The hospitality industry is evolving with different applications of technology, security and management principles being introduced to enhance business efficiency. While we have previously discussed popular industry trends for 2019, today we take a closer look at what guests, hoteliers, and hotel technology providers expect from hospitality technology trends.
The Modern Traveler & The Guest Experience
The modern traveller is intelligent, educated, informed and high tech-savvy. Smartphones have completely changed the way businesses operate and deliver their services, providing customers with instant service with hands-on feedback.
The hotel guest experience is highly influenced by mobile with intuitive apps and booking systems now migrating to smartphones. Consider the Marriott Bonvoy app that allows guests booking rooms from anywhere in the world, provides mobile check-in, mobile room keys, and make personalized requests.
An amazing research for U.S. hotels conducted by SiteMinder, Revinate, IDeaS, and Dr. Peter O’Connor (Professor at ESSEC Business School) established that in 2020:
- 11% of hotel guests will expect unique experiences
- 10% will have higher expectations from hotel technology
- 8% will be highly connected to digital natives
- 7% or more will expect personalized experiences
- 5% will expect more technology interactions instead of humans
The Modern Hotelier & Technology Management
As guest demands considerably shift to a more tech assisted hotel experience, hoteliers will be expected to use more applications of hotel technology come 2020. Mohammed Shoaib Ziaee (Director of Information Technology – Advanced Hospitality technologies Inc.) establishes that
“ … franchise hotels are constantly evolving their legacy systems to more sophisticated & connected technologies. Hoteliers are now inclined to have complete control & monitoring of systems across properties.
Mobility tools, cloud PMS integrations, guest communications through tablets & mobile, robot butlers, self-service kiosks, and other technologies are making hotel processes faster, more efficient, and providing more relief to in-house staff.
Even small & medium-sized hotels are renovating assets to carry future technologies including BlueTooth, IoT applications, in-room tablets etc. Both SMBs & franchise brands are also expanding into reputation management systems and digital marketing to enhance brand recognition & loyalty.
Most hotel owners are still not sure about the applications of cloud technology, with only major brands dwelling into the technology. I do expect most hotels to have automated check-in capabilities to ensure quicker guest on-boarding.
Something that I really expect hotels will look into is AI machine learning and its various applications. This includes predictive analyses, customized room rates, demand forecasting and countless other benefits that hotels can derive from AI.”
The SiteMinder research identifies that by 2020:
- 17% hotels will have highly integrated & interconnected revenue management systems
- 8% hotels will migrate their PMS to cutting edge applications
- 14% hospitality businesses will have intuitive CRM
- 7% will carry mobile PMS integration
- 6% of hotels will have automated self-service check-in technologies
- 6% of hoteliers will be using eMarketing solutions & distribution strategies
- 4% of hotels will invest in cloud PMS solutions
- 4% will integrate reputation management systems
Hospitality Technology Providers in 2020
Hotel technology providers will be the focal point for hoteliers for insights, support, and cutting-edge tech integrations. Providers will focus on delivering better communications, property management, security, and AI tools, and the synchronization of multiple technologies.
SiteMinder research identifies that:
- 20% of hotel technology providers will focus on integrated messaging
- 19% will focus on delivering leading-edge A.I. hotel applications
- 17% will focus on guest technology experience management
- 12% will develop enhanced predictive analysis tools
- 7% will focus on delivering superior centralized management dashboards
- 5% will enhance synchronization of “middleware”
Although the research does not address “cybersecurity & data protection”, these will be the most important tools to enhance brand loyalty. It’s well known that hospitality is the second most threatened industry from cybercriminals due to the massive personal data processed through them. The development of hotel cybersecurity suites and PCI compliance training will lead the way in 2020.
Conclusion
I hope you enjoyed our summarized view of the brilliant research from SiteMinder and its partners. As traveller demands take off, hotels will be required to enhance their offerings through technology.
More personalized service, unique guest experiences, centralized management systems, AI machine learning, cloud integration, mobility, and seamless communication among others will determine the excellence of brands.
For more interesting reads and hospitality technology insights visit us again soon.
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