Today Waldorf Astoria Hotels & Resorts launched Waldorf Astoria Driving Experiences at six of its landmark properties in the United States. The new driving program offers hotel guests the unique opportunity to get behind-the-wheel of three incredible supercars under the guidance of world-class professional racecar driver Didier Theys.
Hotelwifitest.com has released a new report that ranks hotel chains and cities by the percentage of hotels with poor WiFi performance. This type of ranking makes perfect sense from a practical standpoint. For most travelers, having super-fast and consistently stable WiFi is a great bonus, but the first priority is ensuring that the basic quality expectations for Internet access are met.
Aloft Hotels, the tech-forward, innovation hub for millennial-minded travelers, is thrilled to announce the appointment of A.L.O. as the hotel brand's first Botlr (robotic butler). This charismatic cyber associate makes his debut at Aloft Cupertino today, making Aloft the first major hotel brand to hire a robot for both front and back of house duties.
Last month, Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals (HFTP) announced to its members that the Venza Group is helping to expand the association's educational resources. Members are now eligible to receive a discount on courses related to PCI-DSS, Personally Identifiable Information (PII) and Security Awareness offered by the Venza Group. These courses are also pre-approved for CHAE and CHTP educational maintenance requirement education credits. HFTP offers two professional certifications, the Certified Hospitality Accountant Executive (CHAE) and the Certified Hospitality Technology Professional (CHTP). Both certifications are held to the high standards of professional continuing education.
FCS Computer Systems (FCS), a leading comprehensive hospitality solutions and services provider, is pleased to announce the recent appointment of Roger Crellin as Executive Director, with responsibilities focusing on the North America and EMEA regions. An accomplished professional with proven results in leading and developing organizations around the world, Crellin will be also tasked with enhancing company efforts in customer service and software development.
In a first for the hospitality industry, Hilton Worldwide today announced its guests will have unprecedented choice and control over their entire hotel stay with the ability to check-in and choose their exact room from digital floor plans, as well as customize their stay by purchasing upgrades and making special requests for items to be delivered to their room, on their mobile devices, tablets and computers. Guests also will be able to check-out using these personal technology devices. By the end of 2014, digital check-in and room selection will be available at more than 4,000 Hilton Worldwide properties across 11 brands in 80-plus countries via members' Hilton HHonors accounts.
Hotel Technology Next Generation (HTNG), the membership association that unites the world's hospitality companies and technology innovators to solve industry challenges, announced a new effort that will generate resources to guide the rapidly growing number of hoteliers and vendors who are moving technology systems above property. This collaborative effort among hoteliers and vendors, most of whom have real-life experience migrating to the cloud, will help hotel companies minimize risk by providing guidelines to benefit hotels, hotel brands, application providers, cloud service providers and others.
The hospitality technology community came together last month to explore the industry's best practices and latest innovations at the Hospitality Industry Technology Exposition and Conference (HITEC®). 2014 was one of the highest attended HITEC's with 5,745 hospitality professionals representing 57 countries. The conference addressed important issues, including system selection, ethics, mobile and guestroom technology, data security, PCI Compliance and more.
Tradeshows remain more important than ever in the internet age, according to a new study from the Cornell Center for Hospitality Research (CHR). The study, "The Future of Tradeshows: Evolving Trends, Preferences, and Priorities," by HyunJeong "Spring" Han and Rohit Verma, finds that people attend tradeshows for the classic reasons of making business contacts and gaining new knowledge. But technology and sustainability have added new elements to the tradeshow equation.
Restaurants of all types are looking seriously at implementing electronic payments, and customers in all restaurant types will increasingly see and use payment technology. Although the restaurant industry has been cautious in adopting electronic payment technology, that is due to change, as explained in a new report from the Cornell Center for Hospitality Research (CHR). The report, "Customer-Facing Payment Technology in the U.S. Restaurant Industry," by Sheryl E. Kimes and Joel E. Collier, is available from the CHR at no charge. Kimes is a professor at the Cornell School of Hotel Administration, and Collier is an associate professor at Mississippi State University.
Developing for Google Glass, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. (NYSE:HOT) today introduced a new SPG app that is the first from a hospitality company to leverage this emerging, wearable technology platform. Creating new ways to be closer to its guests, Starwood's new SPG app for Google Glass extends the company's leadership and adoption of the latest digital technologies.
Frits Van Paasschen, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide president & CEO, explains the hotel's mobile, keyless check-in and the company's plans for returning cash to shareholders. Starwood recently introduced keyless check-in at Aloft Cupertino and Aloft Harlem. Aloft's Pioneering Smart Check-In Program Reached a 10,000 Users Milestone in May 2014.
Industry professionals attending the Hospitality Industry Technology Exposition and Conference (HITEC®) June 23 -26, 2014 in Los Angeles, Calif., will be pleased to find several new and returning technology features. These features are meant to help attendees participate and navigate their way through the event filled week.
La Quinta Holdings Inc. (NYSE: LQ) ("La Quinta"), owner, operator and franchisor of La Quinta Inn & Suites™ and La Quinta Inn™ branded hotels, today introduced a fresh, new prototype design called Del Sol. Inspired by extensive guest experience research, the Del Sol prototype combines iconic brand elements with elegantly clean geometric lines. Artfully blending light and shadow provides a new level of warmth that enhances the guest experience. Designed to maximize revenue-per-square foot while maintaining a competitive cost-per-key, the new prototype's operational functionality is enhanced to lower ongoing expenses for hotel owners.
Barry Shuler was selected as the 2014 inductee to the HFTP International Hospitality Technology Hall of Fame for his role in developing a model for hotel industry enterprise architecture and IT strategic planning. After a long career as a lead technology strategist for Marriott International, Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company and International Hotels Group, he is currently CIO and IT consulting principal with Design Management Associates, Inc. The induction into the Hall of Fame, which is Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals' (HFTP) highest level of recognition in the area of technology, will take place at the 2014 Hospitality Industry Technology Exposition and Conference (HITEC®) on Tuesday, June 24 at 8:30 a.m. at the Los Angeles Convention Center in Los Angeles, Calif. USA.
The soul of the digital business is its content culture – how it derives compelling and relevant content that connects and inspires people. With the fusion of search and social technologies and the yen from audiences to engage in creative ways, content is the "rockstar" of search marketing. Certainly influenced by Google's algorithmic changes – Panda, Penguin, and Hummingbird – the new evolution of content is creating messages that are artistic, engaging and inspired by what people are buzzing about and sharing.
Exhibit space for the 2014 Hospitality Industry Technology Exposition and Conference (HITEC®), a service of Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals (HFTP®), is sold out. A waiting list is available on a first-come, first-served basis for booth space. HITEC 2014 is June 23-26 at the Los Angeles Convention Center in Los Angeles, Calif. USA.
Benchmark Hospitality International®, a leading U.S.-based hospitality management company, announces the "Top Ten Travel Trends for 2014" as observed through a survey of the company’s extensive database of professional travel agents. In a Benchmark-commissioned study, over 20,000 travel professionals were provided a comprehensive survey on consumer and business travel in 2014, for review and submission to an independent market research firm for compilation and analysis. Hospitality industry experts domestically and internationally, Benchmark introduced two of the hotel industry’s newest consumer brands in February: the Personal Luxury Resorts & Hotels® and the Benchmark Resorts & Hotels® collections.
Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals(HFTP®) will honor Jeanne Blair, CHTP as the 2014Certified Hospitality Technology Professional(CHTP) of the Year atHITEC2014. The CHTP of the Yearhonors the individual that scored the highest on the CHTP certification exam in a given year. HITEC 2014 will be held at the Los Angeles Convention Center, June 23 – 26, 2014 in Los Angeles, Calif.
Along with its efforts to prevent pirate exhibitors from devaluing the conference,Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals(HFTP®) is educatingHITEC2014 attendees about housing pirates. A housing pirate is an unauthorized housing provider that may approach exhibitors and attendees with fraudulent offerings of hotel rooms, request credit card information for "existing" reservations and provides false information regarding extended show dates. Only the officialHITEC Housing Bureaucan guarantee room reservations. To ensure attendees have time to make hotel room reservations, the HITEC Housing Bureau is deadline is May 23.