Artificial intelligence continues to dominate the headlines across all business sectors, so much so that it is likely weighing on hoteliers’ minds as they prepare to make new investments in technology. With such a wide range of potentially transformative innovations seemingly around the corner, it’s more important than ever to focus on the investments that truly move the needle on profitability and growing net operating income.
Hoteliers who are committed to improving their revenue management strategies and continuing to exceed guests’ expectations cannot avoid these three technology trends seizing the industry today:
Uniting All Departments Behind the Scenes
Today’s technology has so much to offer hospitality, but many hotels are held back by an antiquated, fragmented approach to building their tech stack. However, more hotels than ever before are committed to bringing departments together by connecting their siloed systems. Hotel leaders must disperse their data and operations teams and ensure information can flow freely between key departments.
Progress rarely waits for organizations to catch up, which is why so many hoteliers have collaborated with technology vendors to work around the operational siloes that have been mandated internally. Today, operators are learning from the past and readjusting their operations framework to accommodate multiple departments and perspectives.
Hotel owners committed to a modern revenue management strategy are uniting their departments to adapt to the real-world complexities of today’s hospitality marketplace. Effective revenue management strategies today include tracking events, competitor pricing data, length of stay intervals, and more. That means a cohesive foundation of supporting technologies isn’t just a “nice-to-have.” It’s a must-have as hoteliers look to maximize the potential of their data today and in the future.
Personalization Beyond Expectations
Hospitality is finally poised to deliver levels of personalization that once seemed impossible. Travelers have struggled to access a “local” experience through traditional hotels over the past few years, but those days are numbered. As travelers continue to share their stay preferences with hoteliers through booking choices and historical data, hotels can increasingly offer a more targeted experience than ever before — and at scale.
Personalization, one of hospitality’s favorite buzzwords, can now be delivered more accurately and successfully. Hotels can leverage attribute-based selling strategies to create specialized packages based on a guest’s historical choices. This presents a real opportunity to establish hotels as the leaders in local travel once again and earn back bookings lost to home-sharing sites that overpromise and underdeliver.
Most importantly, personalization doesn’t have to be comprehensive to be successful. Hotels don’t need to offer an exhaustive list of elements during booking; instead, guests can be directly marketed to or offered select packages during the booking experience. Consider the current model employed by popular entertainment apps. When they promote their recent releases, they often do so in a targeted manner that’s based on users’ previous choices.
By offering select packages, hotels can focus on the intrinsic value of their property and show they understand their guests and why they are choosing to book. The hospitality industry can introduce more value by offering a personalized experience through direct booking, and the process is well underway.
Technology Investments Build Momentum
It’s a challenging time to be a hotel owner in the market for new tools. New innovations are helping automate cumbersome operations, optimize revenue, and improve the working environment for employees. Finding the right technology for one’s property at the right cost has never been more overwhelming.
All hoteliers, particularly independents, are spoiled for choice and often unsure of where to invest in new technology. Many of today’s latest innovations are unproven or poorly understood, and data does not always sway individuals the way data scientists would hope.
The antidote for these ills is to form personal relationships within the industry wherever possible with fellow hotel owners, operators, investors, and reliable vendors. Hoteliers should network within their local and national hotel associations and begin browsing potential partners’ websites and technology marketplaces to understand their options. While it can be challenging to break through the noise today, the reward of finding a reliable partner is worth the wait.
It’s important to consider the overwhelming presence of AI in today’s business discourse. Hotels should ensure they have a solid foundation of reliable operations and data management systems in place before investing in AI-related technology. This cutting-edge technology is raining hype across every business vertical, but it must prove itself at scale in hospitality.
