In the hospitality industry, everything is just about emotion!
Indeed, in this industry, it is about comfort and wellness. The hotelier and the restaurateur who welcomes the guests know it well. It is about pleasing, delighting, serving and to make sure the guest leaves with a positive souvenir if one wants to keep its clientele.
VDC, an independent technology market research firm, is conducting a comprehensive study into the total cost of ownership for mobile computing and communications solutions among users in the hospitality and leisure markets. VDC defines total cost of ownership as being comprised of, but not limited to, the following:Hardware platforms, including peripherals such as bar code scanners, touch screens, keypads, etc., software: OS licenses, application software licenses, middleware, terminal emulation, etc.,
System installation and integration (including wireless/wireline communications), and those "soft costs" related to cost of downtime related to computer failure, staff time to support your mobile workforce, etc.
The Gómez Hotel Industry Homepage Benchmark for June reveals several key trends. (1) Response time averages dipped slightly across high speed connections during the month of June. Network data center times exceeded 4 seconds, while corporate/Institutional Response times rose to 7.75 seconds.(2) Interestingly, the dial-up connection average for all hotel sites was appreciably faster compared with the previous two months. These trends could indicate decreased visitation to the hotel sites or simply fewer people concurrently attempting to access sites throughout the month. (3) The Starwood Web site climbed from number five to number three in this month's Network Data Center response time ranking.
Hospitality - the labour problem : Labour is the last cost area to be effectively controlled in the Hospitality Industry. Over the past few decades many other areas such as purchasing and Facilities Management have been systematically addressed. Only recently has reliable technology been developed to enable a cost effective and systematic approach to the labour 'purchasing' decision.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) has received a lot of attention over the last few years, and rightly so in hospitality. In addition to managing customer relationships though, technology and other business relationships need equal attention. Process Improvement, Six Sigma, Total Quality Management (TQM) and Balanced Scorecard are all methods used to improve an organization. Although many of these methods have been used informally (and recently, more formally) by hotel organizations, it is important to understand that while a full-blown Six Sigma implementation may not make sense at a 200-room limited-service property or even at a five-star resort, there are many components and smaller initiatives that do.
In this streaming audio interview, Chris Hartmann explains his article, noted above and linked below. It introduces the term 'Experience Design,' explains what it is, who has it and why you might need it. This technology expert with a Harvard education puts it in easy to understand terms for those who might be a little hesitant when it comes to the Internet and marketing your product, service or property. The interview is 12 minutes but could have been 20. Check it out!
During the past year, HVS International has performed hundreds of market studies and analyses. One of the major trends of the post-September 11th travel world that has become critically important for our analyses is the surge in the use of the Internet as a sales and marketing tool. Reservations for hotels are now almost universally booked through an Internet source, whether the source is a GDS used by travel agents, a website sponsored by a particular lodging company, or a third-party travel agency site such as Expedia or Priceline.
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz.--Despite the devastation that the hospitality market experienced in late 2001, the market for hotel broadband has been revitalized and is positioned for strong growth in the second half of 2002, according to In-Stat/MDR (
There has been lots of speculation about ASP (application system provider) systems for hotels. Are they reliable enough for a high volume front desk; who retains data ownership; are transaction speeds high enough for our industry; and are they a good value? These are just a few of the questions hotel operators have been discussing. At last year's HITEC ASP was one of the major panel topics, but this year things have changed.
Retail and the hotel business are getting together. The development trend in the hospitality industry is toward more mixed-use properties. Mixed-use hotels are the ones with a big familiar flag in front, like Hilton or Marriott, and a collection of retail stores or franchised restaurants in the lobby.
In this streaming audio interview, Max Starkov, Chief eBusiness Strategist at Hospitality eBusiness Strategies, Inc. in New York City, comments on his report: "Your Hotel's 2002 Cyber-Resolution." How can a recovery continue? Max says hotels need to use the Internet to sell their inventory - and be proactive in doing so. It's easy, relatively inexpensive and companies such as Marriott and Hilton have flourished in the on-line booking business.
By Max Starkov- The media hype surrounding the mobile Internet is astounding. Articles, commentaries and reports on wireless applications, WAP, 2.5G, 3G, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi are all over the print and online media. Getting confused? What are the implications of the mobile Internet, next generation wireless technologies and m-Commerce in the travel and hospitality space? What is the true meaning of these emerging technologies for the travel suppliers and buyers?
One of the reasons for the media hype and investors' excitement is that the market for mobile Internet devices and services has enormous potential and is widely expected to explode in the next 18 to 48 months. WAP-enabled mobile phones are believed to play crucial role in the proliferation of the mobile Internet. After all, your wallet, your watch and your mobile phone are the three things you are most likely to take with you anytime you leave your home. Nokia estimates the global mobile phone unit sales to exceed 450 million in 2001, most of them WAP-enabled handsets. There will be 1 billion handsets in use worldwide in 2002. Around the world more people will use their mobile phones than PCs to access the Web because mobile phones are cheaper and easy to carry around ("constant presence"). By 2002, IDC estimates there will be more wireless devices than wired devices accessing the Web (750 million vs. 600 million). WAP-enabled phones will reach 1.3 billion by 2004, from less than 100 million in 2000.
With so many companies feeling the crunch of today's economic slowdown, having a technology solution in place that works to fill empty hotel rooms could make the difference in a property's success and longevity. Automated revenue management applications provide such a solution, doing their best, most valuable work when demand is fluctuating between busy and not-so-busy nights, and not just when hotels are sure to always fill up.
By Max Starkov- On July 30th Amadeus announced the acquisition of e-Travel, Inc., a leading supplier of corporate travel technology solutions, from Oracle Corporation. The same day Galileo International, Inc.
Hoteliers experienced phenomenal growth with hotel occupancy rates over the past several years, but this is may be history. According to Smith Travel Research, U.S. hotel occupancy was 59.9% year to date through April, a significant drop from the average occupancy rate of 63.7% reached in 2000 (PricewaterhouseCoopers). Reports from the field do not look good. Occupancy rates worsened for 19 of the top 25 metro areas, with significant drops reported in New York, Chicago, Detroit and New Orleans. The softened economy is forcing Hoteliers to think about ways to deal with lower occupancy rates and shrinking RevPARs in the upcoming years.
Bass Hotels & Resorts has been at the forefront of E-Commerce initiatives right since the conception of the internet. They were the first hotel company to offer guests on-line bookings, with
Technology is one of the most important capital expenditure items a hotel currently faces. However, the benefits of hotel technology are often exaggerated by the vendors and when you talk to hotels that have recently installed new systems, many of their expectations have not been met. In his capacity as a specialist advisor to some of the leading hotel owners, Ted Horner explores the question "will the new technology provide a return on investment"?
Virtuality - Disintermediation - Connectivity - Scalability. Big shiny words for the sparkling New World of the E-conomy. The headlines tell us that the E-conomy heralds the deepest lifestyle changes we have seen since the industrial revolution. That it will challenge the core of conventional business thinking. And that it could threaten the very foundations of our property industry. Rosemary Feenan examines the phenomenon of E-Commerce and its impact finally on the property and then the hotel world.
Information is potentially one of the most valuable resources available to the business world. As HTA looks ahead at advancing technology for 2001, it is apparent that the hospitality industry is seizing upon technology efforts that will harness this resource and transform it into translatable and actionable business tools.
Word of mouth is a restaurant's best form of advertisement — even one bad review from a customer can prevent their friends and/or family from visiting your establishment. One of the most effective means of preventing those bad reviews is to correct unfavorable guest experiences by obtaining customer feedback early and quickly responding to the issues. There are several means of obtaining customer feedback including mystery shoppers, manager visits to individual tables, toll-free numbers and comment cards. JTECH Communications Inc. has developed an electronic comment card system that doubles as a check presenter and interfaces with an (optional) pager. The system can be customized with surveys that suit your operation. Customers answer questions at their table and the manager can be notified immediately, via the pager, if the customer's answers reflect that they are dissatisfied.