WIFI in the air: Is it needed? Possible? A must?

On board activities divide passenger in two group, the one who would like to relax, and the other who would like to work, and to finish their missing tasks. As there are strict regulations regarding using any kind of technology, some people are happy to "be offline" for couple of hours, escape from everybody. Finally they can read a book, listen to nice music, and watch some nice movies. The limitations changed since the technical safety in airlines developed, for which business travelers were especially happy. A paid trip for them is nothing about relaxing, especially for frequent flyers. They are the one who are mostly welcoming the newness. For some of them being contactable is no 1 priority. 

A survey showed that people demand for wireless internet more than for allowing mobile phones. In such an enclosed environment nothing would be more frustrating than sitting on the airplane surrounded by dozens of mobile phones ringing. 

Some leisure passengers would be thankful as well, as they would relieve hours of boredom.
The technical environment is there to arrange conference (video) calls, but face to face meeting is still needed. Employers were not worried, as valuable time weren't lost whilst the employees travel.

 A small air taxi company in the USA introduced internet on part of their fleet.  JetSelect Aviation LLC, an international private jet charter announced this year that high speed wireless internet (WiFi) is available. They mainly use small jets with around 5-10 seats, with 2-3000 miles range. The president of the company is looking into the future, where he sees big growth for services like this.

The world's most popular Property Management System

"OPERA Property Management System (PMS) is the world's most popular PMS." This is the statement of the Micros company, but lets go a bit deeper into that. First of all we have to look at the statistical numbers:
13,500 installations globally. The range is huge: it is usable in a 10 room hotel, but also in a chain owning 800 hotels on a global level. 

 MICROS Systems, Inc. installed over 330,000 systems for the hospitality and retail industries worldwide. They operate in more than 130 countries. It is installed in more than 25,000 hotels worldwide, this company is the most important Point of Sales (POS) supplier for the restaurants regarding IT. They are even on the Stock Exchange. To understand how wide the scale of characteristics is, we have to look at the key features of the "OPERA".

Reservations can be handled via profiles, deposit handling, confirmations and etc. The user can even set up the rates, controll, edit and forecast. Many records, statistics can be created through profiles, by gender, geography, or whatever.  Check in, check out procedures are easier than a user can think. In the Back Office platform daily, monthly statistics transfers can be easily made. Allocation of rooms, supervision including availability, houskeeping, maintenance can also interfer. All the accounting processes can be done with the cashiering, accounts receivable database. Each and every aspect can be used to increase revenue, save labour and other costs. My personal experience with it gives me good feelings, it is very user friendly, punctual, fast and reliable. I used other systems, but this one with its simplicity is the No. 1 so far. I had some problems with other systems, such as slow bill preparing, and credit card numbers. Although its platform looks oldstyle, but usability compensates  for more than everything.


 

3D TVs in the hospitality (by Philips)

This entry summarizes the 3 options offered by Philips. This company, a leader company in television technology.They offer the widest selection of LED TVs, all screen sizes, with special features, including the world's first Full HD 3D TV for hotels.
The first one was introduced in the Netherlands. The Super Seven, is a wide service package, with possible solutions as extended warranties and rental offerings.

 

Philips is introducing a new range of TVs to the hospitality industry, bringing the in-home cinematic viewing experience to business and leisure travelers. (source: Philips)

EasySuite range
Available in screen sizes from 19 to 32". This model combines reliability, and stylish, slim design with best-in-class picture performance. It has the newest LED backlighting technology, which helps save energy (up to 50%) it is sustainable and decreases running costs. With an Integrated Connectivity Panel allows hotel guests to connect their digital devices to the TV so that they access their own content when enjoying their hotel stay, which wasn't available before, due to codes, which only the staff had. The codes couldn't distinguish between users, for this reason they had access to change the whole system. (I experienced that one, when I was working in a hotel, and a guest asked me for the code)
PrimeSuite range
The screen sizes ranging from 22" to 42", and it is compatible with any hotel in-room entertainment system.
With MyChoice built in system offers the possibility to gain additional revenues by selling scratch cards that allow guests to view premium channels.
Signature range
This cinematic viewing includes the world's first 58" Full HD 3D cinematic proportion LED TV for hotels, the Cinema 21:9. The Cinema 21:9 delivers a true to life 3D viewing experience just like at the cinema.

The new range of Philips TVs for hotels will be introduced in October across Europe, Middle East, Africa, Australia and New Zealand.


About Royal Philips Electronics I just want to include a short information about the company, as they facts are always interesting, how huge the multinational companies could be.
The company focuses on improving people's lives through timely innovations (healthcare, lifestyle and lighting) The headquarter is in the Netherlands, Philips employs approximately 116,000 employees in more than 60 countries worldwide. Its sales were EUR 23 billion in 2009.

Social Media Success Factors

The video of the presentation (http://www.modul.ac.at/files/ecm/ECM-Annual-Conference-Social-Media-Success-Factors-MODUL-University-Vienna.html) is really interesting, I got some new information to know. There were good statictical graphs. The set-up showed the success factors, how to increase visitors, information, and revenue as a result for a product or service.

The presenters showed that it is easier than ever to measure or track, compare and analyse the indicators, visitors, all the numbers that come forward as a webpage was looked at. And it is not only on google accessible, but interestingly on facebook, too.

You could take advantage of every happening. Here was a good sentence that I liked: „Give me cash, not ash“

With all these tools we can get more and more detailed information, and we are able to controll as many aspects, as possible.

My opinion is that it was always important to measure costumers, but the possibilities were limited. With the systematic world of google, and now facebook is everything possible. And this is not an overstatement. Depending on the size and the budget of the company, a company has to take decisions whether to spend extra money on online marketing agencies, or not. But as we saw in this presentations, there are really useful ideas, which doesn’t cost money. A smaller company should start with the level 1, and set the purpose, why are they online. When they develop, 1 or 2 colleagues could manage to develop their SoM, and extend future planning, and refine strategy.

Beside web 2.0 there is the web analytics 2.0, which makes analysis online user friendlier and easier. The time has arrived, when desired outcomes online and offline can be achieved without being computer programmers.

Future of Video– Is the Hotel Industry Ready?

The hotel industry tries to reach its guests more likely in a friendlier way, for this reason they try to find all kind of solutions to attract the guests. Of course there should be an optimal way regarding advertisement methods, as you can’t put all the tools on your website, because it’ll be crowded and won’t look professional anymore. It is a fact that viewers who are entertained by your advertisement are more likely to keep looking at what you have to offer and to remember your brand.

I found an interesting study provided by google about the future of the film marketing, or how they say: Display advertising, which covers a bit more, than just films.
Basically they predict that it will work as the GoogleAds on cost-per-view basis. The Smartphone / mobile industry is going to be the number one screen for digital branding. Almost everything will be „social“ that means that you could share, discuss, subscribe to and recommend them. Creativity will know no bounds, and you could interact in unimaginable ways.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDps8-ZL7FA&feature=player_embedded

The topic of the video: “Display 2015: Smart and Sexy.”


This content is becoming the primary information by online shoppers before booking a hotel room, as it is almost like a real experience with its virtual tours and high quality videos.
Companies in the US noticed after adding "videos to their sites" increased selling statistics with more than 50%, which isn’t unforgettable.
This boost needs a new kind of search engine, namely the video search app e.g. Truveo.
If the tourism industry would do well and is willing to invest in making videos, this could be probably the only way to keep up with consumer demand for that medium.

Photosynth Nr. 1

http://photosynth.net/view.aspx?cid=da01cf8c-a1d1-4cc3-b3f0-cfee43673299

Smartphones as room keys, is this future or present?

A world famous hotel group, the Holiday Inn started to test this issue: How would it work when the hotel guests could use their own mobile phone to go into their room?

The basic idea to download an application to the smartphones and hold the device next to a door sensor. It will open. The advantage on it is that people can use their own device, don’t need any keycards, which often get lost, is also a cost reduce solution and sustainable as less cards have to be produced. Others say it can make the Front Office unnecessary (I’ll write about this at the end). The disadvantage is that it can be hacked and there is a problem for example when the phone gets stolen.
This is what experts said about it. Also a Manager from the InterContinental welcomed the idea: Bryson explained: "The beauty of the smartphone is that guests already have one, and using it for access avoids "burdening people with additional items".

My idea about the arguments are that if a system is IT organized there is a simple way to interrupt into the system. When I worked in the summer at the Front Office, the Head of the Security of Apple was our guest, and he was telling me stories about it, how easy it is to do that. He told me (and who to trust if not him as an expert in IT things) that he could stand there in front of me and open all the doors within 5 minutes with his single smartphone.

The other aspect whit what I don’t agree is: Although there are every kind of solutions to get accomodated fast and automated, and some people seek after it, the personal touch in hotels will NEVER disappear. If we talk only about the money and business issue, a receptionist has really important tasks, not only preparing invoice, giving keys. E.g. he can look at the guests and with his experience he can decide how much deposit has to be taken, will it be a guest who will have 1000 EUR extra costs? A machine won’t be able to do it. No more details now, as it could be an other blog entry.