Autoclerk Database Spills 179GB of Customer, US Government Data
An open Elasticsearch database exposed hundreds of thousands of hotel booking reservations, compromising data from full names to room numbers.
External Articles
Facial recognition is coming to hotels. I stayed at Alibaba's hotel of the future
Alibaba is well known for its e-commerce platforms, but the Chinese tech giant has branched into fintech, film, new retail and now, hospitality. I recently stayed at Alibaba's futuristic FlyZoo hotel, which is adjacent to its headquarters in Hangzhou, China. Here, there are no keycards and everything is cashless. It features facial recognition doors, robotic arms at the bar and even robots that deliver items to guest rooms. Alibaba hopes the property will be a model for what a hotel of the future may look like. Upon arrival, I noticed the lobby was completely bare: no check-in counters, no concierge, and no receptionists. As a foreigner, however, I was quickly greeted by a staff member, who used a mobile device to take a photo of my passport and my face. Then she told me my room number and offered to email the receipt. Andy Wang, CEO of Alibaba Future Hotel, claims the data recognition information is only kept during the duration of the guests' stay and is not kept on record.
Mews Raises $33 Million to Challenge Oracle Hospitality in Hotel Tech
Mews, a hotel tech vendor, said Thursday it had raised $33 million in funding from Battery Ventures, a top-tier Silicon Valley firm whose bet represents the first serious validation of a wave of hotel tech startups.
Why Technology Isn’t Being Used to Track Engagement at Events
Collecting data from events is key to helping an organization grow. It helps planners understand which attendees went to which sessions, whether they liked the speakers, and whether, perhaps, they will return in the future.
Choice Hotels Data Breach Could Impact 700,000 Guests
A massive data breach of information from guests who stayed at Choice Hotels and its subsidiaries could have impacted as many as 700,000 travelers. According to ConsumerAffais.com, the Choice Hotels data breach was the result of hackers discovering an unsecured database that contained 5.7 million Choice Hotel records, such as the names, email addresses and phone numbers of former guests. Choice Hotels is the parent company of Clarion, EconoLodge, Comfort Inn, Quality Inn and more. While the company claims most of the data involved in the breach was "test data," the database was left unsecured online for four days before being discovered by a security team.
Private Equity Firm Accel-KKR’s Latest Fix: Hotel Enterprise Software
Buyout firm Accel-KKR is rolling up hotel technology vendors. It needs to find bargains, given the high valuations for the bigger businesses it more typically buys. So it's looking to build scale with mid-market companies showing revenues of between $5 million and $200 million. Mid-market firms often sell for lower prices relative to their earnings.
Why Choice Hotels is giving its technology team a seat at the table
Robert McDowell, chief commercial officer of Choice Hotels, explains why he's making sure the company's technology team has a seat at the table — and not just to fulfill business requests or resolve tickets.
How The Big Hotel And Lodging Companies Respond To These Challenges Will Determine Their Future
You've probably stayed in major hotel chains like Hyatt, Marriott or Hilton over the years. When you make your decision about which hotel to stay in, you are probably trading off price against convenience and luxury level to figure out what works best on each trip. Like so much happening now in consumer products, new companies are being invented that blow up the paradigm consumers have long used to make their choices. Those new competitors can charge a price that generates a greater profit because they are offering something unique. In the case of these new hotel and lodging formats, they are offering an experience that traditional providers aren't competing with.
Hospitality startups put 'creatives' spin on private clubs
While private members clubs are far from a novel concept, a new crop of hospitality players are putting a fresh spin on the time-honored concept.
AI predicts Airbnb prices with 69% accuracy
One needn't be an oracle to forecast Airbnb listings prices — AI models fed customer reviews and rental features will do the trick. That's the conclusion drawn by a team of graduate students at Stanford, who investigate in a paper on Arxiv.org ("Airbnb Price Prediction Using Machine Learning and Sentiment Analysis") systems leveraging machine learning and natural language processing to anticipate future Airbnb rates. Alongside the paper, they made available their optimized models on GitHub.
Hilton’s Tech Innovations Drive Brand Growth
Hilton understands the true conundrum of running a hotel business: Customer preferences will always change faster than the market can react. That is why the company has invested throughout the customer experience, from booking to loyalty partnerships, to keep guests happy.
2019 Innovators in Hospitality and Travel: Summer Edition
This roundup is becoming a personal tradition. Twice a year I crack open the notebook — and increasingly look through my iPhone camera roll — to highlight who is innovating in the space of airlines, hospitality, and restaurants and serving as beacons for the broader industry to learn from.
Japanese airport hotel puts flight simulator in room
If you've ever gotten off a long flight and thought to yourself, "I miss being on a plane," then the Haneda Excel Hotel Tokyu has the room for you.The airport hotel near Tokyo's Haneda International Airport has installed a full flight simulator inside one of its rooms that guests can book for 90-minute flying sessions. The machine simulates the experience of piloting a Boeing 737-800, flying from Haneda to Osaka's Itami Airport with an instructor on hand to help. Using the simulator costs 30,000 Yen ($277), while booking the room for the night is an additional 25,300 Yen ($234). Guests aren't allowed to operate the simulator themselves.Aki Hagiwara, a public relations manager at the hotel, said it cost about 10 million yen ($92,000) to outfit the room. While she was unwilling to disclose sales figures, she said the hotel has gotten positive reaction from enthusiasts.
Oyo Has Remade India’s Hotel Business. Now It Is Going Global.
Founded just six years ago by a 19-year-old entrepreneur from one of India's poorest states, Oyo Hotels and Homes has grown so fast that it already ranks among the largest hotel chains in the world. In fact, going by the number of properties it claims in its network, Oyo is by far the biggest, twice the size of No. 2 Wyndham Hotels & Resorts.
Technology Is The Key To Hospitality Success
In today's world, it's imperative that companies and businesses constantly evolve. Simply put, if you're not keeping up with the latest advancements in technology, your company will lag behind.
Expedia’s Arthur Chapin on emerging tech: The good, the bad… and the blockchain
It's easy to get swept up in the promises of emerging technologies: You've heard it once, and you'll hear again how things like blockchain and Amazon's Alexa are disrupting the travel industry, fundamentally changing how trips will be bought and sold.
What Lies Behind Stockholm’s Tech Success Stories?
With strengths in fintech, e-commerce and entertainment, its first wave of innovators included music streaming giants Soundcloud and Spotify and Candy Crush video game makers, King.
Is Artificial Intelligence Really Disrupting Travel?
We have been hearing for months that AI will kill millions of jobs — that technology will take over all aspects of the travel industry and so on.
Hyperloop: Ushering In The 4th Dimension Of Travel
Hard to believe but the precursor of what we know today as the "Hyperloop"—the idea of transporting goods and passengers through low-pressure pneumatic tubes—dates back to the 18th century. It bounced back into the limelight in 2013, thanks to the Alpha paper published by Elon Musk. Christened 'Hyperloop', Musk's concept involved transporting people and goods in a capsule that, driven by linear induction accelerators, hurtled at close to supersonic speeds through a nearly vacuumless cylindrical tube.
Google Expands Power Over Local Discovery and Travel Tools
Google Maps is an integral part of travel for many of its users, and a variety of new features are likely to make Google's other services just as important.