You’ve read it many times online and even in our Data Snaps. Digitalization of the industry, whether it’s mobile apps or machine learning, is happening right before our eyes and leading the hospitality industry into a new generation of hospitality technology. However, all innovation comes at a cost of both time and money, and possibly negative setbacks if implemented poorly.
When building applications for any industry, there is a lot of work and time put into creating an app that functions well and appropriately for your industry. In the hospitality industry, it’s become the norm to have an app for your hotel group for booking purposes or loyalty programs. With these apps, online check-in, hotel research, and even keyless entry are becoming more frequent. According to this article, there are still challenges facing the growth of technology in hospitality such as multiple systems and vendors, point solutions, and backend operations. One way to overcome these challenges, as suggested by the author, is to invest in micro apps, which are a collection of mini applications that each perform individual functions to create an integrated experience.
To reach the highest level of technology in hospitality today, hotels must implement artificial intelligence (AI) tools to innovate their hotels and the guest experience. As seen here, AI is already prevalent in many parts of the industry from chatbots to in-room assistants to tailor-made trip itineraries. If implemented strategically, AI can help the operations of hotels and provide data analytics on booking trends and revenue management. However, hotel staff must be properly trained in the new technology to ensure smooth transitions within the hotel and improved experiences for the hotel guests.
Recently, Google Trips combined all of Google’s travel related app into one landing page to create one travel platform, including flights, hotels, home-rentals, experiences, etc. With this kind of major move in the industry, there have been many reactions by hotel groups, OTAs, and other hospitality players. In this article, industry experts were asked what they expected with Google’s new travel positioning, including the opinion of our very own Carson Booth, CEO of SnapShot.
“A great question to pose and one that I will take a slightly different view on. Yes, it is obvious that Google is moving deeper into the travel space, but let's not forget their track record of monetizing consumer-led products and services is not exactly stellar. They will have to battle big-brother concerns as well as address the
loyalty/rewards landscape, however, their 75% mobile OS penetration will help put their travel experience in nearly every pocket.
Amazon and Alibaba however, are the larger tech titans that I frankly have my eye on. For Amazon, their one-click checkout and superior recommendation engines are ripe for quick commoditization of the brands, as well as their attribute-based buying experience, strong existing capabilities to cater to small business owners (think boutique hotels and Airbnb), leading data capabilities and voice search through Alexa, and their ready-made loyalty rewards marketplace.
All this means Amazon has a better immediate capability to directly sell rooms and experiences. Furthermore, Amazon enjoys a better-perceived consumer position and the financial means to leverage it, whereas Alibaba owns the online shopping and significant travel services in China and beyond. Watch this space,” said Caron Booth, CEO of SnapShot, a Shiji Group Brand.
On another note, we have an exciting new article for you to read about how to implement cross-analysis between your POS and PMS solutions into your data strategy. With F&B outlets becoming an increasingly important component of a hotel’s revenue, the need for a strong POS tool is becoming even more crucial within hotels. As PMS have traditionally been the cornerstone of any hotel, and POS as the foundation of any outlet, the ability to integrate the two systems is of the utmost importance to improve hotel operations and performance analysis and to stay ahead of the competition. As expected there are integration hurdles in connecting the two systems and the need for data programs to ensure full capabilities, which can be resolved in a few steps, as seen in the article. Learn how to increase your revenue and customer loyalty through cross-analysis between PMS and POS now.
