Spring is in the air and things are definitely stirring. It’s also a traditional time for new announcements by Apple, whose new iPad is due to be announced tomorrow (as I write this) and which always prompts thoughts as to how we might improve the usability of systems in general and hotel systems in particular. Not to disparage Apple’s aesthetic inspiration, but the directions Microsoft takes are usually more meaningful for mainstream users, and this week’s release of the Public Beta version of Windows 8 is therefore highly significant.

Its tile-based screen design, an enhancement of Microsoft’s Phone software approach, is both visually appealing and intuitively useful, with various tiles displaying brief information on their underlying context such as the number of unread e-mails. The applicability to hospitality management systems is obvious – different tiles could easily lead to lists of arriving guests, in-house groups, VIPs or other categories of information – but I’m just as interested in whether this will lead to a more touch-based interface in general.

Clearly many vendors have been moving towards this, as witness the number of tablet-based versions of systems now available. Few, however, have changed the fundamental design of their user interfaces towards a primarily touchscreen approach, with the notable and admirable exception of PAR Springer-Miller’s Atrio system. Most have ported their standard screen designs over to touch-screen devices and left it to the users to cope as best they can with fingers somewhat larger than ideal for the small target buttons. Microsoft’s new approach shows much more promise, although as with Atrio it remains to be seen how far the metaphor can be applied into more detailed functions such as setting up a multi-day, multi-room type group block with complex charge routing.

One thing I am curious about, though, is whether this touch-screen direction will actually produce faster processing of routine functions such as check-ins. When mouse-driven graphical user interfaces were first introduced they were always slower than traditional keyboard-based approaches, due to the need to focus and carefully position the cursor before clicking the mouse. With time, however, a generation of users brought up on Windows and gaming consoles closed the gap and began to see keyboards as the slower option. Will touch-screens be faster or slower? Drop me a line (jonjoningecom) and let me know what you think.

Some years start off slowly, but the news this week is full of innovation and good progress reports. Some of last year’s new systems are gaining good traction, and a number of innovative new ideas have been announced.

For example:
- the eagerly-awaited first installation of Springer-Miller’s new Atrio GMS was announced
- Softbrand’s new HMS now has over 20 systems installed or on order, both in the USA and internationally
- Gogo brings last minute hotel bookings to passengers in flight through HotelTonight
- Nor1 has integrated its software with Opera to provide individually-targeted upgrade offers to guests who have just booked based on their profile and history data, truly getting into to one-to-one marketing
- OpenWays is gaining ground with new orders for its phone-based room keys from the USA and France
- LodgeNet’s new Mobile App lets guests use smartphones and tablets as TV remote controls, with a local channel guide for the hotel where they’re staying. What a useful concept; not only does it make channel surfing so much easier, it means you no longer have to wonder how clean the existing TV remote is…

Only six weeks in and already we’re seeing plenty of excitement and fresh ideas. It’s going to be a good year!

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…)