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.