As per hospitalitynet.org the majority of hotels spend, on average, less than 2.5 percent of net room revenue on technological developments, despite the fact that technology is permeating every part of the sector. The pandemic significantly decreased technology investments in the hospitality sector and struck our historically tech-averse industry with a severe setback with substantial long-term ramifications.
All things considered, the “digital way of life” has greatly expanded, making the customer journey more complicated. It doesn’t help that the competition is fierce, and the only way to keep up would be to upgrade to better technology in the hospitality industry and use evolving hospitality software that helps smoothen this endeavor. As a result, hoteliers are being forced to completely revamp not only their corporate and marketing strategies but also their technology stack in order to engage, acquire, service, and retain these digitally enabled guests across all digital touchpoints, channels, and devices.
Why current hospitality software technology needs a revamp
For years, the technology trends in the hotel industry seemed to focus on using different systems for daily operations and the management of a guest’s lifecycle. Even though this might have been “the way of things”, it doesn’t mean it’s the best option. Rather than having different systems used for pre-booking through to the post-checkout stages, consider having a single system that can do it all.
Consider all of the problems that could come from having so many different systems. For starters, it would mean you and anyone else who uses the software has to learn multiple systems. It also requires that somehow all of these disparate pieces of software are required to be seamlessly integrated into your hotel.
Sometimes, certain software won’t work properly with other technology, which leads to fragmented support and a broken experience overall. With so many different systems, something is bound to go wrong. This leads to higher costs, along with wasted time and resources. Even implementing all of the different software and trying to get them to work with one another can take an inordinate amount of time.
With that out of the way, let’s look at the latest hospitality trends, you must know as a hotelier.
Hospitality Technology Trends you must follow
If you want to stay afloat during the off seasons while also growing your business, there are a few things you should be doing with the technology you use:
- Use cloud-based hospitality software.
- Make the most of contactless technologies.
- Improve your distribution channels.
- Offer mobile solutions to attract modern travelers.
- Choose a hospitality software company that offers end-to-end hotel technology
Use a cloud-based hospitality software
It’s time for you to renounce the legacy-based systems and welcome cloud technology into your hotel. The decision to use a cloud-based solution makes much more sense than keeping everything on-site. When your platform is hosted in the cloud, you no longer need to be present at the hotel to manage it. You can essentially use the platform for managing hotel operations and other purposes anywhere there is an Internet connection. It continues to provide real-time updates. Additionally, using the cloud typically has a lower total cost of ownership. The system is simple to implement and allows for uninterrupted work. Good cloud-based hotel software is usually accompanied by automation of various mundane repetitive tasks which saves time and money.
Make the most of contactless technologies.
Since the COVID 19 pandemic, one of the technology trends has been significant to boost the use of contactless technologies in the hotel industry. Travelers prefer not to wait in line alongside other people. They desire a simple and quick check-in and check-out process for their rooms. They also want to be able to get in touch with you directly if there are any problems with the room without going to the front desk. You can streamline housekeeping, room service, and other groups to prevent contact between employees and guests because the system makes it possible to manage operations for various departments. To demonstrate that you are taking steps to ensure the safety of both your customers and your employees, highlight these in your marketing and other communications.
Improve your distribution channels.
Better channel management is a feature of technology in the hotel industry. In addition to your own website, you most likely advertise your hotel on other websites as well. Make sure you have a channel manager where you can easily manage all of the channels, prices, and bookings on all platforms. This is much simpler than making the changes on each of those various channels on a daily, weekly, or even hourly basis. Technology is what you need to make this process more efficient.
Offer mobile solutions to attract modern travelers.
Technology-wise, mobile hotel solutions are a crucial component as well to attract modern travelers. Make sure the system you select recognizes how important mobile is in today’s world. You can work from anywhere with a mobile solution and a cloud-based system, as mentioned. Additionally, it means that customer-facing technology streamlines expedites, and secures processes like payment and check-in, check-out, and more.
Choose a hospitality software company that offers end-to-end hotel technology
In the hotel industry, as already mentioned, there are still many hoteliers who employ outdated technology. They have a setup that necessitates the operation of multiple systems, and even then, the interactions between the systems are not always smooth. It makes much more sense to select a system that offers all of the features you require rather than a patchwork of these systems. It will make integration simpler and only require you to learn one system as opposed to several, which will save you time.
Future hotel operations will be more influenced by other smart technologies like smart customer surveys, smart loyalty program management, and smart hotel management. The secret to implementing the right hospitality technologies that satisfy guests’ expectations and hoteliers’ needs to better understand these travelers is to run smarter hotels.
As time goes on, it’s likely that more hotel properties will use a range of smart technologies to cut expenses, enhance the guest experience, and tap into fresh revenue streams.
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