HFTP Connect

[Part 1] 2011 Year in Review for Hospitality Technology

[Part 2] 2011 Year in Review for Hospitality Finance

As we begin 2012, we here at HFTP Connect are reflecting on highlights we saw from the previous year to maybe see where we will go in the coming year. This three part series includes the latest happenings in hospitality technology, hospitality finance and with HFTP.

For the final post in our three-part blog series, we focus on the cool things that happened to HFTP throughout the year. 2011 was a great year for HFTP and it looks like 2012 is going to be even bigger – especially with the 40th Anniversary of HITEC and the 60th Anniversary of the association!

But before we get ahead of ourselves looking into the future, let’s rewind and see what HFTP was up to last year: Read More »

Modern hotel guests often expect the same comforts as home when they travel. And while the world continues to converge and hospitality technology becomes more accessible, there are still regions of the world that face technology challenges different than others.
Europe is one hot spot in the industry that has a unique set of issues that aren’t found in other parts of the world.

European Hoteliers Face Unique IT Challenges

In Europe, hospitality professionals must deal with various taxation rules, currency, vendors, information security, cultures and more as they cross borders to do business in each country.

Another major difference is the wide variety of hoteliers in Europe. While there are large hotel chains doing business in Europe, there are also many independent and small businesses running hotels throughout Europe. This poses a challenge in raising the awareness of technology available to these hoteliers.

Smaller hoteliers also have to worry about financing technology for their businesses to keep up with the larger chains. With guests bringing their own technology into their guest space hotels now more than ever before are expected to provide seamless integration with the home technologies which can put a heavy burden on IT budgets. Read More »

With travel rules and regulations becoming more tedious to muddle through, HFTP wanted to do our part to assist HITEC international attendees as much as possible. We greatly appreciate our international delegation and want to be able to provide valuable resources to make travel in and out of the United States for HITEC 2011 as easy as possible.

Visa interviews can be incredibly stressful as well as time consuming, and since we get a number of calls asking for assistance in this process we decided HFTP had a responsibility to our stakeholders to learn more about the process our global attendees must go through just to walk in the front doors of HITEC.

I recently attended ITB Berlin and had the opportunity to meet with a US Immigrations and Customs Officer who specialized in visa applications. I learned we can offer our attendees a lot of resources for the process, especially as it comes to the interview process.

Here’s some of the information I learned: Read More »

Every year for HITEC we try to incorporate new and interesting concepts to the conference. This year I’m excited about a special education opportunity the HITEC Advisory Council has been busy putting together — the HITEC TechTour.

A TechTour is a guided exhibit hall tour of exhibitors from a specific product category. This year there will be two TechTours on Tuesday, June 21 from 4 – 5:30 p.m.:

• IPTV
• Guestroom Controls

Each tour group of 10 attendees will be guided around the show floor by a tour leader to four different booths for 15 minutes a piece. At each stop, the exhibitor will demonstrate a visually-stimulating aspect of their product which helps educate the tour participants on the capabilities of the new technology. Read More »