Hello all!
I was trying to sit here and think of something that I could talk to you about in this second to last blog for my class. I have discussed a LOT of different issues that can be presented at a hotel. I have shown you many different sites that you could use to find a hotel at a reasonable price, for specific or general inputs. But, what I haven't written about it why its important. Think about it. If there was no Internet the hotel's would still have to advertise in the magazines or the newspaper, or television. Thanks to today's technology we are able to rapidly and rather fast find a hotel with just the click of a button. So what are some awesome technologies that have been developed for a hotel?
I don't know about you but when I think about going to a hotel I think about the check-in in process. Without a computer and database system for guest information, Hotels would still be trying to keep track of all their guests, and when they checkin in, and when they left on paper, which could lead to errors, and double booking (ironically this still happens even now with computers from my experience). I took a class in Hospitality tourism while I was at CNM and the entire purpose of the class was to determine the front desk operations. We even had a mock check in program to play with. Not surprising to me, is that I found features and codes and area's of the program my teacher could not even find himself. The computer database's that Hotel's function off of are extensive to say the least. Most have not only the guest list in them, but the employee schedules, and the records which keep track of which rooms are empty and clean. So for example you could see a section of the database that looks like such
Room: 312
Status- Occupied
general Cleaning- no
turnover clean- no
and another that says
Room 313
Status- unoccupied
general Cleaning- yes
turnover clean- in process
( the above would say a general tidying is done when guests are still there, but full out cleaning is not done yet by the maids to prep for the next guest.
Maids themselves have their own database's they sometimes have to maintain. How do hotel's check your not stealing their towels? They most likely have a database that keeps track of the number of pillows, blankets, and other accessorized items like the TV, desk and coffee maker. When 2 towels are taken to be cleaned, this can be put into the database system. Just think about how easy it would be for a person to bilk a hotel out of all their towels, sheets, and supplies if hotels didn't have database systems to keep track of them! On the same system they have all their inventory they probably have a system to put in for work orders at specific rooms so you would see this
Room: 312
Status- Unoccupied
General cleaning: yes
Turnover clean: yes
maintenance: 2 lamp lightbulb replacements, toilet needs snaking..
Think about this logically. On the computer network you will have a employee database telling you who's working, and who's not, and a guest database to tell you who's all is there and who isn't. Ok are you ready for this? I'm going to add another dimension to this. If you are a rather grande hotel and have a restaurant and you cater you will most likely have more then 6 different kinds of database systems running for the hotel itself.
1) check in
2)Employee
3) Inventory
4) Food Inventory
5) Account management
6)food ordering system
7) restaurant reservations system
8) Room Card system
Ok... as you can see there are many different ways a hotel uses information technology. This is just the tip of the iceberg if you think about it. I feel there may be another blog after this one, so thats why I put Second to last blog at the top... So I will leave you this question.
If there was no internet and you couldn't book a hotel in advance through the web, how many of you would drive down with blind faith and just book the closest, nicest or cheapest hotel that you find? How does seeing the hotel pictures ahead of time affect which hotel you truly stay at?
Feel Free to comment please!
Chelsey
Posted by
Chelsey Stanton
,
5:31 PM
Hello all!
I found an interesting article about information Security in and article by Cornell university that I thought would be an interesting read for everyone
Title: Hotel Network Security: A Study of Computer Networks in U.S. Hotels, Cornell Hospitality Report, Vol. 8, No. 15, September 2008
Authors: by Josh Ogle, Erica Wagner, Ph.D., and Mark Talbert
If you type in that exact wording above in the title onto google, it will direct you to the article I will be talking about it. Seeing as my last few blogs have been about network security in the hotel, I thought it might be interesting for me to find an article or something that pertains to it directly. If I was a hotel manager I would take the time to go through this report and see what the Students at Cornell University have discovered through their surveying process.
One of their issues tackled was well the fact that many hotels are providing unsecured- wireless networking for guests that stay at their hotel. This in my opinion is like opening a door for hackers to try and break into the system and steal important viable information over the airways. Not only that but to make the wi-fi everyone is trying to access to work or do their research or e-mail people from incredibly slow and inoperable. From a Human resources prospective here, I can see the hotels ending up with a few lawsuits on their hands. This article is one of the leading studies about security of guest information in hotels. I did a little research and found several articles that pinpoint the lacking security at hotels. Doesn't that just make you feel really safe about browsing the Internet at a hotel when you travel??
One of the reasons why this case is something all Hotel and IT managers should read is their simple way of describing everything. They actually give you a list and definition of some important key terms. For example. Do any of you know what the promiscuous mode is when it comes to computer mode? Well let me explain it to you, seeing as Cornell was so very kind to explain it to me. A promiscuous mode is going to give you every file that people in that wi-fi spot, or hotel is receiving. So every file received over the Internet at that instant is not only available to those requesting it. But also available to them. Scary thought isn't it? If a hotel uses a Hub, It doesn't take a genius to steal people's information.
The smart blogger: This guy has the computer know-how to tell when there's something fishy going on in a computer network. I feel he puts it quite nicely at the end of his last blog about the hotel security by saying "Who on Earth would surf from the same PC they use for storing customer data? Certainly none of you -- right?"
Digital Investigations and Special Operations Group
So obviously part of the problem here is not only Hotel being smart and informed about what kind of programs they have to check and clean out any viruses or spy bots that might be slowing down the system, but perhaps they should have someone that guests could go to who is knowledgeable enough to remove software that is malicious and may cause harm to anyone who is accessing their Wifi.
Sorry this may not be the most interesting blog you can find, but I encourage you to leave comments if you will about what other issues you can find that deal with Hotel Network Security. I think in this day and age its very important
I shall leave you with this comment
" How safe do you feel your information is now? Considering you know how easy it is for someone to hack your Internet?"
Chelsey
Hello all
For today's blog I thought I would try and focus on what kind of systems the Hotels use, and whether or not they are taking the proper security cautions in protecting my identity when I rent a room at their establishments. So For today I'll look at a Large Popular Hotel, what systems they use, and then Small, independent hotels...
Hilton
Hilton is a highly esteemed hotel that many travelers have frequented in the past years. But, whenever you stay at a hotel like this. Do you ever stop and think "golly is my information safe in the hands of these people". If you use a rewards program, obviously they remember you and store your information. So to be honest. The only reason I am bringing this up, is because of a case we were discussing in one of my classes this week. It was discussing just how easy it is to steal someone's identity. So lets discuss the number of items that a hotel would have to keep you safe. for hilton here is what they say.
Wow thats a lot of different information that they give you. I looked through many of these and couldn't find the name of the program they used to ecrypt and store people's personal information. I'm guessing as a customer your supposed to use blind faith that your information will not be given to a third party. Want to comment on what you think?? can you find the company they use? feel free to comment!
Next lets look at yet another hotel and the security in their hotels. Now perhaps we could look at a competitor to Hilton. Such as Hyatt Ok here we go. On a random Hyatt website I again went down to the bottom of the page and found the Privacy policy that they are implementing on a day to day basis.
From what I could see they have a much more extensive and interesting layout for explaining how they use your information, and what they do to protect it. Here is an exert of
1) they introduce the policy.
2) the application of the policy
3) types of personal information we collect
4) How we use personal information
5) Disclosure of personal information
6) Centralized Data Processing Activities
7) Information We collect when you visit us Online
HALT
This part is interesting.... They actually tell us how they protect your security with cookie technology
Because the security of your personal information is important to us, we use Secured Socket Layer ("SSL") software with up to 128-bit encryption in order to encrypt the personal information that you provide to us. If your browser is SSL enabled (which most are) your transmission of personal information to us online will be encrypted. You can verify whether your personal information is transmitted using SSL encryption by confirming the symbol of a closed lock or solid key on the bottom bar of your browser window. You can also verify that your personal information will be encrypted using SSL encryption by making sure that the prefix for the web address listed for that page has changed from "http" to "https". If you do not see the appropriate symbol and the "https" prefix, you should not assume that the personal information that you are being asked to provide will be encrypted prior to transmission.
The personal information we collect from you online is stored by us and/or our service providers on databases protected through a combination of physical and electronic access controls, firewall technology and other reasonable security measures. Nevertheless, such security measures cannot prevent all loss, misuse or alteration of personal information and we are not responsible for any damages or liabilities relating to any such incidents
8)Choice
Conclusion: That is pretty much what I wanted to cover for this blog. I don't think I should inundate you with too much information, I want you to be able to read this happily. I am also going to let you know that i'm open to suggestions on what I should blog. So feel free to leave some sort of comments :D
thank you for reading my blog yet again. I know its not terribly awesome but I try my best
Chelsey
