Throughout the first full day at HITEC Toronto, a number of technology trends influencing the hotel industry became clear. Beacon technology, casting, and robotics were all hot topics, as was the possibility of combining major hotel software—think PMS, RMS, and POS systems—into one comprehensive and communicative program. In terms of robotics, Tessa Lau, CTO and chief robot whisperer at Savioke (the robotics company behind the hotel industry’s first robot butler, Relay) believes that the scope of this technology in hotels will only grow from here. “Robotics is almost a fundamental technology,” she says. “Our specialty is building out the robot’s base functions, such as how to navigate around people and safely make deliveries. Now, lots of people have ideas about how they want to use that service. We want to enable all of our customers to build on top of our foundation, leverage our capabilities, and use their own creativity to develop new solutions.”
LODGING’s bonus coverage of HITEC will continue throughout this week. If you want more, check out LodgingMagazine on Instagram to see what we see!
