Hospitality Technology

Highlight: IHG (InterContinental Hotels Group) is inviting preferred business accounts across Asia Pacific to move to a dynamic pricing model, guaranteeing corporate travellers to always pay less than best unrestricted rates at its InterContinental® Hotels & Resorts, Hotel Indigo®, Crowne Plaza® Hotels & Resorts, Holiday Inn® Hotels and Resorts, Holiday Inn Express in the region. My Description: InterContinental Hotels Group is making efforts to turn its original accounting and pricing system into a more dynamic and flexible one, which can make more market-sensitive hotel rates according to the demand situation. Currently , IHG is trying to increase the scale of market-sensitive rates to the traditional contract rates. Therefore Corporate travel managers should feel confident they have access to the best possible rates in hotels of IHG. This model guarantees they will pay less than any other unrestricted rates. One advantage of this market-sensitive accounting and pricing system to annualized rates is to respond to unexpected market condition. This dynamic pricing system will not only help corporate managers to reduce related costs but also bring more convenience to corporate travelers as the increase of booking channels. The application of IHG's dynamic pricing system bring many positive feedbacks, especially as these corporate customers usually end up paying less than their RFP-contracted counterparts

this article summarizing the importance of the revenue management. it explains that to maximize the revenue, hotel have to see the rooms at the "right price to the right people at the right time". it also explains the difference in price based on the seasons, or business cycle. it encourages managers to recognize when the demand will go up and adjust the price accordingly. 

Yield management is a process by selling limited quantity of goods to create maximum profits. Successful yield management requires a manager to sell, such as hotel room, at the right time, right price, to right customer. To achieve this goal, manager should understand what the purpose of hotel, what the category of hotel, and why customer choose their hotel rather than others. And also should know the market principal about price fluctuate during off season and busy season. So it is necessary to know well about yield management in order to survive in the fierce competitive environment.

Prospera Hospitality is a successful hospitality operator with 18 properties under the most recognized flags of the industry. In the article it is said that one of the reasons for this company's success is its centralized accounting software that allows them to create flexible financial reports. As different owners have different goals, thanks to its flexibility they are able to deliver them personalized reports. The software that is use by Prospera is Profitvue web-based enterprise accounting and performance management that generates individual and multi-property general ledger, enterprise resource planning, accounts payable, statistics, and financials. This software also generates side by side reports that help owners compare the performance of each hotel and identify problems or successful practices. Being a cloud based system creates a great number of advantages for this hospitality operator. As some of their properties are small with select services they don't have the resources to support on- property software. The software is installed on bigger properties and in the smaller ones only a PC with internet connection is needed.

Generally, call accounting systems help hotel save time and create profits.

Microsoft's search engine Bing is to launch a new event-planning feature that will make it easier to organise nights out.This is a battle with google for the dominance of searching engine. And this is the first time in the history that a major searching engine launches a fully comprehensive events listing with all the details needed to ensure a fun night out.

This article shows tips for event planner to facilitate the networking in an event. Among the tips, it is mentioned in the article that put the list of attendees' names online will let people know who is attending the meeting and the opportunity of whom that they can connect to. Event is for people to communicate. Therefore, if people can know in advance of the list of attendees online, they will be better prepared to attend the event.

This article goes into the advantages of having a POS system on property. Having a POS system helps in the department of revenue management. It is important to have a POS system because it connects front of house, back of house, and the sales operations. The article also goes into the future development of the POS systems in the industry.

Security and POS wrapped up in one tight little bow. Vectron has came out with a new cctv system that integrates to the hotel or bars POS system. Now the security system time stamps all images linked up to transactions. GM's can set up alerts to be sent to their mobiles or emails. Why is this important? Incidents like employee theft, fraudulent credit card use, guest intoxication, credit card disputes and underage service can all be tracked, imaged and time stamped to serve as evidence. This can help in insurance claims, police reports, reporting credit card fraud or dismissal of employees. There are many times where customers dispute there bills after they have received services in Miami and linking the POS to the security system would be a tool in fighting for payments deserved. Too bad this is a Australian Device and not in America.

The article is about the idea of scanning people's emotions (emotion harvesting) at events to measure the return on investment of the attendees. The article talks about how already existing technology could be adopted for event planners and businesses to gather real times response and feedback on events.

Cellebrite, one of the global company known for its technology breakthroughs in the cellular industry, has announced the launch of its Diagnostics Solution. According to the article, this system can be installed to the POS in retail stores, and faults can be easily and quickly removed without sending the POS into the lab. With this new software will reduce the operating costs and eliminate the inconvenience for customers. In addition, the article lists others benefits of Diagnostics tool, including reducing the need for expensive phone serving, speeding up the service process and better customer support.

Trump International Hotels & Tower in Toronto has selected to use MICROS Opera and MICROS RES. The MICROS OPERA system includes property management, vacation ownership, and customer information to manage customer data and provides the most advanced technology. Trump selected MICROS RES because of it's rich restaurant operations functionality. Trump is pleased to be working with just one company that provides so much advanced technology. The company looks to gain more efficiency and secure processes and enable employees to provide superior experiences to their clients/guests.

Highlights: 4 FAQs for Savvy buyers While mostly associated with retail ventures, cash registers have uses within many businesses. Restaurants, hotels, and other service providers have a need for a cash register, and when integrated with a POS system, have found unparalleled benefits. But if you're unsure of the equipment you need, or your security system is lacking, your POS system can be doing you more harm than good. My Descriptions: This article is a quick guide to POS, and it mentioned four questions about POS cash registers: what equipment does a POS register need, are touch screen monitors worth the cost, does integrated equipment save time and how can I keep my POS cash drawer safe. It mentioned that cash registers have been used in most restaurants, hotels, retail shops and other service providers. POS system can bring benefits to them, while POS system can do harm than good if your security system is laking. The author showed equipments which are needed for a POS register. Besides the basic equipments such as computer, monitor and printer, it also needs either a keyboard or a touch screen monitor. Most retail stores will also have a security tag desensitizer near the scanner .As more customers use debit and credit cards, a credit card reader and pin pad are essential for every point of sale location. In addition, the touch screen will help to increase efficiency and eliminate the need for employees to remember codes for the keyboard and reduce problems with keyboard and mouse cords, and it leads to a quicker check out. In this article, the author proves nowadays Handheld scanners are more popular for businesses where items are big and bulky. To keep the POS cash drawer safe, one can program a feature to let cash register to be only opened after a transaction, or it can be a complex procedure where money is only counted under the supervision of a manager or team of employees. Or managers can install a camera to monitor the process of employees to use t

This new Cloud-Based POS software will benefit a lot to the retail industry. First, this system is cloud based, which means it saves its data through internet and can allow different stores to share with the same data base. Second is this system it makes the decision making more efficiently. Third, it is very easy to learn, so that it can save the cost for the employee training. Forth, this system integrates with APPs providers. Since the social media has much more influence today and will be more in the future, this function can be very useful. With the cloud database bing used these days, I am very positive with this new come-out Cloud-Based POS sofware. And one thing I think this one can be very useful is that it integrates with thw APPs.

This article reveals that Revel Systems is expanding its point-of-sale products with Beautiful Brand International. Revel Systems is well-known for creating the mobile point-of-sale system for Apple used by numerous restaurants and retails. Other popular restaurants currently partnered with Revel Systems are Camille's Sidewalk Café, Dixie Cream, FreshBerry Frozen Yogurt Cafe and Rex's Chicken. This POS system provides a quicker checkout option for customers and offers hotel/restaurant managers the option of powering the software using the cloud or an iPad application. This provides the company a cost efficient, easy to use program that has the ability to customize payroll, track inventory, email receipts and allow customers to make orders online. Most managers who invest in this program make it a requirement for all their companies to utilize in order to provide a systematic approach to maintaining their database and ensuring all locations are managed the same. This is such a popular and competitive tool that Revel is already making $80 million since its origin in August 2010. A major advantage of this system is that it provides the ease of accessing documents with its reliance on servers hosted in the cloud. These systems are quickly being adopted by restaurants mainly because customers are impressed with the style, speed and reliability. Revel Systems forces busineses to upgrade their POS systems in order to meet security standards. This will result in a $34 billion POS market by the end of 2012. Companies selling these systems make businesses believe they need POS systems in order to run their business efficiently. They explain that with servers hosted in the cloud, management is enabe to see data in real time from any location.

The article talk about a POS company that has developed a complete system for retail or restaurant stores that runs on the IPAD and the Cloud. It lowers the entry barrier by more than 75% compared to a regular MICROS POS system, they do this by not having a in house server and using standard hardware.  One of the advantages of using this system is that you can monitor your sales real time on any location that might be using the system.

This article explains how POS have improved efficiency and reduced the cost of operations. It explains how some locations have seen improvements since the implementation of MICROS called Simphony. The Simphony system allows the central management of the menus, payroll, scheduling and many other things from anywhere on the web. It has many functions and help with many other areas such has staffing and creation of a loyalty and gift card program. It also allows web reporting on mobile devices. The system has even helped with the drive thru ordering at the locations.

I think that this software is definitely beneficial after reading this article. Simphony will help these locations out in many ways, especially as it relates to efficiency.

It is well-know that utilizing the right technology can greatly increase profits, reduce inventory, help a manger (and a staff) to stay organized and efficient. Further to that Point of Sale Systems are good example of technology that can practically run a restaurant. It can record labor costs, inventory, 'enter' an order and send it back to the kitchen, tabulate the diner's bill and process payments. It is true that POS can be costly, but on the long run, it is an investment that pays back with interest. In addtion, it is to mention that today it is hard to imagine Point of Sales Systems without sophisticated Financial Software, Credit Card Readers, and Order-Entry Touch Screens. With technology that improves on a daily base, each and every restaurant manage should be ale to find POS that exactly satisfies his/her needs and his/her pocket.

Focusing on new trends, POS systems are being brought out and introduced in the new addition of IPAD. This new system called Revel hopes to be the go-to Ipad powered comprehensive POS system for restaurants. Revel systems can be used for payroll, inventory tracking, web ordering and email receipts. Lisa Falzone is the co founder and CEO of Revel System expressed how this new system is going after chains and restaurants that obtain at least $500,000 in yearly revenue. Launched in August 2011 Revel is seeing around $80 million in business processing with major brands and franchises ex: Freshberry frozen yogurt café, Rexs chicker, Dixie cream etc. This new trend with IPAD POS system is a great idea and a fantastic way to be more efficient. Usually POS systems are these screens that are not movable it mainly resides on one specific location while these ipads could be more convenient and mobile. This may help to bring out a better and faster customer satisfaction.

Revel Systems hopes to be the new POS platform for restaurants. This iPad works like a cash register, it can be customized for payroll, inventory tracking, web ordering, email receipts and more.The Revel system is going after chains and restaurants that have at least $500,000 in yearly revenue.

I had a doctor visit this past week and the office could barely function because their servers were down. If down systems can cause this much turmoil in a doctor's office where people expect to wait, imagine the trouble in a busy restaurant. The system sounds great, but there would need to be a back-up system or procedure in place. There are risks of a system crash, so why not have a more traditional processing system available if it is needed? The benefits of cyber storage can be considerable and likely down the road more safeguards will be in place to hedge against the negative effects of a system crash. This is definetely a technology worth researching (if your business is big enough to sustain it).

According to the July 2011 results of the Sustainable Asset Management Survey by Gartner and TRIRIGA, an IBM company, only 8% of their 130 respondents in large corporations and public sector organizations indicated that they did not have an energy and environmental strategy. However, I suspect that this problem is more prevalent in medium and small organizations.

Article discusses results of study on sustainable facilities management and provides a rubric to set and reach energy efficient goals. Key point of the article I think was item number three in which the article instructs managers to focus on energy efficiency rather than renewable energy sources such as solar, wind, and other areas. See also link below to study... http://1105govinfoevents.com/custom/IBM/sustainability_white_paper.pdf

Whether you are looking for a web-based or software-based POS system, you will want it to be a complete package. It should not only improve customer satisfaction, but also meet your needs as a retail business. The following criteria are what we looked for in these systems to meet both points. This article provides 10 Pos systems, and all of them are above good level in experts' and customers' eyes. It offers a detail analysis from hardware aspect which should include a PC or module, display, keyboard and mouse, high-quality cash drawer, barcode scanner, credit card reader, receipt printer and label printer, from the inventory & Other Features that will help track, organize and supply your inventory, from the customer tracking & labels that is quite beneficial to be able to retain customer information for future transactions, from employees & security that has multiple levels of security access and password protection, from help & support that provide training, technical help and warranty.

It is clear that touches that are guest specific will make a guest feel important and at home. It is important that upcoming technologies keep customer convenience in mind as new features are developed.

The article talks about how to build guest loyalty. There is one thing I like is that "Establish a two-way value proposition". By doing this, both of the business property and the guests feel like they get something valuable which helps with cultivating guest loyalty. It also give tips for hospitality properties to stand out from other competitors.

Completely agree, building special relationship between hotel and customer and having a file of information for each customer can help doing statistic researches and sales increase.