Web 2.0: Managing the Social Networking Data Sieve

Social networking websites (e.g. Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.) are one of Web 2.0 tools that refer to as the second generation of the Internet. The main features of Web 2.0 are that it involves consumer-generated content and provide on-line communication. Undoubtedly, Web 2.0 applications give a lot of strengths for business and hospitality industry as well, among them opportunities to extend presence in the Internet; involve customers in marketing and promotion; recruit, teach/train staff; build corporate culture through team building and many others. But at the same time, it has some drawbacks and poses problems to be considered and solved by IT specialists. One of them that is, probably, the most important is data security. This problem is discussed in the article of Kim S. Nash “Managing the Social Networking Data Sieve” published in ‘CIO” magazine. The author of the articles stresses that employees who actively use social networking websites can easily give away company’s secrets. Being concerned about this problem he offers several solutions to solve it. The first two are really closely connected and say ‘accept and train” and “influencing socializing”. That means that employers should accept employees’ desire to use social networks, allow them to do that and moreover teach them how to use them more productively and efficiently. For example, employees could cooperate with industry professionals from other companies, share their experience and ask advices but without telling too much about ongoing projects and corporate secrets. The third one, “consider complexities”, refers to the cases when information posted in the Internet can help to protect company’s interests (e.g. in court). So, consequently, it should be reviewed and collected. The fourth, and the last, one asks to monitor employees’ activity in the Internet. After explaining them how to use social networking tools employers also should track whether all of them follow company’s policy and if not explain it again. The author of the article suggests that applying these rules companies can not only get extra opportunities from web 2.0 tools but also use them correctly and protect corporate information and secrets.

This article appeared at exactly that time when many companies actively discuss Web 2.0 tools, try to explore and employ them. Speaking about lodging industry we can find different examples of Web 2.0 tools implementation. They are actively used now because they are effective and up-to-date. Moreover, 2008 Hotel Guests' Technology Study conducted by University of Delaware found that 36.05% of respondents use social networking websites. At the same time, University of California researched modern youth technology adoption tendencies and come up with the conclusion that teenagers tend to be on-line instead of going on-line and heavily use Internet to search for information they are interested in. Growing up these teenagers will become hotels' guests or may be future employees after some time. On the basis of these studies we can conclude that being popular nowadays, social networking websites will also continue to attract more users. So, that is why I think it is really better for companies to allow to use social networks and set up corporate culture and rules for this, otherwise employees probably will do it inappropriately and “illegally”. If it is prohibited to use social networks on the work place employees can access them from their cell/smart phones (e.g Blackberries) or do that in their free time, so that nobody can notice that. At the same time, if a company doesn't allow to use social networks and doesn't have internal corporate rules for this, it also cannot require any particular on-line behavior from its employees. Companies definitely will benefit if their employees will be knowledgeable about these tools and ways of implementation.

Reference:
Nash, K.S. (2008). Managing the Social-Networking Data Sieve. CIO. November 15, 34. Retrieved from http://www.cio.de/news/cio_worldnews/862350/

Give Guests the In-Room Tech They Demand

For a long time hotels provided to guests exciting experience of services and accommodations that they didn't have at home. But nowadays most travelers have adopted different technological advances appeared in recent years. Moreover, technology-savvy guests will not be surprised with in-room technological tools, on the contrary, they could be disappointed if they don't find any of those items or applications they got used to. In his article, Scott Watts, Corporate Director of Technology in PCH Hotels and Resorts, appeals to hoteliers and asks they to “give guests the in-room technology they demand”. He stresses that in most cases average traveler today has at home high definition flat panel or LCD TV, special packages of different TV channels and on-demand movies, gaming consoles, Internet access, they also use MP3 players, digital cameras, VoIP applications (Skype, Vonage). The author supposes that one of solutions that can make modern hotels guests become excited is "triple-play" that refers to convergence of voice, video, and data over a single network. Using this technology different guests' portals could be presented on TV or phone display or Internet default home page and enables travelers to customize different features during their stay (order room service, buy tickets, make restaurant reservations, etc.). It is very convenient for guests but at the same time “triple-play” could help hoteliers to increase their revenues. The author gives us an example of possibility to attract more customers by sending discount promotions to the guests' TV or phone displays in case if there are gaps in SPA center appointments. As future trends the author describes PVR (personal video recorder) capabilities and usage of "triple-play" foundation for PMS, CRM applications. The last one will enables to provide really unique guest experience: the system can memorize special guests' ID numbers and personal customizations associated with them, so that it can set temperature levels, language preferences, etc., when return guest check-in for the next time.

I find the author's opinion is very true about technology and its adoption by travelers. Nowadays hoteliers should provide appropriate service and conditions to travelers to use all the technological tools they got used to. For most guests technology is no more a luxury, it's everyday life, it's convenience. Converged networks became one of the crucial discussion topics for the hospitality industry in recent time. It is very interesting that author mentioned using of phones for these systems. For some perspective they could seem to be obsolete as almost all the travelers have cell phones or smart phones. But modern new decisions for in-room phone usage were found. Now they could be involved in interactive part of guest service and provide an opportunity to control different amenities (lights, TV, draperies). Also guests can use phone displays to offer different services like make an appointment in restaurant, SPA or golf center. One of the recent modern technologies is RFID capabilities built in the cell phone. They provide an opportunity for quick check-in / check-out and make it possible to use guests' cell phone or smart phone as a room key. So, technological development is going on and I think new amazing opportunities, solutions and their implementations in lodging industry are going to be found.

References:
Richardson N.M. (2008). Hotels Get Phone Savvy. Hospitality technology. May 2008. Retrieved from http://www.htmagazine.com/ME2/dirmod.asp?sid=&nm=&type=MultiPublishing&mod=PublishingTitles&mid=3E19674330734FF1BBDA3D67B50C82F1&tier=4&id=C8ABDDF2178B43168CF456E8BD45E785
Watts S. (2008). Give Guests the In-Room Tech They Demand. Hospitality technology. June 2008. Retrieved from http://www.htmagazine.com/ME2/dirmod.asp?sid=&nm=&type=MultiPublishing&mod=PublishingTitles&mid=3E19674330734FF1BBDA3D67B50C82F1&tier=4&id=3952307BDBA74D25863583EEC361DFF9

Locking Systems Innovations

Volpe, C. (2008). Hotels Lock it Up. Hospitality Technology. October 2008, Retrieved from http://www.htmagazine.com/ME2/dirmod.asp?sid=&nm=&type=MultiPublishing&mod=PublishingTitles&mid=3E19674330734FF1BBDA3D67B50C82F1&tier=4&id=4380EF5629CD45FB9C4D382CA9B09534

One of the crucial hospitality concepts is that a hotel is “a home away from home”. In terms of this providing security is one of the main concerns about guest rooms. That is why locking system vendors keep up their work trying to find innovative and reliable solutions. Christina Volpe, the author of the article “Hotels lock it up”, presents two cutting edge technological decisions: radio frequency identification (RFID) technology and near field communication (NFC) cell phone compatibility. RFID ELS requires a key card or wristband with an RF chip that sends signals to the special reader located on the door. Vendors that provide this type of locks are, for example, Kaba Ilco (www.kabailco.com) and VingCard (www.vingcard.com). The author of the article highlights that RFID is contact-free technology that means that it is even not necessary for guests to take the card out of the wallet, it is enough just to put the wallet up to the door. Undoubtedly, it is very convenient for travelers. The hotel staff also really likes this system because it is “user friendly”. The second technology, NFC, that refers to near field communication, allows communication between devices over about 4 inch distance by using a short-range high frequency wireless communication. This enables guests to unlock their rooms using encrypted code received via short text message on the cell phone. So, it means that customers could make a reservation on-line, get a confirmation connecting to the Internet on their cell phone/Smartphone/PDA , then check-in, get access to the room using this device and check-out from the hotel! And moreover, this technology could be utilized as marketing tool providing, for example, the opportunity of remote check-in/out and access to guest loyalty programs via SMS.
In my opinion, RFID is really a great solution for the hospitality industry. First of all, it is very important for resort hotels as far as it allows to eliminate physical contact between card and card reader. It is significant because sand from the beach (that could be brought on the card) could damage the card reader. Moreover RFID key cards can provide access not only to guest rooms but also to different in-room (safes, minibars) and hotel (pools, fitness centres, conference rooms, etc.) amenities and even could be used as an electronic wallet. I believe it is very convenient for the guests to deposit a certain amount of money on this card and then just feel free to use different hotel facilities. It is possible to use not only cards but wristbands as well as a key to RFID ELS. I think that all the features above also make this system very convenient for families with children.
Near field communication (NFC) cell phone compatibility is also a significant technology for the industry. However, probably it is not always convenient to use cell phone as a room key, for example when guest is going to the swimming pool. I believe that cell phone technologies are very important, but probably they could be more used as CRM tools. Nowadays, travelers heavily use cell phones. So, mobile version of hotel website and remote check-in/out are becoming just guests’ standard expectations (not technological advances).
Above these two technologies mentioned in the article, there is one more very interesting and innovative point - biometric locking system. The first generation of this technology was introduced only in 2004 by Saflok. Biometric LS refers to the use of automated methods to recognize a person based on either physiological or biological characteristics (fingerprint, iris, hand, palm scan). “The Leisure Customer’s Adoption of Biometric Technologies in Hotels” survey conducted by Ecole hoteliere de Lausanne (Lausanne, Switzerland) shows that 87.3% of leisure guests in the sample (300 hotel leisure guests) are ready to use biometric technologies for guest services, particularly sport and outdoor activities. Among all biometric tools they preferred iris scanning for payment systems as well as for identification purposes. However, this technology is still not widely accepted mainly because of security and cost issues. But anyway, hospitality industry has a great potential for future growth and development from this perspective.

References:
Collins. G., Cobanoglu C. (2008). Hospitality Information Technology: Learning how to use it. Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt publishing company
Murphy. H., Pottet, D. (2007). The Leisure Customer’s Adoption of Biometric Technologies in Hotels, Retrieved from http://www.hospitalitynet.org/news/4030000.search?query=biometrics+in+hospitality
Volpe, C. (2008). Hotels Lock it Up. Hospitality Technology. October 2008, Retrieved from http://www.htmagazine.com/ME2/dirmod.asp?sid=&nm=&type=MultiPublishing&mod=PublishingTitles&mid=3E19674330734FF1BBDA3D67B50C82F1&tier=4&id=4380EF5629CD45FB9C4D382CA9B09534

Technology and Hotel Guests' Satisfaction

Withiam, G. (2008). Tech-savvy guests spend more. Hospitality Technology, October 2008, Retrieved from http://www.htmagazine.com/ME2/dirmod.asp?sid=&nm=&type=MultiPublishing&mod=PublishingTitles&mid=3E19674330734FF1BBDA3D67B50C82F1&tier=4&id=277F5CD9C9B1434C8CEBFE06229B6EC5

Technology importance and adoption have become a cornerstone issues in hospitality industry. But even though technology applications can greatly improve hotel operations and contribute to guest satisfaction, some hotel customers are not very familiar with technology. Being not attuned to modern technological tools those people don’t use them heavily during their hotel stay and obviously they don’t want to pay for these services and even could be annoyed and disappointed with the necessity to deal with technology all the time. So, nowadays every hotel faces a great challenge: to choose which technologies to implement, to decide whether it is worth money and eventually to build up own technology adoption policy. All these issues are covered in the article “Tech-savvy guests spend more” written by Glenn Withiam, the Cornell Center for Hospitality Research Director of Publications. Trying to answer the questions mentioned above the author describes the survey conducted by the Cornell University Center for Hospitality Research in order to find out hotel guests’ technology inclinations. The study group employed the web-based Technology Readiness Index (TRI) tool. The researches described the group of travelers who favor technology and get the highest TRI score. The main features of those respondents are:
- They are relatively younger,
- They are more highly educated,
- They are more affluent,
- They are more inclined to be frequent travelers,
- They are willing to pay higher room rates (and tend to stay in upscale hotels).
Also the researchers found out the top technological tools to be on the cutting-edge of IT adoption, among them:
- Online / web-based hotel booking,
- Self check-out,
- In-room Internet access.
At the same time study results confirmed that not all hotel guests embrace technology innovations. The author concludes that every particular hotel should learn more about its guest preferences and opinions about technology and take decisions concerning technology adoption accordingly. One of the possible ways to serve not technology-savvy clients is to maintain human interaction opportunities.


In my opinion, the topic of the article is really interesting, up-to-date and significant for the industry. Nowadays hotels have to operate in a very competitive fast-changing environment. On the one hand hotels should track technology innovations and employ them to meet the technology-savvy guests’ expectations. But on the other hand implementing technology we can discourage certain group of travelers to stay in a particular hotel. Even simple everyday actions (e.g. to turn on a TV or draw curtains) could become a great problem for those who are not familiar with cutting-edge technology. So, hotels should be very attentive to their guests and also very selective choosing new technologies. Such research projects as one described in the article can help hoteliers to take right business decisions. We should remember about hotel business main point: to provide positive experience to the guests keeping up making profit. It means that it is unnecessary to implement all the technological tools that appeared on the market. First of all, hoteliers should compare the price of this adoption with possible impact on hotel guests’ satisfaction. To give an example, professors from the University of Delaware Dr. Beldona and Dr. Cobanoglu conducted the importance-performance analysis of guest technologies in the lodging industry and classified all the technologies in four groups according to guests’ expectations and satisfaction. The first group which is called “keep up the great work” includes express check-in/out, remote control TV and HSIA and has both high importance and performance scores. The second group, with high importance but unexpectedly low performance, includes wireless internet access, alarm clock, easily accessible electrical outlets and online reservation capabilities. This group should attract hoteliers’ attention because guests considered these tools choosing a hotel but they were not satisfied with the level of service. The third group demonstrates technologies were given the low importance rates but recorded high performance; it includes web TV, pay-per-view movies, in-room personal computers. And the last group indicates the low importance-low performance technologies: videoconferencing capabilities, wireless access to hotel website, business centers and plasma screen TVs (Beldona, Cobanoglu, 2007). These results could help the hotels to distinguish those directions they should work on. Also I suppose it would be very interesting to deepen the study and focus, for example, on business and holiday travelers. But anyway for the best results every hotel should study its own clientele to draw the conclusions regarding technology implementation and its impact on guests’ satisfaction.


References:
Beldona, S., & Cobanoglu, C. (2007). Importance-performance analysis of guest technologies in the lodging industry. Cornell Hotel & Restaurant Administration Quarterly, 48(3), 299-312.
Withiam, G. (2008). Tech-savvy guests spend more. Hospitality Technology, October 2008.

Credit Card Compliance

Smith, M. (2008). Top three data breach vulnerabilities and how to avoid them. Hospitality Upgrade, Summer 2008, 38 – 40. Retrieved from
http://www.hospitalityupgrade.com/_magazine/magazine_Detail.asp?ID=301

While hospitality industry professionals thinking about new advanced technologies implementation in the field there are other “professionals” trying to crack these technologies in order to get personal profit from it. Credit card holders’ information is one of the main objectives for hackers. The results of payment vulnerabilities study conducted by Visa Corporation are presented by Michael Smith in the article “Top 3 Data Breach Vulnerabilities And How to Avoid Them”. The author describes the top three survey results, among them:
1. Storage of track data. In many cases it can occur unwillingly and unknowingly for the company but stealing this information may allow hackers to make indistinguishable card duplicating;
2. Structured Query Language (SQL) injection attacks. Cardholders’ personal information in hospitality merchant databases may be threatened because of these attacks;
3. Packet sniffers mainly related to intercepting data that is transmitted over the computer networks.
Also, the author provides special strategies for all three problems that could be used to reduce the risk of information vulnerabilities. The author highlights that these methods implementation and Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) compliance will help hospitality industry companies to protect their customers’ personal information and provide security for credit card payments.

The utmost importance of this topic for the whole hospitality industry is obvious. Nowadays most companies are concerned about implementation of modern progressive technologies in the business. At the same time one of the crucial things is to provide its security. According to recent tendencies credit card payment option becomes more and more popular while cash using decreases. It is very important to notice that in terms of travel industry globalization and fast growth of international tourism on-line reservation becomes the most convenient and sometimes the only way to book a hotel room. And of course, if the number of on-line reservations and payments increases the number of credit card information vulnerability attempts will also go up. The statistical data provided in the article that in 2007 about 50% of known compromises occurred in restaurant segment once again confirm the significance of PCI DSS compliance for hospitality industry. The main advantage of the article is that the author not only describes the problems associated with data breach vulnerabilities, but also provides the possible risk mitigation strategies. Above this, the link to the Visa corporate web site is given in the article, so everyone who is interested in the topic can find extended relevant information. Probably, this article will encourage more industry professionals to pay attention for credit card payment security issues as not all hospitality companies are fully compliant with PCI DSS nowadays.

Easy Travel 2.0

I have read the article Ettestad, S. (2008). Easy Travel 2.0: Strategies Hotels Can Implement Today, Hospitality Upgrade, Summer 2008, 172, that you can also find on-line at http://www.hospitalityupgrade.com/_magazine/magazine_Detail.asp?ID=314.

The author of the article presents modern Easy Travel 2.0 on-line technologies that hotels can use to improve their image, promote them and expand presence in the Internet. The main points are that the hotels should not only be more active using the Internet and on-line resources to attract more guests and increase sales, but also to involve their guests in this process. So, first of all a hotel should start from reviewing the information it presents in the Internet and decide what else could be submitted or what other resources could be used. For example, hotels can use consumer review web sites and social media to increase presence in the Internet. This enables hoteliers not only to upload information about the hotel (photo, audio, video), but also to monitor customer reviews regularly and give the response. The author concludes that all these provide an opportunity to better introduce a hotel in the Web. Of course, company’s website is an official one, but nowadays potential guests tend to rely on other travelers reviews more than on mainstream marketing and advertising (according to Forester Research reports “more than 50 percent of respondents prefer the option of friends, family members or even complete strangers on the Internet”). Above this, a hotel should make its website visitors be sure with the best rate guarantee and monitor and protect its on-line brand. On the other hand, hotels can use all these on-line tools more efficiently if they involve their customers. If potential guests want to observe travelers reviews before making a decision about a hotel, a hotel itself should gives them this opportunity. All the following methods like setting comment webpage as default page on guests’ in-room computers, creating web pages where guests can recommend or rank hotels facilities, placing comment PCs in lobby area, sending thank-you e-mails to the guests can be used to encourage visitors to say their positive response. The author of the article highlights that it is very important to gather guests’ opinions during their stay in a hotel when the experience is fresh and after it as well. Finally, the author points out that well-built policy regarding using on-line tools and customer involvement can greatly implement to the hotel’s image, development, sales and customer relationships.

In my opinion, this article is a great resource for those who have never heard about Easy Travel 2.0. It provides basic information about on-line tools and what is more important gives the examples of the web sites that hoteliers can use. So, if a hotel is just in the very beginning of the Internet exploration and not well presented in the Web the article provides a lot of ideas and particular website names to start with. I like the ideas presented in this article, but the most exciting one for me is placing comment PCs in the front desk of a hotel. Travelling to different countries I have never seen such technology! I believe that it is really effective, up-to date and important tool. Not all guests fill in the paper response cards in their rooms. Of course, it is not necessary that all the guests will use comment PCs, but I am sure that personal polite invitation from front desk manager to complete guest’s review of the hotel will encourage more visitors to give their response than just a card left by a maid in the room. Even though we are talking about hospitality technology we still must be hospitable using all these tools! Above all, now I am thinking about the international tourism and possibility of using this technology. Working for several years for travel agency in Russia I faced the problem of misunderstanding and disconnection between tourists and hotels. To give an example, nowadays Turkey and Egypt are the most popular travel destinations for Russian tourists. It is obvious, that Russian tourists mostly use Russian search engines in the Internet and read Russian review websites, but Turkish and Egyptian hoteliers undoubtedly will have troubles doing it. That is the problem!..May be one of the possible decisions is to hire Russian managers for this job. Anyway, it is still open to question. To sum it up, one thing I am sure about is that on-line technologies have a great impact on modern hospitality industry and the most important part of online customer relationships is adequate feedback! It must be a communication between the hotel and its guests or potential visitors, not just a hotel on-line presentation or gathering guests’ reviews.