Luxury oceanfront retreat, Malibu Beach Inn, has selected ALICE to upgrade the property's staff communication and provide its guests with more ways to request services from the hotel. The upscale boutique property, a member of the Leading Hotels of the World (LHW) and Condé Nast Traveler awards recipient, is using ALICE's full suite of products - ALICE Staff, ALICE Concierge, and ALICE Guest - which are purpose-built for every role within the hotel. ALICE is the hospitality industry's leading operations technology, connecting every department of the hotel with one platform for all staff communication and guest requests. ALICE recently acquired concierge software provider GoConcierge to augment its technology and customer service offering.

Agilysys, Inc. (Nasdaq: AGYS), a leading global provider of next-generation hospitality software solutions and services, today announced the general availability of innovative enhancements to rGuest® Buy, the company's groundbreaking self-service kiosk POS solution that extends point-of-sale reach, improves guest service and reduces staff demand. The enhancements for Café workflows and a new Grab N Go guest experience are part of Agilysys' continuing dramatic market penetration in food and beverage venues of all types as they move to self-service through guest facing kiosks. rGuest Buy is currently deployed at more than 55 customer sites across the country, including corporate cafeterias at a top five U.S. bank, a top 40 U.S. law firm, one of the nation's largest technology manufacturers, and at a national financial services firm.

SAVOR… Chicago provides food and beverage services to the 2.6 million square foot campus of McCormick Place. Utilizing Sertifi, SAVOR can now collect event contracts and client payments 100 percent digitally. Sertifi has also enabled SAVOR to modernize and simplify their process of maintaining PCI compliance, so employees are no longer burdened with inefficient fax machines, paper storage methods, and paper shredders.

Agilysys, Inc. (Nasdaq: AGYS), a leading global provider of next-generation hospitality software solutions and services, today announced InfoGenesis® POS v4.4.10, the latest version of its award-winning POS system. The new release includes new and improved P2PE and EMV gateway options, improved casino management system (CMS) integration and enhancements to the user experience making it easier than ever to boost efficiency and increase revenue. InfoGenesis® POS is the comprehensive point-of-sale system from Agilysys that combines strong reporting and analysis features with easy-to-use terminal and tablet touchscreen applications and industry-leading offline capabilities. Designed to serve guests more effectively while being easy to set up and maintain makes InfoGenesis® POS the ideal system for companies looking to enhance operational efficiency and increase profitability. The system easily manages any combination of food, beverage and retail services, and integrates with other Agilysys applications and a wide variety of third-party offerings. InfoGenesis Flex, which offers full point-of-sale functionality on a convenient tablet device, provides a feature-rich mobile experience for poolside, casino floors, outdoor patios, convention floors, and other foodservice operations. InfoGenesis POS and InfoGenesis Flex are available as on-premises or Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions.

Technology helps hoteliers figure out if they've got their hotel revenue strategy just right—or all wrong. Recently, I read an article describing the right way to pack liquor in your luggage. And I have to be honest with you…I didn't know there was a wrong way to pack away booze.

Agilysys, Inc. (Nasdaq: AGYS), a leading global provider of next-generation hospitality software solutions and services, today announced the latest version of its Lodging Management System® (LMS) property management solution. LMS 7.4 includes a wide range of new industry-leading features and add-on functionality that will allow customers to dramatically improve operations and ensure the security of guest financial data. New functionality includes mobile pre-check-in and upsell, mobile check-out and housekeeping, as well as rGuest Seat dining reservations.

The Internet has had an impact on almost every industry out there and how could hotel industry be an exception to this revolution. Traditional booking mechanisms like phones and agents have been replaced by OTAs, brand websites, and other channels. Some channels are more profitable or we can say less costly than others are. Hotels have to continuously make sure that they are using the most profitable channel to sell their inventory to maximize revenues. Yielding and Pricing strategy has the prime role to play in determining which channel shall be used to maximize revenues. However, some hotel revenue managers fail to determine which channels have been major contributors to the revenue against the cost incurred on them.

Sabre Corporation (NASDAQ: SABR), the leading technology provider to the global travel industry, today announced development of the new Sabre Content Services for Lodging, a technology solution that will integrate multiple sources of content including the Sabre global distribution system (GDS) and non-GDS sources such as aggregators, re-distributors, agency-sourced hotel content and other sources as identified. Planned for a 2018 launch, the new solution will also support a multi-representation display option of the content creating a whole new way to retail travel content.

Accurate, next day financial reporting is essential for proactive profitability-focused operators. Comprehensive operations reports with dynamic drill down capability are like headlights that examine the factors that impact performance. They show managers and owners where their business is, how it got there, and illuminate what they need to change to make it better.

Airbnb is constantly cited as one of the leading disruptors in hospitality, going from startup to a $30bn market valuation in a few years. Companies such as Airbnb, Uber and Lyft, together with newly emerging technologies like AI and blockchain, and established ones such as AR/VR and mobile, continue to re-shape our industry.