Technology Strategies for the Hospitality Industry

There is scarcely any room in modern business for the technologically naive worker. This is especially so in hospitality where information is the competitive edge in a highly competitive industry. The useful book is divided into two parts with a total of eleven chapters. The first part talks about the basics of information technology. The discussion is crisp and thorough and could be useful to anyone who was just beginning to consider the rôle of information technology in business. The overall tone and message of the book is set in chapter 2: Using Information Technology for Competitive Advantage. This is a book about the part that information plays in the business strategy of hospitality organizations. The second part covers specific needs of the modern hospitality organization. The chapters deal with E-commerce, restaurant management systems, property management systems and interfaces, hotel global distribution systems and channels, databases and more. There is a chapter called The Power of Information that is one of the best examples of useful philosophy that I've ever seen in a business text. Each chapter begins with an interview with someone who has coped with infomanagement in a practical setting. The interviews could stand to be a little tighter, but they allow students a soft intro to each chapters topic while humanizing the concerns expressed in the chapter. The interviews are one of the aspects of the book that make it so much better than anything else available. The authors wisely refrain from recommending specific solutions to problems of information gathering and analysis. The emphasis is relentlessly on the needs of business strategizing. This is one of those rare books that manages to talk about a quickly changing situation without becoming immediately obsolete. It is written in an easy style that students (and faculty and professionals) will find approachable. It would be an excellent source for in-service training and I highly recommend it to any hospitality professional who wants to advance his or her career. -Lynn Hoffman, author of The New Short Course in Wine and the forthcoming novel bang-BANG from Kunati Press.

This is an interesting and basic book for those planning to work in the hospitality industry to become familiarized with the technology issues and information systems they are likely to encounter in their jobs. The book isn't on the sharpest cutting edge of technology, but in an introductory book like this, that matters much less. It is the broad subjects of each chapter that matter most. The book is eleven chapters in two parts. The first part consists of four chapters on computing basics. They discuss IT based careers in Hospitality, using IT for competitive advantage, computing essentials, and networks & security. The second part has chapters on e-commerce, restaurant management systems, property management systems & interfaces, hotel global distribution systems, databases, the power of information, and strategic hospitality technology investment. One interesting feature is that each chapter begins with a short interview with an authority in the field of the topic the chapter discusses followed by a short introduction. The authors do a fine job of keeping the techo-speak to a very minimum because this book is focused for hospitality industry people rather than computer jocks. However, it is about IT matters rather than sunblock and chlorination levels for the hotel pool. So, with that little caveat, have fun!

An excellent grounding in systems fundamentals and the principal hospitality industry applications, as well as on the use of information technology for strategic operational advantages, on how the power of data analysis leads to better informed management, and on making strategic investments in technology. The appendices on using IT for intelligent marketing, revenue management and distribution channel management are especially worthwhile. The pace of technology has left some of the technology specifics rather out of date, especially the chapter and appendix on interface standards, although the latter do give a good grounding on why inter-systems communications have been such a problem. Overall a very worthwhile addition to the available literature and highly recommended.

This book makes great reading for students and veterans alike. After over 25 years in hospitality technology, I still found nuggets of golden information inside. Particularly useful are the sections on inventory management and channel distribution - two of the most complex and important subjects faced by managers in the hospitality industry today. This was written as a text. Well, I admit that I skipped the learning activities at the end of each section. But I made up for it by recommending the book to many industry friends.

This is an excellent beginner's guide to hospitality technology. It is a "Reader's Digest-on-Adkins-Diet" treatment but the authors hit some high points and de-mystify much of the jargon without bogging the reader down in too much information.Each chapter begins with an interview of an industry luminary. While a tad superfluous, the interviews are a light-weight introduction of each topic, a reinforcement of the vocational pragmatism of the text and an attempt to humanize the subject matter.The first two chapters are preachy but a good discussion of what IT (information technology) means in the context of hospitality and why one should care. For those just beginning their careers, or those who might have forgotten why we do what we do, they are worthwhile reading.The balance of the book is a compendium of the major application sets specific to the industry - CRS, PMS, POS, CRM, MIS, EIS - and just in time to prevent TLA overload, includes segments on e-commerce (defined mostly as Internet purchasing methods) and a primer on how to specify, evaluate and acquire technology.The authors are faithful throughout to the theme of technology for the sake of the business and emphasize strategic considerations at each turn. They reasonably stop short of defining or recommending specific business strategies, instead stressing the importance of aligning technology with the strategies of the organization as a whole.Recommended reading for newbie's or baffled veterans trying to get their arms around IT hospitality concepts and issues.(Review first appeared on Hotel-Online and in Hospitality Upgrade Magazine)