At UniFocus’ Annual Partner Conference, labor leaders discussed what they think technology in the hospitality industry will look like five years from now.
Kirk Gautreau, vice president of corporate operations at Towne Park, says: “Signs tell us that we are moving to a ubiquitous state, where everything is known by everyone. With bitcoin introducing a distributed ledger and Uber making pricing elasticity transparent to the customer, information is becoming available to everyone at an exponential rate.”
Mike Straube, vice president of finance at Pyramid Hotel Group, says: “Technology is going to be much more intuitive than what it is now. You won’t have to learn the technology, as it will be so advanced that it becomes second nature. In hotels, you’ll still have bellmen and people who assist with the manual aspects of the stay, but then there will be ‘tech ambassadors’ who can help guests navigate technology to get what they want.”
Beth Locklear, senior manager of labor management at The Cosmopolitan, says: “I think that going forward, employees will continue to crave new technology that will reduce the challenges that they face day-to-day, and give them more work/life balance. Not only are the technologies they seek going to make their lives easier—they usually also double as cost-saving measures for the hotel.”
