There are in my opinion 7 key technology trends that are going to impact on hotels in 2012. The iPad and its popularity as a consumer device is going to fundamentally change the in room guest technology experience. Mobile devices are now part of our everyday life and hotels need to ensure they have the technology for guests to access all there services The time for Cloud Computing whereby systems are hosted off premise has arrived. Social Media - how do hotels harness the power of it? With the fall in phones revenues hosted PBX is the future. Energy Management is increasingly important as the cost of power rises. Lighting and the choice of lights will impact on a hotels power bill. READ MORE

Long gone are the days when wireless Internet was simply a perk for guests using Wi-Fi for email. Today streaming HD video, voice-over-IP (VoIP), wireless gaming consoles and more are competing for that same bandwidth pipe. This presents a tremendous opportunity for hotels to leverage themselves as the tech-savvy choice for the connected guest. Hotel management can leverage wireless, too, with mobile billing and other services to streamline processes. In this article Jason Guest, Account Manager, Aptilo Networks provides an overview of these next-gen services and discusses how to implement and manage a future-proofed network to support advanced services now and in the future. READ MORE

As mentioned in a previous article, prior to the birth of IOS (Apple's operating system), truthfully, we only scratched the surface and played around with implementing Wi-Fi in Hotels. But now, four years later with millions and millions of IOS devices in the hands of millions and millions of our loving guests, this has become the most disruptive of technologies in the modern era. That along with the creation of the smartphone and its Big Brother - the TAB - where there are sales predictions of 153 million units next year, and climbing to 232 million by 2016. This has set loose a tsunami of unparalleled demand - for a strangely invisible service! No wonder CIO's call Wi-Fi a four-letter word. For the sake of repeating myself, today's Hotel Wi-Fi network (and more critically tomorrow's) is one of the principal areas in which your hotel will be judged. READ MORE

Much to the chagrin of property owners, free WiFi has become a guest expectation rather than a perk. Since the free WiFi model was introduced, hotel operators have faced the rapid adoption of bandwidth-hungry mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones. Not only do guests expect free WiFi, but they also expect ease of use and constant connectivity, similar to what they experience at home. What was once a means to improve satisfaction and engender loyalty, free WiFi that underperforms can actually have the opposite effect, causing dissatisfaction and frustration with a property that doesn't provide a positive experience. READ MORE

Everyone wants to be famous these days. Maybe that explains the rise of reality TV shows. So don¹t you want your hotel to get in on the act and claim your 15 minutes of fame? One way to feature your property is with Digital PR or electronic public relations. Think of Digital PR just like you would regular PR except you are focusing on electronic media rather than print or TV coverage. So the goal is to get your hotel exposure in ezines, email newsletters, blogs and other online outlets rather than just the NY Times. READ MORE