This week, Oracle notified its customers that it had detected malicious code in certain legacy MICROS systems. With data breaches making big headlines over the past several years, the threat of stolen data remains real for individuals and the hotels they share their consumer information with. In fact, 42% of hoteliers identified “creating a secure framework for [...]
The millennial generation is set to take over as the most influential generation in American history. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there are more millennials than there were Baby Boomers. With such high numbers, it’s inevitable society will bend to meet the needs and desires of such a large and influential group in order [...]
Before meaningful hospitality software, property owners would rarely reset rates. The common approach of set it and forget was dominant. That meant a guestroom was generally priced the same for an extended period of time, such as the entire season or year, with little consideration given to demand trends. For most of the history of [...]
Employees are your most valuable asset and should be treated accordingly. Yet employee turnover is still a pervasive industry issue that’s costly and time-consuming. Did you know that according to a recent Bureau of Labor Statistics report, the turnover rate in the U.S. hospitality segment rose from 66.7% in 2014 to 72.1% in 2015? That’s an incredible challenge to overcome [...]
In today’s complex hospitality marketplace, making personal connections with guests is critical. Not only do customers have more choices than ever, they’re significantly more sophisticated than even 10 years ago and expect more. Much more. They’re also increasingly well-traveled and more frequently looking for personalized experiences. Practically, that means hoteliers aren’t just competing against the [...]
Deciding which hotel rooms are allocated to guests upon check-in can be a delicate and demanding juggling act. After all, the hotel’s primary job is to ensure complete satisfaction, regardless of varying guest demands and outside influences. Yet with with the right cloud-based hotel property management systems (PMS) software, hotel staff can have additional resources at [...]
We all remember the massive credit card breaches at well-known national retailers over the last few years. These breaches were a public relations, financial, and legal nightmare, resulting in millions of dollars in lost sales and possible long-term brand damage. From a hospitality point of view, simply hoping that your hotel won’t be affected is [...]
We’re not competitor-obsessed, we’re customer-obsessed. We start with what the customer needs and we work backwards.—Jeff Bezos, CEO, Amazon.com Bezos got it right. Corporations have an obligation to invest substantial resources not simply for their own benefit, but for the benefit of their customers. In this way, they are always working to provide real value that [...]
Diane Bowen, Director of Services, SkyTouch Technology Let me start out with what I find to be a startling fact: According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average turnover rate for the hospitality industry in 2014 was 66.3%. Considering that the national average for all other private industries was 44.4%, this is an alarming [...]
How often in the business world do we have the opportunity to receive honest feedback from others—feedback that might prompt us to make the necessary changes to improve our businesses? For the hotelier, guests, staff, and peers are often crucial to providing useful input that can point to where things are going well, and not so [...]
