Hospitality and the Technology Concerns Behind that Welcoming Smile that Greets You When You Walk Through the Door
As we move towards the end of a roller coaster of a year for our industry, the ever so popular pineapple, the early symbol of hospitality, has taken a hit as we pivot around so many obstacles that go against the normal traits that come so naturally for those of us serving guests in hospitality.
Our smile was the trademark greeting that made you feel welcomed as you walked through our doors is now hidden behind a mask. As we maneuver more and more towards that contactless experience, there is a lot lost to the realities we are living in now in this post-pandemic era.
In reality, we are still staying true to our philosophy of taking care of our guests. They are the reason we have erected all the sanitization stations and increased the safe practices that complement the new cleaning procedures. Ultimately we do this for our guests. Just like a mom taking care of her kids, we go the extra mile because we care, and we love being in this industry even as it continues to evolve and change.
In this same spirit of looking out for our guests, we need to look deeper at protecting all of our guests as we move towards 2022, especially when they travel through our properties and engage in building so many wonderful experiences that we need to focus on investing in the infrastructure in place to safeguard not just the weary travelers but our hospitality family.
In our industry, we are usually targeted due to slow conversion to newer technologies. In my experience, I have seen companies hold on too long to the technologies methods that worked in the past and too many legacy systems that should have been migrated to newer systems years before.
This slow evolution creates a plethora of security concerns that, if attacked, will have not just months but years' worth of repercussions that will affect our guests, our co-workers, and our brand to go along with the increase in total financial losses per event.
There is a big trend of double-dipping by these attackers, so I am imploring my fellow hotel technology experts to use whatever magic influence they have to make aggressive changes to close that hole as soon as they occur and setup software and procedure to regularly check and monitor before they make that second attempt.
As we continue to interact and interconnect not just devices and systems and databases but ultimately connect people, we need to make a herculean effort to raise everyone's Cyber IQ not just for their protection but for the protection of all fellow cyber citizens.
I know these efforts of asking you to look for cyber threats to keep our business safe and think before you click on that new group reservation that it goes away from the core values we live in the hospitality industry.
In reality, going through security awareness training and sharing everything you learn with your friend, family, and co-workers, there is no better way to show your appreciation to all of our guests than to provide them with a cyber-safe experience.
Your IT department works hard to provide you with the tools needed to keep the company safe, but they can't do it alone they need your help. In reality, we all need to do our part and be cyber smart and share, share and share that knowledge because it might seem like basic info to you. Still, to others, it might be the big difference between opening up an attachment filled with ransomware or falling for another aggressive social engineering attack.
Hospitality continues to change with the landscape as the attack surface continues to grow. Still, in hospitality technology, the goal is always the same to welcome our guests. Still, the glorious pineapple symbol that once was the heart of our industry is now, in actuality, the cyber-safe experience we provide them by educating our staff and implementing good cyber hygiene to allow them the new luxury of not having to worry about using our services.
