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The article I chose is about the cloud. The cloud as its described in this article is a model of computing enabled by internet access that connects servers and networks to the public without the need to purchase large expensive equipment or staff to perform maintenance, and rather pay a monthly fee where this along with other services are performed. In this article we are given step by step instructions on the cloud computing environment and there five key characteristics. From internet access to measured service, on demand self-service, shared recourse pooling to rapid elasticity, the cloud encompasses many things and if you were like me, unsure of the what the cloud is and its functions, here is a is a step by step manual on the cloud and what it can do for you.

In the article, "Green and Eco-Friendly Hotel Amenities" it talks about how many different hotels are doing their part and keeping the planet green. The first place that the article talks about is the Mayakoba, Riviera Maya, it uses no motorized vehicles instead the guests can use electric golf carts or electric boats to ride around on the nine miles of canal. "Each resort also has an onsite biologist to lead educational boat tours through the lagoons." At the Palmer House Hilton in Chicago they built a rooftop garden to provide fresh vegetables and herbs for the hotel's restaurant, they are also considering making space to put several beehives, this will lead to a natural approach of producing honey. One of the most interesting and easy ways to stay green was at the Calistoga Ranch in Napa Valley; they have sheep that eat the grass replacing all lawnmowers and on top on that, their manure helps fertilize the soil. It's a win, win solution! In New York they have a restaurant called Habana Outpost and you really have to work for your food, literally. At this restaurant you have ride a bike that powers the eatery blender and if they generate up to 100 watts of energy, they will earn a free meal, such an amazing and creative idea! This "is part of the hotel's larger commitment to eco-friendliness, which includes a CO2-neutral building, solar panels, and groundwater-based heating and cooling systems." At Jicaro Island lodge in Nicaragua, they used all of they wood from trees that were knocked down in Hurricane Felix and they also use a good majority of their wastewater that is recycled to irrigate the trees and plants. Before reading this article, I never knew that so many hotels were doing their part at staying green and I'm surprised by all the new and unique ways that they have come up with, it gives me hope for the future!

While this short article is specific to the Regal Hotels Group, it also shows how the higher demand of customers result in a technology increase. This article is about the Regal Hotel Groups now connecting with hundreds of online travel agents around the world as a result of a custom created Miro Property Management System. Providing thousands of rooms in Hong Kong, it was inevitable that a custom made online PMS would form given the mass amount of rooms to be monitored. This system known as the RDX serves as a direct connectivity platform, eliminating the gap between reservation systems and booking channels. This increases productivity and efficiency for this high demand hotel group across Hong Kong. This innovation can further increase like I said productivity by taking the traditional approach to property management system online to achieve a greater reach of potential hotel guest around the world and at the same time.

EMarketing is the ability to market your products or services with Internet capabilities. In other words, it includes emailing, websites, follow-up, and every other marketing approach. Through computer/Internet capabilities, small business owners that embrace eMarketing will save themselves hours of time. With eMarketing, business owners can automate nearly all of their business management functions. That means that eMarketing capabilities are taking care of the day-to-day tasks small business owners and their employees would normally be engaged in. eMarekting also has some other benefits. E-marketing eliminates the printing and postage costs of direct mail and is substantially less expensive than other traditional forms of advertising. Customers opt in to receive your news via email. E-marketing is affordable, so you can advertise more often.

EMarketing is the ability to market your products or services with Internet capabilities. In other words, it includes emailing, websites, follow-up, and every other marketing approach. Through computer/Internet capabilities, small business owners that embrace eMarketing will save themselves hours of time. With eMarketing, business owners can automate nearly all of their business management functions. That means that eMarketing capabilities are taking care of the day-to-day tasks small business owners and their employees would normally be engaged in. eMarekting also has some other benefits. E-marketing eliminates the printing and postage costs of direct mail and is substantially less expensive than other traditional forms of advertising. Customers opt in to receive your news via email. E-marketing is affordable, so you can advertise more often.

This article discusses about the importance and benefit of adopting social media to your business. At the beginning of this article, the author trying to help us understanding the growing trend of social media by throwing some shocking numbers. Then he brings out the idea that more and more businesses included social media in their marketing tools. The he reminds us while the size of fans is important, that the interaction with customers is the true value of social media. At the last part of this article, the author gave out some suggestion on make the best use of social media. He mentioned that besides using social media as a channel to connect with customers, companies can also discover new employers via this medium, and get to know your customers' inside thoughts by responding to them. At last, the author reminds us the importance of social media once again.

I think this article goes along with our "Smartbar" discussion. The Smartbar may actually be useful in certain locations where a full time bartender may be too costly. There are obvious legal regulatory issues to contend, but at least some room for growth for the Smartbar. For other products like cupcakes, donuts or small bites, established restaurants are now tapping into the 24 hour convenience business model through the use of vending machines. I think this is a great idea for customers who want more variety than what we have been seeing at vending machines the past 10 or 20 years, which is potato chips, candy bars and nuts. For the company, this would give them more exposure and increased revenue stream at locations such as airports, hotels and hospitals where there is always people around. Some companies like Apple or Sony have been doing this for years. I can understand that they are selling a non-perishable good and the customer is ultimately only paying for the end product only. Restaurants are often involved with proving a level hospitality service as part of the product they sell and automation was not really in their best interest. But now with the explosion of Ipods and automated POS taking over the servers job, we may see more of these stand alone units serving customers. Overall, I think this is a business concept/technology that we are behind in. The article mentions that Japan has been using this concept to sell fresh food items and other items such clothing as well. From a business standpoint, given the increasing rise of competition, rent/property prices and variety of choices consumers have, these are some major recent factors which will propel this concept more.

Professor Dimitrios Buhalis --Theme Leader of Emerging Technologies and eTourism. Since the 1980s, Information Communication Technology (ICT) has been transforming tourism globally and has dramatically transformed the best operational and strategic practices in the industry. eTourism has given scope for the development of a wide range of new tools and services that facilitate global interaction between players around the world.

The interaction between technology and tourism in recent times has brought fundamental changes to both the industry and our perceptions of its nature. Increasingly, ICT plays a critical role for the competitiveness of tourism organisations and destinations as well as for the entire industry as a whole.

As this article mentioned, for convenient menus and faster billing, Galla Pos run a platform. It introduces how to use this technology and this device will bring down the cost of the handset. In addition, visuals and various menus will assist customers to order faster and better, especially for the foreigners. As a Chinese, if the restaurant provide visuals or more description of the menu, it will help me to understand the food better. This concept will apply in more hotels later and small food joints or grocery stores. I like this idea and I believe more and more industries will apply for it because it provides better quality of service to assist the job of employees and make everything new and effective.

The first and last impression upon guest check in/out process plays a critical role in guest satisfaction and experience. Throughout the hospitality industry, the Valet department is the first and last department guests interact when they pick up or drop off their car. This article offer some technology and software that the hotel industries can use to enhance guest Valet experience. One of the major problem Valet department face is locating the car and the car keys when the guests come in to pick up their car. To reduce the traffic time that are spend in locating the car and car keys, this article recommend a hand held device that comes with a software suites to enhance guest wait time experience. The Valet attendant would enter guest information which will then transfer this information to the hotel wirelessly. Furthermore, this hand held device could scan the Car VIN number or license plates to eliminate error in typing information into the device. This device also remind Valet attendant to input the location of where the car was parked and confirm that the key are secure. I feel that this device will save Valet attendant time in serving the guests. Attendant will take less time in inputting the number of the license plate and can track the location of where the car was park easier and faster. An Automated parking access and revenue control system is also introduced in the article. This system helps parking facilities save money where guests can process their ticket at the pay station instead of having a cashier to process their ticket upon departures. Guests can pay the bill and leave without making any stop at the exit to make payment. This system will be great amenity for business traveler that have a limited time yet hotel should not use this system to cut labor expenses. Such system should be offer but guest should have the access to talk to a Valet attendant to obtain their bill and provide feedback about their Valet experience and overall hotel exper

Following a robbery at a Houston hotel in which thieves exploited security flaws in Onity locks first revealed at the Black Hat conference in July, Hotel Management spoke with Todd Seiders, director of risk management at Petra Risk Solutions and former director of loss prevention at Marriott, for tips on how hoteliers can keep their rooms secure.

Though this was posted in January, I can still remember the situation like it was yesterday. Of course news articles tend to reach the public later than the issue arises; however, we try to be on top of our game. We heard rumor of the break-ins happening, so we did our research and actually found videos on You Tube on how to create the hacking device and use a dry erase marker to conceal the microchip. It was ridiculously simple, yet a huge threat to the entire industry. We called Onity immediately and had our locks all updated with the new software and hardware to prevent the issues. It was a ridiculous charge per lock for them to come out and manually fix them all, which wasn't at all in our budget, but definitely worth the security increase. That's where there is a problem. Most hotels didn't predict this kind of an issue, so it wasn't accounted for in their budgets. Some are willing to spend the extra to ensure safety and security, but some would prefer to do the "mail-in" procedure to get the motherboard replaced for free. That being said, most hotels do not carry an entire second set of locks, I would estimate 10-20% of the number of rooms is the number of extra locks on hand at any given time, functional or not. So, this process takes up quite a bit of time in doing it in the "mail-in" way, as it would take a minimum of 6 shipments to get all locks replaced. That is beyond time consuming and way too long to wait for this important of a matter. I hope all hotels are done with this by now, but still something for everyone to keep in mind while travelling. Always use your deadbolts and privacy locks, never leave your valuables in plain sight, use the in-room safe or safety deposit boxes where available, and use your instincts. Even as a guest, you can still follow the 5 foot rule and greet everyone you see, not only to be nice or courteous, but also to try and weed out the potential thieves!

Recently, CCTV/Video Surveillance has had several technologically developments. Security concerns in public places are driving a demand for CCTC/Video surveillance. New software will help CCTV/Video Surveillance monitor and analyze information. The US is the largest regional market for this technology.CCTV Recorders are the fastest growing product segment. I think its a great idea to build upon and make existing technology better especially since it is used across the world.

The AutoClerk Property Management System (PMS) is designed to be the most powerful, intuitive PMS on the market. At the core of every hotel operator's business is the guest experience. It is the yield management tool. AutoClerk Yield Management Rules offer sensitivity to your occupancy by allowing you to define what levels will trigger different room rate tiers. These rules can also take into account the number of days into the future the guest is booking the room. In that way, quoting a guest a room rate is kept quick and easy. It is the room allotments. AutoClerk has built-in support for wholesaler room allotments with rolling cut-off dates and pickup reports. Each day of an allotment can have its own setting for number of rooms allotted, and AutoClerk will not allow reservation entry which overbooks a given allotment. Is also called guest history and profiles. AutoClerk's "profile lookup" searches the entire AutoClerk database, including past stays, current check-ins and future reservations. Profile lookups can identify by guest, company, group, or travel agent and can be made to be automatic, so that a reservation name entry will invoke a profile list of matches. Besides, channel auditing, availability snapshot, easy audit, customer packages, email options and housekeeping exist as some other functions.

This article shows the importance of tourism networking. Through networking, people can conveniently share tourism resources and this will also help tourism industry attract more tourists.

An unssuspecting person check into a hotel like any normal person would. The ever so common exchange, credit card for room key took place. The only difference was that the person that checked had done so with other intentions. The "guest" utilized an IP Telephone that was in this hotel room to hack into the hotel credit card database and steal credit cards, transmit them to a foreign country and then have money transferred to his offshore bank account. This happened but at the hands of Jason Ostrom, aa Vigilar senior security consultant. Ostrom was able to unplug teh telephone in his room, plug in the phone's ethernet canle into his laptop and hack away. Of course, he did this as part of his job in testing a company's security agaisnt viral hackers. His company offers free security testing using a downloadable software called VolP Hopper This article was extremely interesting because as a frequrnt traveler as well as a perosn in the hospitlaity industry I was very shocked at the ease that the credit card information could be stolen. When it comes to credit card security it is of the utmost importance for companies to be PCI compliant and spend whatever it is necessary to safeguard the information of their customers. The detrimental damage that a security breach can have on a person can be debilitating as leaders in the hospitality industry we must do everything possible to prevent attacks like this from happening. made me become extra cautious about using my credit cards.

This article contains information about the detection of data stealing malware by researchers in an Israel-based company (Seculert). Follow up research discovered that malware was found in POS systems in hotels and other businesses as well. It is believed that the payment hubs are the next cybercriminal targets. In the article, it explains what the malware was and how to identify it. Researchers agree that it doesn't directly infect the systems, but was created to make analysis difficult. Though it is relieving that this malware had been detected, it shows the importance of higher security for POS systems. So many payments are made through these systems. Any attacks can jeopardize the privacy of customers' payment information and company information. This could lead to a distrust issue and could end badly for companies. So, the security definitely needs improving. However, it should be remembered that hackers get smarter daily. So, information will not always be safe. This leads to the need of companies to constantly improve their security. It would be a good start.

This article introduces us the restaurant profit and loss statement.  Introduces different kinds of revenue and expenses. And tell us when to prepare a P&L report.

In addition to the HospitalityPulse's popular roomPulse and PulseLink room assignment solutions, hospitalityPulse will unveil new tools that will transform traditional transactions into guest interactions by enabling front-desk agents to focus more closely on their guests. With the new enhancements being implemented by HospitalityPulse, front-desk agents are able to focus more of their attention on their guests and less on trying to find them a room. These new tools not only give you the optimal room for the guest in front of you, but also takes a look at the bigger picture ensuring that guests coming in days from now will not be jeopardized by the upgrade being given to your current guest. The PulseQueue is an excellent tool which assists in monitoring rooms becoming available for the guest that have completed their mobile check-in process. The PulseLink popup window has also been added directly to hotel's PMS systems for easier access during check-ins. The new tools that have been presented are not only going to make the mobile check-in process seamless, but also continue the growth of guest satisfaction.

This article discusses how the traditional vendor RFP (Request for Proposal) model is no longer the ideal way to integrate the right technology marketing that a hotel needs. The traditional vendor RFP model is time-consuming and expensive, and with the way that technology is constantly expanding and changing, hotels need to stay up-to-date with technology more and more frequently, which can mean this process is wasting time and money on an ever-increasing scale. Furthermore, it is not always an accurate indicator of the kinds of technology a hotel might need, especially what a hotel might need in the future, and it is difficult to determine who would best be capable of knowing what the property will need or what exactly to ask for in an RFP. The article talks about three alternatives to the traditional model: the Scorecard model, the Digital Marketing Partner Interview model, and the Trusted Partner model. With the Scorecard model, hotels have a checklist of things they need and can check off each point from each potential vendor. With the Digital Marketing Partner Interview model, which is similar to the traditional vendor RFP process, except that the interview focused on finding a Digital Marketing Partner that aligns with the hotel's management philosophy, values, and culture in order to find the right partnership. With the Trusted Partner model, the hotel works with one particular company with whom they share common goals and objectives, and they work together to solve problems and adapt new technology as the hotel's technological needs are manifested over time.

The current trend hotels executives and owners are adopting is green and sustainable practices. First, because of the marketing and positive public relations it brings to the image of the hotel and second, because of the energy and cost savings to the bottom line. The implementation of these practices with new technologies and software's designed to streamline processes and keep routine calendar of projects make easier for management to keep track and follow through.