Inovation

Meaningful innovation, or technology for technology’s sake?

Almost everyone would agree that the pace of technological advances in hospitality has accelerated since the pandemic, when many technology providers were forced to redesign their offerings in response to one of the largest catalysts for change that the world has ever seen. Revenue management tools were quickly re-worked to be forward-looking versus relying on historical trends, and now machine learning is being applied to everything from creating the ideal travel itinerary to cleaning up the coding that night auditors have been screwing up for decades.

But this technology is having an impact both on the industry best practices as well as the career paths of those who have dedicated their lives to hospitality. In many cases it seems like technology is permanently altering, but not replacing key positions as many experts have forecasted. A common trait among some of these emerging solutions is hasty development and reliance on the user community to sort out the bugs and refinements. And then there’s the cost.

So, on the eve of this year’s 2023 HSMAI Commercial Strategy Week and HITEC® 2023 Toronto, we asked our experts: In your opinion, is this new era of technological advancement in hospitality a blessing, a curse, or somewhere in between, and why?

Related article by Raul Moronta

Just as self-serve checkouts have allowed supermarket teams to dedicate their time to other more strategic, high-value jobs, technological advancement is a blessing any time that it”s unlocking goodness for the hospitality industry as opposed to taking jobs away. It’s a misconception that the latest innovations will have the greatest impacts, simply by virtue of them being the newest technologies to hit the shelf. However, when assessing technology, hoteliers should always bring everything back to their customer-driven goals. Do they have a positive impact on your bottom line, reduce costs and create efficiencies without compromising on the integrity of your hotel brand? Do they automate onerous tasks that consume valuable time? Do they simplify manual, complex jobs that detract from the guest experience? In assessing technologies this way, alongside other critical criteria such as security and stability, hoteliers will be able to differentiate between the technologies that are shiny and the technologies that actually add value.

Related article by Niki Van den Broeck

Revenue Optimization

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