The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children reported over 23,000 endangered runaway children in 2018. One in seven were likely victims of child sex trafficking. 80% of human trafficking victims are women and girls and up to 50% are minors. 70% of human trafficking is linked to organized crime. Hotels across the U.S. are being used to shuffle children in and out of rooms for sexual exploitation and hoteliers are increasingly under scrutiny to do something about it. Lawsuits are being filed from Los Angeles to Philadelphia and six-figure settlements are being paid by hotel brands to settle human trafficking lawsuits.

INTELITY® announced today that its robust guest engagement and staff management platform now integrates with Silverware's point of sale (POS) system. The integration between INTELITY and the hybrid-cloud POS will make in-room and mobile dining solutions more accessible to hoteliers and provide them with further insight into the performance of their food and beverage programs.

Leading hospitality mobile technology platform provider, FCS, has appointed Theo Laborey to head up the company's sales office in Bangkok, Thailand.

It's summer, and with the heat comes vacationers looking for hotels with swimming pools. This seasonal amenity is a big revenue generator for operators, but it can also be a liability if the pool is not properly maintained. Quore, a hotel workforce communications platform used by more than 3,900 hotels (including 560 management companies and 80 hotel brands in 29 countries) is helping operators ensure that their pools, hot tubs and spas meet water safety standards by automating the water-testing process within its Pool Readings module.

SALTO Systems, a leading manufacturer of wire-free smart electronic locking solutions, and INTEREL, the award-winning hospitality guest room management solution, today announced the integration of SALTO's BLUEnet technology into INTEREL's guest room control solutions, using BLE wireless radios to allow hotels to minimize their infrastructure investment, optimize energy consumption, and take advantage of SALTO's next-generation products.

INTELITY®, the provider of the broadest enterprise guest engagement and staff management platform for hospitality, announced today that it has integrated its platform with BluIP, the premier provider of cloud-based connectivity and communication solutions. This integration removes the need for analog phone solutions in guest rooms and the back office by making BluIP's VoIP services available to guests and staff via tablets.

Home-sharing continues to rise in popularity on a global scale with tens of millions of apartments, houses, villas and other property types available for both short- and long-term stays. According to research from Transparent, the world supply of alternative accommodations has grown by 33 percent from 2017 to 2018. The fast rate of growth and rising popularity of home-sharing presents hoteliers of all types and sizes with a new competitive reality that they must be able to respond to in real-time.

As Malcolm Gladwell points out, "Look at the world around you. It may seem like an immovable, implacable place. It is not. With the slightest push—in just the right place—it can be tipped." This rings especially true for the vacation rental and timeshare market which simply isn't what it used to be.

Leading hospitality mobile technology platform provider, FCS, has announced its participation at NOVACANCY in Sydney, Australia's largest annual hotel and accommodation industry event attended by more than 4,000 hospitality professionals.

There is still a lot of talk in the hospitality industry regarding the rising costs of distribution. While encouraging guests to book direct can help hotels bypass some commissions and fees (even direct channels are typically not a free lunch), there are still many hotels that rely on the distribution and marketing reach of online travel agencies (OTAs).