A couple of things recently got me thinking about the issue of over-personalization, or more precisely of external forces working to confine us to the limits of what they know about us and making us less complete, less human as a result. One was the issue of the personal preferences property management and guest information systems keep about us. On the one hand it’s definitely useful for a resort to keep (more…)

Well, the sky didn’t fall after all last year.  In fact, hotels upgraded their technology at a surprising rate to help them survive by collecting and analyzing more and better information about their guests and operations.  Vendors likewise expanded their products’ scope both through internal development and integration with each others’ products to provide more comprehensive tools to help them.  More than anything, 2009 was the year social networking really hit its stride in (more…)

It’s close to year end, and the usual flood of Top Ten lists and predictions for the New Year is in full flow, some useful, some not.  However, I wanted to summarize one from Jean Francois Mourier and Bruno Perez, co-founders of RevPAR Guru.  Although naturally slanted towards their specialty, many of their Top Eight Predictions reflect a good balance between recognizing reality, spotting opportunities and using (more…)

Several news items recently point to the unstoppable growth in bandwidth demand as consumers continue to focus primarily online for their travel and entertainment needs.  Marriott claims that its own-brand Website is now the world’s 7th largest online consumer retail site, which is an incredible figure.

That demand is also becoming more mobile.  A survey by SwissCom reports that mobile phone bandwidth usage is about to match (more…)

Once again the International Hotel/Motel & Restaurant Show (IH/M&RS, known to most as “the New York Show”) has announced its Editors’ Choice Awards, and once again the Technology Winner also received the overall “Best of Show” award.  Congratulations to Bittel, which won for its newly-released UNO device, a combined guestroom phone, alarm clock/radio and iPod/MP3 player docking station.

In comparing the list of both Regular and “Green” awards over the (more…)