Tag Archives: Technology

by | March 19, 2014 · 8:45 am

Hospitality Industry Social Media Update: “10 Social Media Strategies For 2014”

“…Marketers can’t simply create a Google+ account and be done with it, however, she said. Similar to Facebook or Twitter, the platform needs a constant stream of fresh contentImage…Online marketing should be as transparent as possible, Gutman said. Better to be honest and upfront than to fool guests at point of purchase and have them tweet their discontent when they arrive on property…”

GLOBAL REPORT—With the new year comes new strategies, and the evolving arena of social media is no different.

 The ultimate goals of those strategies, however, remains the same, said Daniel Edward Craig, founder of online reputation management firm Reknown and moderator of the webinar “Top social media strategies for 2014,” hosted by ReviewPro.

The first of those objectives is to increase brand awareness. The second is to enhance guest satisfaction. Last but not least is to drive revenue.

To help hoteliers reach them, Craig and his panel shared 10 social media strategies to adopt in 2014.

For more: http://www.hotelnewsnow.com/Article/12811/10-social-media-strategies-for-2014

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by | March 17, 2014 · 8:31 am

Hospitality Industry Technology Update: “The ‘Beacon-Enabled’ Hotel Of The Digital Age”

“…I mainly focused on automation and making the experience easier. The next step is to look at ways hotels can increase revPAR (revenue per room),Image which I will focus on in the next article. People have been talking about smart housing for a long time but that is over now. Smart hotels will be realised. The only question is: By who?…”

Our homes are becoming more and more connected to so-called ‘smart homes’ with smart tv’s, smart fridges, and smart lights. Hotels want to give the feeling of comfort and one way to achieve this is to replicate the feeling of being at home. Smart homes are the future and Hotels should embrace change and be at the forefront of technological innovation.

I have been blogging about iBeacon technology and how it could create a whole new experience in stadiums and museums. While many have been focusing on the marketing and shopping benefits of implementing the latest technologies I want to help you look further than that. I would like to introduce the smart hotel.

For more: http://www.hospitalitynet.org/column/global/154000392/4064433.html

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by | February 18, 2014 · 8:43 am

Hospitality Industry Liability Risk: “Carbon Monoxide Leak At Westin Sends 9 To Hospital”

“…A total of 20 guests and employees were evaluated by paramedics, resulting in the transport of nine people to the hospital.  Four employees who worked in the area of the hotel’s laundry roomImage were transported by paramedic unit to the Hyperbaric Chamber at the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center.  Five additional patients, four employees and one guest, were transported to local hospitals…”

For the second time in as many months, Anne Arundel County paramedics were alerted to the presence of dangerous levels of carbon monoxide on the scene of a call by carbon monoxide detectors carried on their medical equipment.  On Sunday February 16th just after 1:30 p.m., paramedics responded to the Westin Hotel, located at 1110 Old Elkridge Landing Road in North Linthicum to assist an employee who felt faint.  While assessing and treating the patient, the paramedics were alerted to the possible presence of carbon monoxide by their CO alarm.  They immediately requested additional assistance to the scene and began to evacuate the patient and others in the area.

Additional responding units checked other areas of the hotel and found excessive levels of carbon monoxide in various locations in the hotel.  Some levels were in excess of 700 parts per million- levels capable of causing serious injury with just two hours of exposure.  The seven story hotel was evacuated by firefighters going room to room on each floor to ensure all employees and guests had been evacuated.

For more: http://www.eyeonannapolis.net/2014/02/17/carbon-monoxide-leak-at-westin-sends-9-to-hospital/

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by | February 14, 2014 · 8:30 am

Hospitality Industry Technology Update: “Miami Hotels Use Technology to Help Sick Guests”

“…Creator Dr. Ramsey Saffouri is launching the program in South Florida ahead of a worldwide release. Saffouri demonstrated the broad, Image multilingual medical technology, which he said also has wide diagnostic capabilities, at a press conference at the iconic Delano Hotel on Wednesday…”

Some Miami hotels are teaming up with a program to offer out-of-town guests who are feeling under the weather a convenient way to hook up with a doctor.

If travelers are suffering from anything from an earache to the flu, they can contact the hotel concierge or front desk to co-ordinate a new medical technology platform.

SKYdoc enables a doctor to receive vitals, such as blood pressure, pulse, and EKG reads for non-life threatening illnesses. The technology allows a doctor to communicate in a way that’s similar to Skype one-on-one with their patients 24-hours a day.

For more: http://www.theprovince.com/travel/Miami+hotels+offer+sick+guests+convenient+doctor+with+technology/9508105/story.html

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by | February 13, 2014 · 9:01 am

Hospitality Industry Technology Update: “The Hotel of the Future”

“…’The cookie-cutter in-room experience has to die,’ says internationally recognized keynote speaker Dr. Lalia Rach, associate dean, UW-Stout School of Hospitality Leadership, Menomonie, WI…timthumb‘We’ve talked about customization for a long time now,’ she notes. ‘We’ve talked about the colors of the room changing, about what’s on the walls changing to be more reflective of the person who is in the room. But it’s not just the physical, it’s the intangible.’…”

At the YOTEL New York, a towering robotic arm takes guests’ luggage and stores it in bar-coded storage bins. The Nine Zero Hotel in Boston uses iris-scan technology that opens the door to its presidential suite, while the Hotel Éclat in Taipei, Taiwan, has toilets with lids that open automatically. The hotel experience is changing, and the future will be here faster than you think. We asked planners, hoteliers, and hospitality experts to make some predictions on what the guest experience will be like; what follows are 20 features that are already here, or will soon be here before you even know it.

For more: http://www.successfulmeetings.com/Event-Planning/Technology-Solutions/Articles/The-Hotel-of-the-Future/

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by | February 3, 2014 · 8:10 am

Hospitality Industry Technology Update: “Z-Wave Technology: Offering Hotels a Wireless Energy Management Solution”

“…As someone in the hospitality industry you probably recognize that it isn’t all about costs, you have to keep your guests happy too. Image This system allows guests to have various room functions to suit their needs, with settings that are easily adjusted – this helps to make sure that your guests check-out of their room nothing less than happy…”

“…You can easily install back-office software which allows you to monitor and control your energy consumption. This allows you to always know where you stand and know where you might be able to make small changes. Of course you also have the added benefit that this is great for the environment…”

If you’re in charge of a hotel, then of course running costs are going to be one of your priorities. With any business you’ll want to keep outgoings to a minimum, but in the hospitality industry this can be tough.

The problem with this type of industry is that you aren’t always in charge of your outgoings – after all, you don’t know how long a guest will leave the hot water running or how much electricity they’ll use on an overnight stay.

For more: http://www.hotelnewsresource.com/article76195.html

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by | January 27, 2014 · 9:04 am

Hospitality Industry Technology Update: “Smartphones to Open Doors at Some Hotels”

“…Guests at these properties will receive a message on a Starwood app containing a virtual key, which will unlock the door with a tap or twist of their phone through the use of Bluetooth technology.Image The company says the iPhone 4s or newer models and the Android phones running 4.3 or newer will be compatible…”

“…Nevertheless, many hotel operators have been searching for ways to eliminate the bottlenecks that can form at a hotel’s front desk. The delays are the bane of many a road warrior’s travel experience…”

Guests arriving at the Aloft Hotel in Manhattan or one in Silicon Valley will soon be able to do something hotels have dreamed about offering for years: walk past the check-in desk and enter their rooms by using a smart phone as a room key.

The boutique hotel brand from Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. plans to offer this feature at two hotels, in the Harlem neighborhood and in Cupertino, Calif., before the end of the quarter.

For more: http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304856504579339130820876304?mg=reno64-wsj&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB10001424052702304856504579339130820876304.html

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by | January 16, 2014 · 8:13 am

Hospitality Industry Cyber Security Risk: “The Target and Neiman Marcus Breaches: What Hoteliers Need To Know”

“…Most of all, hotel companies need to make a commitment to secure the sensitive information of their companies and their guests, and to seek out informed consultants and advisers.Image Information security is a relatively new and rapidly changing area, and requires specialized knowledge; the investment today can protect a hotel from being front page news — for the wrong reasons — later. Developing a comprehensive information privacy and security program…”

The recent headlines about the Target and Neiman Marcus security breach with customer credit cards highlights a growing crisis that concerns owners and operator of hotels as well as retailers. In this article, Bob Braun, one of the senior members of our Global Hospitality Group® who focuses on data security — when he is not working on hotel management or franchise agreements — gives us some thoughts on what to do about this problem.

The Target and Neiman Marcus problem. When 50 million Americans – more than 15% of the nation’s population – wake up to find that their credit card information was compromised while Christmas shopping, we all take note. When we find out that there were 70 million victims, and the information went far beyond credit card information, and that it wasn’t just one chain, Target, but at least four more, including Neiman Marcus (which estimates 40 million payment card numbers were compromised), we should start to look at our own businesses and procedures to think about how we should plan for and respond to these malicious attacks.

For more: http://www.hospitalitynet.org/column/global/154000392/4063594.html

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by | December 14, 2013 · 7:10 am

Hospitality Industry Technology Solutions: New Restaurant Smartphone App Integrates “Ordering & Reservation System”; Customized Menus Along With Table Availability And Wait Times

“…the portable electronic device can be used to review a menu, place an order, and be billed for an order…In other examples, the Hände mit Handys im Restaurantportable electronic device can also transmit personal information or a personal profile of the operator of the portable electronic device to the restaurant so that the restaurant can personalize the menu or provide recommendations for items to order. In one example, the personalized menu can be configured to remove items from the menu that contain substances that the customer is allergic to…”

“…(the app is) capable of providing recommendations for restaurants in response to a search query for a particular restaurant type, cuisine, ethnicity, price point, rating, or a combination of a few of these factors. The recommendations provided to the customer can be based on the wait time for the next available table at the restaurant…”

“…the recommendations can contain only restaurants with a table available within a predetermined period of time. As another example, the recommendations can contain only restaurants capable of providing the customer with a table within a period of time after the customer arrives at the restaurant…”

On December 12, 2013, the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple that reveals a new ordering and reservation system that could work with various Apple iDevices. Although the system can be modified to be apply to movie theaters, repair services, museums and the like, Apple’s main focus is on a restaurant market application Our cover graphic was taken from Apple’s “Life on iPad” promotional video where they illustrated a chef or short order cook using the iPad as part of an ordering system.

For more: http://www.patentlyapple.com/patently-apple/2013/12/apple-invents-restaurant-ordering-reservation-system.html

http://blogs.barrons.com/techtraderdaily/2013/12/13/opentable-slips-apple-patent-describes-eating-at-a-restaurant/

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Hospitality Industry Wireless Technology: Hotels Offered Free Wi-Fi At 64% Of Properties In 2013 With Guests Expecting Speeds Up To 5 Mbps

Hotel Wi-Fi Report

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by | November 16, 2013 · 11:34 am