263 | Risk Adjustment: Hotel tech platforms face their own COVID-19 crisis

Last week, Zoom, a video-conferencing program, was prime bait for hackers who infiltrated conversations taking place among people working from home during the coronavirus pandemic. As if Zoom bombers weren’t bad enough, a day or two later, the internet-based program crashed because it could not handle the surge of users from businesses, schools and friends read more

November 1st week

Breach of Trust: Cybercrime a pervasive threat to the hospitality industry

It’s a given in today’s technological age that your hotel business depends on technology to process customer credit card purchases and to store personal information about your guests that helps you serve them better. Perhaps you believe you’ve done all you can to make sure your customers’ data is secure by making sure your PCI and GDPR compliant. But that does not fully guarantee your hotel data is safe from hackers. There is more you can – and must – do. If you do as little as possible, you’ll pay a big price, say cyber-safety experts.

236 | Breach of Trust: Cybercrime a pervasive threat to the hospitality industry

It’s a given in today’s technological age that you operate a hotel business that depends on technology to process customer credit card purchases and to store personal information about your guests that helps you serve them better. In addition, you probably are aware of cybercrime and that nefarious hackers frequently target payment systems. You’ve done read more

September 2nd week

Panic Buttons: Hospitality Workers Sound the Alarm (Hotel Safety Part 2)

When the American Hotel & Lodging Association in 2018 launched its Five Star Promise to improve safety and security for hotel workers, it acknowledged the influence of labor unions in its comprehensive plan that includes arming employees with safety devices by 2020. The time is right to focus on finding and providing solutions to sexual harassment and assault in the hospitality industry, say experts, as technology has evolved along with attitudes and awareness to provide the best available protection industrywide.

229 | Panic Buttons: Hospitality Workers Sound the Alarm (Hotel Safety Part 2)

When Robb Monkman was a college student, he and his roommates were robbed at gunpoint. The home invasion and hostage taking rocked Monkman to his core and determined the course of his career. Monkman is founder and CEO of ReactMobile, which provides electronic security devices, or panic buttons, for businesses, including the hospitality industry. ReactMobile read more

228 | Run, Hide, Fight: How to prepare for an active shooter (Hotel Safety Part 1)

“Active shooter” is a term used by law enforcement to describe a situation in which a shooting is in progress. The classification calls into action protocols relating to response and reaction – not only by police but also by citizens, says the FBI. In the case of an “active shooter,” everyone’s response and reaction can read more

215 | Hotel Crime: How to manage a high-profile case

When a hotel becomes a crime scene, there is little an owner or manager can do to ward off publicity. But a hotel can recover from a crisis and save its image if it has a plan in place to deal with the aftermath of a high-profile incident. Hotel crime has escalated around the world, read more

203 | Human Trafficking in Hotels Happens Every Day

This week, Lodging Leaders focuses on the scourge of human trafficking and its impact on the U.S. travel industry, including hotels. You’ll hear from … Brad Myles, CEO of Polaris, operator of the National Human Trafficking Hotline Ed Bastion, CEO of Delta Air Lines Camila Wright Zolfaghari, vice president of policy at the trafficking-prevention group read more

On the Front Line of the Sex-Trafficking Battleground

Vipul Dayal is an hotelier in San Diego, California. More importantly, he is a husband and father of three children. He strives to protect his family from the type of childhood he experienced growing up in a small motel along a street rampant with sex crime.  When he was a youngster helping his father run read more

March 1st week

Human Trafficking: Labor and sex slavery happens in hotels every day

The travel industry is ground zero for human and sex trafficking of vulnerable adults and children. Hoteliers, airlines and non-profit organizations band together to “eradicate this awful evil.”

197 | Loyalty Program Fraud Awareness and Prevention with Josh Galun

Josh Galun is the Hospitality & Travel Lead at Excella in Washington, D.C. He’s has been at Excella for over 8 years and most recently joined the Excella Leadership Team in 2018. Josh has wide-ranging experience in project management, custom software development, process definition, IT security, data warehousing, and digital analytics. He currently focuses on read more

168 | Reducing the Risks of GDPR with Brian Dass

Caveau co-founder and CEO, Brian Dass, is a highly accomplished travel executive and entrepreneur widely recognized as one of the leading pioneers in the hospitality e-commerce and digital reservation industry. In his more than 20-year career, Brian has launched multiple online hospitality technology and marketing firms including Timeless Hospitality (acquired by TravelClick) and Open Hospitality read more

164 | If You See Something, Say Something with Mick McKeown

Michael (Mick) McKeown is the Executive Director of the Homeland Security Advisory Council (HSAC) and Campaigns at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. He brought over fifteen years of expertise in state, city, and local government prior to his appointment at DHS. As Executive Director, Mick oversees the Homeland Security Advisory Council (HSAC) and its read more

137 | Hotel Fire Safety and Prevention with Buddy Dewar

Buddy is the former Director of Florida’s State Fire Marshal’s Office and is internationally known as a fire safety expert. He earned a BA in Economics from Florida Atlantic University, and a MBA from Nova Southeastern University. Buddy first entered the fire service in 1961 with the New River Fire Department in the Ft. Lauderdale, read more

136 | Escaping the Hilton Sonoma Fire with Jon Petz

Jon is a motivational keynote speaker who works with organizations who want to create a culture of peak performance backed by purpose and passion. As an opening Keynote speaker, closing keynote speaker or combination of keynote and conference emcee, his quality, customization and energy is unsurpassed. Jon holds a Bachelors Degree in Communications Systems Management read more

133 | GDPR Compliance with HFTP COO Lucinda Hart

Lucinda Hart, CAE, MBA, has over 22 years of association management and customer service experience in the areas of human resources, certification, membership, chapter relations, conferences/trade shows, nonprofit legal issues, and governance and administration. As HFTP Chief Operations Officer, Lucinda is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the association, managing 30 staff members, as well read more

130 | Hotel Safety and Security with Bill Frye

William D. Frye, Ph.D., CHE, CHO, CHIA is an Associate Professor and Program Coordinator at Niagara University’s College of Hospitality and Tourism Management and a doctoral graduate from the School of Hotel, Restaurant, and Recreation Management at The Pennsylvania State University. He teaches classes in hotel and resort management, hospitality and tourism law, and club read more

114 | What You Need to Know About Hotel Data Security with David Durko

David Durko is Founder, CEO and Chief Compliance Officer of Security Validation, the Hospitality Industry’s leading Managed Security Provider. Prior to founding Security Validation, David was responsible for navigating Wyndham through their data security challenges culminating in Wyndham’s first successful PCI Compliance Filing in 2010. David continued to work with Wyndham achieving compliance again in read more

047 | Hospitality Attacks: Tips That Could Save Lives with Eliza Selig

Eliza Selig is the Director of Communications for Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals (HFTP®), a global professional association for financial and technology personnel working in hotels, clubs and other hospitality-related businesses.  She has been with HFTP since 1999, overseeing the association’s communications endeavors, including serving as editor/managing editor of the association’s journal The Bottomline. HFTP read more

019 | Technology Innovation, Big Data Analytics and Cyber Security with Fortune 500 CIO Les Ottolenghi

Les brings 30+ years of experience as a Fortune 200 IT executive, an entrepreneur, and a creator of several of the travel and entertainment industries’ most game-changing technologies. He’s been lauded by top executives at many of the world’s most respected technology companies including HP, Microsoft, Google, Dell, and Cisco as the best CIO they read more