As you’ve read elsewhere, this year’s ALIS conference was a happily high-energy event, with a palpable sense of confidence in the recovery of business – in this case, the business of buying and selling hotels. It’s by no means a technology conference, but a couple of break-out sessions brought out (more…)

Well, it wasn’t the year we’d hoped for; initial optimism that we were at last coming out of the recession was replaced by reminders that there was still a long way to go. Nevertheless, many properties took advantage of slow business to upgrade their systems and lay the foundations for more efficient operations once traffic does return, and equally as many vendors enhanced their systems for greater integration and flexibility.
The importance of IT innovation in the hospitality world was recognized once again by InformationWeek’s listing of the U.S.’s 500 most innovative business technology users, which included (more…)

With the ever-growing emphasis on gathering information about us from as many sources as possible, I’m curious as to whether we’ll ever get a good handle on CRM. By this I mean a way to gather complete (or at least pretty full) and accurate information about our clients, analyze it properly to understand what’s really significant to them and then provide truly meaningful personalized service to them based on that information.
We can now pull in data from a guest’s social network to gather information on their travels, preferences, regular Twitter posting topics, past employers, etc. but how many hoteliers have the time to analyze all this on an individual basis to make truly personal special offers to them? It has to be automated, but automation based on incomplete or inaccurate data can lead you to the wrong conclusions. Tech writer Robert Scoble talked about this (http://scoble.it/vrIngR) in relation to Facebook’s latest (more…)

Is it just me, or has the world in general decided to use LinkedIn contacts in a different way and I just didn’t get the message?
I thought that LinkedIn was intended to be a way to find people who knew someone you wanted to contact, a way of making an introduction to them via someone they knew, already had a relationship with and trusted. You could search for someone in a particular position or with specific experience, and then check through your network of contacts to see who knew this person, or knew someone who did, and then work your way through the chain to make the final connection.
Just lately, though, it seems that the stream of people asking for a direct connection with me on LinkedIn just keeps growing. Some of them are complete strangers, but claim to be my Friend; others are already linked to me through several other people, but want to upgrade that link to a direct connection. But why? If we both have a friend in common, why not ask that friend to make the introduction if they have something to ask me? What benefit do they gain from claiming a connection that doesn’t exist?
My ego may suggest that I’ve become a trophy, but as my friends will readily confirm I’m not such a prize that gaining a direct connection to me grants instant fame, immortality and access to the highest echelons of the industry. More likely it may just be that, like FaceBook, people are competing with each other for the largest number of Friends/Direct Connects. They may want to show how connected they are, but going about it this way just debases the whole concept of a personal relationship. I’m happy to be contacted by pretty much anyone who has a question, but I’ll continue to restrict my direct connections on LinkedIn to those I’ve worked with or known long enough to ask a personal favor or to personally recommendation them from experience.
Oh, and a side note about the need to keep your contacts’ profiles accurate. LinkedIn’s suggestions of people you may know and want to re-connect with are often useful, but recently it twice suggested that I connect with someone who, sadly, passed away over a year ago. In the traumatic aftermath of losing a loved one, it’s completely understandable that friends and relatives would place a very low priority on removing their on-line profiles. Nevertheless, this does emphasize the dangers of relying on automated CRM systems to contact past guests without constantly checking and re-checking your database to make sure its profile information is both accurate and current. Sending the wrong “personal” message is worse than sending no message at all.

Fascinating that Newmarket International has acquired both MTech and Libra OnDemand, two well-respected companies that have been developing increasingly close ties with each other.   Newmarket says that both will continue to operate under their current names and with their current leadership, but its plans for them are unclear beyond that.  While they will bring clear benefits to Newmarket through tighter integration with its Delphi and Daylight products, it will be interesting to see how Newmarket approaches the wider market segments beyond Sales & Catering where MTech’s HotSOS and Libra OnDemand’s comprehensive CRM application have both found solid respect and success.  Is this a sign of Newmarket’s wider ambitions in the hospitality tech area?