For some time, mobile payment innovation in the hospitality industry has been led by Starbucks. Considered the leader among all merchant categories, Starbucks employs its mobile payment platform to coordinate more than just purchase transactions. While the company's mobile transactions exceed two million per week, consumers focus on Starbucks' built-in loyalty programming (i.e. gamification leading to free products, discounts, and prizes); not transaction speed or efficiency. Mobile payments have been shown capable of serving beyond the front-end to an electronic payment gateway and hospitality management needs to monitor developments to ensure that standards are understood and properly implemented. In fact, the future of mobile payments (mPOS) and related services are expected to replace today's POS devices and media. mPOS processing not only includes person-to-person payments and loyalty programs, but can also target marketing services featuring geo-targeted, real-time redemption of discounts, coupons, promotions, and rewards. For the hospitality industry, current users are termed early adopters, but within 2-3 years mPOS is expected to be the norm. READ MORE

The mobile web's growth and its un-ending need for more data, more connectivity and more bandwidth, shows no signs of slowing. This is having no greater impact than in the hotel industry where guests demand more and more a 'home-from-home' entertainment experience, creating significant network and bandwidth challenges. So how does a hotel cost-effectively satisfy its guests' insatiable appetite for more bandwidth and for connecting multiple devices? Is the simple answer to expend capital on new infrastructure? READ MORE

There is a lot of research indicating that the new kind of guest may and will require more than just excellent service, lodging, F&B or spa. The hotel guest of the future wants to know the associates and managers in person in order to establish a trust relationship. They want to know what makes them tick in their jobs and also want to feel with them. Enjoying a relaxed time in a hotel, resort or wellness center is one thing. Understand how everything is being done and by whom is another. It will be the job of the future manager to explore how knowledge and expertise can be integrated into a sustainable management style to ensure the overall satisfaction of the guests. READ MORE

Whether your hotel is known for gracious luxury or youthful playfulness, you have a distinctive brand—and you take pains to carry it across multinational borders. That same branding needs to shine through in your mobile technology as well—or else you risk diminishing that world-consistent brand you've worked diligently to cultivate. Professional translation can be your ticket to keeping your brand look and style intact in every market. As you approach that leg of your journey, find out the need-to-know aspects of creating global websites and mobile apps so that your brand's personality always reigns supreme. READ MORE

By now, we're all familiar with the term 'Big Data' - the deluge of information afforded to us by modern computers and any consumer behavioral patterns therein derived. Big Data has barely been on the main stage for a decade now and already it's had an omnipresent effect. Organizations across the board are measuring the minutia of everything from the flow-through traffic on individual web pages to aggregated past purchase histories, all with the hope of finding methods to better market to customers. READ MORE