Learn Top Hotel Tech Challenges, Pain Points and Priorities for Indian Hoteliers
From June 13 to July 10, Hotelogix and Airpay Payment Services conducted an event titled "Growing Hotel Business Using Modern Cloud Technology." The event was supported by ShawMan and REVOPT. Held in six cities across India, the event saw participation from approximately 200 hotel companies.
The post-event survey to participating hoteliers provided Hotelogix with some interesting insights into their top concerns and priorities and how those feelings have changed over the past year.
1. TOP BUSINESS CHALLENGES
Increasing Occupancy & Revenue: This is considered the most troubling business challenge for around 32% of respondents (hoteliers). This has dropped significantly from last year when 60% of hoteliers felt this way.
Enhancing the Guest Experience: Around 23% of hoteliers find it difficult to enhance the guest experience at their properties.
Increasing Review Ratings: This is a major challenge for around 18% of respondents.
Lowering Costs & Increasing Profitability: As many as 14% of hoteliers in India find it difficult to lower overall costs in order to increase profitability.
2. TOP OPERATIONAL PAIN POINTS
Managing Multiple Properties: In India, 45% of chain hotels find it difficult to handle operations across multiple properties. This seems to be major concern as most of them have aggressive plans to grow their portfolios in coming years.
Access to the Right Data at the Right Time: Nearly 23% of hoteliers responded that they don’t have access to the right data at the right time.
Collecting Reviews: As many as 18% of hoteliers have said that collecting and managing guest reviews is a major challenge.
Simplifying Room Reservation: Around 14% of hoteliers in India are struggling to simplify the whole room reservation process.
3. TOP TECH PRIORITIES FOR THE NEXT ONE YEAR
Cloud PMS Adoption: Nearly 64% of hoteliers in India plan to adopt a cloud-based PMS in the next year.
Online Reputation Management: 64% of hoteliers say that implementing online reputation management is one of their top tech priorities this year. Interestingly, 45% of hoteliers had expressed their willingness to opt for online reputation management last year.
Guest-Facing Technology: 50% of hoteliers plan to invest in guest-facing tech platforms.
Channel Management Solution: Adopting a channel management solution is a top priority for about 32% of hoteliers this year. This seems to indicate that channel management solutions were adopted quite a bit in the past year as 80% of hoteliers were keen to implement this tech platform last year.
4. TOP CONCERNS WITH CLOUD PLATFORM
Internet Connectivity: This year, 25% of hoteliers said that unstable internet connectivity is a concern. Last year, the same was a cause of concern for around 40% of hoteliers.
Lack of Data Security: This year, 48% of hoteliers expressed their concern over data security with a cloud platform. Last year, it was a major worry for 60% of them.
Cloud PMS Can’t Handle Full-Fledged Operations: This year, around 29% of hoteliers believe that cloud PMSs are incapable of handling enterprise-grade hotel operations.
5. TOP APPREHENSIONS WHILE ADOPTING TECHNOLOGY
Post-Implementation Support: 54% of hoteliers indicated that not getting timely support from their technology partner is a major cause of concern.
Software Updates & Upgrades: 50% of respondents say software updates and upgrades need immediate attention.
Growing Technology Overheads: Around 18% of hoteliers feel that integrating various technology platforms within their system increases their technology overhead. Last year, this was a major apprehension for nearly 45% of hoteliers.
Employee Attrition: Around 27% of hoteliers said newer technology adoption takes a serious setback due to high employee attrition.