Tech Talk

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Definitely Doug 6/9/23: Hotels Fighting Trafficking: The Role of Technology
Posted: 06/09/2023

This week I want to address an important issue for the hospitality industry, albeit one that technologists have not historically had on their radar. They can potentially play a significant role in addressing the issue, which is human trafficking, and more specifically sex trafficking.

In my last column, I reviewed some key trends in autonomous mobile robotics for hotels, and dove into three categories of delivery robots in more detail – room delivery, food delivery, and heavy-lift robots. This week I will round out the topic with several other robot types and applications, as well as general guidance for evaluating, acquiring, and adopting mobile autonomous robotics. If you have not yet read part one, I recommend going back and doing so before continuing below, as some of the introductory material is important background to what follows.

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Best Practices for Hotel & Resort Operators in Pool Season 2023
Posted: 05/25/2023

With the arrival of warmer weather and summer fast approaching, hospitality operators are gearing up for another pool season. This year, technology is at the forefront of driving booking revenue and taking operational efficiency to the next level. Modern technology platforms (such as hospitality’s newest technology category – the Property Experience Management System or PXMS) are providing brand new capabilities that unlock new strategies and approaches to filling the pool with satisfied guests.

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The Growing Role Technology Plays in Hotels and Restaurants
Posted: 05/25/2023

In the past few years, hotels and restaurants have grown into hubs for entertainment, leisure, and human connection. In an effort to best serve their guests, operators have begun rethinking their technological investments and working to adapt to recent shifts in consumer preference and operations. To ensure that guests have the best on-site experience possible, brands are increasingly looking to new technologies to make their experiences more convenient and comfortable. Advanced property management systems (PMS) and point-of-sale (POS) systems can increase operational and staff efficiency, while also meeting changing customer expectations for a high-value but relatively low-touch experience.

This week I will return to a topic I have covered before, because it has, within the last 12 to 18 months, become one of the hottest-growth categories in hospitality technology. That topic is autonomous mobile robots – specifically, ones that can move around the facility as well as perform specific tasks. Many of these products were launched pre-Covid but were often seen at the time as more of a marketing gimmick than a legitimate operational solution.

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Five Functions to Use in Google Search Console

11/15/2017 Tagged as: Google, SEO

by Nimesh Dinubhai

In May 2015, Google updated its webmaster tools formerly known as Google Webmaster Tools to Google Search Console after the company felt the name webmaster was outdated. Google offers a number of resources to tune your site's SEO functions as well as get important information about visitors and their activities while on the site. Generally, the Google Search Console allows you to gain varied insights on your website.

To access the search console functions, you first need to verify the ownership of the site you intend to analyze. There are five ways of verifying domain name ownership and these are:

• Using Google Analytics

• Use Google tag manager account

• Upload a HTML file

• Sign in to domain name provider

• Add a HTML tag to the head of your site

Once you have completed the verification process, these five functions can be used from the console.

1. Search Appearance

This is a tool that allows you to see how your website looks on search results. This is important because you get a preview and know when you need to make any changes since the appearance and factors behind it can influence the click through rate. This section avails you the various options you have to correct or optimize factors like structured data, site links and HTML improvement.

2. Search Traffic

This is an important section that allows you to know the structure of your internal links, the domains which link to your site and analyzes the nature of your traffic. Through search analytics found here you’ll know popular queries, pages and devices. You’ll receive an extensive report showing the click through rate on mobile vs desktop, the average ranking of different pages and other crucial information.

3. Crawl

This section gives you the feedback and data on various aspects Google found while crawling your site. It includes errors, issues on sitemaps, URL parameters and other performance based reports about your site.

4. Index Status

This is the section which tells you if the site is indexed on Google and if so how many pages from your site are listed. You get to know which pages have been blocked over robot.txt rules, which content keywords are being used and if new pages are being indexed.

5. Messaging

In this section you get a varied number of notifications from Google. The most crucial reports include any hacking incidents, new trends and if you have received any manual penalty.

About The Author

Nimesh Dinubhai
President
Websrefresh

Nimesh Dinubhai completed his studies in 2003 and launched Websrefresh to help businesses grow their ROI. He also owns two Arizona hotels, one of which earned the Historical Hotel Award in 2014.