How to Take a Balanced Second Look at Hotel Tech

10/21/2020

As hoteliers begin welcoming travelers back through their doors, there will be smaller budgets to deploy and more tools required to keep guests and staff healthy and safe. This is leading many owners and operators to take a second look at their technology, determining what tools they may be able to survive without and what additional resources they need now to operate in compliance with COVID-19 restrictions.

While hoteliers look to adapt to the changing nature of travel, they must assess current demands as well as future needs.

Crawl, Walk, Run
Many hoteliers think of technology adoption as something that needs to be done all at once. Thankfully, you don't have to have everything from the get-go. You can build over time and as a result do not need the perfect strategy and systems set up from the start.

It’s important to take a phased approach, rolling new systems out in incremental steps, so you can start to solve problems sooner, rather than later. Technology is iterative by its very nature, so action is most often better than maintaining the status quo.

Begin by evaluating systems that will benefit your team and your guests now. As COVID-19 is requiring your line-level employees to go the extra mile for guests, it’s important that you give them the tools needed to perform their roles to the best of their ability.

Evaluate your core operational processes

While 2020 has been an unfortunate year for the hospitality industry, many hotels are using the experience to take a fresh look at their core operational processes, and determine where technology can play a critical role. Here are some of the most common questions I see hotels asking:

  1. How can we move to a contactless check-in and registration process?
  2. How can we make more ancillary revenue through in-room orders while minimizing the risk of exposure?
  3. How can we make guest communication as easy as possible in a time when face-to-face interaction should be minimized?

Select partners that will pay dividends

As you take a phased approach, pick a partner that is flexible enough to serve your changing needs as they arise. Here are the questions I recommend you ask yourself as you evaluate potential partners:

  1. Does this vendor have the necessary technical capabilities in place to serve my current needs?
  2. Is this vendor truly a technology company, and not just a service provider, that has the chops to continue to meet our needs as they evolve?
  3. Does this vendor have a history of innovating?
  4. Are the vendor’s solutions built on technologies that are not antiquated?
  5. Does this vendor continue to iterate and make changes for their customers?
  6. Can this vendor get new systems up and running in weeks (and not months)?

“Technology first” vendors have the in-house resources to build solutions that won’t rely on third-party technology. Working with one of these companies will mean your guests’ data will be safe, information will be fully synced with your property management system, and any issues that may arise can be quickly fixed.

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