Written By: Frank Wolfe, CEO, HFTP – Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals

While technology has played an important role in the hospitality and tourism industry over the last decade, the world witnessed its accelerated growth over the past two years brought on by the effects of COVID-19 making it the primary disruptive force, globally.

The pandemic exposed weaknesses in the architecture of many business operations, and the hospitality industry is not an exception. The new era has enforced the need to digitize and virtualize, which is critical for the progress of every business. As technology advances at a rapid pace, organizations must keep track of the latest developments, especially in the dynamic and highly competitive hospitality industry.

Key reasons behind technology playing such an important role

Hospitality saw a massive upgrade during the pandemic, which has brought about great enhancements including improved customer services, operational efficiency, and has also helped hoteliers reduce costs, inevitably leading to its success.

The pandemic contributed to a strong desire to keep a distance that manifested in increased trust in technology. While the human touch of the hospitality experience will never be replaced, as it is a crucial part of the industry, smart technology has certainly heightened the growing demand for self-service, enabling hoteliers to not only meet but exceed guests’ expectations through a contactless experience.

Whether it is a quick and painless check-in by scanning a QR code or ordering room service from a tablet, guests want an easy and smooth experience that will ultimately boost the overall travel experience.

Technology in the hospitality industry

Success in hospitality is inevitably linked to cost-profit optimization and with technology now playing a key role, it acts as a one-time investment as opposed to a regular outflow of cash. Additionally, handling various processes manually not only results in an unseen number of hours wasted, that could be handled productively, but is also prone to human error.

Automation can ensure a streamlined working process from managing reservations and housekeeping to updating inventory, as well as maintaining multiple POS outlets and handling accounting or billing processes, saving a significant number of man-hours.

Some of the key technology that has become a part of a hotel’s DNA includes:

AI Chatbots: Artificial intelligence (AI) has made a significant mark across all industries and verticals in recent years with Gartner has predicted that by 2022, organizations will have an average of 35 AI projects in place — a major increase from an average of just four as of 2019.

AI-powered Chatbots allow businesses to simulate the behavior of humans within a conversational environment and help guests with making reservations, getting recommendations, addressing grievances, and much more, which in turn establishes customer loyalty.

NFC technology: Near-field communication (NFC) technology has most certainly become a game-changer in the industry. It is the next-generation, short-range, high-frequency wireless communication technology that is based on identification by RFID (radio-frequency identification) that gives users the ability to exchange data between devices.

Big hotel chains have already seen an improvement with the use of NFC technology as it allows a seamless guest experience by not only allowing check-ins to be automatic, but also improves security since the tags cannot easily be lost, erased, or forged like magnetic strip cards.

Robots in Hotels: In the hospitality industry, we have already witnessed a few outlets introducing robotics to carry out tasks traditionally performed by humans, including welcoming guests, taking orders, cleaning, and providing them with important customer information.

Gain a Competitive Advantage in the Hotel Industry

While some hoteliers fear that the quality of customer service and guest experience may be impacted by the frequency with which new hospitality technology hits the market, it can surely be said that customers have grown accustomed to utilizing said technology and only have higher expectations now on how one should conduct their business.

In conclusion, technology is here to stay and as such, hotel managers need to be updated on all the latest technologies to give them an edge and outpace the competition.