Hospitality Technology

Microsoft is releasing in October 2012 the new version of the most popular computer operating system Windows 8. This new feature is not only for laptops or desktops, it is mainly focusing on touch screen devices. Lenovo also unveiled their Lenovo Yoga hybrid. This computer allows you to tuck the keyboard flat behind the screen and transform the device into a tablet shape, it can rotate 360 degrees. Windows 8 allows you to put your favorite app such as Facebook or Twitter into the start screen, you can add more apps, customize them and it refreshes constantly so the information stays current.

This article was divided into five parts to introduce the computer networks. The first part is why do we need computer networks. I guess there are a lot of reasons ,but the most important one is to share information from others,everyone can visit information which is provided by other users,also they can simply access the same server machine. The second part is types of computer networks. It can divided by three different types 1.LAN when a certain number of computers within an organization are connected with the use of data transfer cables, it is called Local Area Network. 2.WLAN the goal of LAN and WLAN is same ,that is connect computers with networks.But cables are not used for forming the network. 3.WAN it can connect computers all over the world. The third part is computer network connections 1.Bus network .It is the easiest setup technology which is also easier to make mistakes 2 Star network. It is also a common setup technology 3.Mesh network. This is one of the primitive ways of forming a computer network The fifth part is information transformation . Using this technology, the data is broken into small pieces called packets of data. Every packet of data, has a head and in some cases a tail. The head contains various information, like the destination address, the checking bits. The final part is the definition of protocol. The computer protocol is a set of rules ,information travel from one to another. These set of rules will define, when to send a packet of data, when an acknowledgment signal should be given.The most common protocol, that we must have heard and which is used over in the largest network

This is a new technology for hospitality employees to be able to communicate between each other. THis new handset is durable and substitutes multiple other devices including alarms. It also cents text messages and alarm notifications, so everyone is up to date.  This device color codes different departments so people do not get confused and deliver services promptly. 

I really like this new technology. Especially the color-coded function. It's like sending an order by colors to the staff. It avoids the misunderstanding from vague oral communications.The new handset's high quality audio system means that conversations can be heard more easily, even against a noisy background, while the built-in vibration feature means users can always tell when they are wanted, even if they can't hear the ring. This is really cool too. Communication is so important in hospitality industry. The daily function mostly depends on how well that each department communicate. This new device save people a lot of time and energy to worry about whether they receive the right order or not.

This new study details the transformation of technology and the ever changing social values of the next generation of travelers. In this article it summarizes the next generation of experience, automatic transit, payment with memory, intellegient recommendation, among others. I agree with the article as travelers are already savy when it comes to searching for hotel and flights, now they will want the entire experience to become less stressful and more seamless. When this article refers to the study that explains using mobile devices and biometric technology to facilitate faster check in process, it details by country that is more comfortable using this technology. Intelligent recommendation is already being used for locals, and it will be more accessible to tourists to toughly enjoy the city's true offering. As the demographics of travelers change so will their desire for what is a pleasurable experience.

Consumers seeking a vacation are looking for rich visual content to help them understand the value. On the website, social network, everywhere, a quality visual will provide a good representation of the property, the room, and the differentiators, and help the hotel get a better business. The reason is it could let the potential customers understand the value.Technology has made it easy for travel suppliers to create spectacular, rich content at a cost that will not break the budget.

TLabs Showcase on travel startups featuring UK-based Tripbox, a online travel agency focusing on low-cost hotels, travel ancillaries and flights. This article introduces the Tripbox's financial support to launch the business, their key customers, their revenue model and also it proides an SWOT analysis of the tool.

The definition of electronic distribution is, the speed of light transmitting of information to ensure that the hotels can provide its rate, inventory and property information into the customers who are going to buy. The most effectively represented place for the hotels' information is online. Electronic distribution allows the hotels to put themselves on the "menu", where can reach many potential customers with buying power. When a hotel is present itself on majority of the websites searched, customers' purchase increases based on the exposure. Actually exposure means sales. There are two important aspects for electronic distribution. The first one is "Connectivity is the Key ". The hotels should make sure that, your hotels' information can be seen in any point of demand, such as website, travel agent, tour operator, receptive company, visitor bureau and others. And the hotels' availability and price can be changed with the electronic connectivity options. There are two ways of getting inventory and rates in these demand points: one is looking within own systems and infrastructure, other is querying the hotel company's system for availability and rate. The second one is "streaming the booking process". Once the customer's purchase decision has been decided, a booking gets created, and then the booking details will be transferred from a third-party system to the hotel's system. In the hotel's own website, the booking will generally be created by the hotel's CRS platform. Once the CRS receives the booking message, a confirmation number response message is sent back using the same pathway to give the demand touch point the assurance that the message has been received and processed. Hotels should make sure that you are in front of your customers, which means that your products is on the electronic distribution is all about. The information should be truthful and unbiased.

"REPORT FROM THE U.S.-There's a potential new powerhouse poised to jump into the travel sector. Search engine behemoth Google announced 1 July it plans to acquire ITA Software in an all-cash deal for US$700 million, subject to adjustments. A Google spokesman said there was no timetable yet for the closing of the deal." This article is about Google trying to create a software that will be in charge of organizing a system were they would be able to provide travel information. It will be a great way for them to generate revenue. It is a long term project that will require a lot of information on the pros and cons that it will bring to Google and the hospitality industry. and since ITA does not currently have a search capabilities for hotels that change could be advantageous to customers. But will it affect other browsers? Definitely BING in my opinion.

Highlight of the article: Toronto, Canada & Glattbrugg, Switzerland -- January 21, 2010 -- VFM Leonardo, leader in online visual content distribution for hotels, today announced that Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts, an upscale hotel management company represented through over 90 hotels in operation or under construction in 26 countries, is using the Premium edition of VFM Leonardo's VBrochure Online Merchandising System to better merchandise its properties online with photos and rich media on thousands of electronic channels and websites in the VNetwork™. My description: VFM online merchandising system has been used more and more widely in hotel digital asset management and online visual content distribution network.It is a source helping potential customers to find the visual information of a certain hotel and increase booking of this hotel.The article mentioned a successful example of using VFM in Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts, an upscale hotel management company.VFM makes it possible that make advertisements for this hotel in 26 countries of four core markets, Europe , Asian, Mid West ,and Africa.Nowadays, VFM Leonardo is a technology leader in online visual content management and distribution for the hotel industry and there are 90,000 hotels worldwide currently in distribution across the VNetwork.

Mobile marketing is in it's infancy in Africa but better for hotels to be there for its first steps than when it's about to graduate. Accor Hotels has started it's mobile app for online bookings in Africa but has experienced a slow growth in mobile bookings, unlike Kenyan hotel chain Sarova which boosts 10% of all bookings are done through mobile phones. 7 million people carry smart phones in Africa, and Kenya and South Africa are the most m commerce savvy countries with the highest mobile transactions. For optimum exposure as smart phone usage grows start promoting your hotels now with mobile apps.

This article describes how a new company, HotelTonight, is attacking the market of spontaneous travelers. The company made an app for iPhone an Android users that sends "Impulse Rates" to users who have the app. Impulse Rates are heavily discounted rates on hotel rooms offered by hotels through HotelTonight for rooms that have been unsold that day. If users like the offer, they can book the room through the app in eight seconds with only three clicks.  There is also a little interview with HotelTonight CEO, Sam Shank in which he answers questions about how the company runs.  I think this is a great idea for company. It helps everyone involved - hotels increase revenue by selling rooms that otherwise would have been empty, consumers get great deals on rooms, and HotelTonight profits off of a nominal fee for processing the transactions. This is similar to the Ding! app from Southwest airlines but designed solely for mobile devices. 

Here is a link to the company's website. I don't have the app but it looks like it would be pretty easy to use. http://www.hoteltonight.com/

A great idea. Truly a win-win for all. I'm glad that they are finding the impulse rates are not affecting the amount of regular booking guests. I would like to try this myself and live life to the fullest.

This article throws the popular notion that social media is one of the most important point of contact with customers for a loop. It points out that social media, like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, is only a customer engagement channel not a distribution channel where you can measure important date like return on investment. It is limited to building relationship and engaging guests. This article exposes a channel that can do all of this plus generate sales and measure ROIs as much as $33 for every $1 spent. It is direct marketing. Direct marketing motivates customers to "take action, to pick up the phone or click through your website." It can attract specific target segments with specific, tailored messages to get them to act. The article offered a quiz for hoteliers to measure how good hoteliers' sales strategies are, if they scored low they offered them to take up direct marketing. It is the ideal medium for them to reach consumers and generate direct sales. I did not think that direct marketing was such a strong and motivating factor in reaching consumers and generating sales. I have always had a negative view on it because of its cost and vague way to reach out. But I must agree, it is a more accurate way than Facebook or Twitter in measure the success rate of their investment.

When it comes to airports that stand out in offering a welcoming, helping hand to passengers, Los Angeles, Pittsburgh and some other airports are notable for deploying customer-service representatives trained to be N.I.C.E. - "Neutralize Irritations Customers Experience." This is a great article on how iPads are revolutionizing the travel industry.

3 Multi- Property Goup and 6 Independent operators select Guest-Centric PMS. This PMS help hotels increase revenue by cross-selling from single database. By using this system, the hoteliers can operate two hotels through one system to increase more business for both. It also provide more personalized service to the guests by integrated PMS and Spa and Activities Management System. Moreover, Maestro was the only vendor offering the total integration which maximize sales and efficiency of the hotels.

here is the highlight part: Maestro True Multi-Property PMS increases revenue by cross-selling from single database. 'No other system was able to provide the flexibility and functionality we needed' Total integration and the best multi-property tools to maximize sales and efficiency

Nowadays, cloud-based technology is becoming widely popular. The cloud has several benefits such as removes hardware off property which save lots of cost for hotel, less people manage it which can yield saving. This new technology is also very efficient and increase productivity at the same time. Some hotel brand get interested to this web-based central reservation system like Choice Hotels International. It is so true that hotel is not the ideal place to run complicates systems. Cloud-based technology to some extent can help hotel solve this problem. As we all know, labor cost is a big expense for hotel. Cloud can do things faster by taking the burden off IT hotel staff. Also, the front desk can focus more on guest. Those kinds of changes can eliminate the number of staff. However, some bad things about cloud-based technology also exist. For example, Internet is not always can rely on. Hotels need to have backup plans in case some unexpected things occur. Overall, this new technology has a higher quality overall service.

E-commerce is booming in recent years and it will definitely become a trend in managing hospitality industry. The trend refers to consumers can book a reservation or order food wherever they are. It means convenience and fast and easy to do. And m-commerce is a upgrade promotion to e-commerce since people can book a room when they arrive at airport with their handset devices. It has absolute geographic advantages. Because smartphone is wildly used by more and more people, m-commerce will proliferate throughout all over the world.

From PMS to POS-the 20 year evolution of hotel computers : This article talks about how the computer applications such as PMS or POS has evolved and changed the way hotels / restaurants operate. Twenty years ago, the value of a PMS was in its computerized capabilities as properties began to switch over from manual systems. Ten years ago, the more valid comparison was between a DOS and a Windows-based system. Today, the frontier is on-site vs. online systems. The article is very detailed one explaining more about PMS & POS. A must read for better understanding of its use in hotel and tourism industry

The Lodgical Solution Timeshare Software is known to be everything that someone would need to manage their timeshare. The article states that "the key method to this system, is combining the Lodgical Solution Timeshare module with your Lodgical Solution PMS"; this gives you the ability to manage day to day task. This software tracks and bills ownership fees, it even emails and prints invoices for owners, it directly deposit owners payment in their account for them, and you can use the system to rent out timeshare slots if their owners do not wish to use them. This system even have maintenance, I am quite frankly impresses with this. This tool directly gives an individual the capability to manage a timeshare business. It seriously eliminates cost on many levels.

This article focuses on the cost savings a biometric fingerprint scanning POS can have on a restaurant. It eliminates employees from clocking in early and holds everyone accountable for what they do. It makes life easier for management since they can look at all the transaction data and know exactly who to talk to if something doesn't add up.  I think this is pretty cool software. It was less expensive than I would have guessed. The article said the average price for one of these systems is about $2,000. Depending on the restaurant, that can be a small or large amount but I think in the long run that is a small price to pay from a management point of view.