HT-NEXT Insights From Infor
How can hotels best leverage technology right now to meet the challenges of the pandemic and economic downturn?
The best way forward with conventional pre-pandemic technology is to tend to the basics. Hotels must institute the appropriate level of guest care and then inform potential guests what that is and how it benefits them. Visible signs that you care about the wellbeing of your guests (and your staff) must be there and must be taken seriously. The technology ask is the distribution of marketing-driven messages of effort and attention by all as long as the threat exists. You can’t cure the pandemic but you can demonstrate that you are dedicated to doing your part to keep the threat at bay.
The question that this question begs is “what additional technologies should hotels be considering in order to meet today’s challenges?” That answer points hotels toward touchless, contactless automation that allows guests the option to deal with the routine basics of occupying a hotel room (checking in; bell, door and transportation assistance; routine housekeeping; routine dining and checkout) without having to put themselves into communicable contact with the hotel staff or other guests. This automation trend started well before the pandemic, but it was optional and not all that guest-friendly, especially in upscale environments. Today it’s more mandatory than optional, so that the option truly exists.
How should hoteliers start thinking beyond the pandemic as they chart their tech roadmaps for the coming years?
We are looking at the light at the end of the tunnel – amazing new vaccination technology appears almost ready to launch and it feels like it’s about time. An anxious and war-weary public is more than ready to declare victory, throw down weapons and return to the life we remember fondly from last January. But that is not how we who provide public accommodation should be thinking about post-pandemic recovery – recovery being the operative word.
2021 will not be a light-switch flip that returns us to the pre-pandemic conditions of 2019. Just as the changes that 9/11 caused are still with us, so will the remnants of COVID. Some hotel guests may take years before they are comfortable sharing an elevator with an unmasked stranger. The recovery period, like physical therapy or rehabilitation, could take an extended period of time and different people will recover at different rates. Some of our “emergency measures” may simply evolve into common practices: required by some, appreciated by others, and perhaps even taken for granted by all. Our evolution toward friendlier self-service will continue, and our need for creative solutions that mix sociability with precaution and protection will endure. Tech roadmaps will have to continually track to that reality.
If a guest is in a high-risk group today, they are likely to remain in that category in the future. Such guests are not genuinely safe in public accommodations until there is no virus, no remnant and no unprotected person. It might be smart for hotels to consider that COVID-protected guest rooms and housekeeping procedures and services. COVID-protected common areas will be the ADA rooms of the future, and like those rooms, they will require special equipment, constant monitoring and separation from general availability. It’s the special request of the future, and we should prepare accordingly.