Hotel Brand - Luxury/Resort

Knowledge is power, but only if you use it. The challenge facing the hospitality industry goes beyond merely connecting with guests on social channels, but how to turn information from those connections into actionable CRM data.

Heartland Brewery safeguards against losing potential event clients with Imbookin.com. The restaurant, which has seven locations in Manhattan and books about 1,000 events a year, uses the online tool to boost its business while decreasing labor.

Texas Western uses cloud BI to automate data gathering, analysis and reporting for 53 hotels.

Senior executives from across the hotel industry gathered at the 8th annual Hotel Tech Forum (HTF) to discuss the challenges and opportunities facing the hotel industry and the role that technology can play to enable growth. This year's event, held April 18-20 at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, delivered valuable insights on topics ranging from negotiation expertise to in-room innovations and cloud computing.

Mobile apps, wage monitoring and business intelligence tools are changing the way operators manage workforces. From employee portals and performance tracking to mobile timecards and productivity analysis, today's systems are providing more options for operators to manage labor at a much deeper level.

As hospitality industry operators collect information from an increasing number of touch points, the Federal Trade Commission is calling on companies to self-regulate use of customer data in order to protect privacy.

The hospitality industry as a whole should embrace the benefits of cloud technologies as services ranging from human resources to business intelligence all have cloud-based options.

This past April, Hospitality Technology magazine announced the winners of the 2012 Hotel Visionary Awards at the Hotel Technology Forum. Four forward-thinking hotels were awarded the honor in two categories: Infrastructure Innovator and Guest-Facing Innovator. This year's honorees are Flamingo Las Vegas, Gaylord Entertainment, Hilton Worldwide and La Quinta Inns & Suites. The executives behind the technology initiatives share the award-winning hotels' stories.