Tag Archives: Credit Cards

by | January 21, 2015 · 11:06 am

Hospitality Industry Management Update: “How Lower Fuel Costs Will Pay Off for Hotels This Year”

Beyond just travel, oil prices also have a role to play in the operational expenses of hotels. Lower prices can bring down utility bills and transportation costs on goods and services and, depending on how long oil prices stay low, propertiesfuel may see this impact their bottom line. “There’s certainly going to be an operational benefit,” says PKF Hospitality Research President Mark Woodworth. “The ultimate benefit is mitigated quite meaningfully by the fact that 45 to 50 percent of hotel expenses are labor related.”

The 50 percent drop in oil prices during the second half of 2014 has put plenty of cash into consumers’ wallets and that could mean good things for the lodging industry this year. Crude oil is selling for $47.64 per barrel today compared to over $90 a year ago. And while prices have started to stabilize a bit, there’s still a chance for them to decrease even further due to the glut of crude and the expectations of weak global growth pulling down the market.

For more: http://bit.ly/183Hzmy

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by | January 20, 2015 · 8:18 am

Hospitality Industry Management Update: “International Travel: On the Move with the Millennial Traveler”

In 2014, more than 1 billion people, in all age groups, will have made a trip beyond the borders of their country. That is about one out of every seven people on the planet. Roughly 220 million, or about 20 percent of thoseinternational-millennial-travelers international travelers, were part of the millennial generation. By the year 2020, the number of millennial travelers is expected to increase by 47 percent to 320 million.

She is 27, single, and sells real estate in San Diego. She is paying off a college loan, shares a house with two roommates and gets to the beach as often as possible. He is 31, living in New York and working for an investment firm on Wall Street. If you were born roughly between 1982 and 2000 (the millennial), you are classified as a millennial or member of Generation Y.

The publishers of the Millennial Traveller report studied data collected from 7,600 young, international travelers between the age of 18-30. Millennials from more than 100 countries were surveyed and asked questions about their international travel preferences.

For more: http://bit.ly/1Bbhhbm

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by | January 9, 2015 · 8:06 am

Hospitality Industry Risk Management Update: “Front Desk Best Practices”

[vimeo https://vimeo.com/96622404 w=500&h=281]

Petra Risk Solutions’ Loss Control Manager, Marco Johnson, offers a P3 Hospitality Risk Report – ‘Front Desk Best Practices’. 

P3 (Petra Plus Process) is the Risk Management Division of Petra Risk Solutions – America ’s largest independent insurance brokerage devoted exclusively to the hospitality marketplace.

For more information on Petra and P3 visit petrarisksolutions.com or call 800.466.8951.

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by | December 5, 2014 · 10:20 am

Hospitality Industry Risk Management Update: “Preventing Credit Card Fraud at Hotels” (VIDEO)

[vimeo https://vimeo.com/113722566 w=500&h=281]

Petra Risk Solutions’ Loss Control Manager, Matt Karp, offers a P3 Hospitality Risk Report – ‘Preventing Credit Card Fraud at Hotels’. 

P3 (Petra Plus Process) is the Risk Management Division of Petra Risk Solutions – America ’s largest independent insurance brokerage devoted exclusively to the hospitality marketplace.

For more information on Petra and P3 visit petrarisksolutions.com or call 800.466.8951.

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by | November 25, 2014 · 9:37 am

Hospitality Industry Management Update: “Avoid Being a Target of Room Block Poachers, Pirates”

The APEX workgroup is focused on educating the market on what meeting planners and suppliers can do to help minimize the impact of these poachers, pirates, and new disruptive companies.Poaching-620x330 Consumer education is another important piece of the puzzle, especially as recent headline-grabbing breaches have made data security top of mind. “It’s important to let people know we cannot control their data if they’re not booking through the official housing agency and the official hotel,” he says.

Room block poaching refers to businesses that actively seek to recruit or divert event attendees away from official room blocks and into other hotel bookings. “This is pervasive,” says Mike Dominguez, senior vice president of corporate sales at MGM Resorts International. “It’s touching everybody now, primarily in the big cities that have larger citywide conventions.”

Dominguez is part of a workgroup formed by the Convention Industry Council’s Accepted Practices Exchange (APEX) that intends to develop awareness and best practices for minimizing the impact of room block poaching.
The practice isn’t new, but technology has made it easier for accessibility to a customer, Dominguez says. Poachers attack public information, such as exhibitor lists on conference websites.

For more: http://bit.ly/1vKaPbs

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by | November 17, 2014 · 9:30 am

Hospitality Industry Security Update: “Cybersecurity Needs Planning, Periodic Review”

Whatever the cost, hoteliers are advised to take certain precautions. “Complacency” is dangerous, Schoshinski said, adding that hoteliers should update security protection plans periodicallyhackers…Despite such resources and other preventative measures in the hotel industry, “the bad guys are getting smarter,” Cividanes said. “The bad guys are watching what you do.

Data security breaches, a hot topic at last year’s Hotel & Lodging Legal Summit, took center stage again at the 2014 conference as the No. 1 topic that keeps hospitality lawyers “awake at night,” said Robert Lannan, program co-chair and principal of Lannan Legal PLLC.

His opening remarks mentioned several headline-making cases, including breaches at Target, Home Depot and White Lodging, where it was revealed in January 2013 that attackers allegedly collected customer credit and debit card numbers, security codes, card expiration dates and other personal information from guests who had stayed at 14 hotels.

For more: http://bit.ly/1zwrVIk

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by | November 12, 2014 · 9:42 am

Hospitality Industry Security Update: “Hackers Using Hotel Wi-Fi to Check Into Victims’ Computers”

Safeguarding against such an attack can be difficult for hotel guests. The best defense is to double check update alerts that pop up on your computer during a stay in a hotel.hackers Go to the software vendor’s site directly to see if an update has been posted and download it directly from there. Though, of course, this won’t help if the attackers are able to redirect your machine to a malicious download site

A hacking campaign known as Darkhotel has been deployed by Hackers to steal sensitive information from business executives, security researchers have revealed.

How it happened is that the sophisticated attackers had been lurking on the hotel’s network for days waiting for him to check in. They uploaded their malware to the hotel’s server days before then deleted it from the hotel network days after.

For more: http://bit.ly/1B9M6jS

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by | September 5, 2014 · 8:52 am

Hospitality Industry Social Media Update: “Modern Hospitality: Social Media With A Smile”

Change is not always a good thing, but for the hospitality industry, it has proven to be great! Those companies, who are adapting to social media and developing a strategic plan, are experiencing a return on investment. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Foursquare are among those mentioned as outlets used to: engage customers, handle requests and inquiries, offer direct promotions, and gauge customer experience. Check out the infographic presented by besthospitalitydegrees.com, to learn more about the impact of online reviews and mobile devices within the hospitality industry.

Click For More!

Click For More!

For more: http://bit.ly/1o6Eqn4

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by | August 7, 2014 · 9:42 am

Hospitality Industry Security Update: “Word to the Wise: Phone Scam Targets Hotel Guests”

“…The callers are very convincing. According to hotel guests targeted by this scam,front desk the caller sounds very professional. However, hotels generally handle any questions about billing at the front desk, not over the phone. And they certainly wouldn’t be calling you in the middle of the night…”

Many travelers are trying to squeeze in last-minute vacations before schools are back in full swing. Unfortunately, scammers know this and may try to trick you into divulging your credit card information by posing as hotel employees. The Better Business Bureau warns travelers to beware of a telephone phishing scam designed to steal credit card numbers.

Hotel guests across the nation are alerting local BBBs of the increased popularity of this scam. Since travel and hotel stays tend to increase during the summer, the scammers ramp up their efforts during this time.

For more: http://bit.ly/1ou7mUV

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by | July 25, 2014 · 9:00 am

Hospitality Industry Security Update: “How Best to Battle Against Cybercriminals”

“…As part of the plan, properties should be aware of laws pertaining to data breach disclosure,CyberCriminal-620x330 educate staff on protocols, contact law enforcement to see who would have jurisdiction in the case of a breach, and put outside data monitoring and incident response teams on retainer…”

Hotels, the bad guys have their beady eyes on you.

“The more credit cards you have, the more interesting you are to someone,” says Suzanne Widup, senior analyst with Verizon’s RISK team. “You have data that they want.”

The hotel industry has a big target on its back, agrees Chris Pogue, director at Trustwave, an information security technology and services company, specifically because property management systems, food and beverage, and retail all reside under one roof and a central integration server consolidates all this customer data.

For more: http://bit.ly/Uy6szg

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