Hotel guests are not just accessing the internet via laptop computers; they are increasingly accessing the internet via mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets, which have no wired connection ports and so the need for Wi-Fi in hotels is increasing. While globally, smartphone penetration among business travelers (69 percent) has outpaced the consumer market there is still a strong push from the consumer market for these devices too. The reality is that today's traveler, whether business or pleasure now carries a device stack consisting of a smartphone, a tablet and a laptop. Hotels will continued to be challenged by the travelling public to support a seamless user experience across all these form factors. READ MORE

We are well in the midst of a mobile revolution. Mobile devices are not simply an additional guest touch point, but a new platform for customer interaction. This distinction is significant as a platform implies new applications and capabilities that were not possible on prior devices. Nielsen Research predicts that smartphones will overtake feature phones in the U.S. by Q3 of this year! In addition, over the next six months the market with be flooded with close to 100 different tablets. Forrester Research predicts that tablet sales in the U.S. will reach 44 million units per year, compared to 10.3 million in 2010. By 2015, 82 million people will be using the devices. The hospitality industry is particularly well positioned to use mobile technology to enhance the guest experience, promote onsite and local services and improve operational efficiency. READ MORE

As technology advances, more and more businesses are taking advantage of the large number of consumers who are using their mobile devices to surf the Web. Like all businesses, hotels can greatly benefit from mobile marketing of all forms - from SMS messaging to social media marketing and apps. Creating a strategic mobile marketing campaign is the first key step for hoteliers in tackling this new frontier. Is your hotel in-tune with the world of mobile marketing? Have you organized a strategic plan? If not, what are you waiting for? READ MORE

Booking Engine, In-House Communication to Guest, In-House Communication Guest to Hotel Staff, Access to CRS, Access to CRS Reports. The mobile device has changed how the world communicates. The freedom it has given and the always-connected attitude has been readily consumed, some would say to our detriment. However, with creative know-how and a conscious effort to respect one's privacy the device can be a valuable tool for the hotel and travel industry. READ MORE

Several trends are emerging as the economy improves and the hospitality sector begins to show signs of recovery in 2011. Increases in occupancy levels will help drive the need for additional staff, but it may take several months before hiring within the industry rebounds from the recent historically low levels. Hospitality employers express concerns ranging from keeping top talent to operating with less staff and few dollars to reward employees. Hospitality workers are feeling more optimistic and are open to new opportunities. See what else may unfold in this article... READ MORE

The real mobile question is not if, but how you utilize this channel. This should be guided by your overall mobile strategy and which options meet you and your guest's needs. If you don't have a mobile strategy - you need one. There are almost endless possibilities for communicating with mobile guests, but your business needs to adopt a strategy to be successful. It goes beyond simply identifying all possible revenue and service touch points. You need to understand guest preferences for interacting with your brand and what they expect in return. Mobile guests are maturing quickly and have high expectations. So the longer you wait, the greater the chance someone else will fulfill their needs. READ MORE

The global smartphone market is projected to grow by 24% CAGR and reach 619 million units by the year 2015. We as travel industry professionals are obviously dazzled by the very viable and possibly amazing opportunities for growth through mobile devices. Be it location based applications, pushed SMS; it's all there for the taking. Or are we all wearing blinders? Have we paused to consider the increasingly possible pervasive effects of getting guests so focused on themselves? Meanwhile are we unknowingly fulfilling a core CRM financial principle namely, pushing client servicing costs onto the clients themselves? Are they organizing their myriad of self-servicing mobile nitty-gritty 'bits' rather than appreciating the sensorial value of the services you so dearly hope to sell them? READ MORE

By reacting too slowly to the development of the web, hotels largely lost the opportunity for direct selling online in the late nineties, ceding control to aggressive third party channels that now dominate online booking and extract high commissions. Only recently are hotels recovering that lost ground online through the use of online marketing and social media to reach the guest directly and lower their cost of acquisition. If hotels learn from the past and react quickly now to the explosive growth in the mobile market, they can avoid a repetition of the same mistake and begin serving their customers directly on mobile. READ MORE

Location-based games like Foursquare, Facebook's Places, and IMGuest are growing in popularity and evolving into more social venues daily. There are more than five million Foursquare users today and that number is growing daily. Hotels have a unique opportunity to benefit from this new channel. Find out how claiming your venue can help you drive more traffic to your restaurant, sell more weddings or create more employee engagement. It's simple and for now, it's free. READ MORE

You have arrived, your moment of anticipation is here, you are about to open the door to your sleeping chamber for the evening and your temporary living quarters. You are about to experience perhaps the strongest impression making moment of your hotel stay. You have activated your contribution to the REVPAR of that property. You are entering - The Bedroom. What makes the guest room experience memorable? What are the dos and don'ts of bedroom service and how does each department/role of the hotel impact that intimate space? What kind of service will you experience in the bedroom? Read on... READ MORE

Now that budget season has concluded for most operations and a plan has been made for the 2011 year, there is still much to consider for those who wish to prosper in this otherwise rather fragile economy. Having created a blueprint for the annual business in the budget, it is now important to work to stay in sync with that defined budget plan as well as the ongoing forecast on a day by day basis. What then should a property expect in daily operations information that can be reviewed in such a useful report? What is the information that Hotel Managers at all levels should utilize to make proper daily business decisions that are in line with the more detailed established budget plan for each week, month and remainder of the year? READ MORE

There's no getting around it-social media is here to stay. The question is: How can our industry use these powerful new tools to achieve our communications and marketing goals? Perhaps Einstein, in his infinite wisdom, had the answer-long before anyone put the words "social" and "media" together. Imagination, he said, is more important than knowledge. In the online age, this concept means that people who know how to use social media creatively are destined to surge ahead of those who only have knowledge of the tools. Keeping that in mind, check out six innovative ways to make social media work for you. READ MORE

The credit world is considered by many to be in turmoil. Real estate values as measured through investment sales are below the lofty heights of just months ago. Residential absorption is dismal in many markets. Nevertheless, the possibilities for mixed-use development, anchored by an imagination catching array of amenities, remain strong, both domestically and internationally. In such a climate, the hospitality industry is attracting interest from experienced developers, owners and operators to be sure. However, there are new players in the game who see the allure, but are less familiar with the rules. This article provides a brief overview, both historic and current, of the law relating to hotel management agreements. READ MORE

There is a common misconception among smaller independent properties that a mobile app is expensive and only useful for larger hotel brands. In this article I explain why this isn't true and discuss how a hotel app can be a powerful marketing tool for hotels of any size and star rating. This article also provides an overview of the mobile market today, and outlines what your hotel needs to do to meet your mobile guests' increased expectations. READ MORE

Since mobile devices are always with us, our sensitivity to privacy is much higher. Mobile messaging done incorrectly will likely be seen as abusive and damaging to your brand. There must be a coordinated effort to deliver the right information at the right time - and only with the recipient's explicit permission. For these reasons, the biggest opportunity I see in mobile communications is using it as a service channel - not as a direct sales or marketing medium. Let's examine how mobile messaging can be used for service. READ MORE