As new technologies are made available to improve customer satisfaction at hotels, many industry professionals are weighing in and preparing for impending changes to the industry. MicroMetrics, a customer relations services solutions firm, surveyed more than 2,500 hospitality professionals about implementing emerging tech and released the results along with feedback and advice from 40 industry leaders in a recent report—The Future of Hospitality 2018 Research Report.
The survey respondents cited mobile enhancements as the biggest area of opportunity in the hospitality industry, with 30 percent of professionals and 40 percent of leaders naming this category as an opportunity for growth. The majority of respondents in both groups did not list virtual reality, Blockchain, Airbnb, or robotics as the biggest opportunities for growth in the hospitality industry, but instead chose artificial intelligence and the internet of things as big opportunities for hotels.
In addition to recognizing growth opportunities and the potential to improve guest satisfaction with these emerging technologies, 87 percent of professionals and 85 percent of leaders believe that the trends mentioned in the report will be implemented at their place of work within the next few years. What’s more, the report found that 34 percent of professionals and 59 percent of leaders will begin to build these trends into operation within the next year.
Although they largely agreed with the benefits of adding new technology to improve customer satisfaction, many of the survey respondents cited the expense of rolling out new tech as a barrier to implementation. In fact, 40 percent of professionals and 50 percent of leaders believe that if their company chooses to wait longer or not implement emerging tech at all, it’s because of high costs.
The majority of leaders surveyed said that they plan to spend less than $100,000 to implement new technologies, whereas professionals surveyed were more divided on how much they thought their companies would invest. The leaders in the survey were willing to invest more than the professionals in new technologies for their company, with more than half (56 percent) saying that they would invest more than $100,000 compared to 20 percent of professionals.
