Tue 7 Jul 2009
Posted by Michael Hraba under Coffee Break, Management Philosophy, hotel IT, hotel management
190 views | 1 Comment
Spot on and completely hilarious, I am sure many of you have felt this frustration. Apparently, everything is negotiable nowadays, eh? This makes it nice and ridiculous, for easy lunch time digesting.
Mon 1 Jun 2009
Posted by Michael Hraba under Coffee Break, Facebook, Hospitality Marketing, Hotel Build / Design, Social Media, hotel IT
304 views | 1 Comment
A colleague and I were bemoaning the difficulty with modern customer service, and the fact that so many tech support numbers are no longer offered as toll free unless it is someone like HP or Dell. Per usual, I fanatically inject my own experiences into the situation, and muse about the long and wild road of in-room phones at hotels… specifically the way technological innovation and advancement has, constantly, caught our industry unaware to the point that we shoot ourselves in the foot.
It isn’t right not to have access to free phone tech for a product, but it is the way modern business is happening. Telephony has altered greatly (understatement) in the last two decades…and property level we are still calling them “PBX”. What’s more is that the IT guys at hotels are well versed enough to know just to ignore it. I have seen one or two try to explain.. “Well the PBX doesn’t really exist anymore”, the GM will point to the operator, and then the IT guy capitulates with a shrug.
We hotels used to gouge consumers for phone calls because they had no choice, and it was a BRILLIANT revenue stream. Then came calling cards, and hotels started losing lots of revenue… and per our typical furrowed brow, it took us a couple years to figure out why. Even dial-up modems for AOL and prodigy services were (more…)
Thu 16 Apr 2009
Posted by Michael Hraba under Hotel Build / Design, Spa Operations, hotel IT, hotel management
362 views | [4] Comments
Someone had asked what systems of PMS are out there… and where you start.
Frankly, researching, engaging, and dealing with the endless sales negotiations is daunting, and tiring. I still don’t get why PMS’ aren’t transparent and straight to the point. I don’t want to negotiate for 3 weeks just to find out there is a “competitive discount” at the end worth $60-100K. That’s asinine, and it wastes people’s time. Until then…. here we go with some loose numbers about IT!
A Note About These Numbers.
I have done my due diligence for many hotels, and these are the trends. Vague, non binding, budget purposes only numbers; IE – don’t quote me, but these are my experiences. I don’t think it is unethical to share these numbers… they are loose based off of many projects, and I am also not divulging the sensitive licensing fees, software costs, integration and implementation fees, etc. Ask me more or (more…)