Hospitality Technology

With Apple came a new era to the contemporary technological world in which some people and businesses can not operate with PC, because Mac interface and overall features seem to be more user-friendly, but however most of those people and businesses want to operate Mac, using PC features. So, this article suggests how to keep both systems working and what are the means, advantages and disadvantages to that

Pretty Neat article. Sticky notes provided!

The August Group NYC's selection of Agilysys Guest 360™ property management system and Agilysys InfoGenesis™ point of sales system for their Hotel Modern New Orleans was a service driven decision made with confidence. Although the systems premiered at another property the August Group NYC is excited to reveal these advancements at their newest property in the Warehouse-Arts district of New Orleans. The August Group NYC remained loyal to Agilysys because they trust the management information system representatives who performed their job functions of installation and support flawlessly in the previous property. The powerful, yet easy to use applications are designed to increase productivity and hence the ability to generate more business. Specifically, the unique service orientated architecture of Agilysys' PMS system includes a Guest Hub that records and stores a history of guest activity. The article does not specify whether the data is collected while staying at the hotel or dining in the restaurant but I can assume both sources would be valuable. By using data mining the Hotel Modern New Orleans can review the guest's history and make specific recommendations the next time they visit their property. I do however foresee possible user acceptance issues with these advanced technology systems and the environment it is housed. The Hotel Modern New Orleans prides itself on its historical location and precious antiques. How will guests who wish to experience 'Old World charm' receive this 'New World' technology? Will guests see the recommendations as thoughtful and helpful or scary and an invasion of privacy? Can technology be put in the same category as diversity?

I had trouble posting this for some reason; I was not given the option to share with a group when creating my original bookmark-so here is my original highlight from the article. "The combined power of our Agilysys property management and point-of-sale systems will give The Hotel Modern New Orleans the tools it needs to operate at peak efficiency, deliver highly personalized guest service and realize a competitive advantage."

The hotel Modern New Orleans utilized the Agilysys Guest 360 PMS and the Agilysys infoGenesis POS solution to smooth the operations and deliver personalized customer service. This PMS was built from the ground up to use service-oriented architecture. Its flexible platform was suitable for all sizes of hotel even multi-property operations. Combines powerful reporting and configuration capabilities in the back office, the Agilysy InfoGenesis POS system can manage any combination of dining, bar service and retail operations. Both of these POS and PMS will help the hotel to operate effectively meanwhile provide highly personalized service to the customers.

Technology has opened a new door to the consumer's lifestyle, and a great opportunity for the restaurant owners to make a significant profit; people are using the PC via internet and the mobile devices (smart phones) to place food orders and right away make the payment of their order getting the receipt via email. Consumers can see the menu and pictures of the different dishes with the description of the ingredients of each one and nutritional value. Consumers can place the food orders while they are in their office, school, home, etc. Also, social networking sites are playing an important tool for these restaurant owners in their marketing strategy, it helps to create brand loyalty, inform the consumers for the new events, and also advertise the job opening.

New software called Ipet has been launched in 2011. The software gives the pets' owners the ability to interact with their animals while at work. Ipet consists of a video camera, remote-controlled arm with a kitty-toy and software which allow the toy to dance and jiggle. This software allows pet owner to have controlled of their cats or dogs. Since as humans, animals also need companionship and love,  I think it's a great idea to develop this software because  it give pets owners who works long hours , the ability to play  virtually with their animal , and also making sure the animal is eating and well during their absence. This software also has its negative side because if the owners spend too much hours interacting with their pets while at work, their performance at work will be less efficient and may cause the company profit to decrease.

Nowadays, TripAdvisor play an important role in tourism industry. Most of people will review TripAdvisor ranking and then make their own holiday arrangements. On-line user review rankings are important in contemporary society. As the TripAdvisor president said, trip advisor is a honest person's opinion. TripAdvisor website plays the role of trusted intermediary for the independent traveler. However, some hoteliers concern about their personal reputation. I read another article that hotel owner Duncan Bannatyne complains the consumer resource is bad for business. For example, if a hotel was reported for bad bug exist, this definitely is a fatal effect on hotel reputation even this hotel already take proper action to kill all bad bugs. On the other hand, as TripAdvisor CEO stated, "Ninety-eight percent of our audience when we surveyed 'Do you trust the reviews,' the answer was 'yes' because they read the reviews, they go and they stay and it matched expectations. The system works." TripAdvisor also take '"most of hoteliers" concern into their consideration, they have a decade of expertise at catching people who are try to spam their system.

From my experience in the industry. I know how much people really depend on trip advisory to help them decide on where to stay when they choose the destination they will be traveling. But I have heard stories on how the Owner of the hotel I used to work for would write on trip advisor amazing comments of the hotel to bring more crowd in and then he would invite his friends to write in trip advisor as well. This makes me question how real are all these comments posted in trip advisor. If you think about it, anyone can make up a profile and fill out a comment about a specific hotel. What makes us so sure about this website overall?

Basically the restaurant Ruth Chris is going to go high tech. They are tossing out their old menus and upgrading to having their menus presented on ipads along with the pictures to entice the guests to try something new off of the menu. It will also offer wine selections to partner up with certain menu items. I think that this is a smart idea. Yes, they will up their expenses on getting the ipads and keeping them all up to date but in the long run it becomes a novelty that the restaurant can offer. They only thing I would be worries about with this upgrade is that the restaurants would only need food runners and a few waiters for drinks. Most likely any question a guest could have would be answered by the ipad due to the explanations offered by the application.

Google+ launched the business pages platform, which is similar as the platform of Facebook. The advantages of Google business pages is not obviously, but one thing very clearly is that if a hotel joins in Google+ platfrom, it could be more easier to search on Google and show on the top than pages or accounts on their competitors' sites.

Backing up your computer data is very essential. Many properties may not realize how important it is to back up their data. Imagine you, a human being losing all the information you have learnt from the day you were born. You would be lost and confuse. So same for a company, if all their data are lost the property would be in severe trouble. Today backups can be done in many ways. Some are more expensive than the other. Drives like Tapes and CDs/DVDs are less expensive to use than Micro drives. Another way to backup you data is online. Online backups are getting very popular with all types of properties. Some backup data are stored on site and others offsite. In case of fire or theft to a property, offsite backup comes in very handy. Also, it is very important to test your backup data on a regular schedule.

This article is about a new form of software that makes the entire stay easier! The software is called LIFE l WARE. What it does is, when a guest enters the room it provides everything he/she needs. The are able to monitor and view entertainment, control the room temperatures and even helps the the staff with public info and cut operational costs and allowing more efficiency. Life l Ware can be customized for any hotel and when a guest enters the room he can use the TV interface to view and select services and view the amenities that the hotel has to offer. The software can be used to book reservations, watch TV and adjust the lighting and temperature in the room. Management can also use the software with guest complaints and also can be used for the daily running of the hotel; for example, check ins and check outs and also room cleaning. Additionally, management can also use the system to help cut energy costs by monitoring unoccupied rooms. The software helps the Hotel all around!

Generally, digital bill folder provides solution to two kinds of problem : simplifying the checking procedure and reducing skimming.

ATLAS sands for Advanced Technology Lodging Access System is designed for hotels that need to have a better control over their back office operations and that can rely on a system to provide secure access to their premises and accurate.

I used to use this systme to make key cards for the customers in the hotel. It's really easy to make a key card and safe for both of the customers and hotels. For example, if a customer lost his/her key card, we can remake a new one that the old one is not able to open the door in case of a theive pick up the room card to access to the guest's room. I think in the future the access system will be more advanced like you can use a cellphone to access to your room or you just use your finger print or pupil to access your room. It also works for the access for the employees. Employees may access to the working area by using their figer print or pupil to in case of some of the stranger to access to the working area. This locking system may be still have a large space to develop. This will make the hotel more fashionable and more intersting for the customers. We used to have the oringinal keys but now most of the hotels use key cards. Today also some of the hotel use mobile phones to access to the room, here still some security issues to be pay attetion like if someone lost their mobile phones. So from my opinion the future room key fotr the hotels will be better to use the unique identity of the human to access to the room.

Intel has three main processors, the i3, i5, and i7. However the biggest market for Intel is the primary mid-range processor i5. It is targeted at the heart of the market, with pricing that is not at budget levels but still affordable, and performance that is extremely quick but not the fastest Intel offers. Intel Turbo Boost is a standard feature on all i5, and i7 processors. As expected, the more you pay, the more you get. For instance, the Core i5 2300 has a base clock speed of 2.8 GHz and a maximum Turbo Boost speed of 3.1 GHz. The Intel Core i7 2600, on the other hand, offers a base clock speed of 3.4 GHz and a maximum Turbo Boost of 3.8 GHz. Another significant performance difference is how the Core i7 and Core i5 products will be handling hyper-threading. Hyper-threading is a technology used by Intel to simulate more cores than actually exist on the processor. While Core i7 products have all been quad-cores, they appear in Windows as having eight cores. This further improves performance when using programs that make good use of multi-threading. However, all Core i5, processors have hyper-threading disabled and all i7 processors have multi-threading enabled. This is a major difference of the two different core processors and gives the i7 an edge over the i5 processors. Last but not least, the average difference in price between the two different processor is about $80 dollars with the i7 processor coming out to be $294 and the i5 processor ranging from $177 to $216 dollars. You are basically paying for the difference of 100 MHz clock speed on the processor and the ability to have multi-threading capabilities.

The iRiS Sommelier is an application that turned the iPad into a digital Sommelier. It allows diners to browse through the wine list in their preferred language, view each wine label, and narrow the selection according to the type of wine, color, size, grape and region, as well as price. The iRiS Sommelier does not just lead to more informed dining experience, but also reduces wine selection time. Furthermore, this application helped to increase wine sales by 21% at the Kepinski Hotel in Budapest. In regards to the operation, the great feature is that restaurants are able to update their wine lists instantly, as well as change prices and availability. In addition, wine menu printing costs are minimized and environmental benefits are maximized. In my opinion, the iRiS Sommelier is not just a great new way to introduce the wine menu and update the inventory, but also to educate diners and give diners more time to enjoy their wine and food.

I think that mobile devices (smart phones) are playing an important role in the lifestyle of the restaurant goers, this applicaton not only educate the consumers about wine and food, but also keep them up date of the new trends.

computer security is definitely still a "hot topic." But why are we spending all this time and money and still having problems? . Systems based on "Default Permit" are the computer security equivalent of empty calories: tasty, yet fattening.The most recognizable form in which the "Default Permit" dumb idea manifests itself is in firewall rules.Another place where "Default Permit" crops up is in how we typically approach code execution on our systems. 2.Why is "Enumerating Badness" a dumb idea? It's a dumb idea because sometime around 1992 the amount of Badness in the Internet began to vastly outweigh the amount of Goodness. "Enumerating Badness" is the idea behind a huge number of security products and systems, from anti-virus to intrusion detection, intrusion prevention, application security, and "deep packet inspection" firewalls. 3."Penetrate and Patch" crops up all over the place, and is the primary dumb idea behind the current fad (which has been going on for about 10 years) of vulnerability disclosure and patch updates. 4.Hidden in Parker's observation is the awareness that hacking is a social problem. It's not a technology problem, at all. "Timid people could become criminals." The Internet has given a whole new form of elbow-room to the badly socialized borderline personality.If you're a security practitioner, teaching yourself how to hack is also part of the "Hacking is Cool" dumb idea. 5."Penetrate and Patch" can be applied to human beings, as well as software, in the form of user education.Dealing with things like attachments and phishing is another case of "Default Permit" 6.There's an important corollary to the "Action is Better Than Inaction" dumb idea, and it's that: "It is often easier to not do something dumb than it is to do something smart."

This article makes an interesting, albeit accurate, point about technology today. For the most part, most technological advances are not so much hardware as they are software-oriented. Aside from making the hardware devices more compact and smaller, the focus is on speed, operating system, and functionality. Related to the topic but not in the article, I remember reading somewhere that gaming systems/companies usually come out with a new device every five years or so, but none have come out recently due to the potential still in the devices used today (specifically the wii, xbox 360 and ps3).

This article is talking about the Green Key Global which is a company providing eco-rating program for hotels to keep sustainable development announced that this program has established in all 50 United States. The Green Key Eco-rating Program is a rating system intends to recognize lodging industries that are committed to improving their environmental performance. Hoteliers would be awarded a 1-5 Green Key rating based on the results of a comprehensive environmental self assessment and they could learn guidance on how to reduce environmental impacts and operating costs by reducing utility consumption, employee training, and supply chain management. This program is a win-win situation for both hotels and Green Key Global. Hotels are helping Green Key penetrate the U.S market and the Green Key is helping hotels win the business of environmentally conscious consumers because more and more consumers are treating the green part as a decision-making factor in where they stay. In my opinion, I love this program and I hope more hotels would participate in this program to reduce the increasing environmental impacts created by human and our business activities. And I believe green hotel would a trend for the future and one day it may be a regulation issued by government.

I was not aware that travel services/sites were recognizing rankings on green initiatives. Many consumers today are basing their choice in hotels on their environmental programs, it is great to hear that Green Key is now present in all 50 states!

Yes I also love this eco-rating program, which will improve environmental performance. It's a win-win situation as you mentioned in your summarize that both Green Key Global and hotels would get benefits. I did some research of the hospitality trend, and go green is definitely a big trend.

This article shows the importance of guest reviews in a hotel through online websites like TripAdvisor. Before purchasing the antique St. Ermin's Hotel in Central park, management decided to take a look of what customers thought about the property. People said the location was fantastic and it had beautiful physical assets but it needed a major renovation. TripAdivisor played a huge role for the hotel to recover and maintain high level of guest satisfaction raking their property from 480 to number 25 in TripAdvisor's Central London rankings and later jumped to number 18. Websites like TripAdvisor enables management to be informed and up-to-date of what customers are looking for before they travel. At the end, customers are they reason why we are still in business.

This article shows the importance of guest reviews in a hotel through online websites like TripAdvisor. Before purchasing the antique St. Ermin's Hotel in Central park, management decided to take a look of what customers thought about the property. People said the location was fantastic and it had beautiful physical assets but it needed a major renovation. TripAdivisor played a huge role for the hotel to recover and maintain high level of guest satisfaction raking their property from 480 to number 25 in TripAdvisor's Central London rankings and later jumped to number 18. Websites like TripAdvisor enables management to be informed and up-to-date of what customers are looking for before they travel. At the end, customers are they reason why we are still in business.

Unlike many articles here, this article focuses on modern technology for cruise ships. What it talks about is top ten cabin technologies which will enable cruise liners to increase guests' experience and its profits. Among the top ten, there are some remarkable technologies. First of all, biometrics will play an important role onboard because it will enable both cruise liners and guests to save great time with facial recognition, touchless palm and iris scanning. Guests will no longer have to wait in line to get into/out of the cruise ship. Second, RFID, Radio Frequency Identification, will be another key technology. This is also beneficial to both sides, guests and cruise operators. With RFID wristband or ankleband, guests do not have to bring their key cards and wallets while doing activities. Also, in-cabin sensors could detect whether guests are present, helping room stewards figure out when they need to clean the cabin, and conserving energy. The last notable cabin technology is cell phone. With wireless-enabled cell phone, guests will soon be able to open the cabin door, make a reservation for restaurants and other facilities such as spa, massage, and shore excursion. As cabin technology has greatly advanced, guests would rather spend their time in the cabin than going out to the decks and public spaces such as casino, bars, stores, ets., with their wallets. This is definitely not good news for cruise operators, but all of these great technologies make guests' experience onboard better and easier, increasing in guests repatronage and revenues.

This article is about technology of combining the room key with the iphones. Holiday Inn will test this technology next month. Though this is a creative idea, some people may feel skeptical to try the new room keys. As this technology is new, some guests may not accept that use the cell phone as their room keys and there are many questions come into being with this new technology. For hotels, they must think about the using guests' iphones as the room keys is optional or required. The article also illustrates how the iphone works and what will happen if the iphone is lost or stolen. Besides, more hotels will test this new technology and the technology will work with regular cell phones. In my opinion, combining the cell phones with the room keys is a good idea, because many customers today use iphones today, and almost everyone takes a cell phone when live in the hotel. It is convenient for the guests to use their cell phones as the room keys. This technology can give guests fast check-in because before the guests arrive, they will receive a text massage containing their room number and a unique and encrypted sound code that they'll use to unlock their hotel-room door. When they arrive at the hotel, they can directly go to their rooms. It also can reduce front desk's work. . However, security is still the main factor that the guests will concern and there are some risks if the cell phones lost or stolen. Besides, some guests may prefer to use traditional room key and may not accept the change. It relies on the Open Ways (the secured network) and can work with more brands of cell phones. I consider hotels can provide this technology for the guests as an option because some guests prefer the traditional room keys while some like the new technology.

This article is about the use of I-Phone of Blackberry as your room key. It explains that Holiday Inn will be trying this new technology and many guests are not sure about trying it out. Many guests are not sure about trying it and question how safe it can be. The article explains that this new technology is not required and is rather an opinion. The article explained how it works and is simply a code sent to the customer to their phone and this is used to open the door and the code is only used once and resets every time. The article goes on to explain that there is no issues if the phone is lost or stolen because the codes aren't saved to the phone but rather the server the app runs on. I feel that this is a new cool way to technology. However, I don't see where it is anymore secure than a room key and really it doesn't make the process any easier. I feel its new and innovative but its not the best idea.