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It is clear that email is one of the most effective and efficient ways of reaching out to your consumers directly, however there are always the ups and downs to this form of marketing. It is predicted that by 2015 there will be an increase of nearly 4.1 billion email accounts compared to the 3.1 billion email accounts as of 2011.   The most common form businesses used email marketing was to send out newsletters, coupons, ads, alerts, etc., now consumers also are looking for more interaction with the business through social media. They want instant responses through Twitter, LinkedIn, blogs and other social networks.  With using all the social networking sites in relation to the business, consumers can also see other consumer reviews.  Using these forms of communication for the business and client, helps to build their customer relationship with each other. As businesses track the movement of their website and emails by monitoring what the consumer clicks on, they gather information on what the consumer is looking for and can then cater to their needs. As positive as social media can be for a company, it can also be negative with bad user reviews and complaints.  Word of mouth is the fastest marketing tool for consumers when they have a bad review.  

Article speaks about hotel automation systems by vendors, that allow hotels to reduce energy and utility costs that impact the bottom line. The EPA estimated that in 2004 the hotel industry spent more than $5 billion on energy and that the number was likely to increase. Items such as occupancy based thermostats communicate over wireless networks and allow hotel staff to perform maintenance tasks such as detect issues with in-room HVAC systems before guests call in to report the items. Other systems use energy monitoring systems that allow for the hotel to detect room temperatures. This is significant as those rooms temperature and lighting systems can know whether the occupant is in the room and adjust lighting and temperature settings accordingly. Energy waste in hotels is an issue that affects the bottom line so the potential for ROI is great. Implementation of many of these systems is flexible as many are built on wireless networks that do not require heavy physical installation of wiring. Interested in the groups thoughts on this?

Touristlink is new online network that has been created as a means to connect tourists with other tourists as well as experts in the travel and tourism field. This type of network allows users to access the entire website by connecting them with travel agents, hoteliers, tour guides and many other people from all over the world. I personally believe that the Touristlink network facilitates planning a vacation because it centralizes all of the travelers questions and concerns to one particular location. It also puts the traveler in contact with the right people for planning a vacation.

This is a kind of a new improved software for connecting to wi-fi and mobile broadband networks of Microsoft 8. The user need to be installed required drivers and software to connect to mobile broadband networks of Win7, while, Windows 8 has been designed to simplify the process of connecting to mobile broadband networks and of managing those connections, including monitoring data usage and controlling costs. Prior to Windows 8, you needed these applications to compensate for functionality not provided natively in Windows. This additional software confused and frustrated users by conflicting with the Windows connection manager, showing different networks, network status, and a separate user interface. Also, this software can read user`s action and reconnect more faster.

Ipads changing our life is absolute. In fact, if there is no ipad, something electronic products can also bring revolution in hotel Wi-Fi networks. To tell the truth, free hotel Wi-Fi is too slow.....last year, I had a internship in Holiday Inn Central Plaza Beijing. There had two kinds of Wi-Fi networks. Free network was cover the whole hotel but the speed was slow. The other that must be paid was faster. Some people had video session prefered the faster one. In addtion, hotels should upload their Wi-Fi networks. It can be an attraction of the hotels.

For a hotel the WiFi system is really important because guests prefer the hotel with WiFi system. The guests even willing to pay a small premium to stay at a WiFi equipped lodgings. As the rise of smart phones and ultra-lightweight laptops case the bandwidth problems. I think the hotel can deal with this problems by create various account levels for guests, stuff and visitors. The hotel can allow the visitors to use free WiFi and provide high level account to overnight guests.

I personally prefer to use WIFI in my own room when I visit a hotel because I have more privacy. Some hotels they may offer free/complimentary WIFI in the public area, for example, the lobby, the lounge, etc. At the same time, to limit the overuse of public WIFI, the WIFI in the guests' room are charged by different time period and the length of using the WIFI. It seems to be not fair to those business people who require internet all day long. However, it lowers the expense of the WIFI service and improves the guests' satisfaction of the internet service.

With tourism increasing in Cambodia, the partnership between FCS and Quoc Khoa Networks is expected to enhance guest satisfaction. FCS is the a top provider of hotel technology products and services.

E-marketing has had a tremendous on customer service, efficiencies and overall profitability within the hospitality industry. Social networking has also an added feature to marketing. Marketing over the internet has given hotel operators the opportunity to create a positive image and reach more potential customers at a lower price. As a result of e-marketing many hotels are now realizing a profit from an area that was operating as a loss. This phenomena has cause many traditional marketers to be out of business, if they do dot reinvent themselves. In conclusion, e-marketing a a strategic way for hotels to reach a wider cross section of a population with minimum cost associated.

The article released the newest devleopment of HRIS of SuccessFactors. They successfully blend employee data management with social networking. As some executives said, new product wasn't merely a phone number and adress any more, it could include more information about an employee's hobbies, performance and so forth. The new developmen of HRIS enables HR departments to keep insight of their employees, how they are working and think about the job so that they can carry out a more satisfy strategy regarding to both employees and companies. However, some professionals doubt this new product. They questioned that if there are enough space to keep so much information, which may not necessary. Therefore there is stll lots of risky factors to enhance its application of this new developed HRIS.

This article is all about Global Distribution Systems (GDS) in the hotel industry. The author defines GDS as an "advanced network of travel agents who specialize in selling and booking travel products, including hotel rooms and packages." The purpose of GDS in hotels is to broadcast their rates, availability and packages onto the network that way everyone is viewing the same thing, it is smart of the GDS operator is within the industry that way they have a better understanding on how to manage different properties. The article mentioned a few reasons why a hotel needs a GDS, some are to help increase revenue and to market other markets. In my opinion as a manager it is very important to know your audience and what your target market is. Many hotels outsource marketing teams and you need to be sure that you are proving them with the correct marketing and you have to be open to branching out to another market if you are not doing well with sales. When selecting a GDS, the article recommends that it have the following requirements: pooled inventory, commission-free structure, integration capabilities, comprehensive reporting, and the ability to target specific markets. I believe these are all very important especially being able to access booking data reports and having the ability to target specific markets. As a manager, you know always know how your occupancy rate of the hotel is and why it is suffering. Could it be because of different crowds that are coming in? Is it a new hotel in the area that is cheaper? You must know all of this in other to compete and be successful in this industry. The benefits of partnering with a hotel GDS are "your exposure will increase significantly, connecting to agents if quick and affordable, you no longer have to deal with manual booking entries, you can make better decisions for your hotel, and you will be able to discover interested travelers from every location around the world." I believe this is very important because a

GDS also knows as global distrbution system is an advanced netwrok that us used by travel agents who sell and book travel products such as hotel rooms and packages for customers. Pretty much, when a hotel operator connects with a GDS, the operator will have access to all agnets within the GDS network such as, Booking.com, Expedia, Hotes.com, and so much more. Hotels that partner with GDS, will be able to promote their rates availability and packages to the GDS network which will then allow travel agent to finalise all reservations to their clients by having the accessibility to the GDS network. Hotels should and need GDS as their distribution strategy because, the number of bookings generated through a GDS generally outpaces that of direct bookings, revenue increases largely because the GDS places the hotel's information, availability and rates in prominent locations where it is easy for travel agents to find this valuable information, the GDS can help hotel managers uncover new market segments to promote their products to, and so much more.

This article discusses the liability for a cyber breach at various branded hotels between the franchise owner or the corporation. The Trustwave 2016 Global Security Report stated that the hospitality industry had the second largest amount of data breaches. Additionally, more than half of the breaches are from a corporate/internal network breach. According to a Ponemon study, the average cost of a data breach is $4 million. While this is alarming, it is a surprise since hotels store numerous amounts of personal customer data including guest's credit card information. The article states that cyber hacks are largely due to the gap in not knowing who is responsible for the cyber security. There is an issue of control of data versus franchise network requirements. The hotel brand places individual franchisees in control of their own cyber security. However; they must rely on many centralized corporate owned reservation systems that could be possible access point for cyber attacks. The article suggests that the individual franchisee should make more effort in protecting their customers information as the hotel brand will take most of the blame. This does not help either side. Also, it mentions that in order to protect the hotel franchise it is important to have updated systems and should consider investing in cyber insurance.

Site Minder by GDS experience, serves as good example to better understand the impact of a GDS's impact on the hotel industry. GDS by SiteMinder provides a single point of entry to over 500 000 travel agents across the globe, which means that hotels can target many type of travelers in multiple geographic regions. By connecting hotels directly to the world's major GDS providers - Sabre, Amadeus, and Travelport - and travel agent network, GDS by SiteMinder offers a major convenience to participating hotels. Through this service, hotels don't have to worry about signing up with each one of these providers. Another advantage of SiteMinder is its affordability; there are no commission fees, rather, just one flat transaction fee per reservation. The company offers free services from GDS experts and free technical account management advice which are other benefits. For instance, in another article, in mid-2013, South Beach Group who has boutique hotels in the heart of Miami Beach, decided to switch its 12 hotels to GDS by SiteMinder. After moving to GDS by SiteMinder, South Beach Group representative highlights the significant increase in bookings leading to a growth in annual revenues by17% in 2013. In essence, GDS by SiteMinder advertises participating hotels to more customers globally within an incomparable distribution platform, with real-time and two-way GDS connectivity. As we can see in the article, in 2016, just within 12 months the total number of users of GDS by SiteMinder increased from 250 to almost 900. This article underlines the importance of GDS for the growth of travel industry. With Site Minder by GDS, one can realize how GDS helps increase hotel bookings by placing hotels on more virtual channels (an analogue of supermarket shelves) globally.  

The role of GDSs in the travel industry has a major impact on revenue, competition, and reservations. In this article, Sabre, one of the largest known GDSs was sued by US Airways for failing to provide a fair contract to the airline. The lawyers from US Airways claimed that Sabre threatened to "cut off the airlines from a network of thousands of travel agents worldwide who depend on inventory that the tech giant provides via desktop software". The jury concluded that Sabre indeed violated antitrust law. Sabre, apparently, charged US Airways increased fees though their cost per transaction decreased because of the advances in technology. According to the article, Sabre argued that the fees were justified relative to the cost that an airline would incur to distribute its fares by other methods. This helped the agents have access to a plethora of information regarding price comparison. In my opinion, this is just a messy situation. However, it goes to show how important and how much of an impact that GDSs have on airline companies. They determine what consumers or agents readily see on the site. They determine how much of a presence a company has. The GDSs provide company information to a worldwide network that markets to consumers. Having a GDS system hold back or increase fees has proved to be detrimental. Ethical issues have come into play. The fact cannot be ignored that the technology being used by Sabre is helping lower cost for transactions. This decrease in cost should have resulted in a decrease in fees for the airlines. Nevertheless, the key to this article is that GDSs have the power (though Sabre did illegally) to determine which avenue a company goes through in regards to apparent competition and markets. The advancement of GDSs is resulting in lower cost transactions and giving agents and consumers "more bang for their buck". So it is important that the relationship between GDSs and airline companies remain ethical in all ways, especially dealing with

Restaurants have always been an easy target for cyber security hackers, in particular, hackers who are looking for credit card and ID information. Restaurants provide hackers with a "wealth of client data" due to the high "volume of credit card transactions and CRM data available." Once given access, a hacker could simple install malware and duplicate all customer information. Already facing critical financial issues during Covid 19, restaurants large and small need to take a stronger presence in the protection of their data. If discovered to be the start of a breach, customers will tend to avoid that business. "Chipotle, for example...got devalued by about $400 million after they suffered a breach," and many small restaurants "go belly up six months after an attack." Below is a summary of the types of attachs restaurants face: 1. Unprotected Wifi 2. Social engineering and phishing attacks. This is actually the one that stood out to me the most because of how sophisticated these attacks can be. It is a reminder that we are all at risk, both the technologically challenged and gifted. 3. Malware 4. Covid 19 Scams 5. Grub hub scams 6. Supply chain scams *A particular issue for restaurants and commercial businesses right now as companies scramble to find new vendors who can supply them with the products they require. 7. Public Health scams 8. Government Stimulus scams 9. Technical support scams How can we fight against these? Here are the recommendations: 1. PCI compliance 2. Hire and IT security professional to conduct a risk analysis and if possible, keep on as a consultant or full time 3. Keep a secure network and change free passwords daily 4. Use the latest operating systems, force multi-factor authentication, strong passwords, and use encryption services for data storage and transfers 5. Install and use robust web-filters and security software programs 6. Maybe most important!!! Train your employees. 5.

I found this article fascinating. It shows that no matter how much security we think we have, there will always be someone who is smart enough to hack you. We bring Smart devices into our homes and businesses to make our lives easier, yet these devices make us vulnerable to cyberattacks. In this article it details how a hacker(s) used a Smart thermostat located inside a fish tank to access and pull sensitive data out of a casino. I'll never look at the fancy aquariums in resorts/restaurants the same.

Cyber attacks open more and more often and varied since cybercriminals are becoming more cunning and their methods more challenging to detect. This article introduces some types of strategies implemented to protect companies' businesses from cyber threats and cybercriminals. Including using Anti-virus software, firewalls, password managers (very useful while some even free), VPN, patch management program which not only for operating program but also for other applications running on your system, consider the email SPAM/Malware filters and security awareness training for the employee since "humans are the weakest link." An employee who accidentally clicks on the wrong link can put in motion a chain of events that results in a cyber breach. Finally, plan a 24/7/365 network and endpoint monitoring.

Even though this article is from 2019 it is still extremely relevant today. POS systems are found in most hospitality outlets and the chances for a security breach are high. I have often thought when I had my credit card to a waiter and they are gone for 10 minutes are they copying the number, is it being added to a database that can then be hacked? The importance of having the proper securities in place, the proper malware and security software is really important. Having had a catering company for 20 years I had to do PCI compliance tests every 6 months and for years I just handed it over to my IT to do the test. He would suggest things to make us safer and since it usually cost money I would shake it off. It wasnt until the credit card processing company i was using had a security breach that I realized how important these PCI rules were. It is something going forward I will always pay attention to!

Cybercriminals are constantly coming up with novel schemes to kidnap their victims. A recent cyberattack on a five-star resort should act as a cautionary tale for your company. In Oregon, the Allison Inn & Spa recently became the target of a ransomware assault that revealed the personal data of its staff and visitors. The stolen data was published in easily accessible form on the public internet and includes details from 1,500 employees and more than 2,500 guests, including dates of the guests' hotel stays as well as employee birthdays, phone numbers, and Social Security numbers. The "dark web" is typically the only place where stolen private information like this is released, making it harder to find through regular online searches. The goal of the cybercriminals was to coerce the company into paying a ransom. The public disclosure of the private visitor and staff information seems to have been an "experiment" to see if it would increase pressure on the company to pay the ransom. Cybercriminals may use this new strategy frequently in the future to demand ransom from their victims. The implementation of thorough cybersecurity risk management procedures should be considered by resorts. In the event of a cybersecurity attack, determine which systems were affected by the attack and immediately isolate them. Then, prioritize those systems for restoration and recovery. After which, involve internal and external stakeholders and retain legal counsel for advice. It is crucial that you hire a third-party incident response provider and notify law enforcement. Multifactor authentication should be used by businesses to protect network access, and they should also annually train all staff in cybersecurity best practices and keep offline encrypted backups of all internal data.

The major hotel chains are influencing legislation and also now requiring employee safety devices (ESDs) to make the workplace safer for employees (i.e. room service attendants or housekeepers) who find themselves alone in guest rooms with ill-intentioned guests. ESDs can also be appropriate for large resorts with beach personnel, activities personnel, or other positions that find themselves in enclosed, or remote areas with less security. Not every hotel has a security department that can constantly monitor cameras and ESDs. Will these devices present more strain on hotel wireless networks? That depends. Hoteliers need to consider whether these devices will be provided by or monitored through their keylock vendor, through their guest room entertainment vendor, or through a wireless provider. Could there be a benefit to an ESD interface with the PMS? I'm not finding an obvious answer. Hotels, varying in room count, are providing ESDs that range from whistles to wireless to BLE or RFID enabled. Hotel owners and management companies have the responsibility to research the most appropriate solution for their hotel without undermining the safety and privacy of their employees and their hotel networks.