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Tech Talk

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In case you missed the memo, people no longer watch television the way that they did ten years ago. Not at home, and not at hotels. Nielsen reported that streaming services cornered 34.8% of TV screen time in July 2022, when they overtook cable for the first time. 

Property management systems (PMSs) fundamentally have changed very little since the 1980s. And many hotels still use systems that were built in the eighties, nineties, or aughts. Since then, massive technology changes have occurred: the mobile revolution, cloud computing, distributed ledgers, AI-based large language models, Web 3.0, and other innovations have fundamentally changed both the technological capabilities of software, the way it is designed and built, and expectations for user experience.

Hardly a day goes by that hotels do not express frustration about the inability to tie together key data sources and technology systems. This is not a new problem; it has been around for decades. Progress has been made on many fronts to be sure, but digitalization has created new issues much faster than solutions.

What’s on the minds of hoteliers? What’s keeping them up at night? And what makes travelers happy and eager to return? Some of the best places to have these candid discussions are at the industry’s conferences and events, and this year’s lineup has not disappointed. From AAHOACON and BITAC, to HITEC and The Hospitality Show, I’ve been traveling steadily, attending 13 events since January.

Technology has become an indispensable part of the guest experience. As travelers increasingly expect tech-enabled convenience, hospitality businesses must continue innovating to meet these demands. While WiFi was once the primary tech offering for hotels, today's guests want more. Integrated proptech solutions are becoming the new standard.



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Articles tagged as: Security

Earlier this year in keeping with COVID-19 health suggestions such as possible contamination through payment touchpoints I stopped using cash or credit cards to facilitate payment and moved to use the Apple Wallet app. This now acts as the digital version of the traditional leather wallet, and I have amongst many other apps the following on my Apple Phone which I found to be very beneficial.

Sometimes, the biggest threats are the ones we can’t see. Surely, this sentiment rang true over the last year, as the COVID-19 virus swept across the nation, ushering in widespread fear and regulatory change in its wake. But now, as hospitality prepares for a long-awaited period of recovery, we must direct our attention to another unseen threat data breaches. As our industry continues to adopt self-service technology to digitize the guest experience, guest data protection must be top of mind for every hotelier.

Where Data Goes to Die - Part 2
Posted: 11/16/2020 by Alan Zaccario

As the hotel industry is navigating through the remaining months of the pandemic and enduring truly agonizing decisions regarding the fate of some properties, if a property suddenly closes or changes ownership, what becomes of the data? Who protects the customers and employees from the disclosure of data? Ethically, you do.

By now, everyone is aware that hotel giant Marriott International announced on Friday a massive data breach that goes back more than four years and may have affected up to 500 million customers worldwide. 

A recent study finds that 89 percent of sites leave their users' accounts potentially exposed to hackers due to unsafe password practices. Do yours fall within the majority? Geneva Rinehart discusses which websites might need a password update. 

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