, which allows hotels to strategically gear scheduling.